VFL Game Day VFL Qualifying Final: Richmond vs Essendon, Punt Road Oval, Saturday 31/08/19 @ 2:10 PM AEST

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Like last year I'll do all the bells and whistles for the VFL finals preview. Obviously the stats won't be advanced as what we have in the AFL.

Observations

Richmond: Richmond's last game was against the Dons and they managed to get a 2 goal win against the men in red and black. Patrick Naish was excellent in the middle with 26 disposals and a goal, whist Daniel Butler, Luke English, Noah Balta and Connor Menadue kicked 2 apiece for the tigers.

Essendon: With limited AFL listed players availabe, Essendon managed to stick with Geelong for the first half before the Cats kicked away in the second half. Jordan Ridley was excellent off half back with 27 disposals and a goal, David Myers had 20 disposals in the middle whilst Matt Day kicked 2 goals in his second game in the VFL


Head to Head (last 5)

Richmond 4-1 Essendon


Form Guide

Richmond: 5W 0L
Essendon: 1W 4L


Sportsbet odds (available Friday)

Richmond:
Essendon:
Line: ($1.90)


Possible sides

Richmond vs Essendon

B: Martin Gleeson - Michael Hartley - Matthew Dea

F: Daniel Butler - Mabior Chol - Jacob Townsend
HB: Jake Long - Brandon Zerk-Thatcher - Ben McNiece
HF: Jake Aarts - Callum Coleman-Jones - Callum Moore
C: Jordan Ridley - Dylan Clarke - Brayden Ham
C: Luke English - Riley Collier-Dawkins - Fraser Turner
HF: Jordan Houlahan - Josh Begley - Tom Jok
HB: Oleg Markov - Ben Miller - Kamdyn McIntosh
F: Mark Baguley - Riley Bowman - Trent Mynott
B: Derek Eggmolesse-Smith - Ryan Garthwaite - Noah Balta
R: Zach Clarke - Will Snelling - David Myers
R: Ivan Soldo - Maverick Weller - Patrick Naish

I: Aaron Heppell - Kurt Aylett - Danny Younan - Heath Hocking
I: Marlion Pickett - Steven Morris - Riley Collier-Dawkins - Connor Menadue
I: Matthew Day - Nino Lazzaro - Josh Tynan - Daniel Guccione
I: Hugh Beasley - Thomas Sivestro - Daniel Coffield - Jacob Ballard
23P: Tynan Smith
23P: Bailey Henderson

Essendon in: Zach Clarke, Martin Gleeson, Michael Hartley, Dylan Clarke, Brayden Ham, Josh Begley, Tom Jok, Nino Lazzaro, Will Snelling; Out: Ben Fennell, Nick Dixon, Jacob Brown, Edyn Sibbald, Dylan Landt
Richmond in: Mabior Chol, Jacob Ballard, Jake Aarts; Out: Sydney Stack


Richmond defence vs Essendon forward line

Despite not having any tall targets of any quality for half the games Essendon still managed to be 2nd overall in terms of points scored this year behind Footscray. Richmond's defence has been stellar this season, conceding the second least amount of points per game this season, also behind Footscray. Essendon's main weapons have been through crafty players such as Danny Younan and Jordan Houlahan, who likely get Derek Eggmolesse-Smith and Oleg Markov this week respectively, whilst Josh Begley will play as a pseudo-tall on someone like Ryan Garthwaite deep inside 50. Mark Baguley is also a clever little forward at this level so his smarts around goals may be dangerous for the Tigers and Steven Morris, who had a similar AFL career to Baguley.


Midfield/rucks battle

Essendon have struggled in the middle in terms of clearances, ranking 11th overall coming into their last h/a game, but the additions of Dylan Clarke and Will Snelling should help that, but their main strength in the middle is their ability to stay aware on the spread, being the best uncontested possession and uncontested marks in the VFL so far this year, whereas Richmonds biggest strength is probably at the contest with the likes of Riley Collier-Dawkins, Maverick Weller and a dominant ruckman in Ivan Sodo at the coalface whereas their spread isn't really isn't Richmond's strength so far this season, their outside speed coming from mostly half back and the lies of DES.


Richmond forward line vs Essendon defence

Richmond rank 5th overall in points for this season, pipped by Port Melbourne by 2 points, whilst Essendon have the fourth stingiest defence in the league, showing why the two sides are in the top 4. Oddly enough the Tigers don't have a player that has kicked 20 goals this year, mostly due to Mabior Chol spending a lot of time in the AFL since his mid-season call up. Jacob Townsend has 18 and will be going to be played on by Martin Gleeson in all likelihood whilst key talls Chol and Callum Coleman-Jones will be taken by Michael Hartley and Brandon Zerk-Thatcher respectively.


Key stat

Richmond: Clearances. When they win these, they win, when theylose these, they lose.

Essendon: Inside 50's. Need to create those chances for them to get over the top of Richmond


Tip

Essendon have been in poor form, Tigers by 15.
 

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Towno78

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Nov 6, 2009
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Obviously Gleeson won't be playing, nor would D. Clarke or Ham I'd imagine.

With a 5 day turnaround to the AFL final, you might expect potential emergencies to be rested also, or limited game time. Hartley, Begley. Snelling and Z.Clarke perhaps.
 
Obviously Gleeson won't be playing, nor would D. Clarke or Ham I'd imagine.

With a 5 day turnaround to the AFL final, you might expect potential emergencies to be rested also, or limited game time. Hartley, Begley. Snelling and Z.Clarke perhaps.
Yeah I made the thread before we had confirmation the Thursday Night. * you AFL, Thursday Night Finals are stupid and shouldn't happen.
 

Halftimehero

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As if Gleeson or D. Clarke would have played regardless of when the AFL team plays.
 
Last edited:
As if Gleeson or D. Clarke would have played regardless of when the AFL team plays.
Eh, if the AFL were on Saturday (as I thought they'd be) why wouldn't you play them? Oh right you don't think senior players should ever play reserves finals.

Still, Thursday Night games are stupid.
 

Halftimehero

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Eh, if the AFL were on Saturday (as I thought they'd be) why wouldn't you play them? Oh right you don't think senior players should ever play reserves finals.

Still, Thursday Night games are stupid.

We’ve literally been through this year after year, and it NEVER happens, stop thinking that it will.
 

Halftimehero

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Eh, if the AFL were on Saturday (as I thought they'd be) why wouldn't you play them? Oh right you don't think senior players should ever play reserves finals.

Still, Thursday Night games are stupid.

And why wouldn’t they? I would have thought that was fairly obvious......
 
We’ve literally been through this year after year, and it NEVER happens, stop thinking that it will.
Um, it's happened before but keep telling yourself that. It won't this year because of stupid AFL scheduling us on Thursday Night but if players need a run (like Jok or Clarke who've hardly had a run the past few weeks) they should play.
And why wouldn’t they? I would have thought that was fairly obvious......
A weeks break, some players need time in them. But let's rest them for a final we'll highly likely lose. Great idea.
 

Halftimehero

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Um, it's happened before but keep telling yourself that. It won't this year because of stupid AFL scheduling us on Thursday Night but if players need a run (like Jok or Clarke who've hardly had a run the past few weeks) they should play.

A weeks break, some players need time in them. But let's rest them for a final we'll highly likely lose. Great idea.
Um, it's happened before but keep telling yourself that. It won't this year because of stupid AFL scheduling us on Thursday Night but if players need a run (like Jok or Clarke who've hardly had a run the past few weeks) they should play.

A weeks break, some players need time in them. But let's rest them for a final we'll highly likely lose. Great idea.

Do you honestly think with an injury list as long as your arm that they would risk further injury to any fit player that would be in contention to play an AFL final just so they can play a reserves match?

When did it happen before? You blew up big time in 2017 when they held a heap back for the Swans elimination final.
 

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Do you honestly think with an injury list as long as your arm that they would risk further injury to any fit player that would be in contention to play an AFL final just so they can play a reserves match?

When did it happen before? You blew up big time in 2017 when they held a heap back for the Swans elimination final.
2014, 2011.
 
Them:

FB: Derek Eggmolesse-Smith - Ryan Garthwaite - Marlion Pickett
HB: Kamdyn McIntosh - Noah Balta - Patrick Naish
MF: Connor Menadue - Riley Collier-Dawkins - Fraser Turner
HF: Jake Aarts - Callum Coleman-Jones - Jacob Townsend
FF: Oleg Markov - Toby Nankervis - Callum Moore
OB: Mabior Chol - Jackson Ross - Daniel Butler

IC: Jacob Ballard - Hugh Beasley - Daniel Coffield - Luke English
IC: Ben Miller - Steven Morris - Tom Sivestro - Maverick Weller
23P: Lachlan Street

Us:

FB: Matthew Dea - Michael Hartley - Ben McNiece
HB: Bruno Laguda - Brandon Zerk-Thatcher - Josh Tynan
MF: Jordan Houlahan - Trent Mynott - Jake Long
HF: Liam McKenna - Daniel Guccione - Danny Younan
FF: Kurt Aylett - Josh Begley - Mark Baguley
OB: Riley Bowman - Will Snelling - David Myers

IC: Nick Dixon - Aaron Heppell - Heath Hocking - Dylan Landt
IC: Nino Lazzaro - Dale Marshall - Edyn Sibbald - Tynan Smith
23P: Matthew Day.

They have 21 afl listed players, we have 12. Hopefully Dixon, Landt, Marshall and Sibbald miss.
 

60sbomber

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Jul 4, 2011
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We'll get pumped in the big man department unfortunately. Nankervis, Chol and Coleman-Jones are a very imposing group for VFL. Any of those three would have played first ruck for our AFL team for the last half of the season (which effectively only says they're all better than Zac Clarke, I suppose).
It's Bowman on his own against them. And we are very short of marking targets up forward (as we have been for most of the season).
 
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