Cheers to Moi for putting up with a dodgy phone connection from Learmonth
.
Hot fairly blustery conditions greeted the players but the oval looked in good nick. Grandstand side was packed with kids sitting inside the fence. Crowd between one to two thousand. A local mentioned watching an intra-club game is strange as there's little crowd noise such as cries of 'ball'. Only when's there a good mark or goal to your get a cheer.
No sign of Oakley-Nicholls, Casserley, Cogs, Knobel or Moore in Learmonth. Tivs and Chaffey spent most of the arvo together on the boundary except when Tivs acted as runner. Browny was also a runner. Greg Miller was also a spectator.
Standard of the game improved as the game went along. Skills (as far as hitting targets) were far better in the second half. There was also more of the run and carry gameplan we expect under Wallace's coaching with dishing off of the footy via handball to teammates running past and breaking the lines. This meant more direct play particularly from the Kings. Overall not a bad hit-out first up.
The teams:
Royals (White jumpers)
1. Newman - Good game for 3 quarters and especially so in the second. Spent a fair bit of time in the centre square and did well there IMO. He still played more of a receiving role but he ran to the right spots to feed off Tucky's handballs at pace into space and then kick forward.
2. Gas - only played the first half. He was walking around along the boundary so nothing wrong as far as I saw. A usual Gas game.
5. Simmonds - Very pleased with Simmo. Although he didn't dominate the ruck, his work and run around the ground was excellent. He's obviously more mobile and agile without all that extra weight that Freo stacked on him. Pushed forward to snag 3 goals from marks on the lead so a pretty good game all round.
8. Roach - Not a BP that's for sure. Jacko took him apart. Didn't do much else apart from two good kicks inside 50 when he got the ball forward of centre. Probably the only one from yesterday's match at this stage that I think might be playing his final year.
11. Joel Bowden - Probably a compliment that I forgot to tell Moi he was one of the Royals' better players. Another solid game from Joel.
14. Polo - Reasonable game in the centre but he spent most of that against Foley so came out second in that duel.
17. Johnson - Like Joel one of the Royals' best. One of the few to play a solid 4 quarters for them. Got plenty of the ball in the guts as well as in defence floating in front of oncoming Kings' forwards. Lovely mark with Richo bearing down on him in the 3rd quarter.
19. Limbach - I thought he was quiet in the first half with Jacko on him but came into the game more in the second half to kick a couple of goals. Took a couple of nice marks as well.
21. Tuck - Best on ground for the Royals as far as winning the ball and impact. The middle quarters he was simply burning. No second year blues based on this match.
22. Meyer - Very good first half but quiet in the second. The first quarter he was in everything playing on a HFF. Sheesh this kid can kick a footy.
25. Schulz - Felt sorry for Sarge today. Did well on the big fella up to 3/4 time with some timely fists; then Richo gives him a spanking in the space of 10 minutes in the last quarter 1-on-1 with little pressure from upfield.
26. Pattison - Another Royal who had a very good first half but was quiet in the second. Played across CHF as well as pushing up the ground. Marked and kicked well and his mobility for a big guy looked good. Kellaway appeared to be on him but he got away from Chubba early on. Moved into the ruck in the last and did well with the tap outs.
30. Tambling - Played only the first half and like Gas appeared to be only rested. While he was one the ground he played FP. I just thought Tambo didn't make maximum use to the chances he had. He had Rainesy beaten a couple of times and just mucked it up.
31. Hyde - I didn't see him go off but it must have been very early on.
34. Hughes - That article by Goughy summed up Cleve's game well. He's got that something special for a key forward (sticky hands and a good kick) but he needs to turn glimpses of it into 4 consistent quarters. But hey he's what 18 and it's only his first pre-season so what else would you expect from a young tall. A good tussle with McGuane with honours even.
43. Howat - I must admit I didn't notice Cam until he moved onto Lids in the second half. Lids didn't have that much influence on the game so perhaps a tick to Howat.
Local Ballarat players -Royals:20. Corey F@gg (Moi kept asking me was a guy called Limp on the Royals side and I didn't have a clue who the hell she was talking about
)
36. Lee Cox - by now Moi thought I was making the names up
. Actually he got a fair bit of footy in that last quarter. His introduction to AFL footy was manning up on Lids!
38. Nathan Blomeley (the sheet had Bromlie)
41. Matt Madden
42. Cam McCabe
44. John Basham - Moi loved his surname
Kings (Black jumpers)
3. Lids - As I mentioned he didn't have much influence on the game. Started up forward a kicked 2 points from long distance. Moved into the middle in the second half. Probably his best quarter was the last where he was solid.
4. Raines - Matched up in a back-pocket against Tambo. Tambo got to the ball ahead of him a few times but he wasn't punished. Best quarter would of been the last too when the Kings defence got on top.
10. Stafford - Only saw him in the first quarter where he kicked a goal from a set-shot.
12. Richo - Blew them away in the last with 4 goals in succession. Gas has him early then Sarge. What was a pretty good duel between him and Sarge was blown out of the water when Richo marked, snapped and snagged everything that came his way. He's a matchbreaker and winner when on song. Obviously the Kings best with 6 goals.
15. Pettifer - Happy with Kayne's game off a HFF. Solid with a couple of goals.
16. Pat Bowden - If he can play off a wing in the real stuff for 22-25 weeks like he did today then we've got a very handy pick up. Got better as the game went along and was burning by the last linking from defence and kicking inside 50.
18. Rodan - Good solid 4 quarters from D-Rod in the midfield which not only is good for us but will give him further confidence in his knee.
20. Hall - Must admit I didn't notice Razor except for a couple of times out there. Fairly quiet.
23. Jackson - Start on Limbach and was fairly quiet in the first half. Moved forward in the second half (against Roachy) and bagged 2 quick goals to put the Kings briefly in front in the third term before finishing with another after a good mark in the goalsquare. No misses. Has he found his niche up forward? He's been playing forward during scratch matches at training.
27. Krakouer - Played well and most pleasing he didn't go missing for long periods and he has in past years. Silky skills and one of our best tacklers. Only "negative" was he and Tucky were playing wide of each other and Tucky was one of the Royals' best. It appeared the coaches wanted it that way as no message or change was made.
33. Hartigan - Solid effort from Brent. I liked his game in defence and rebounding from defensive 50.
35. White - Didn't really notice Matty today. His efforts in some of the scratch matches at training were far more influential.
38. McGuane - Had a really good duel with Hughes. Probably the first time I would say he's gone to the next level in his development. Still nowhere ready though (like Hughes only shows glimpses of what he is capable of) but if he can keep improving then that's all you can ask at his age.
39. Kellaway - Looked to be on Patto early on and Patto got away from him. Better in the second half.
41. Foley - Was best on ground IMO up to quarter time in the midfield. Not as influential after that but still pretty good.
42. Humm - Had a fairly good game. Got a bit of the ball particularly after half-time and used it well. Good insurance as a mature rookie.
44. Graham - Centre bounce tapwork was not bad but was quiet apart from that.
Local Ballarat players - Kings:13. Robert Young
37. Tristian May
40. Paul McMahon
43. Gerard Brick
45. Malcolm Niblett
Umpires: - Adam Davis (AFL), Martin Ellis (AFL), Jarrod Waight (VFL).