continued.....
The squad was split up into Yellows and Whites. David King had Cotch set up with a camera in the Sherrin stand behind the goals to take footage of this end's match-ups. I might not have everyone in theri right position as there were many rotations and it was hard to see what was happening at the Yarra Falls end. Today was a good guide as to wear certain players will be playing this year.
Match-upsYellow backs: Tuck King plus Raines, Gourdis, Thursty, Morton
White forwards: Richo Collard plus Jordy, Patto, Browny, Collins
Yellow mids: Cartledge Hyde Tambo Foley/Polo Newy White
White mids: Putt Tivs Edwards JON/Sugar Jacko Casserly
Yellow forwards: Petts Riewoldt Hughes Polak (more CHF) Polo Lids (in goalsquare)
White backs: Bowden Moore Rance Schulz JON Silvester
ScoreYellows: 7.5-47
Whites: 4.4-28
GoalkickersYellows:
goals - Hughes 2, Foley, Newy, Raines, White, Lids.
bhds - Lids 2, Tambo, Petts, Morton (all set shots)
Whites:
goals - Richo 2, Browny 2
bhds - 2 were rushed off the pack. I couldn't see who kicked the other two.
Special mentionsIt was mostly a free flowing game. Lots of midfield rotations and only a couple of minding jobs (looked like Sugar and JON had them). Sugar took the kick-ins too for the whites. The yellows pretty much dominated fair chunks of the quarter and looked the more dangerous side. They were a lot cleaner going forward and their forwards teamed very well which set up numerous scoring chances. They could have kicked 10 goals if their set shot radar was better. The Whites comitted 2-3 clear turnovers going forward which caused Plough to yell out. I was surprised the difference was only 3 goals at the end although possession wise there wasn't too much difference.
Hughes: Most impressed by Cleve today. Really presented himself well on the lead and was rewarded with two goals. His attitude has been questioned in the past but you couldn't fault him today. His first goal started him off. After going for the ball in a pack with Jack he got the handball from Jack and nailed it on the run from an acute angle
. Cleve had the better of Rance (it's only his first hitout) although Rance rebounded well out of defence 3 times (fluffed one kick).
Lids: Played close to goal all game and could have had 3 goals if he had kicked straight. No fault of Silvester as he was effective and on Lids' shoulder most of the time but when someone can vertically jump high unaided and mark the ball in his fingertips as well as mark a footy one-handed under his armpit at full pace he's a bit hard to stop
.
Jack: Didn't kick a goal but look dangerous every time the ball went near him.
Raines played well and kicked a nice running bouncing goal. Collected the ball in the midfield and then bounced his way to 50 and fired. He said afterwards he had just run back after intercepting a turnover so after 3 bounces he was "f*****" and he hoped it would just go through
.
Newy played in the midfield from what I saw. He was told to man up once but apart from that was effective in combo with Foley and Tambo and Hyde on a wing. Another nice running goal from the other pocket. Tambo had the better of Edwards.
Jacko was probably the whites best midfielder. Singlehandedly set up one of Richo's goals. Richo pretty much stayed inside 50. Browny only once twice ventured further up the ground.
Out of the newbies - Jordy and Collard didn't do much although it was hard to see the other end from where we were. Jordy was played strangely forward for most of the game. He only came down to the defence end once to receive a kick-in and he looked so much better behind the ball. A 50m kick straight to teammate on the wing.
Morton did okay as did most of the yellow defenders. Not sure why Tucky was down there ???.
Cartledge had the better of Putt IMO but once again that's not expected given the experience and age difference. It was good to see the ruckmen working both ways up the ground and deep.
Forgot to mention there was also a kid wearing 48 in white who might have been one of the AIS trainees but I'm not sure.
I didn't have my camera unfortunately so no pics today. Any questions just fire away.
