Number 4 was Trent Knobel who captained the Burgers yesterday and played very well indeed
I actually went to the game but haven't been able to get near a computer (was out last night at a family party and family day today)
Game was scheduled to start at 3.00pm but the umpires had been told it was a 4.00pm start so it started late (3.20pm) after the umpires made a mad dash to the Whitten Construction site
The Coburg reserves played
after the seniors - Angus Graham played for the Burger twos
Coburg played well but there were alot of turnovers from both teams when they over used the ball.
As for the other Richmond blokes who played for Coburg here's a summary of how I thought they went
4 - Trent Knobel - as I said captained the Burgers and was very impressive. Won the centre cirlce work easily and his efforts around the ground were good, took a few marks but created a lot of contests and fortunately had crumbers around him to clear the ball
8 - Tom Roach - again played in the back pocket. Was alot better than he has been but I think you have to remember this is a different level to AFL. His decision making was alot better when he took the first option
14 - Dean Polo - copped a nasty whack to the shoulder in the first 5 minutes of the game. Ran away from the trainers after saying he was fine, trainers and doctor ran after him
and made him come off. A quarter time it looked serious as his shoulder was iced. Good news was he came back on mid way through the 2nd with his shoulder strapped. Played a good game - reminds alot of Shane Tuck the way he attacks the packs and gets in and gets the ball. Great by hand but needs to improve disposal by foot. Will play seniors in 2006
19 - Dean Limbach - improving all the time. Very quick off the lead but dropped a few marks out in front that he should have taken. In those instances I thought he worried a little too much about how close his opponent was rather that just grabbing the ball. I thought his work rate in trying to keep the ball inside fifty was very good
22 - Danny Meyer - no doubting Danny's skill but I continue to worry about his body size. His opponent for most of the day was 186cm
97kg Richard Cole
(I am sure that Cole is Rioli's apprentice they looked like bloody twins
) and although he beat Cole well in the speed stakes and when the ball was on the ground -
big Cole brushed him off the ball a little to easily when Meyer tried to lay tackles
26 - Danile Jackson - was surprised to see Jacko running around for the Burgers. Played mainly across the half forward line. Solid but not outstanding. Dropped a few contested marks that I thought he should have taken but as I said solid.
29 - Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls - very good game by JON. Started at CHB on Joel Reynolds who tried to "rough him up" with a bit of push and shove before the first bounce - great to see JON didn't take a backward step and gave as good as he got. After playing only a half last week he played all of the first half and all but 10 minutes of the second. Was moved in to the centre in the third and fourth qtrs and was excellent. Reads the play very well and has lighting speed. On the whole his skills very very good, there was only a couple turnovers by foot. Very impressive
35 - Matthew White - I didn't notice White very much but when I did he looked good, good pace, good strength and despite his lack of height he actually looks strong in body size.
36 - Will Thursfield - solid in defence playing across the HB line. Certainly a defender, his disposal let him down at times
39 - Luke McGuane - the only things that let Luke down yesterday was bad decision making and bad disposal. Usually a bad decision led to the bad disposal. He seems to have the problem alot of our younger blokes do - he doesn't go with the first option and as a result gets himself into trouble. He got plenty of the ball but his disposal let him down
42 - Jeremy Humm - thought he was relatively quiet but when he got the ball he was super impressive. Actually showed he is more of an AFL footballer, that is he shows he can play at a higher level than VFL if that makes sense. Have no doubt that sometime in 2006 he will be promoted and play seniors
43 - Cameron Howat - kicked a nice goal in the first but after that I didn't notcie him at all.