Player by player VFL report: Round 5Here’s how coach Jake Batchelor assessed the performance of each player.
Josh Smillie (24 disposals, five marks, five clearances, three tackles)“An improved game in terms of his ability to hunt and chase around the ball. He can work on ball security and using his big body to drive through tackles a little bit better, but great learning against some really strong mids.”
Kaleb Smith (23 disposals, three marks, one tackle)“When he’s composed and calm, he’s an absolute weapon. There’s a bit of a stoppage opportunity for us to get better at but he finished at three quarter-time as the AFL emergency. His attitude has been second to none this whole season, so I’m really proud of him.”
Kane McAuliffe (18 disposals, three marks, five tackles)“Quiet game relative to his high standards. Good opportunity for him once again to review the game and then go again.”
Jacob Blight (14 disposals, six marks, one tackle)“At times he competed really strongly in the air and at times he was just a bit reactive to the opposition’s ball movement. We’ll keep getting him back to his absolute best, which is fit, physical and aggressive as a key-defender.”
Tyler Sonsie (13 disposals, two marks, four tackles)“Quiet game relative to his high standards. Played as a high half-forward and inside midfielder and probably struggled to stay around the ball and be really active and have fast feet, which has been an absolute weapon of his.”
Mate Colina (11 disposals, nine hit-outs, four clearances, one goal)“He’s improving every week. He came up against a really strong ruckman in Tom Campbell and he probably taught him a bit of a lesson around the craft and using your body a little bit better, which he’ll no doubt put into action. It was great to see him kick a goal.”
Jasper Alger (11 disposals, two marks, one tackle)“Jasper had some opportunities to impact the scoreboard, if he kicked three goals instead of three behinds it would’ve been a better game. He’s still working on some forward 50 patterns.”
Jacob Koschitzke (nine disposals, five marks, three tackles)“I thought he battled manfully against some quality AFL-listed forwards. When he was in the contest he competed really strongly and held his own. His best asset is to keep playing team defence.”
Oliver Hayes-Brown (seven disposals, two marks, 17 hit-outs, one goal)“Great to see him get on top, got a goal as well. He’s still learning about running patterns post clearance. He’s got really good hands around there, but a lot of the time the rucks don’t have the ball, so what he does when he doesn’t have the ball in his hands needs to be a big focus.”
Judson Clarke (four disposals, one mark, one tackle)“It was great to see Juddy out there. He didn’t get a heap of the ball, but he was just happy and smiling, and played his role on the fat-side wing a fair bit. I’m looking forward to getting more minutes into him this week.”
Jacob Bauer (four disposals, three marks, one score-involvement)“As a forward you can sometimes get starved, so he just needs to keep making the most of his opportunities when they come and there’s things he can control with his running power and his communication. It will be a good opportunity for him going forward.”
Liam Fawcett (two disposals, one mark, one tackle)“Copped a head knock earlier in the game and he was out for about 20 minutes but passed the concussion test and went back on. He showed great fight to finish it off.”
https://www.richmondfc.com.au/news/1769574/player-by-player-vfl-report-round-5
