A review from the Tiger-Talk Yahoo email list fom gerrytiger------------------------------
We got to Cairns last night and my seven year old saw his first tiger
victory.
The game started in scrappy fashion with both teams fumbling and
typically kicking poorly.
The goal kickers that I had were slightly diffrent to those in the
paper. They had raines kicking a goal and I didn't think he played.
The ones i had were.
Pettifer 3
Hughes 2
Schultz 2
Pattison
king
Howat
Foley
Morton
Brown
Riewoldt
I watched lids for the first ten minutes and he unfortunatley did not
get a touch> He alternated with Hughes, Brown and Pettifer between
the goal square and about the 30 m mark.
For the second half of the quarter i watched Tambling and he got
plenty of touches and was running hard to create opportunities. He
was playing on mcDonald and gave him a bath. The other thing I
noticed is that Polo still seems to be troubled by the shoulder
injury. He seemed to favour it even in his running style.
In the second quarter the back line started as Moore, Casserly, King,
Polo, Thurston and Schultz. King could win a B&F one day he just
keeps on running when we have the ball and swutches back to defensive
mode when need be. Sugar and Tive played like quarter backs and were
important link men when going forward. McMahon got plenty of the ball
but his disposal was not as silky as I was hoping. We saw White show
a bit of aggro with a nice kidney punch to one of Melbourne's
aboriginal players. At the end of the quarter i noticed our centre
square players were Sugar, Tivva and Brown.
In the third qaurter the forward line was Schulz< Pettifer, Delidio,
Tivva, McMahon, and hughes. One thing I noticed was the amount of
celebration that went on after we kicked a goal. At least 12 players
would come up and congratulate the goal kicker. I also noticed a fair
bit of encouragement when a mistake was made. When Tiva got caught
with the ball 20m in front of Melbourne's goal White went up to him.
I watched a bit of Patto in this quarter and he gives it his all.
Although reminding me a bit of justin madden. He ran from wing to
wing trying to help to create stuff. H e took a couple of good marks.
In this quarter King continued to run hard out of defence and Foley
had a pearler of a quarter. I did not think he was playing as i did
not see him in the first half. Tiger talker Rohan told me at half
time that Foley was having some work done on his ankle. Morton took a
strong mark and kicked a 60 m goal near the end of the quarter. Just
before 3/4 time there was a break in the game as they took newton off
the ground. The tigers broke into three groups defenders, on ballers
and forwards while melbourne formed one big group. Simmo ran between
the on ballers and the forwards.
The back line at the start of the fourth quarter was King, moore,
Joel, Thurston, White and Silvestor. I was impressed by Casserly in
this quarter. He is bigger than I thought and has some ball getting
and disposal skills. Polo, Axel and Howat spent a bit of time in the
middle. We were much the better team in the last quarter and could
have nearly won by 10 goals. Tuck was strong in the packs, Simmo
looks fit and Brown had his best quarter which included a freakish
goal on the run from the boundary line and missing two set shots.
A quick summary of the players from my (in some cases biased) pont of
view.
Newman (servicable)
Thursfield (seemed to do a defensive job, looks a bit bigger)
Delidio (not a dominant player but all class when he does get the
ball)
Simmo (Nice to have a ruck man back)
Brown (relatively quiet until the last quarter)
Riewoldt (fairly inconspicuos did kick a goal in the last quarter)
Bowden (I think spent a lot of time on the bench, good to see the
defenders clear the ball without always looking for Joel)
McMahon (got plenty of it, in some ways he is a better version of
Howat)
Polo (Still looks to be troubled by his shoulder)
Pettifer (showed some leadership with calling our instructions to
team mates, kicked the three goals)
Johnson (I was impressed by the captain he was in amongst it as we
moved forward and provided a bit a calm in the mad frenzy of moving
forward)
Morton (again i was impressed he did not get a lot of touches but he
is the kind of player who i think could get 8 touches and finish up
with three goals if he does the defensive side of his job well could
be a handy pick up)
Tuck (typical tucky game always hard at)
Schulz (seems lazy to me did kick two 3/4 goals and did kick well
during the game but I was left with the impression that he could do
so much more)
Pattison (he puts in, had a classic comic moment when he decided to
change direction just before kicking the ball, the message got to his
feet but not hios hands and he dropped the ball)
Oakley Nicholls (the only time i noticed him was when he called for
the ball when i could tell he did not really want5 it)
Tambling (good game hopefully he can step up and become a good
midfeild option this year)
Tivendale (i am a Tivva bagger but he went well last night. A bit of
a quarter back performance)
Hughes (started like a house on fire and competed hard but lacks a
bit of self confidence and fire in the belly)
White (quiet)
Silvestor (bigger than I thought he was and formed a good last line
of defence with Tursfield when on the ground)
Casserly (liked his game, looked like he belonged)
Moore (seemed to keep his man quiet)
Foley (quiet in the first half, great second half, adds some spark to
the team)
Collins (did not notice him)
Howat (does get the ball when he is out on his own, kicked a
reasonable goal but i would not expect him to be in the best 22)
King (great game, both defensively and going forward, BOG in my son's
opinion)
Gerry
http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/tiger-talk/message/84025
