Pinball Wizard said:

Best: Melbourne: C Bruce T Johnstone

I dunno how accurate this is, but this is really good news if it is true. if we get bruce and TJ firing we'll be top 4 especially with the addition of brock

i know not to get carried away with pre-season and really the result is meaningless but players now will want to have some form to take into the season, and if i could have two players to take good form into the season, these two would be high up in my list.

  classy dees said:

I dunno how accurate this is, but this is really good news if it is true. if we get bruce and TJ firing we'll be top 4 especially with the addition of brock

i know not to get carried away with pre-season and really the result is meaningless but players now will want to have some form to take into the season, and if i could have two players to take good form into the season, these two would be high up in my list.

Take it easy. That information comes from afl.com.au. They might well have played ordinary games.

  classy dees said:

I dunno how accurate this is, but this is really good news if it is true. if we get bruce and TJ firing we'll be top 4 especially with the addition of brock

i know not to get carried away with pre-season and really the result is meaningless but players now will want to have some form to take into the season, and if i could have two players to take good form into the season, these two would be high up in my list.

These two showed Class, Classy!! But I don't think they were the best. But they were good. Disappointing that CJ didn't get a mention, he deserved it.

Oh, and another thing. Pickett is playing at Sandy tomorrow, for the second time....

Very disappointing....

  Fan said:

These two showed Class, Classy!! But I don't think they were the best. But they were good. Disappointing that CJ didn't get a mention, he deserved it.

Oh, and another thing. Pickett is playing at Sandy tomorrow, for the second time....

Very disappointing....

Appreciate it Fan. I agree afl.com.au is hopeless in their assessment. That report sounds like someone who was reading periodic updates on Demonland could have written it.

For those that went, how did Rivers play? Did he play as a true CHB or a opponent-less floater?

  classy dees said:

Appreciate it Fan. I agree afl.com.au is hopeless in their assessment. That report sounds like someone who was reading periodic updates on Demonland could have written it.

For those that went, how did Rivers play? Did he play as a true CHB or a opponent-less floater?

Beg your pardon. If he was following the game here, the report would have been much better.

  Whispering_Jack said:

Beg your pardon. If he was following the game here, the report would have been much better.

too true , my apologies

Watched the whole game. I won't repeat what has already been offered. Melbourne controlled the game. The incident referred to re Yze was not backing into the pack, he led into the pocket for an overhead mark and dropped his head, then dropped the mark. It looked bad. He then made ammends (obviously felt a goose!) by tackling and hunting in the packs like we haven't seen for five years. Soon after, laid a tackle, got the ball to Davey who turned on his left and slotted a great goal. That got the Tiger fans off his back for a while. The Melbourne fans have longer memories. Bate was very good, running in packs with pace and played a very strong second half. Jones was exciting but that has already been mentioned. Bruce was excellent in the first half and later in the second half. Frawley was very good late in the game. One dash out of the backline where he turned back to the corridor then kicked long to White, allowed White to gather on the left and kick a low ball through for full points. CJ and Bell (first half) were very good. Jamar jumps too early in the centre and couldn't take the big grab up forward, serviceable but not as effective as White (who spent large slices of time on the bench). Fergy did not appear at all in the first half and only got a decent run late in the game. He played in typical fashion when given a run. Biz was excellent in the first quarter and was the ball carrier out of defence. At this stage Rivers wasn't required to do much. Rivers played a better game in the second half. Wheels was also good early then got a lot of time on the pine. McDonald was effective and hard working. Robbo was out of sorts but tried. Miller had a very ordinary afternoon. Dunn did one excellent bit of tackling and chasing down about five Tiges in the second half but was largely ineffective. Green slotted a long goal and did some nice things but isn't clean when under pressure. The Skipper was very good whenever near the ball, splitting packs, contesting and finishing off. Johnno was cruising and after one terrible turnover worked hard to redeem himself (and did!). Moloney pumped several long balls into the arc and added some physical pressure in the clinches. All in all, a handy work out for most of our list. Miller seemed to cramp late in the game but no other injuries noticed. Hot day at Princes Park and I heard Daniher direct the fitness guys to get them off the ground as soon as they could after the game (the Dees stayed on after the final siren to do their warm down amongst the kids kicking footies around, Dunny even fetched an errant kick from my son and returned it to its owner... Ahhh, suburban football!)

Most of my comments are in WJ's post, but I'll add:

Biz got a lot of the ball and did very well as a rebounder, but I still think he'll struggle to find the right match-up and that is priority number one for a defender.

Travis showed his genius football brain. Hasn't played in 6 months but just had the vision at times to bring the ball inboard and set up goals. Just provides that spark that the midfield needs.

Jones was hard and an excellent 4-quarter contributor. Love the way he hunts the footy and burrows in.

CJ - class written all over him. Now needs to work on producing it more consistently across 4 quarters. This bloke has the goods. Brilliant first half.

Neita looked great, chased hard and snagged 3 goals. Too strong for Bowden. Left the ground midway through the 3rd.

Green's kicking is certainly back - kicked a monster goal from 55 on the run.

Frawley's last quarter was great. Love the way this guy backs himself. Always looking to take players on with his speed and is really confident.

Really liked Bell's game. Starting to develop very good defensive skills like spoiling and positioning. His tackling is tenacious and he will be hurting players this year, mark my words.

Robbo struggled.

Yze did a few things. I think people are going to take a negative view and look for bad things from Ooze rather than good. He had some nice touches, but he jibbed an attempt at a mark and it just sends all the wrong signals. Absolute borderline for Rd 1 IMO.

Moloney did a few things. Still rusty but went hard and should improve.

Bate was fairly quiet.

Much less run and carry. More kicking. I thought our movement was good from defence but we struggled to find the killer pass up forward. More often than not we bombed away to packs. The ball invariably hit the deck but with Davey further up the ground there were no real crumbers and the Tigers ran it away. We need to work on delivering the ball to a crowded forward line.

Impressive start, but nothing to get too excited about in the second half. We always had their measure but they had a few out and they are hardly going to be pushing the top sides this year.

Thanks for the reports everyone

The most exciting thing for me is that CJ is blossoming into a damn fine player

His old man will be proud

Thank you everyone for the detailed reports.

The most important thing is again, no injuries (that we know of).

Really pleased to hear that my boys Belly and CJ are killing it. I love that Bell is slowing proving all of his critics wrong, that boy can seriously play!

A question regarding Bruce, how was his kicking today?

Let us not forget that this was only a practice game and Richmond was a long way off its best side. A win may be a win but the real thing is still a little under 3 weeks away.

Let me add my thanks too. Much appreciated.

Everyone has pretty much summed up what I thought of the game. CJ, apologies to you mate, I admit to last year saying you won't make the standard.... Bloody hell you proved me wrong! The kid was everywhere in the 1st half! And Jonesy well, what a deadest gun he is going to be, I cannot wait till brocky comes back, what a duo they will be. And beamer was quite, but he gave glimpses of his beaming kicks into the foward 50, got me very excited! Davey looks to improve this year too, that goal he kicked was magic, I was dead in front of the pocket and it was such a spectacle!

The negative, I don't care what anyone says brown is only a depth player. He gets a lot of the ball but his kicking is atrocious! And Yze, well yeah we don't need to discuss him... Miller, oh dear what a worry he is, to think 2 years ago he was being talked up for captain, very disappointed with him, terrible at ground level.

Everyone else was alright I guess, Greenie has that accurate foot back which is really exciting! Overall with luck with injury, I think this could be a good year for us.!:D

  Elwood 3184 said:

Let us not forget that this was only a practice game and Richmond was a long way off its best side. A win may be a win but the real thing is still a little under 3 weeks away.

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Just on the pre-season, its funny how it is viewed by supporters. It was at the end of the day a practice match. All the players of course still try their best when the footy is on the line, but there were 7 players on the bench and the amount of rotations that were made was incredible. Still good to win, but there was a lot of experimenting going on for both teams.

Not much to add except that Ward turned the ball over 6 times with errant kicks. The team was incredibly indirect a few times and just seemed to be waxing. Whenever they played directly they were terrific. There was too much bombing down to Neitz early, and the tiges whipped it out of defence far too easily in the 1st quarter and a half. Miller improved as the game wore on, after being appalling early.. Dunn did a lot of 1%ers whenever he was on the ground. Bate ran well and protected his team mates a lot of the time. One of his runs was memorable. Carroll had at least 3 kicked on him, but provided a lot of run. Barring a few good things, Rivers was largely superfluous, and Whelan was terrific. And I am just SO excited about CJ, Chunk and Bell. We dominated the midfield.

I was at the game.

Good win but definitely can't read too much (if anything) into it.

I thought Jones, Bruce, Johnstone, CJ, Bizzell, Bate, Neitz and White all had good games.

Yze's squib in the 2nd term was a disgrace. He knew it and to his credit attacked the next couple of contests with ferocity and created a goal. It begs the question why he can't attack the footy all game, not just when he wants to redeem himself.

Frawley will be a gun I reckon, altho probably isn't ready for regular senior footy. Loves to run and carry the footy. Encouraging signs.

Great day sitting in the stands- dam hot out on the ground. The Tigers ran out of puff in the last quarter.

In the second quarter we weren't winning the centre clearances and stoppages which is why they got back to I think 10 points. - got to do better this season.

I loved watching Davey today- his relentless chase down and tackle on the 50 m arc in the last quarter was fantastic.

Bruce played well but inaccurate with his snap shots. Green solid.

Biz looked composed and cool headed in the backline. It will add depth to the group. The defense did well as the Tigers kept peppering the goal area but couldn't get clean shots away due to the pressure. Carol's direct point kickout to a Tiger player not good!

White in the forward line instead of Neita gave a good target. This will be a part of the plan this year- heard ND on SEN sometime in the last couple of weeks on that.

I thought Matt Bate was just so so today- he can do so much better. Loved Jones tenacity.

For TJ's first game back he just looked like he hadn't missed a game.

Robbo hardly touched the ball and was well out played especially when the ball was being bombed in in the first half.

Thanks for everyone's input and summaries.

To those who went. ....

What impact did the heat have on both sides and the game?

I am curious that after a good first half we just went in the second half.

Sorry Wayne disagree.

Yze's effort today when he shirked a contest was a shocker as reflected by Dee's supporters response at the ground.

It was like a collective moan of, 'Oh no, don't tell us what those nasty posters have been saying is true!'

If you were there you couldn't ignore it, seeing him squib the contest. No excuse for him whatsoever unfortunately. Weak, disinterested, looking to retirement and raising his family. Good goals I agree, but he's lost the passion for playing hard footy for our club.

great to see the boys having a win and the improvement from our younger guys, but i am curious to see what will happen to the biz

Really good to see CJ make an impact. I remember watching his Dad. For those that can compare - what are your thoughts?? He does seem to run completly different frm Johnno senior, somehow senoir seemed to be closer to the ground? Really looking forward to seeing how his career unfolds. About time we our own gun-son-of-a-gun!!! Havn't had one since Barass Junior???

to the twwwooooooooossssss

Guys lets not get ahead of ourselves with CJ. Yes he has been good but its only a practice match.

Wait till the real show where the big test comes. I too really do hope continues his form.

  Madness said:

CJ, apologies to you mate, I admit to last year saying you won't make the standard.... Bloody hell you proved me wrong!

Don't see too much of this, people going back and admitting fault. Kudos.

I got there a little late and missed Jones' first goal.

First half CJ was in everything. Neitz left the ground in the third quarter after chasing from the goal square to the wing and around in circles for a while. He looked ill at 3/4 time, did not reach the huddle for a good couple of minutes after everyone else and then stood apart for sometime.

I thought we played all over the Tigers from fullback to half forward where we really broke down. No crumber, poor disposal bombing the ball, the Tigers had plenty of loose players back there, which may have been why we were so dominant around the ground, except for the last 5 minutes of the second quarter.

Bizzell was good off halfback if you neglect the idea that he has an opponent (I think he does) cool in a crisis, great in a straight line going forward. Rivers was not allowed by the Tigers to play halfback, whoever he was on dragged him back to the goal square. Wardy runs the ball just about as good as anyone but then turns it over, nothing new there. Browny runs and carries and runs out of room and just gives the ball off to anyone, even when they are surrounded by three opponents; nothing new there either.

Chip Frawley has alot of confidence in his ability to evade and loves to run with the pill. Buckley shows enough to be in calculations for round 1.

CJ has already been inked into the starting 18 IMO.

Interesting that Bate opened the last quarter at CHF.

Of the team from yesterday, 4 drop out because there was 8 on the bench, another 1 hopefully for Brock.

That is 5 changes to that side. Assuming Sylvia and Bartram are unavailable, on yesterdays form with the addition of Brock

My Round 1 side

B: Ferguson Carroll Bell

HB: Bizzell Rivers Whelan

C: C Johnson Jones Johnstone

HF: Bate Miller Green

F: Davey Neitz Robertson

Foll: White Bruce McDonald

IC: Frawley Jamar McLean Moloney

Em: Buckley Dunn Holland