11 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

Smith lacks footy nous. his athleticism is great but Charlie Cameron showed him up big time.

Agree 100%. Compounded by missing maybe 60  odd games injured. Games where he could have been at Casey or in the firsts honing his craft.

I am yet to be convinced that his body can take it without breaking down.

I wish him all the best.

 

8 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

I’m a big Smith fan and not always big on Tomlinson but I don’t see them in a head to head battle.

We’ve seen Lever at his best with a 2nd genuine tall and wth Petty out that’s Tomlinson.

But it’s not all bad news for Smith. One thing Tommo provides over Petty is more uncontested ball and rebounding skills. Which then changes the balance of the backline and raises the chances of Smith over Hibberd, Riv or Bowey. Similarly with Smith in the side May can take a less defensive role and provide more kicking and run. 

Thank you, this

Was a good hitout for the team after the short pre-season that they have had. Looked to me that they were just in second gear for much of the first quarter and took their chances when they presented. They then stepped up a gear or two and instead of waiting for the chances to present themselves they went out and hunted the opportunities a lot more.

Still a few more gears to go through for them. Players like Petracca, Oliver, Gawn, Salem and May will always perform. Even when they are a bit out of form they will still manage to produce some quality.

I watched the game and will watch the game next week to see how the other players are coming on. Loved the look of Sparrow's game. He is going to seriously difficult for opposition teams to match up on. He is behind Petracca, Oliver and Viney in the pecking order and I can imagine there are plans in place by the coaching panel to bring him into the game when one or two of the others are wearing tags.

J Smith and Tomlinson are looking good. I have not been a wrap for Smith but will go with him if he is selected by the match committee. I see his good bits but he has just missed so much consistent footy that I have trouble evaluating he skills and quality. Tomlinson looks fit and driven and I think he will carry that through the season. I liked the job Petty did but he might find it difficult to reclaim his spot if Tomlinson works hard.

Chandler, to me, is the Almost Man. He fits between Kossie and Spargo in my mind. has a spark but not as bright as Kossie. has the defence but not as tough as Spargo and, on the limited time I have seen him, is behind both on skill of deliver into the forward 50.

Hunt has grown into a good footballer. I loved the way he runs and connects through the wing with Langdon, Brayshaw and Salem. There was a real connection growing there last season. It showed the way that the team wants to play with quick turnover reaction and layered overlap running to receive or position.

Next week against Carlton I expect we will see a R1 preview team and we, and the players will know the situation with the contest for spots on the team sheet.

 

 

13 hours ago, binman said:

Why is it Tomo's spot to lose? He is not the incumbent.

And as I have noted before Petty played a different role than Tomlinson. More aggressive. Less man on man. More zoning off and more intercepts

It was noticeable at tbe ground tomo has slimmed down and I think that is so he can better play the role the way petty played.

I very much doubt Goody will allow sentiment to cloud his selection decisions. And nor should he

They both trialled for the Petty position yesterday. 

Smith played better. Moe athletic  more intercepts, more run and more spoils. And with his leap, he has a weapon that tomo doesn't have, or any other defender for that matter.

And it is worth remembering Smith would be a premiership player if not for an ill timed hammy injury, albeit at half back not key defender. So there is no doubt Goody rates him.

 

Smith easily better yesterday.

But to be fair, Tommo would have just been trying to get through his first game back without injury. 

Lets assess this one in a couple of weeks:- My feel is Tommo will easily end up ahead of Smith.

 

 

8 hours ago, Fat Tony said:

Super impressive performance by the Dees, even though we were just blowing the cobwebs off.

ANB, Brown, Spargo, Hibberd and TMac were particularly good.

Oliver is becoming a combination of Judd and Cripps.

Petracca was tardy at times but there was no medals to be won yesterday.

Gawn was exceptional up forward.

Our game style seems to have followed on from the finals last year and we are continuing to move the ball with a bit more aggression inside 50.

We have so much depth in every position. Weideman looked great in his cameo. We know what Hunt can do. Smith and Tomlinson are good AFL footballers. Chandler is exciting.

Injuries aside, we are in for another great year.

Well said Tone

"Oliver is becoming a combination of Judd and Cripps"     :))))))))))

 

i don't think it's that big a surprise that teams are running as close to best available as they can; with only two practice games before season starts, the players need to blow out the cobwebs and be good to go in less than three weeks

for our squad, we're also six weeks behind as a result of, well, as a result of being premiers

😈

it's a minor issue that i'm prepared to have every year for at least the next decade

3 hours ago, jnrmac said:

Smith lacks footy nous. his athleticism is great but Charlie Cameron showed him up big time.

I am a bit miffed Jnr Mac that you picked out a selected section of my Smith post and then quoted exactly what I indicated that he was shown up with Smith on Cameron in the QF. 
I acknowledged Smiths improvement indicated he was beaten by Cameron with 5 goals and that he had ability and skill now but has he the nous/smarts to play regularly. 
We don't know until he has a decent run of football if he will succeed in the AFL and if he has made the jump to be a serious member of our elite defence in 2022.

I think he deserves his chance if it opens up and it will be interesting to see his journey in what might be his last year if he doesn't grab this opportunity. There are many possibilities in our squad as I indicated most with very good qualities and all the attributes to be a high quality defender for the Dees. 

All the best to each  of them this  season. 

9 minutes ago, whatwhat say what said:

i don't think it's that big a surprise that teams are running as close to best available as they can; with only two practice games before season starts, the players need to blow out the cobwebs and be good to go in less than three weeks

for our squad, we're also six weeks behind as a result of, well, as a result of being premiers

😈

it's a minor issue that i'm prepared to have every year for at least the next decade

I don't know that we are 6 weeks behind. Many of the players seemed to be back training within 2 weeks of the GF and the way they played yesterday (again with the caveat the opposition was poor) was like they were just continuing where they left off. Didn't seem to be that many cobwebs to blow out.

2 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I don't know that we are 6 weeks behind. Many of the players seemed to be back training within 2 weeks of the GF and the way they played yesterday (again with the caveat the opposition was poor) was like they were just continuing where they left off. Didn't seem to be that many cobwebs to blow out.

the commentators on our praccy game said the same; we didn't look like our previous season finished 6 weeks later than other sides

 

6 hours ago, S_T said:

When fit, our backline will consist of 7 (a back 6 plus one on the pine as per the GF) of the following 10 players:-

• May (AA and automatic selection)
• Lever (AA and automatic selection)
• Salem (stiff not to be AA and automatic selection)

then 4 of...

• Petty
• Tomlinson
• Smith (missed PF and GF due to injury)
• Hibbo 
• Bowey
• Rivers
• Hunt (lost his spot with injury and couldn't win it back)

And we have Turner who by his selection yesterday must be tracking ok.  

Going to be very interesting to see who lines up in 19 days.

I'm not sure about that.  I thought Petty was a slight improvement on Tomlinson.  

Agree with this. 

A tough thing to say from a practice match, but based on yesterday for the first time in 12 months Rivers is not a lock. 

If all fit

May, Lever, Salem, Petty, Tomlinson, Bowey then Hibbo or Rivers for final spot:-  Wouldn't want to play a bad game though, as some incredibly stiff players ready to come in and take your spot. 

If Petty and Tomlinson both fit, I do think they both get a game:- if team balance means they cant both play in the backline I do wonder if 1 will be experimented elsewhere on the ground. 

 

 

Stood on the outer wing all day, on the fence. Langdon just in front of us all day, boy can he motor. He also has the one on one skills to match. Had six opponents over the game beat the lot.

During the first qtr north kicked it out on the full five times all on our side of the ground. During the game looked at the score board and we were 18 goals we score so quickly at times, north looked slow and hesitant. By the way we need to get the umpires down to training to explain to us where we are going wrong with the rules. The free kick count for the first qtr{ excluding out on the full] was 14 to 1 against us, and 27 to 11 all day. We must be very bad, particularly our tacking only 1 was rewarded.

Good team effort and at one stage BBB had scored as many goals as north 5. 

Venue looked great, a small grandstand on the outer needed but great ground.   

Edited February 25, 20223 yr by ex52k2
add line

7 hours ago, 1964_2 said:

tough thing to say from a practice match, but based on yesterday for the first time in 12 months Rivers is not a lock

Rivers deadlocked imho. He is an absolute gun and is still very young.

12 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I don't know that we are 6 weeks behind. Many of the players seemed to be back training within 2 weeks of the GF and the way they played yesterday (again with the caveat the opposition was poor) was like they were just continuing where they left off. Didn't seem to be that many cobwebs to blow out.

One good thing about Round 1 being a GF re-match is that both teams are '6 weeks behind' or whatever.  Gives both an extra week to get back into it (and on equal terms).

On 2/24/2022 at 5:51 PM, daisycutter said:

gotta be an owl.......there is an owl on both sides

Are you sure that's wise?

Thought that the Casey ground had a few decent bare patches from watching on TV.

With AFLW one wonders if they had the time to do repair work over the summer

Players like Sparrow, Rivers, Bowey, Pickett and Jackson have played less than 40 games and are under 22 playing their 3rd or 4th season of AFL so they are nowhere near the finished product so you expect the odd bad patch during a game or season.

The team played good football and when they rested Salem, Petracca, Oliver, Gawn, Jackson and May in the last quater the team did not miss a beat. 

38 minutes ago, Diamond_Jim said:

Thought that the Casey ground had a few decent bare patches from watching on TV.

With AFLW one wonders if they had the time to do repair work over the summer

One thing that is very easily noticed about Casey is a clear lack of shade for spectators. Thankfully Thursday wasn’t too bad but is the scorching heat there really isn’t much for the fans to get out of the heat. 

I hope there’s plans in the background for giving Casey a bit more on the “non broadcast” wing for fans to escape the sun and heat. 

I had a great time going out, it was my birthday and had the day off so it just worked out beautifully! I’m not really able to add anything extra to some of the reports. Oliver looks like he could go another level this year, which is insane because he’s already a gun. 

Was so pleased to see Benny Brown looking fit and firing. He’s a sneaky chance at the Coleman this season if he gets that sort of consistency. 

Edited February 26, 20223 yr by Pates

18 hours ago, jnrmac said:

Smith lacks footy nous. his athleticism is great but Charlie Cameron showed him up big time.

Must have showed up Goody too as he left Smith on Cameron for most of the last 3 quarters.  In that time Cameron kicked 2.1, one of the goals from a free kick and had about 5 touches

14 hours ago, 1964_2 said:

Agree with this. 

A tough thing to say from a practice match, but based on yesterday for the first time in 12 months Rivers is not a lock. 

Agree. This will be difficult to swallow for many, of us but it's also how I see it based just one practice game.

We have three locks: May, Lever and Salem.

Then we have Rivers, Hibberd, Smith, Bowey, Tomlinson and Hunt (six blokes) competing for the remaining three spots. Maybe one can rotate on the bench?

On what i saw, Hibberd, Smith and Tomo are in the box seat based on Thursday's practice game.

On 2/24/2022 at 12:51 PM, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

Was there any noticeable difference in the umpiring of the holding the ball rule? Alternatively, were players trying to dispose of the ball more quickly because of the supposed "tightening up" of that rule? 

Only made the area of holding the ball/ illegal tackle more blurred. Err, what do i pay first?

Bit hard on Smith - Nev at his best good match for Charlie Cameron. 
Not many up to it

16 hours ago, 1964_2 said:

Agree with this. 

A tough thing to say from a practice match, but based on yesterday for the first time in 12 months Rivers is not a lock. 

If all fit

May, Lever, Salem, Petty, Tomlinson, Bowey then Hibbo or Rivers for final spot:-  Wouldn't want to play a bad game though, as some incredibly stiff players ready to come in and take your spot. 

If Petty and Tomlinson both fit, I do think they both get a game:- if team balance means they cant both play in the backline I do wonder if 1 will be experimented elsewhere on the ground. 

 

 

I don't envisage us playing a single game this year with all of May, Lever, Petty and Tomlinson.

IMO, it's one of Petty and Tomlinson for the third tall. 

bit of an overaction re rivers based on just one game and it being a first hit practice game

means absolutely nothing..........apart from building more mfcss

 

Decent kick that.

Norf were terrible.