Brayshaw - prolific and clean

Oliver - best on ground 

Langdon - back to best

Gawn - great second half

Petracca - good not great

Harmes - some isolated highlights 

Bowey - continues to excel 

Rivers - was generally safe

Weideman - took his chances 

May - met his match

Viney - some important connections 

Jordon - impressive first half

Fritsch - quiet until last

Jackson - held his own

Hunt - good and evil

Spargo - had limited involvement 

Sparrow - was rarely sighted

Smith - limited but impressive 

Pickett - pressure was important 

Tomlinson - quiet but safe

McDonald - needed more involvement 

Neal-Bullen - quiet until last

 

Smith: some costly spills or better second half

Joeboy - oddly, spot on 😁

Edited April 1, 20224 yr by Demon Disciple

Gawn, Rarely taps advantageously

Kozzy, Hit the Scoreboard

Smith, Continues impressive season

Mc Donald Teetering on edge

Gus Brayshaw  top of (the) pops!

Jaydyn Hunt  Clint Eastwood directs…

Joel Smith   get better 🤓

Edited April 1, 20224 yr by Tarax Club
JB ‘Getting better’ 🎵

Petracca - wasn't moving freely

Weid - changed my mind

Gus Marking machine.

 

 

Tmac - needs a rocket

Kozzie - hit the scoreboard

Sparrow - the ultimate tackler

Bowey - complete utter gun 🔫 

11 hours ago, Roost it far said:

Smith: some costly spills or better second half

I thought Joel dropped one easy mark which cost us a goal, but was otherwise very good. He is improving and just needs a run of games. He gives us another option either back or forward.

He certainly deserves a good run at it, after so many injuries. 

4 hours ago, Redleg said:

I thought Joel dropped one easy mark which cost us a goal, but was otherwise very good. He is improving and just needs a run of games. He gives us another option either back or forward.

He certainly deserves a good run at it, after so many injuries. 

He missed an easy one in the first quarter as well. I like him: I believe all he needs is that switch of self-confidence to be clicked on. He's in the same boat as Weideman in that regard.

Edited April 2, 20224 yr by dieter

This was an all-round team effort again. Apart from Oliver and Brayshaw, no-one stood out. The back-line was again superb, all contributing against a rather talented Essendon Forward line.

Jordon, Beal-Bullen, Spargo, Kozzie and Fritsch played their roles, and about the only player I thought was sub par was poor old Hunt. 

1 hour ago, dieter said:

This was an all-round team effort again. Apart from Oliver and Brayshaw, no-one stood out.

I thought Bowey stood out.

16 minutes ago, Redleg said:

I thought Bowey stood out.

Yep, as part of a superb backline...He and Rivers particularly. The lad is such an exciting find.

 

2 hours ago, dieter said:

This was an all-round team effort again. Apart from Oliver and Brayshaw, no-one stood out. The back-line was again superb, all contributing against a rather talented Essendon Forward line.

Jordon, Beal-Bullen, Spargo, Kozzie and Fritsch played their roles, and about the only player I thought was sub par was poor old Hunt. 

Disagree with Kozzie, 4 possessions last night & 6 against the Doggies isn’t good enough (was ok against Gold Coast)

As good as his defensive pressure is he needs to be around 12-15 possessions per game to have a bigger impact

44 minutes ago, Billy said:

Disagree with Kozzie, 4 possessions last night & 6 against the Doggies isn’t good enough (was ok against Gold Coast)

As good as his defensive pressure is he needs to be around 12-15 possessions per game to have a bigger impact

Playing in his position is difficult. Rioli never had that many possessions either. What he supplies is constant pressure and a lot of attention from opposition defenders. He'll have days when he gets more kicks...

Rivers wasn’t great last night and is obviously still hampered by an injury. Bowey was simply superb in reading the ball, showed courage and elite foot skills. I think you’re underselling him.

1 hour ago, dieter said:

Yep, as part of a superb backline...He and Rivers particularly. The lad is such an exciting find.

 

Rivers wasn’t great last night and is obviously still hampered by an injury. Bowey was simply superb in reading the ball, showed courage and elite foot skills. I think you’re underselling him.

1 minute ago, Heart Beats True said:

Rivers wasn’t great last night and is obviously still hampered by an injury. Bowey was simply superb in reading the ball, showed courage and elite foot skills. I think you’re underselling him.

No, not underselling at all. He was superb. I think you're underselling Rivers...

44 minutes ago, dieter said:

No, not underselling at all. He was superb. I think you're underselling Rivers...

Stats for Bowie and Rivers, via VFL site Player stats:

Bowie  78    18 Possessions. Meters gained: 290, Game time:82% 

Rivers  78   18 Possessions  264 Meters gained, 62% game time.

 

For the record, I made my assessments of the value of these two before I looked at their stats.

 

32 minutes ago, dieter said:

Rivers  78   18 Possessions  264 Meters gained, 62% game time.

This tells me Riv is still underdone playing only 62%, obviously Selwyn is trying to limit his minutes so as to not have him breakdown again.

Fantastic effort for him to commit to the cause and put the teams interests ahead of his own recovery.

As for Bowey…………..he’s a freak. If he was 10cm taller, he should’ve gone pick #1. At this stage he is the best player of the 2020 draft class.

 

34 minutes ago, Demon Disciple said:

This tells me Riv is still underdone playing only 62%, obviously Selwyn is trying to limit his minutes so as to not have him breakdown again.

Fantastic effort for him to commit to the cause and put the teams interests ahead of his own recovery.

As for Bowey…………..he’s a freak. If he was 10cm taller, he should’ve gone pick #1. At this stage he is the best player of the 2020 draft class.

 

It also tells me that when Riv was on the ground his performance was first class. As was Bowey's... 

I like the Pickett one, his pressure was important.

14 hours ago, layzie said:

I like the Pickett one, his pressure was important.

Agree. But I’d like to see Kozzzy more in fwd 50 and crumbing the footy and creating danger. He’s too far up the ground imv.  

23 hours ago, dieter said:

Playing in his position is difficult. Rioli never had that many possessions either. What he supplies is constant pressure and a lot of attention from opposition defenders. He'll have days when he gets more kicks...

 

21 hours ago, dieter said:

It also tells me that when Riv was on the ground his performance was first class. As was Bowey's... 

Somebody once said that Rioli was the best "10 Possession Player he had seen " I think defenders were always worried when he was in the area. Kozzie is moving in that vein.

On 4/2/2022 at 10:35 AM, Redleg said:

I thought Joel dropped one easy mark which cost us a goal, but was otherwise very good. He is improving and just needs a run of games. He gives us another option either back or forward.

He certainly deserves a good run at it, after so many injuries. 

I've just watched the AFL mini-match (or whatever they call it) on the AFL website. It's basically a highlights package with a better name given the game itself was devoid of highlights (Langdon's goal being a notable exception). If that's the only bit of footage people see of this game they'll wonder why Smith is being praised. I think he dropped three marks all leading to goals, although perhaps it was two with the other one being when he was pushed under the ball by Wanganeen. Anyway, because highlights packages tend to be dominated by vision of goals being scored, they're often going to be tough on defenders and very forgiving of forwards. Smith suffers from this more than anyone else in this particular package. 

And I agree he deserves to stay in the side, at least for now. He's no longer a liability, although he hasn't quite locked down a position. He certainly shows that he's worth persevering with - something I'll admit I wouldn't have thought previously.