Are we going to have trouble kicking goals this year?

I fear we may be depending too much upon a young Jvr and an injury prone Petty.

Hopefully they will be ok.

Well, nothing to take away from that experience.

It was a scratch match, and it was in every respect.  Neither coach showed their hand, there was no discernible game plan or style from either, but what do you expect in February? 

For both sides it was the opportunity to see whether players could fit in different roles, who could do something outside their comfort zones and the chance for recent draftees to show their wares. 

Based on what we saw today, we can certainly expect Caleb Windsor to feature early in the season.  The kid is lightening quick, but has football smarts, and with Hunter still injured, and unlikely to reach any fitness level before R1, then Caleb should get the wingers job. 

The other real standout was Kynan Brown, who has that inate ability to see gaps and just walk through them while others just fall about.  We probably won't see him for a while, as he is so slight in build, but if today is anything to go by, then we may have a first class father-son.

Pickett spending lots of time in the middle...a positive, but he won't be around in R1.  ANB in the middle...no.  Schache as ruck backup...no.  Tomlinson as 3rd tall defender...no.  Viney easily the best on the day, but please don't wear him out at this time of the year.  At least we only used Petracca and Max sparingly. 

So we tried things, some worked, others didn't. 

 

4 minutes ago, leave it to deever said:

Are we going to have trouble kicking goals this year?

I fear we may be depending too much upon a young Jvr and an injury prone Petty.

Hopefully they will be ok.

Poor list management ...

the thing that disappointed me was our ball handling, our handpassing was poor missing targets, dropping short, same can be said with some of our kicking. Richmond ran rings around us their run and carry not clarry was unchallenged a lot of the time down from full back to the forward line. our players just did not man up. not a great start to the season, but it is only a practice game, hopefully it will encourage our coaches to get to work on some of these things. Sides that run and carry the ball always challenge us as we do not chase, hopefully we can address that.

Mc Adam will give us a bit of difference but we need Fritch back in 2021 form.

The thing that struck me was how easily we were beaten out of the middle. Same old I guess. Oh I did not see all of thegame.

Richmond played much of the game as if there were four points up for grabs so in that respect it was good to get a serious hit out but for a quarter and a half we were bit of a rabble I thought. 

I know it's only a practice match but I was disappointed with our efforts and execution and even in a praccy match 10 unanswered goals from a supposed premiership contender is inexcusable.

We might have had more injuries going into the game but Richmond had their best 4 or 5 players missing including most of their engine room and their key forward and back.

We'll get rolled by the Blues next week and I'm not confident in our chances in Sydney. Early days but could be in for a long year.

Edited February 18, 20241 yr by Lefty

Oliver, Brayshaw and Salem in and we woukd have been a little more competitive and likely taken the points. Also depth like Spargo, Woey and AMW out.

Our real problem is our 2nd ruck/tall forward. With Fullarton out cant answer that question. No one to get the ball to ground.

BBB's knee may not hold the season..

TMc can play but he is not the 198 /200 cm tall which we lack.

Bit early to write us off yet unless we get long term injuries to our guns.

Pup Brown looks to be a long term player. Quick, evasive, tackles well and can kick a goal. May play mostly Casey this season but he is AFL quality. Windsor looks a long term player as well.

Hope Yze steps up a level or 2 at the Chargers this season. He could be a good F/S.

The ground was in awesome condition and no wind today.

Difficult to draw conclusions after that hit out. The 10 unanswered goals was an embarrassment, but the 5 goal opening burst and hanging in for a 4 goal loss (when main list was on the field minus Max & May after 2nd Qtr) was just OK.

I would think you can add Salem, Oliver, Brayshaw, Spargo, Fullarton & Woewodin for Carlton match.

36 minutes ago, dl4e said:

The thing that struck me was how easily we were beaten out of the middle. Same old I guess. Oh I did not see all of thegame.

We dominated the middle early with Gawn, Tracc and Viney and even in the 2nd when we didn’t play well Kossie won a number of centre clearances with ease. We just didn’t turn them in to deep and retained forward entries. Then we butchered it on quick counters.

It wasn’t so much bombing inside 50 or even aerial contests that were the problems, it was mids and half backs turning great run in to bad missed targets across half forward

Petty draws the ball. Fritsch can be freed up by McAdam.

But in the meantime and perhaps for longer we might have to play Tracc at CHF just to have someone demand the ball.

 

Did Max come off at halftime injured? Just prior to halftime he gave away a free in a ruck contest and was clutching his wrist. He played out the quarter but didn't come back on. We lose Max and the season is as good as toast.

We stayed for the first 4 periods, I liked the look of young Brown, the Duke and Verrall but was surprised how slick the Tiges outplayed our backline and piled on quick goals, I was also surprised that they were able to move the ball from the backline to the forward line on a number of occasions without us touching the ball. Our kicking and marking needs to come up a notch.!!

It was so good to see Clarrie on the field and not looking far off. Salem also looks ready for a good season. Tomlinson, Chandler and Schache disappointing. Seaton looks too slow and heavy. 

You know the footy season is approaching and it’s not just the smell of the linament, the clicking of the turnstiles or the warming of the pie oven. It’s the sullen and gloomy naysayers who have broken down over missing on the four points not on offer because it’s just the first match simulation. It’s only 18 days into February and Round Zero is the same number of days away but to some people, all is lost.

Some fifty or more years ago, Melbourne played Carlton on the MCG in the last practice match of the preseason. The Dees were on fire and smashed the Blues all over the ground. Two weeks later they faced each other in Round One and the result was the exact opposite. We were March champions and April fools. 

I’m not even sure what the objective is of these games but, despite a few odd crunches, it appears that the injury list did not expand beyond its current level so that’s a bonus.

I don’t think you can expect to get much out of today. We have no idea what the coaching staff wanted from the day, what their expectations and instructions were to the players. It certainly seemed different to last year when the better players on the ball dominated and had more game time but this time Max and Trac were used sparingly and Clarrie did his shtick in the late, late show with Salo. Jack Viney took up the form he was late in 2023.

I was impressed by Caleb Windsor and Jack Billings who will add interest to the battle for a place on a wing. We got a bargain in Kynan Brown but he’s not quite ready for the physical challenges of the game right now but it won’t be long. The Kolt looked strong at the end of the endgame. JvR had his moments early - they all did until the handbrake went on after 20 minutes. 

Sure, there was a lot of sloppy ball use and you could probably point a finger at the defence more than the forwards (because for a long time, the ball never went into attack). But both sides had plenty of first choice players out of action and, by the time the opening siren blares to announce the start of the season, the look and feel of the teams will differ markedly.

The story of the game for me was the heartwarming feeling when Clarrie slotted through the goal of the year from the boundary (pity the car wasn’t on offer) on his left foot. He might not quite be back in town just yet but Cranbourne East is only is 45 km from the CBD and that’s only 2½ km a day. 

Just now, chook fowler said:

It was so good to see Clarrie on the field and not looking far off. Salem also looks ready for a good season. Tomlinson, Chandler and Schache disappointing. Seaton looks too slow and heavy. 

Chandler has a lot to prove.

Along with Laurie and Spargo he seems to be on the wrong trajectory unfortunately

1 hour ago, 1964nowMORE said:

I spoke with a media footy person this week who said we were the mystery of 2024. They wouldn’t be surprised if we won the flag OR finished 10th and sacked Goody half way……

One can dream.

2 hours ago, Ugottobekidding said:

Even so, they haven't practiced much... 

PractiSed

😁

Spent most of the day watching from the face painting line but from what I saw.

Windsor won’t play any VFL.

Brown Junior looks like a future fabric of our team player.

Kosi looks huge and ready to explode.

I suppose that if we'd won today, we'd be flag favourites

The player I was most disappointed in was Howes, seemed to have no idea what he was doing.Was great to see Oliver and Salem in good form.But agree with most, major issue is lack of 2nd ruck…Also lack another major tall, albeit T MAC May step up..On this practice  form, Swans will belt us.

20 minutes ago, chook fowler said:

It was so good to see Clarrie on the field and not looking far off. Salem also looks ready for a good season. Tomlinson, Chandler and Schache disappointing. Seaton looks too slow and heavy. 

Seaton???Do you mean Phil Seaton one time Melbourne wingman??

How do we measure today if we don’t know what our intent was going in? Did we try and shut them down when they kicked ten straight or did we continue to work on our attacking game.

When the pressure comes we know how we will Play. We know how Collingwood will play too. Like us.
 

If we can play the way we were at the end of last year with ten percent more efficiency we win a flag. By working on skills and run now and early in the year, hopefully allowing the work we’ve done continuously for a few years on goal kicking and skill work to progress and inject some better ball users into important positions we should do alright.

brown jr looked great. Get him in the gym and onto the park asap 

3 hours ago, Demonland said:

More Kozzy in the guts please.

Haven't seen the game yet but it sounds like Tomlinson and Schache were their usual selves. Completely useless. Hopefully, T.Mac or Turner takes his spot and Petty takes Schache's spot while we play those 2 we are going nowhere.