MATCH SIM: Friday 7th February 2025

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Demonland Trackwatcher Gator ventured down the freeway to bring you his observations from Friday morning's Match Simulation out at Casey Fields.

Rehab: Jake Lever and Charlie Spargo running laps.  Lever was running short distances at a fast click as well as having kick to kick with a trainer. He seems unimpeded.

Christian Petracca, Kade Chandler, Shane McAdam and Tom Fullarton doing non-contact kicking and handball drills on the adjacent oval.  All moving freely at pace. 

I didn’t notice Caleb Windsor, Jake Melksham, Will Verrall, Koltyn Tholstrup or Luker Kentfield, but it could have just been an oversight by me.

Match Simulation:

Today’s main session comprised of 3 x 20 minute quarters of contested match simulation under the guidance of two AFL umpires (no boundary umpires). And it was very much a probables vs possibles for round one, which is why Kysaiah Pickett was with the possibles.

So when you’re trying to drift off to sleep at night while picking your best team from the backline to the forwards keep the following in mind.

Probables – Blue:  May, Petty, Howes, Salem, Bowey, and McVee in defence; Gawn, Oliver, Rivers, Viney, Langford, Langdon, Sharp, Billings, Sparrow, and Lindsay rotating in the mids, and van Rooyen, Turner, Jefferson, Fritsch as the main forwards.

Ed Langdon, Xavier Lindsay and Jack Billings all spent time on the wing. Langdon and Billings also occasionally rotated through a half-forward flank, while I noted Langdon attended a lot of CBAs. Lindsay was predominantly just wing.  

Along with Ed Langdon, Clayton Oliver, Jack Viney, Trent Rivers and Langford had the bulk of the CBAs.

It was quite noticeable that Blue had a heap of left footers: Viney, Langford, Lindsay, Billings, Christian Salem, Steven May, Bayley Fritsch. Just need to get Chandler and Kynan Brown into the team.

• I’m saying Ed Langdon, because a lot of posters are saying Langdon when they mean Langford

Possibles – White:  McDonald, Pickett, Brown, Adams, Laurie, Woewodin, Mentha, Campbell, Hore, Moniz-Wakefield, Johnson, Sestan, George, Yze, Culley, plus a few other Casey players

White got off to a flyer with the first 3 goals. Roy George kicked 2 (one lead and mark and the other a good crumbing goal) and Ricky Mentha Jr one on the run from about 40 metres. Gradually Blue wrestled control and ran out 38 point winners (10 11 71 to 5 3 33).

I don’t believe there were any injuries, although Viney copped a high one, which set him back in his tracks.  I think he was fine.

Lots of switching with short and long kicks before trying to spot up forward leads if possible, or long kicks when necessary.  The game was a bit scrappy with some skill errors, including dropped chest marks (my pet hate), intermingled with some quality ball movement.

Max Gawn and Tom Campbell nullified each other. Gawn wasn’t able to take his trademark contested marks, but I never expect ruckmen to be marking at their best in early February.

Ed Langdon was prolific.  He was constantly an option and seemed to be relishing a bit more freedom through the midfield.  I was surprised by how many centre bounces he attended.

Lindsay didn’t get a lot of it and made a couple of errors but generally used it well.

Harvey Langford was busy and contested as you’d expect.  Took a nice mark and kicked a goal from a left foot snap 35 metres out.

Billings was one of the busiest. He’s finding the footy with ease and was used a lot.

Salem is also finding plenty of it. Jake Bowey also got a heap of it.  May was his intercepting self and uses Salem and Bowey as the outlet kick. Judd McVee was also busy. 

Blake Howes was good. He links up well with his fellow defenders.  He seems to be having a very good preseason.

Harry Petty did what he had to do, which wasn’t much.

Rivers and Oliver were the best mids for Blue.  It’s great to see Oliver looking like he’s back to his best and Rivers looks a natural mid to me.

Harry Sharp was neat. Did a great spoli which became a mark deep in defence and 30 seconds later was hitting Jacob van Rooyen lace out in the forward pocket.

The tall forwards were pretty quiet.  Matt Jefferson took a double grabber 35 metres out and converted.  He also kicked one off the ground in the last. I thought he competed well. Van Rooyen kicked a nice goal from a difficult angle, and he also went up against Aidan Johnson in the ruck for a while.  Daniel Turner was quiet. Fritsch was the most lively of Blue’s forwards.  He also got on the scoreboard.

I liked the look of Jai Culley. A very tall mid, but looked good.  Kicked a goal for White.

Lastly, a special mention to the brothers. Pickett was fantastic despite getting caught by Langford.  He played 90% in the midfield and was just so clean, quick and creative. His delivery was very good.  He teamed up well with Mentha and George, who both looked likely.  He’s got a touch of class Mentha and the more nuggety George also looks like he could belong at AFL level. They were up against it with a strong Blue backline and White had no key talls to crumb off, but both looked dangerous and had multiple shots at goal.

 

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