Some night hey? Somehow this game ended up in a primetime slot on Sat night at the G, for some reason there were no guidewires across the top of the G and it was seagull city. But the footy was pretty good.
First quarter was one of our best this season, our defensive structure was setup brilliantly and pressure was high forcing North to kick long. I was surprised that North didn't take more of a Richmond approach and keep moving it on to catch us wrong-footed.
We executed 1%ers really well in this half, sometimes too well going for an extra tap on but I liked the idea. We sort of went into auto-pilot which is to be expected when you kill off a team early.
To be fair, North were just garbage. They served up an unmitigated pile of dog excrement. It's horrible to watch any club put forward that tripe and expect people to swallow it. In a re-building club you may not have the talent yet, you may not have the staying power but you absolutely must have the effort. Guys like Stephenson were lazy and hardly moved up the ground. The only North guy worth a pinch of poop was Cunnington, good player.
But that's enough of the North stuff, let's talk about the positives for us!
Our wingers held width really well despite Langdon not having his best game, this two pronged approach is going to be so hard for teams to go up against and the acquisition of Lachie Hunter is so far looking like the bargain of the season.
Kade Chandler, I'm not going to stand here and say I was one of the doubters because I wasn't. I've wanted him in for a long time now and he's showing just what he's capable of. Work rate, skill, goal sense. That first goal was way harder than it looks, to gather it on the hop and take the tight angle shot with a split second to react was brilliant. Like Monday night his 3 goals were all quality and he's dialed in his set shooting now.
Thought it was one of Bowey's better games for the season, Brayshaw was a master interceptor and the people who freak out whenever he has the ball just know that he ran at 91% eff, happy 150 boyo! In the first is was a case of Clarry by how far, I thought he might have been on his way to a 40 possession game at very least.
That Christian Petracca is a pretty good player hey? And after all of you doubted him (Not really just jazzing up the post a bit) he came out and went bang! 37 touches, 15 contested, 552 metres gained and 3 brilliant goals. I'd love him to win a Brownlow one day but in a lot of ways his Norm meant more, performing on the big stage is what it's about. The master of the score involvement.
Disposal efficiency was very good, as a matter of fact guys and gals, we only had 5 players under 70% disposal efficiency. What do you think about that!
Thought Brody Grundy was average in the first half but exceptional in the second. He's still finding that fitness and lumbers occasionally but I think he's getting close. Hoping for a big, big performance in a month's time for a certain game at the G.
Fritta was marvelous and didn't look like missing, everyone's set shots are brilliant I couldn't be happier with how that is going and long may it continue. I'm not sure if I subscribe to the theory that it's because we aren't kicking to pockets as much, it's definitely helping getting better looks at goal but we were also dobbing ones from angles that we missed last year.
Schache was ok, did nice things but loses his man from a forward defensive point of view too easily. In other words, gets too much separation at the time when you don't want to. Will give him another week.
And that'll do it, so many other good performances, ANB's chase down and tackle was precisely why we signed him for 3 years. Anyone who hates him can go directly to jail and not collect $200.
This year, a day watching footy is always good when Freo lose and Melbourne win.
