Went along tonight and all I can say is outside the bacon & egg rolls and a very entertaining 1st term it was a very disappointing performance. Credit to Williamstown who were very good. They put a lot of pressure on the Scorpions and their bigger bodies were to much over the course of the game. Lead got out to 32 points early in the 3rd term, however the Scorps fought back to get within 14 until skill errors killed off any chance of a win and the Gulls ran away with it.
I thought the night was summed up when late in the 4th term a ball came out the back of a marking contest around Casey's half forward line. Petracca & Newton were the first two back and Newton took possession first. CP5 was looking for the handball which didn't come. Newton kept running while CP5 lost sight of a gulls player he went to sheppard who was then able to run down Newton to stop what should have been a certain goal.
Anyway, here's how i thought the players fared:
Christian Petracca: One of our best, however I don't think he smashed the door down for selection like many of us would have liked. Still makes some skill errors when trying to pull off a sceptical pass, but he'll tidy that yp. He does some really special things though, and his team mates were really looking for him. Sometimes too much. He'll get his chance soon, but if there was only one change for next week I'd say it'd be Oliver in before Petracca.
Jack Trengove: Our most consistent over the 4 quarters and his first term was the trenners of old! I forgot how good he is off his left and it's great to see him progressing so well. His pace isn't super but he didn't look slower then anyone else out there. Reckon he could push for selection within a fortnight if he continues tonight's form.
Billy Stretch: I really like Billy. His old man was my first favorite player as a kid. But he had a stinker tonight! He turned it over quite a few times and got caught a few times to. To be fair to him, a lot of his mistakes he made were made when he was trying to create some run which the team severely lacked. He'll be ok Billy, but tonight wasn't his night.
Ben Newton: Got a couple of early touches and kicked a beautiful pass to Hulett for the opening goal of the game which had me thinking he was in for a good one. Boy was i wrong! Hate to say it, but it seemed like he stuffed up a good 2/3's of his possessions for the night. And he didn't have many at that! To be fair it's only his 2nd game back, but he looked better on the tape last week.
Colin Garland: Tonight was a night for the Garland haters. He was ordinary. Given the Gulls advantage in the ruck/clearances, it was important to have someone like Col stand up and be our wall in the backline and cut off as many of their forward thrusts as possible. This didn't happen! On top of that he turned it over more often then normal. During the 3rd quarter after we'd fought back to within 14 points, Col had three kicks in the spaace of about 5-8 minutes. These kicks went - 1 Out on the full. 2 Over Trengove's head and out of bounds. Trenners could of had a run if he'd been hit up. 3 Straight to a Williamstown player. At least two of these directly resulted in Williamstown goals. Then if things couldn't get any worse, in the final term he did well to make a contest near the goal line & spoil a mark. However instead of punching it through for a point, he punched it towards the boundary where a Williamstown player gathered and snapped a goal. Can't see Col getting back in anytime soon.
Viv Michie: Was ok, however Viv seems to suffer a bit of the Trent Cotchin's. By that i mean he can rack up possessions but his impact doesn't seem to be significant. He's a few rungs down the midfield pecking order is Viv.
Sam Weideman: Battled or night The Weed, and i was happy to see him kick a late goal (his 2nd) as it was well deserved. He gets to a lot of contests and gets his hands to a lot of balls. Next step will be to start taking a few more, but considering he often had numbers dropping back on him i thought he competed really well and used his body nicely. He'll be a player!
Liam Hulett: Really pleased for the kid. Round 1 v Frankston i thought he looked a little lost. Thought he looked a lot more confident Round 2 and tonight was very impressive with him kicking 4. Probably should have been 5. What's also good as that some were opportunistic while some were from strong marks. Hulett & Trengove's performances were the best things of the night.
Jack Grimes: On a where we severely lacked outside run, i thought Grimes game was very poor. While Stretch made several errors trying to provide something, i thought Grimes went missing big time tonight.
Mitch White: One of our better players. Used the ball probably the best of anyone and defended well. Didn't get enough of the ball however, and given he's such a good kick, they need to figure out how to get it to him more. Provided Casey's biggest highlight of the 2nd term (there weren't many) with a 65-70m torp from behind the centre circle deep into the forward line. Is ahead of Garland for mine.
Dean Terlich: Another Terlich game. Probably provided Casey the most run they had from the back line, however he turned it over a few too many times. We all know what a Terlich game looks like.
Max King: Was monstered in the ruck and it's concerning that in his 3rd year it still seems as though he hasn't put on any physical size. Kicked a couple of goals and is capable of some special things, but i don't know if he'll make it? If he's going to, he needs to be able to compete in the ruck better then what he did today.
The return of Spencer will be huge for the Scorps as they really struggled in the ruck tonight. They also missed Neal-Bullen around the stoppages i thought. And finally, so it doesn't sound like i'm only picking on the Melbourne players, i thought the Casey players as a whole were very poor tonight outside of Hutchins and maybe Munro who was ok. Special mention in the poor player category to Pattison who was in the best last week, but made sveral errors tonight.
Happy to take any questions. Sorry about the late post, but my son woke up just after I got home.
