A late scare but we were still more than 3 goals up with less than 5 minutes to play. We just need to keep the ball in contest better. Lots of valuable lessons. Don't discount the loss of Cerra. I thought his clean ball handling really stood out when he was on.
I don't get the calls for Binns to come in at the expense of Durdin. We already have a slight body struggling with the physical nature of the game (Hollands). Binns makes Hollands look like the Incredible Hulk. He's more outside than the carpark. In fact both Hollands boys need to straight line the ball a bit better. Ollie worked hard on Thursday but he needed to be more physical on a number of occasions.
Durdins role is to win ground balls but also to pressure the opponent. Watch his game. He wins a contested ground ball, handballs to Pitto who handballs to Walsh for our first goal. He marks inside 50 and handballs to Walsh who misses a running goal from 25. He wins a contested ground ball and handballs to Hewitt who kicks our goal in the last quarter. They're 3 straight forward shots at goal he set up. Without those goals we don't win. The game isn't just about kicking goals yourself.
It's also about pressure. Melbourne's running defenders found it more difficult to impact the game. McVee and Lever were both below their career averages. As were Melbournes scores from their back half. I also recall Durdin spoiling opposition marks twice inside Melbournes forward 50 including a relatively simple Lever attempt 45m out from their goal so they're having a scoring impact at both ends. If you want to give Binns a run, it should be at the expense of Ollie. We do need a specialist wing though. Cottrell seems to have more impact as a high half forward relieving the wingers when required.
It was good to see Kennedy get a decent run in the middle. Interestingly I heard a commentator say of our 5 centre bounce goals, Cripps wasn't there for 4 of them. It shows that diversity of personnel can be valuable.
I still don't understand why we don't use Boyd more with kickouts. I recall him taking one on Thursday and he laced out a player 70m out from the Melbourne goal (Acres?). A magnificent kick. We need to get the ball in his hands more. It's not difficult. Instead of McGovern and Newman running to take the kickout, let Boyd take it.
Super game from Weiters. The Melbourne forwards kept trying to drag him away but he played the role beautifully. Great jobs as well by Cincotta and Boyd on dangerous forwards. The only disappointment? When Petracca was on fire, the experienced defenders let Cowan take him at one stage after a goal. You don't hang a 2nd year player out like that. Senior players take the responsibility. I have my doubts over Aaron Hamill's decisions and structures sometimes.
6 and 3 with our injury list? I'll take that.
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