1 Andrew Walker - Probably BOG for us , was in it a fair bit - started in the middle and pretty much played the whole game between the arcs - attacked everything pretty hard , hit betts lace out on the run but also sprayed a shot from in front 15 out - good game from a good player but his inconsistent disposal will continue to frustrate the ferals

3 Marc Murphy - Played half a game - kicked a beautiful goal - with this trademark stop prop wiggle manouver - looks fit - no signs of any OP got through unscathed , Murph is a gun

5 Chris Judd - maybe equal bog for us with walker - everything he touches generally turns to gold - provided some dash from defence at one stage we chipped sideways on kick outs to him and then he would try and run it out - but too many stationery targets meant we turned it over a lot - typical judd game

6 Kade Simpson - flashed in and out - works his ass off generally didnt do a great deal - setup a betts goal with walker running through the middle

10 Richard Hadley - decent game - got around the packs a bit got some ball out - its easy to just not notice him - but will be a goo player for us this year

11 Robert Warnock - i dont understand some of the other negative reports on warnocks game - i think he is going to be a gem - works well around the ground - works well at ground level - won his share of taps

15 Steven Browne - had a purple patch at one stage goes at it hard but still fluffs a lot of his disposal , will remain a fringe player this year i think

16 Shaun Grigg - what a frustrating footballer - uses his body well in congested situations to win the ball - wins plenty of football - but bangs it on the boot too quickly and his kicking at times is woeful - could be special but needs to work on that kicking - he was ok today

17 Setanta O’hAilpin - presented well in the second half - works his ass off - was our best if only leading target today - will be a good forward option this year

19 Eddie Betts - looks mega fit - mega mega fit - typical terrier like game from betts and is pretty good on the lead too - one of our best

22 Shaun Hampson - please please practice marking 20 hours a day - won his share of taps - took a nice mark and hit the post - could be absolutely anything

24 Kane Lucas - showed glimpses - has a turn of pace and has footy smarts - had a pretty good game - nice goal on the run - will play plenty of senior footy this year

26 Joe Anderson - another funny one - was very good early showing dash and drive from defence - but disposal lets him down at times - tried hard early and faded

27 Dennis Armfield - DNP

29 Heath Scotland - one of our smarter players typical scotland game had some good passages of play and a bizzaare one where he just stood and watched the ball bounce through for a goal - could almost see his brain say stop that but his body didnt move

30 Jarrad Waite - the panther returns - had a nervous and subsequently woeful first few minutes that cost us 2 goals but then had a nice spoil and was involved in some nice passages of play - beat naitanui in a contest at half back ran off him then scrubbed the kick - typical waite lol

31 Marcus Davies - i think we have a gem here , bit of mongrel , nice composure and pretty good disposal off half back

33 Ryan Houlihan - kicked 2 goals - looks better forward - didnt do a great deal for most of the game

34 Simon Wiggins - was played on the half back line the majority of the game - looked to take a big knock and was limping - ran it off after that though - pretty much a nothing game

35 Caleb Tiller - looks like such a runt out there - didnt get much of a run - a long way off

36 Rohan Kerr - showed some glimpses - was very nervous and fluffed some disposal but he also showed some dash as he became more comfortable - looks a tad overweight - but could be something

38 Jeff Garlett - i love garlett - does some special things at times , dissapears at others - typical garlett game - should play senior footy at times this year

39 Sam Jacobs - DNP

40 Michael Jamison - solid - spoiled his teammate twice resulting in goals but i think that was because he appeared concious of helping white out - needed to have more faith in white who looked good

41 Levi Casboult - miles off - bullants seconds maybe firsts is where he is at - lump of a lad - didnt get much of a run but was out of his depth i thought

43 Simon White - quiet - unassuming - solid defender - almost another jamo type - could be a good one too

45 Aaron Joseph - DNP ?

46 David Ellard - miles off i reckon too - didnt do much pretty much only remember 2 turnovers

47 Josh Donaldson - tonnes of potential - got a good run - played on the wing mainly - did some nice things - did some comical things - went to ground too often - but was involved a lot - good project player

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*(grow - fun - gah)

Yeah but whatabout your whataboutism.

I dont think there is much point on commenting any further on the game - it was a nothing game - really was , both teams had so many first choice players out and it was all about giving fringe players a run

We looked to try two different styles in each half

First half was very much a flood pagans paddock type scenario , we turned the ball over coming out of defence a heap ! too much handball to stationery targets - the plan from kick ins looked to be chip sideways to judd then try and run the ball out with handball and then try and hit a target running back towards goal - we just couldnt stop turning it over coming out of defence though.

Second half we reverted to a more typical setup with hampson and setanta forward with hampson rotating with warnock - setanta was good - we looked better in the second half - we did do some chip chip slow the play down but then looked to get it into the corridor a few times from that - and it worked a couple of times for goals. we also attempted to kick long from kick outs and this worked a touch better - still too many turnovers

overall a very scrappy game in beatiful sunshine with ridiculous wind which miraculously changed direction each qtr to help the eagles, i dont think there is anything to worry about from todays game

murph returned
waite returned
no injuries
some kids got a run
we travelled with a chance to bond as a team

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*(grow - fun - gah)

Yeah but whatabout your whataboutism.

Thanks Grro, appreciate your efforts

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#DonTheStash

You're a god send grrro
Fantastic report.

Coffee man and yibbida.................well done fellas great to read your views.
Give us some more now that you've had time to recount the day's event.

Great that there's no injuries.
Great to give the kids exposure and put some supporters out of their misery and their dreaming of Casboult and Kerr.
Great news about White...and Donalson.

Have to remember that Waite and Murph are back unscathed.
Missing from our line up were more than AAP cared to mention:
Kreuzer, Gibbs, Thornton, Bower, Henderson, McLean, Carrazzo, Robinson, Yarran, Armfield, with Austin on th sidelines.
That's a fair wack out of our first 22.

Well done to all Bluebaggers.

PS: This was a practise game. Murphy will not take his boots off whilst the game is still on in the H&A or finals (like Fev did), Casboult wont be our go to man, and Jamo wont be spoiling his fellow backmen.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

oh and we must have given away at least 10 frees for in the back in the tackle

need to work on that

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*(grow - fun - gah)

Yeah but whatabout your whataboutism.

no worries guys

if anyone has any questions i will try and answer as best as i can

i had an awesome vantage point - in the grandstand right on the centre line

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*(grow - fun - gah)

Yeah but whatabout your whataboutism.

So Griggs kicking is 'woeful at times", Andersons "disposal lets him down" but Walkers "inconsistent disposal" only frustrates "the ferals"

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

wtf ?!?

gee im not writing a flower oxford dictionary im trying to comment on players briefly from memory of a scrappy game

walker is always attacked for poor disposal - his disposal is better than andersons and griggs

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*(grow - fun - gah)

Yeah but whatabout your whataboutism.

guess ill keep my poor form to myself in the future

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*(grow - fun - gah)

Yeah but whatabout your whataboutism.

nice edit BV

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*(grow - fun - gah)

Yeah but whatabout your whataboutism.

Very good summation grro.

Fair to say it was a pretty ordinary game. Turnover city for both sides.

My main focus today was to see how Waite and Murphy went. Pleased to say that both got through fine and showed signs of their best. They were both a bit rusty but no obvious signs of injury for either of them. Waite was his usual self and didn't appear to be tentative at all. These two getting through a huge positive for mine.

A couple of quick things from me:

Judd - has his burst back. I think IT moved everytime he put the after burners on . If we can keep him on the outside with Hads and Brock in the clinches, we can cause plenty of trouble.

Eddie - expecting big things from him, he was great today. Seems to be in excellent shape. His pressure and tackling was first class.

1AW - was heavily involved today. Does some absolutely brilliant things however the occassional disposal lets him down.

Grigg - see 1AW. Really needs to work on his foot skills.

Hads - always respect his work rate but I thought his disposal by foot was poor today. A couple of horrible turnovers from his boot, which did catch my eye.

Setanta - worked very hard and presented well.

206 - did well in the hitouts and seems quite mobile at ground level. Though didn't get a heap of it. First goal of the game was because he dropped a mark deep and then followed it up with a handball directly to West Coast.

Hampson - if only he could hold those marks.....

All in all, things went as I expected. It was a very scappy affair with both sides missing plenty of first 22 players. Must be said though that our first 10 minutes and most of the second quarter was U.G.L.Y.

If someone can come up with a kick in plan that is effective, please contact Ratts

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We are on our way back...

Dont get the tissues out. I appreciate the report but the irony was obvious.
Personally, I believe Walker has a long way to go with his disposal but IMO, that doesn't make me a "feral". Just someone with a different view to yours.

It was uncalled for and a tad hypocritical in the context of the report. That's all.
Thanks for taking the time to go along.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

and im getting the tissues out - bit sensitive thinking i was calling you a feral

walker is always attacked about poor disposal - the other 2 arent - it was just a general jokey type dig

but ok

apologies to all the ferals out there

but walker >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>grigg>>>anderson

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*(grow - fun - gah)

Yeah but whatabout your whataboutism.

Bondi what about JR and AJ mate?

I've commented several times on the disposal deficiency of both those players. FWIW, I agree with the summation of Grigg. He consistently bangs it on his boot in congestion and shows no composure whatsoever. Anderson is a goer and I love his attitude but he will have to improve his kicking to make an AFL player.

The worrying part for me was Browne started to show similar characteristics to Grigg last year. I dont understand the situation because he didn't have that problem early days. Hopefully he has removed it from his game.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

browne shows all the signs he could be a good player - goes in hard - gets plenty of the ball - positions himself well - but seems nervous or maybe trying too hard - he keeps fumbling and his kicking is off

hopefully he can work his way out of it

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*(grow - fun - gah)

Yeah but whatabout your whataboutism.

Cheers for all the reports guys. I really appreciate it! A special thanks to Grro for what look like extremely considered thoughts.

My main question for anyone who went is this: what can you tell us about the body language of the coaches? Was Ratts leading the huddles, or given this was a second string outfit did he take the chance for Riley to take a bit more of a lead? Anything about their approach would be of interest.

Second question: any chance of Simon White being a nominated rookie at some stage this season?

I think the difference was Walker was generally good whereas the others didnt really improve so he is more 'frusturating'

All in all a scrappy affair we just couldnt get moving in the first half and then probably should've been a lot closer in the second half if not for some poor-goalkicking ie. Walkers miss just after Casboult missed when he shouldve passed to Walker.... I also noticed that breeze grro, wasnt consistent at all!

I thought we definately won the ruck battles but didnt really have the a grade team in the middle (Ellard, Browne and Scotland for much of second half) Whoever is the Eagle's second ruck is very ordinary and looked much weaker than Hammer and Warnock.

I might be the ONLY one but Natainui doesnt impress me THAT much he still looks pretty clueless and seems to get away with a lot with the umps (I think they have a case of Adam-Goodes syndrome)

All the young guys showed how inexperienced they are with simple errors but that is to be expected it was the first game for a few, but have to say Donaldson looks like he has heaps of potential, White looks pretty solid and will be an excellent back-up if one of the big three go down (Jamo Bower Thornton) and Davies also impressed me.

Bring on next week when we can play a full squad and then onto the tiggers!

Thanks for the detailed reports Grro, much appreciated with as you say the best outcome from the game is that Waite and Murph came through ok and will be better for the run.

Keen to hear as much as possible about the new kids.

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"our electorate seeks less to be informed and more to be validated." Sad times.

ratts very much lead the charge but it was pretty relaxed

can we nominate 2 rookies again this year?

garlett has one sewn up

the other one is very very wide open

based on todays efforts i would say its between donaldson and white - not sure if that would translate into regular season footy though - ellard may still be in the coaching staffs minds

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*(grow - fun - gah)

Yeah but whatabout your whataboutism.