Pros (in no order):
- Heath Scotland. Lost count of how many marks he took to protect our defensive 50 when Norf were on the attack. kept us in the game for those shaky first coupla quarters. If Waite and Jamo are our bookends, Pops is certainly one of the biggest books on the shelf. Play til you're 40!
- Lachie Henderson. Taking a daunting new role in his stride and committing to it each week, with vast improvement. Kept Petrie very quiet - he didn't get "monstered" by any stretch. The media loves to beat up Hendo for his total inexperience but he's using his body well and surprises me each week with his pace rebounding the ball out of the backline. His long-term future may be in the forward line but he's shown enough to be a great defender also. I'm convinced - keep him in CHB for finals, with Jamo, Russell, Yarran, Duigan, Laidler and Hendo, we've got a pretty solid back 6.
- Bryce Gibbs. "Mr Fix It" was everywhere tonight and really was the glue that kept it together. His 4 goals were priceless and kept us in touch. Enough said, he'd come close to the 3 votes for mine tonight.
- Kade Simpson playing out of his skin tonight! The last few weeks he's had a lot go right for him at long last, he always works his butt off and gets a bit unlucky with the ball but he was so impressive tonight, such a big tank and just goes all night. His contested 1 on 1 ground work was phenomenal.
- Nick Duigan, Take a bow son. Down a little last week and delivered in spades this week. I love his composure and his grit, he just gets it done. Every week he adds at least one more courageous 'with the flight' mark to his highlight reel and this week is no different - that mark was a gamechanger and really sealed the fate of the game.
- Brock McLean. A very serviceable return to the seniors. 16 touches, game high 9 tackles, no glaring incident where he 'slowed us down.' Give him another game and see what he's got, with a bit more confidence to take the game on his experience could be handy.
Honorable mentions: Getting the 4 points, breaking the Norf hoodoo and winning at Etihad, another gutsy win which shows we're mentally tougher than last year. Laidler had a great game, Tuohy played very well after a couple of downers, Ellard muscled up, Judd's goal was awesome, Robbo's big hit at quarter time, Armfield another great game.
Cons:
-Chris Yarran. Like Walker and his jumping at everything, someone needs to tell Yaz that just because he can outrun a Ferrari in 4th gear doesn't mean he has to try every time. I've noticed the last 4-5 weeks he seems to be getting a little 'cocky' with his pace, wants to run at everything and everyone and it's not working. He runs it out of the goalsquare 90% of the time, cruising up the field bouncing like an NBA player and it's predictable. Needs to start looking for targets as well, his rebound is good when it isn't his only trick.
-Hoops. Why? Pretty miffed. Sub. 1 tackle, 1 handball. Yay. Memorable 200th, cheers for your service Ryan, the fans appreciate it even if the Club don't. Nice framed plaque you got though.
-Umpiring was a disgrace. I never complain about them and feel like we should be able to rise above a couple of bad calls and win on our terms, but the incompetence really was strangling the flow of the game and the boys' resolve tonight. Watching Judd drop an F Bomb on Friday Night TV said it all. There's gonna be a fair bit looked at in this game by The Giesch in the coming week but it's clear that deliberate out of bounds is the focus rule for this weekend (but there's no focus rule, pfffft). At least the goal umpires got it right.
-Goalkicking. 'Nuff said. What the f**k was going on? There's no wind and it's like there was a magnet drawing the ball to the behinds. If we'd kicked even half the easy goals we missed, the momentum would have shifted so quickly we'd have won by 80. Instead, we kept Norf in the game and gave them belief they could steal it from us. Furthermore, we ruined our own confidence to take the game on like we usually do. Reminded me of Sydney most of this season, scraping home against crap teams despite dominating them in scoring shots. When we're 11 points down and I say, "Well, we only need 12 shots to be in front," it's not a good output. Needs work, hoping it was just "one of those nights."
-Army's ankle. Looked shocking on the replay, I thought he'd snapped a shinbone (wouldn't that have been apt?). Hopefully he's okay, his last two games have been very valuable.
Dishonorable mentions: The time it took to work out that Simmo's kick hit the post, listening to media next week saying we're still no good, flogs out there parroting the old 'McLean's too slow, trade him' without checking the stats and watching properly, another 8 days until we see the boys demolish the Dees.
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