Practice Match #4 - Collingwood v North Ballarat at Vic Park

[think better]

Thanks MB again

Is Freeman AFL ready - with Seedsman taking Sinclair's Place it leaves room for another small. Sounds like he must be close to being given a go

[John Wren]

thanks for the reports. i wish i could watch more than i do.

it's nice to read the positive stuff our young guys are doing. i like maynard a lot and hope he makes it. i want all our afl listed to make a go of it.

[melliot]

I did the double header too.

Moore was the one that really impressed me. He had a 5 min patch in the 3rd where he had 5 or so possies including intercept marks and big driving runs and kicks. Completely controlled and dominated the half back line for that patch.

[MagpieBat]

Pardon my tardiness, but here is my player review. Didn't have a team sheet for North Ballarat on me, so I didn't pay as close attention to individual matchups as I normally would, so this will affect my reviews. Nevertheless, here are my thought, for what they are worth...

2. Sam Dwyer
Was leading our bests to half time. Was taken out of the game at the main break to act as the standby player for the seniors. Ben Reid�s description of �he had the ball on a string� was spot on. Took a great diving mark, from which he converted his goal. Kicking and decision making, particularly in setting up Forward 50 entries and shots on goal, was superb. I�d have him in next week to bolster our midfield depth.

15. Jarrod Witts
Performed very well as our #1 ruck for the majority of the game. Was rotated primarily with Cox, although Gault spent a bit of time on ball as well. Managed to push forward and got on the end of a running Moore�s inside 50 kick (more on him later!), from which he kicked a goal. Looks ready enough to come back into the seniors to help out Grundy.

17. Jonathon Marsh
Played a serviceable game on their 2nd and 3rd forwards. Starting to get his groove back, picking when to leave his man to come over/across for an intercept mark/spoil and when to stay tight. Thought his kicking had improved a little from his woeful standard of last year.

20. Ben Reid
First game back for a few weeks. Moved well enough and reportedly got through unscathed, which is the main thing. Took a few kick outs and delivered some of those 50-55m daggers of old out to the flanks. Will play VFL next week, but getting closer.

21. Nathan Freeman
Played okay. Obviously accumulated his fair share of the ball, particularly at the coal face, but wasn�t quite as dominant as I saw him down in Geelong. Good enough performance to debut him on, but would start as a sub. Really depends on how many we want to drop from yesterday.

27. Tony Armstrong
Decent enough game. Played in defence. Must admit, it was the best defensive performance I have seen from him. Stayed with his man more often, for one. Was nice and vocal, directing traffic, a suitable deputy to an equally noisy Darcy Moore. One thing I did notice about him though was that he did, on a couple of occasions, choose some higher risk targets by foot when exiting defensive 50/entering the corridor, which he would not have been caught dead doing last year as a backman. Not a super performance, but� hmm. Interesting.

30. Darcy Moore
Unquestionably Best on Ground for us. Was an absolute rock in defence. Didn�t just beat his direct opponent (Black?), but also picked and chose his moments to peel off, intercept mark or spoil. If he wasn�t responsible for the majority of our best quick-fire rebound counter-attacks through his intercept marking, then I wasn�t there! Once he had won a 1v1 contest and cleared, it was like he became an extra half back flanker running the ball out of defence/through the corridor. And those 2nd and 3rd defensive efforts at ground level, oh boy! Pretty vocal as well, marshalling his fellow backmen.

Really, it was as complete and exciting a performance from a 1st year Collingwood draftee as I have seen for some time. He will play seniors this year, and if yesterday was any guide, perhaps sooner than anticipated. We need someone to inspire us right now, and this kid could be it�

33. Patrick Karnezis
Wasn�t the most remarkable of games from Patty. Started deep forward and often had to contend with a 2v1 against him, with the Roosters determinedly generating a spare in defence (which we seemed content to let them have). Went onto the ball later in the game and was solid. Started the final term as a 7th man in defence, quite unbelievably. On balance, not a performance that screamed �pick me�, but I think I read somewhere that he might have played a bit under the weather, so could perhaps be excused.

35. Jordan De Goey
A good game without outright dominating. Some of his tackles were just absolutely brutal pieces of work, smashing his prey into the ground. I like the boy. Took a good contested mark late deep forward, which he converted into a goal. You�d have him in the mix for the Saints, but he wouldn�t be an automatic selection.


37. Brayden Maynard
An okay sort of game. Some real nice physical efforts, but also some poor lapses of judgement. One case is where he went third man up to effect a marking contest deep in defence, only for his man to stay down, wait for it to tumble over the back and kick the cheapest of goals (shades of Wingard 2013 EF). Ball use a bit better than against Geelong. He certainly can give the thing a ride, with an (unsuccessful) running shot on goal immediately coming to mind.

38. Matthew Goodyear
Quite liked his game, his second I�ve seen live and I have to say, I think we could have one here. Some of his breakaway clearance work, where he just roved the tap beautifully and exploded away was just fantastic to watch. Kicking still not the best, but a slight improvement from Game #1, on what I saw. Like the way he is tracking.

39. Michael Manteit
Showed some good signs. Quite competent with his use of the ball. Played half back and was defensively quite solid, staying accountable without compromising his rebound game. Tank still seems to need a bit of work, but you�d have to have been made of iron not to feel it out in the warm conditions yesterday. One to keep an eye on.

41. Brendan Abbott
Did not play.

44. Corey Gault
Decent enough game, without dominating. Only kicked the one goal, from a good piece of judgement, staying down as others flew to mark and convert. Was a bit more physical off the ball, doing a bit more bullocking and defensive work than I have usually seen him perform, as well as rotating on-ball as relief ruck, where he performed competently. On pure form, he probably doesn�t get picked, but given we were clearly exposed as a tall forward short against the Crows, he comes into contention.

46. Mason Cox
Not a bad sort of a game. Split his time between deep forward and 1st ruck, both of which he performed well enough in, for a 1st year Yank. Started slowly (literally; he looked like a big Willow tree trying to run there early in the piece as they rebounded from defence) but he built into things nicely. Kicked an innovative goal in the 2nd term, where he lost the initial marking contest, but lashed a boot to the thing while it was in mid-air to kick a 35m soccer goal. Another funny moment was where he intercept marked on our forward 50 with just one hand, played on without stopping, and then put it straight down the throat of a North defender. The rough with the smooth, I guess�

I�ll be interested to see how he backs up next week against Orren Stephenson, in which Mason could very well be lining up as our #1 VFL ruck, depending on how the selection committee plan to use Witts. While not a roaring success as an AFL recruit, Stephenson is still probably the premier ruckman in this competition, so it will be a baptism of fire for Mason if that�s how things pan out.

From our VFL boys, the usual suspects of Hellier, Moloney and Allan all gave us their usual good performances (Allan finishing our leading goal scorer with 3). I liked the game from David Mennen, seemed to pick up quite a bit of the ball without anyone really giving him any attention. Jake Williams turned in another pleasing effort on-ball/forward and Jeremy Taylor had an okay game in defence.

[watt price tully]

[jackcass]

Good report MB, can't disagree with too much of that although I thought Freeman probably edged Moore for BOG. Just thought Moore faded a bit in the last. Came to the bench early with what appeared to be some discomfort with his knee, nothing major, appeared to be a bit of cramping. Resumed after some treatment but didn't impact as strongly across the last quarter.

[perthmagpie]

Yep Jackass I would go put the votes of our AFL players like this:
5. Freeman (never stopped running till the final siren)
4. Moore
3. Witts
2. Goodyear
1. Dwyer/ Karnezis/ DeGoey

I liked Marsh's game. He is beginning to look more like an orthodox footballer now as opposed to a raw, project or speculative rookie. Kicking has improved significantly.

[Dave The Man]

[Dave The Man]

[jackcass]

[swoop42]

Thanks for the reports.

[Dave The Man]

[jackcass]

[Dave The Man]

[John Wren]