Round 1 - North Ballarat vs Collingwood at Eureka Stadium

[Little Wonder]

Fairly spot on review by mattys123 from where I was watching from- up against the change rooms out of the wind. In all honesty, it was freezing cold (7c) and raining more often than not. Typical April day for ballarat!
Darcy Moore is smooth, all class. At one point he attacked the loose ball, clean pick up and a blind turn with a slick handpass to clear the ball. He is the best fister we've had since Jason Cloke. But we need to temper this with the need for him still to get stronger and that he got caught a couple of time not being sure whether to attack or defend, this will come with experience.
DeGoey is class, in a very scrappy, close checking game he didn't get much room, and no where near the chop-out, blocks and shepherds you get at afl level, he was still able to clear the ball. Him and Witts work well together.
Freeman was good when the ground dried out in the 3rd Q, his run and delivery nice.
Cox needs to build up his strength, the roosters ruck pushed him around to easily, but he can play, hard to beat in the ruck, and is better than I thought he'd be in his first vfl game.
Can't agree about Armstrongs kicking today, for his experience he turned it over way to often- I suppose that means he was getting plenty of it though.
We really missed having a genuine quality key position forward today, it may make it hard for the vfl side to capitalise on good midfielder clearances during the season.
Not sure if they took Reid of to keep him for next week fitness. Balmy made a point of going to the defensive end of park each quarter, can only presume to watch Reid/ Moore. I reckon Reid is ready to go if fit.

[John Wren]

g'day little wonder. just realised it was you saying hi at the huddle.

[Little Wonder]

G'day JW, yep was me, shot through soon after the game to get some warmth, didn't envy any of the blokes having to stand out in the cold today. Cheers

[John Wren]

yeah, not much fun when the rain came in. created all sorts of issues.

[swoop42]

Wet and cold in Ballarat, surely not?

Disappointing to start the year with a loss.

Who knows if anyone done enough in a loss today to outpoint players involved in a big win at AFL level.

[John Wren]

nope. i would be surprised if anyone other than witts would be elevated. adams comes back in if fit.

[Pies4shaw]

What's the logic, JW? Adams comes in because he went two games in a row (Friday and today) with no clangers?

[John Wren]

yep. that's it.

he was named for friday before withdrawing so incumbency wins out.

[Dave The Man]

The Bloody Scumps sure gave the Roosters a lot of help

[Dave The Man]

My Thoughts on the Game:

It was Bloody Freezing at the Game. Feet got Nub

Moore was Very Good in the 1st Half. Very Clean with the Ball. Tired Late but still kept on Trying

Best game I have seen of Maynard. Love the more Contested Style of Game on a Wet Day. Tackled Hard and Used the Ball well

Marsh was very good but still makes silly mistakes that cost us Goals. Still got some way to go but you can see his Potential

Cox goal kicking is Good but was a Liablity upfoward as he looked totally lost. Which is expected on who little he Played

De Goey was great and I love him Powering thru Tacklers and finding space from that to deliver the Ball Forward

Reid and Witts where very solid and did there job’s

Still did a good job up Forward

Fasolo was good up forward and you tell how he Pressured he got why he was Dropped.

The VFL listed players outside of Still where very poor

[Jezza]

Thanks for the reports guys! It's thoroughly appreciated.

Is there anyone with a serious chance to make the senior side for next week's clash against Essendon?

[KenH]

The result was pretty much the way I thought it would go. I was talking to some of the Roosters officials and they were very confident that they had our measure with the side they had in and with the conditions going in the Roosters favour.
The ground in these windy and cold conditions will give the Roosters an advantage against any competition.
I thought that Witts and Moore played really well, good signs from De Goey, Freeman and Marsh, concerned about Reid going down hope that he will be fine!

[3.14159]

It was cold!
Coming down the Creswick Missus and I watched a huge grey rain front bearing down on the ground so I gladly accepted her offer of some shopping (as I said, it was cold) and hot food at Goatlands till the weather improved.
Got there at 1/2 time, the rain had stopped (well mostly) and hid in the roosters end of the stand.
We kicked the first couple after some got possession chains and a fast break or 2 and drew level but after that it was all one way traffic after that!
(Mason Cox received the ball at the top of the goal square and fumbled a gimmie twice before he was finally brought ground and put out of his misery!
From memory that was about the last easy chance in front of the goals)!
At the huddle Tarqs wanted his mids to back themselves and hang-on to the ball, shrug tackles and kick it forward. We were effing around with the ball and too often caught before we could move it on.
We were losing all the key indicators (contested poss, 50 entries, poss's etc).
The last 1/4 the wind had picked up making kicking against it very difficult.
The few times we did manage to kick it into the 50 the Roosters rucks would drop back and mark.
Armstrong got a bad rap but I thought he did a good job at full back in very trying (brass monkey) conditions.

...did I mention it was cold?

[KenH]

[mattys123]

My take on the game;

http://www.nogreyarea.com.au/2015/04/20/9517/magpies-lose-vfl-season-opener