Autopsy 2023 Scratch Match v Essendon @ Austworld Centre Oval (Thurs, 23 Feb, 4:00pm AEST)

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I went out for dinner so missed it. Who impressed?


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Thought long was pretty good, the usual witts, Rowell, Anderson and swallow were ok. Ainsworth didn't get on the end of much but his pressure was elite. Humphrey was the highlight I thought, looked like he's gonna fit in nicely.
Chol and Casboult a touch disappointing didn't have the sticky hands today. Berry didn't impress too much. Missed Collins down back and obviously touk through the middle.
 

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Hard to get much out of that, but it was interesting to see what the midfield mix would be if Touk doesn't play. I would've liked to have seen Flanders more in the midfield rather than putting Swallow in there. We know Dave can play there. Put Flanders in for more minutes!

Other than that, thought Long was good. Also liked Constable down back. He's not an elite kick I don't think, he's just a smart kick and picks out good options that aren't 50m bombs up the line.
 
As expected, broadcast was absolute crap, WTF. Did cameraman fall asleep regularly?

As expected, a crappy practice.

Big positive - it seems no injuries.

I did like pressure early, some good moments from Rowell, Anderson, Long, Humphrey, Hollands. It looks like Uwland can play. Johnston looked a step or two behind.

A bit surprised that Touk had his thigh bandaged.

GWS next, please.
 
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Overall, it's just practice.

Liked Constable off HB, looked pretty solid.
Long was good as well.
Humphrey put together some decent ball.
Flanders looked more dangerous than he has done previously.
Can tell when the likes of Touk and Collins aren't there.
Tsitas in the 2's basically had his own pill.

GWS next weekend will be another small step up in intensity. King also due to play a part of that game as well.
 
Anyone know why Essendon pulled the pin and wanted to go shorter quarters? Too hot, maybe? Club Twitter says that we played a further ten minutes against themselves. Not exactly ideal.
There is no way it was too hot at the ground. The wind (not breeze) was cool and favored Essington in the first stanza. It didn't slow down and I went home after the third stanza, which is when the next level played and it was ugly
 
There is no way it was too hot at the ground. The wind (not breeze) was cool and favored Essington in the first stanza. It didn't slow down and I went home after the third stanza, which is when the next level played and it was ugly

The wind was swirly and would consistently change from length ways to across ways of the field but players from both teams struggled to adapt to it surprisingly
 

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Just got home. Will give my thoughts later, a good crowd but yeah seemed to be more Bumbers than Suns supporters there or at least they were louder which was disappointing. Stayed for 5 “quarters “ before calling it an evening. Some real positives but also some negatives. Beautiful evening but the wind stuffed it up a bit - was bloody cold for February!
 
Few comments


Forwards - pretty inconspicuous really. Could see how much of a focus the forward 50 pressure was.
Jeffrey: Look dangerous every time he's near it, just doesn't get near it for kinda long periods
Berry: manic forward pressure, will fit in

Mids
Rowell: Involved quite a bit, looked relatively agile around the contest
Davies: Really good hands, looks big and quick. Looked too good for the B team
Flanders: nice see him kicking goals. was solid.
Humphrey: like the look of him, got involved, laid quite a few tackles - seemed to play mid more than forward, sometimes needs to get an earlier handball away
Hollands: Did alright but didn't really stand out like I thought he might
Oea: definitely bulked up - wouldn't be surprised to see him play a few games this year
Atkins: Pretty sure he was 0/6 kicks hitting a target. Absolute spud.
Moyle - did alright, long limbed, took a few nice marks


Backline - pretty ramshackle set up Ballard, Graham, Day, Macpherson, Constable, Long
Long:solid, didn't really make a mistake
Constable: got involved a bit running off halfback flank, didn't look out of place

Tall defenders: Ballard, Graham, Day looked a bit shaky to be honest (especially Day)
Uwland - solid, massive boot on him. Needs to work on fitness and agility I think - probably limited with his back pain last year
Johnston - very smooth
 
McLaughlin wore the #17 btw
So he wore Jed Anderson’s number. And Chol wore number 31 (Mac Andrew). Someone was in Lachie Weller’s number 14 as well. Maybe a few others may have swapped numbers.

Not sure if any of that was by choice, or just because. But annoying to track new players in particular when they seem to be wearing different numbers…
 
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So he wore Jed Anderson’s number. And Chol wore number 31 (Max Andrew). Someone was in Lachie Weller’s number 14 as well. Maybe a few others may have swapped numbers.

Not sure if any of that was by choice, or just because. But annoying to track new players in particular when they seem to be wearing different numbers…
They already had photo day, why would Bmac not have a guernsey number already? Bit weird
 
I was pretty happy with what I saw in the first two periods while we were essentially playing our strongest possible lineup with the players that had been named but I do think we should have scored more in those periods. I'll just put that down to cobwebs and give our boys the benefit of the doubt. Dew started tinkering with the positions in the third period (Witts coming off and Moyle spending plenty of time in the ruck, Davies being moved on ball while Swallow rested forward more, Day being added to the backline, Berry thrown on the wing, Lukosius playing full forward etc.) so I wasn't surprised to see us fall away in the third as the coaches were clearly trying different options to see how it would go. By the time the fifth period rolled around we were essentially rolling out our VFL team and the ressies showed some fight which was nice to see.

A few observations - Rowell and Anderson seemed below their normal level, Lukosius still needs to work on his goalkicking accuracy, I was most impressed by Joel Jeffrey and I thought Ben Long played really well too, Sam Flanders was awesome at the start but seemed to fall away after the second period, Chol seemed to continue what he did last year but hitting the scoreboard with not a lot of possessions, Casboult seemed to struggle to get his hands on it but continued to do the 1%ers like chasing and tackling when others would have given up on the play, Ballard was solid but still needs help (aka Collins), still have question marks over Caleb Graham, I think we missed Rosas out there today. There's more but I'll leave it at that for now.

Bring in King and Collins next week for the GWS game and I think we'll all start to see just how good this team can be and that's without Touk!
 
I think the return of Powell and Weller is when we'll see what we can really be capable of. Those two add a dynamic that others don't and showed when they went down last year.
Add Collins, King, rosas, lemmens next week. Then miller and Ellis the next, Powell and Weller soon after and we will look a whole lot different.
 
Genuinely couldn’t care less about the score. Playing well in pre-season in the past hasn’t been an indication of any future success, so losing should not foreshadow inevitable doom either.

Would like to see our forward 50 entries improve. Reckon 4 talls is not the way based off this game, but we’ll see against GWS if things improve. Maybe a Touk, and later Weller/Powell would sharpen up those entries, but those additions are not going to play together for a while.

We also brought our slow starts into the practice match, which we need to be stamped out come round one.

Final point. If our mids get beaten (like they did in the 3rd), our defence looks all kinds of terrible—especially without Collins.
 

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Autopsy 2023 Scratch Match v Essendon @ Austworld Centre Oval (Thurs, 23 Feb, 4:00pm AEST)

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