- Sep 15, 2005
- 13,493
- 22,273
- AFL Club
- Geelong
Tonight's win was the stabiliser that Geelong's Bi-Polar 2024 season so desperately needed.
With perrenial All-Australian Tom Stewart plainly struggling under recent, relentless pressure, the Match Committee finally, belatedly pulled the trigger and moved him into the middle of the ground, an area in which we have struggled mightily in recent weeks.
Stewart was slow to adapt to the new discipline, but to his credit he stuck to his task and gradually worked his way into the game.
Our other main onfield leader given the absence of Tom Hawkins is of course the captain Patrick Dangerfield, and he was superb. It's funny, at his peak I marked him super-hard; my expectations of him were sky-high.
Now that he has entered his footballing autumn years I value his contributions more than ever before.
Ollie Dempsey's verve has been a real gift in a trying year; he was excellent again tonight, full of ideas. The advantage of being super-fit is that you can actually compete at an intense level and still think when you need to.
The defensive stoppage breakdown that saw us unable to contest the throw-in and then predictably concede a piss-easy goal was a lowlight of this post Selwood-era team.
Sam De Koning looked lost and outmanned at times in the ruck, but, much like last week he actually seemed to be getting the hang of things as the game wore on. Made some blues but also chipped in here and there.
It's been a tough year for Jack Henry.
He's seemingly lowered his colours every other week, if not every week.
He battled on gamely tonight though. He actually always does, it's never a question of application.
Fought it out really strongly tonight though, and gradually asserted himself.
Lawson Humphries was fine on debut, moves well - he'll get fitter and move even better.
Love the dual-sided aspect to his game.
Zac Guthrie's year has been pretty epic. I honestly think the quality of the footy he's produced this season is the equal of anything his brother has produced. Really strong again this evening.
Shannon Neale kind of faded as the night wore on, but he was prominent early; as usual it was a bit of a mixed bag; dropped some marks, but did some good things too (and clunked a contested grab in the F50 to boot).
He needs to make it his priority to never get out-marked in a F50 aerial contest. Missed a simple set-shot tonight but generally the mechanics of his kicking looks really good. Happy with that effort.
I'm a bit of a Knevitt advocate; I don't think he's ever played a disappointing senior game among his dozen to date. Gotta start getting more games into him, surely.
With perrenial All-Australian Tom Stewart plainly struggling under recent, relentless pressure, the Match Committee finally, belatedly pulled the trigger and moved him into the middle of the ground, an area in which we have struggled mightily in recent weeks.
Stewart was slow to adapt to the new discipline, but to his credit he stuck to his task and gradually worked his way into the game.
Our other main onfield leader given the absence of Tom Hawkins is of course the captain Patrick Dangerfield, and he was superb. It's funny, at his peak I marked him super-hard; my expectations of him were sky-high.
Now that he has entered his footballing autumn years I value his contributions more than ever before.
Ollie Dempsey's verve has been a real gift in a trying year; he was excellent again tonight, full of ideas. The advantage of being super-fit is that you can actually compete at an intense level and still think when you need to.
The defensive stoppage breakdown that saw us unable to contest the throw-in and then predictably concede a piss-easy goal was a lowlight of this post Selwood-era team.
Sam De Koning looked lost and outmanned at times in the ruck, but, much like last week he actually seemed to be getting the hang of things as the game wore on. Made some blues but also chipped in here and there.
It's been a tough year for Jack Henry.
He's seemingly lowered his colours every other week, if not every week.
He battled on gamely tonight though. He actually always does, it's never a question of application.
Fought it out really strongly tonight though, and gradually asserted himself.
Lawson Humphries was fine on debut, moves well - he'll get fitter and move even better.
Love the dual-sided aspect to his game.
Zac Guthrie's year has been pretty epic. I honestly think the quality of the footy he's produced this season is the equal of anything his brother has produced. Really strong again this evening.
Shannon Neale kind of faded as the night wore on, but he was prominent early; as usual it was a bit of a mixed bag; dropped some marks, but did some good things too (and clunked a contested grab in the F50 to boot).
He needs to make it his priority to never get out-marked in a F50 aerial contest. Missed a simple set-shot tonight but generally the mechanics of his kicking looks really good. Happy with that effort.
I'm a bit of a Knevitt advocate; I don't think he's ever played a disappointing senior game among his dozen to date. Gotta start getting more games into him, surely.
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