FROM TOT70 at PRE
I usually go for a long walk on Saturday mornings so today I decided to fire up the Nick Cave playlist on my Ipod and wander along through a couple of suburbs for my constitutional, down past the Veneto Club to Bulleen Park so I could watch some of the Coburg practice match.
I arrived during the quarter time break and made myself comfortable on the fence. I have no idea what the score was at that stage and the solar-powered scoreboard remained incommunicado throughout the game, giving nothing away.
By my rough reckoning, each team kicked 9 goals and chump change in the those three quarters so whoever was leading at that first break probably won, not that either team was particularly excited at the end of the game. They just shook hands, chatted and wanderered off the field like good little professional and wannabe professional sportsmen, no doubt turning their thoughts to ice-baths and vegetarian pizzas.
Firstly who didn't play. There was no Edwards, Derickx, Hislop, Griffiths, O'Reilly or Hicks. They obviously joined Newman, Jack and Moore on the sidelines.
That left us with Taylor, Post, Westhoff and MacDonald who all played up forward, Gourdis who played down back, Browne, who rucked and played full-forward and Webberley, Nason, Jakobi, Contin and Keddell (if he was no 5) who were all on the ball.
The on-ballers. Nason and Webberley played on the wings and Jakobi, Contin and Keddell were rotated through the middle. Isn't that a fitting metaphor for the Tigers at the moment? Listed players on the wings and rookies and VFL boys in the guts. Nason and Webberley were both good on the overlap and generally presented as running options. Each turned the ball over occasionally but both presented well. Contin and Keddell both won plenty of hard ball in the middle. Jakobi looked like he was tagging Meli,who kicked a couple of nice goals but Jakobi gave plenty of drive. All five had good games. All five were outstanding with their tackling.
Browne did well in the ruck, positioned himself well at centre bounces and throw-ins and presented for several marking contests. Unfortunately, he pretty much dropped every mark he attempted, even the easy ones and missed at least one easy goal. When he finally held a mark in the last quarter he deserved a bronx cheer but the crowd of a couple hundred trainers, coaches, team-mates, girl-friends, hangers-on, sausage-sizzlers and me were much too polite for that. He is not quite right yet but at least he is getting to the right places.
Post was very vocal, led well and took some very good marks. He had a very good game, when he was on the field, playing exclusively as the Full-forward. Westhoff did a couple of nice things across half-forward and Taylor didn't seem to spend much time on the field at all, maybe five minutes on and 15 off. I'd say he was mainly rested.
MacDonald is smart across half-forward. He runs hard, kicks well, even under pressure and is lively. He projects as someone who can hold down a lead-up spot in a couple of seasons. Reasonably impressed with what I saw.
Gourdis was a rock in defence. He marked very well and spoiled effectively when in a pressure situation. The only time I saw him outmarked was in the third quarter when a Bendigo forward flew between Gourdis and another Coburg defender. Gourdis pulled out of the spoil because he thought his team-mate had it covered, which of course, he didn't.
I watched his disposal carefully and he hit every target-it was not his fault that at least three of his passes were straight to players who dropped easy marks but they will probably go down in the book as ineffective kicks.
He also provided some nice lols deep in the last quarter with a 50m run past a collection of slow-moving opponents, bouncing the ball and running closer and closer to the boundary until he ran out of space and was pinged for running too far. His team-mates in the "stand" thought it was hilarious. Unfortunately, he was exhausted after that, came off the field and Bendigo kicked a couple of goals to finish the game in his absence, and most likely, win. Nonetheless, he is impressively quick.
FROM Spartacus at PRE
Was also at the game, very good summary T70, I thought we were all over Bendigo just lacked finishing class, if Posty can develop his composure in the air and start holding hs marks he can become a very important forward should have finished with 5 or 6 today
agree Goo was all over Little, had the state full forward pulling his hair out all day conceded a couple of goals to him late in the last quarter from other players turnovers, his contested and intersept marking and run out of the backline was very good
Made it a point to speak briefly to both boys after the game, as there has been questions about both their pre seasons so far,
Jay has had a couple of niggling injuries that have set him back a month but is fine now
Dave is still suffering from a stomach virus he got at the end of season trip to Phuket and has struggled a bit over the pre season said he's still not 100% but getting there
Expect big improvement from both boys over the next month
Aslo agree Nas and Webs worked hard into attack and more importantly defence, very good signs
What ever the result was Coburg should have won by 5 goals, alas the story of last season
I usually go for a long walk on Saturday mornings so today I decided to fire up the Nick Cave playlist on my Ipod and wander along through a couple of suburbs for my constitutional, down past the Veneto Club to Bulleen Park so I could watch some of the Coburg practice match.
I arrived during the quarter time break and made myself comfortable on the fence. I have no idea what the score was at that stage and the solar-powered scoreboard remained incommunicado throughout the game, giving nothing away.
By my rough reckoning, each team kicked 9 goals and chump change in the those three quarters so whoever was leading at that first break probably won, not that either team was particularly excited at the end of the game. They just shook hands, chatted and wanderered off the field like good little professional and wannabe professional sportsmen, no doubt turning their thoughts to ice-baths and vegetarian pizzas.
Firstly who didn't play. There was no Edwards, Derickx, Hislop, Griffiths, O'Reilly or Hicks. They obviously joined Newman, Jack and Moore on the sidelines.
That left us with Taylor, Post, Westhoff and MacDonald who all played up forward, Gourdis who played down back, Browne, who rucked and played full-forward and Webberley, Nason, Jakobi, Contin and Keddell (if he was no 5) who were all on the ball.
The on-ballers. Nason and Webberley played on the wings and Jakobi, Contin and Keddell were rotated through the middle. Isn't that a fitting metaphor for the Tigers at the moment? Listed players on the wings and rookies and VFL boys in the guts. Nason and Webberley were both good on the overlap and generally presented as running options. Each turned the ball over occasionally but both presented well. Contin and Keddell both won plenty of hard ball in the middle. Jakobi looked like he was tagging Meli,who kicked a couple of nice goals but Jakobi gave plenty of drive. All five had good games. All five were outstanding with their tackling.
Browne did well in the ruck, positioned himself well at centre bounces and throw-ins and presented for several marking contests. Unfortunately, he pretty much dropped every mark he attempted, even the easy ones and missed at least one easy goal. When he finally held a mark in the last quarter he deserved a bronx cheer but the crowd of a couple hundred trainers, coaches, team-mates, girl-friends, hangers-on, sausage-sizzlers and me were much too polite for that. He is not quite right yet but at least he is getting to the right places.
Post was very vocal, led well and took some very good marks. He had a very good game, when he was on the field, playing exclusively as the Full-forward. Westhoff did a couple of nice things across half-forward and Taylor didn't seem to spend much time on the field at all, maybe five minutes on and 15 off. I'd say he was mainly rested.
MacDonald is smart across half-forward. He runs hard, kicks well, even under pressure and is lively. He projects as someone who can hold down a lead-up spot in a couple of seasons. Reasonably impressed with what I saw.
Gourdis was a rock in defence. He marked very well and spoiled effectively when in a pressure situation. The only time I saw him outmarked was in the third quarter when a Bendigo forward flew between Gourdis and another Coburg defender. Gourdis pulled out of the spoil because he thought his team-mate had it covered, which of course, he didn't.
I watched his disposal carefully and he hit every target-it was not his fault that at least three of his passes were straight to players who dropped easy marks but they will probably go down in the book as ineffective kicks.
He also provided some nice lols deep in the last quarter with a 50m run past a collection of slow-moving opponents, bouncing the ball and running closer and closer to the boundary until he ran out of space and was pinged for running too far. His team-mates in the "stand" thought it was hilarious. Unfortunately, he was exhausted after that, came off the field and Bendigo kicked a couple of goals to finish the game in his absence, and most likely, win. Nonetheless, he is impressively quick.
FROM Spartacus at PRE
Was also at the game, very good summary T70, I thought we were all over Bendigo just lacked finishing class, if Posty can develop his composure in the air and start holding hs marks he can become a very important forward should have finished with 5 or 6 today
agree Goo was all over Little, had the state full forward pulling his hair out all day conceded a couple of goals to him late in the last quarter from other players turnovers, his contested and intersept marking and run out of the backline was very good
Made it a point to speak briefly to both boys after the game, as there has been questions about both their pre seasons so far,
Jay has had a couple of niggling injuries that have set him back a month but is fine now
Dave is still suffering from a stomach virus he got at the end of season trip to Phuket and has struggled a bit over the pre season said he's still not 100% but getting there
Expect big improvement from both boys over the next month
Aslo agree Nas and Webs worked hard into attack and more importantly defence, very good signs
What ever the result was Coburg should have won by 5 goals, alas the story of last season
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