Game Day Match Sim - Roos v Tigers - Arden St - 10am

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When fit he has always been pretty solid for us. Is he a long term piece… very much up in the air, can he be a solid bodied reasonable option while building. I think yes, needs to stay uninjured and play the support role well. When in good nick he’s usually been a pretty reliable stopper.
Yeah I will continue to insist that there is a good to very good defender there. Just needs consistency.
 

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AFL pre-season games: live news, analysis from North Melbourne v Richmond​

Two goals in the first quarter of his Kangaroos career had the long-suffering North fans giddy with excitement as they watched No.3 draft pick Harry Sheezel make an impact.

Scott GullanScott Gullan
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less than 2 min read
February 24, 2023 - 11:52AM
News Corp Australia Sports Newsroom
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Hello Harry.
You couldn’t wipe the smile off the faces of North Melbourne fans
They were rightly losing their minds in the first quarter when No.3 draft pick Harry Sheezel made an immediate impact.
The prized selection kicked the opening goal of the game after winning a free-kick for holding the ball.
Harry Sheezel has North Melbourne fans excited. Picture: Daniel Pockett/AFL Photos

Harry Sheezel has North Melbourne fans excited. Picture: Daniel Pockett/AFL Photos
But that was only the entree with Sheezel, who played half-forward, pushing up the ground to kick-start another scoring chain with a classy handball in traffic.
Then late in the first term he combined with Jaidyn Stephenson, who started on the bench, for another impressive goal.
Two goals in the first quarter of his Kangaroos career had the long-suffering fans who packed into Arden St giddy with excitement.

FORWARD TRENT
As expected the Tigers started with former captain Trent Cotchin at half-forward alongside Dustin Martin.

After a quiet opening term, Cotchin found his rhythm getting to the front of the pack like a true goalsneak early in the second quarter and snapping truly.
He then set up new recruit Tim Taranto with a quick handball for his first goal in Tigers colours - a freaky banana-kick from the boundary line.
With Cotchin anchored forward - he was matched against former North skipper Jack Ziebell for a period - the Tigers midfield was based around recruits, Taranto and Jacob Hopper, with a fit-looking Dion Prestia seeing plenty of it.
Trent Cotchin played forward on Friday morning. Picture: Daniel Pockett/AFL Photos/Getty Images

Trent Cotchin played forward on Friday morning. Picture: Daniel Pockett/AFL Photos/Getty Images
Star recruit Tim Taranto in action. Picture: Daniel Pockett/AFL Photos/Getty Images

Star recruit Tim Taranto in action. Picture: Daniel Pockett/AFL Photos/Getty Images
LIKELY TYPES
With Tom Lynch missing, youngster Samson Ryan played in the key forward post and showed some promising signs with two first-half goals.
Ryan was the push-up tall option with Jack Riewoldt coming out of the goal square.
North’s promising tall forward Charlie Comben also moved well kicking a goal in the first quarter and looks a viable option to partner Nick Larkey.
BULL IN GUTS
A key move by Alistair Clarkson was to introduce forward Cam Zurhaar into the midfield to play the Jake Stringer-type extractor role.
With his bigger body, Zurhaar had an impact particularly at centre bounces where the Roos held their own thanks to the class of Luke Davies-Uniacke and some nice touches from highly rated Will Phillips.
“Giddy”. ,,,, that would be an understatement.
 
HUGE difference in our ball movement, the ball is always on the move.
This is the biggest take on the game. Still need to clean up some options, like right footers running past for a handball so they're going to be on their left, and they dont have a left. And a couple of times we over used the handball but otherwise it was really good. Sheezal and Curtis are going to love quick ball movement into Larkey and Chom. Bring the ball to ground and one of these two will clean up more often than not.

My thought before the game was, will the game answer a few questions, and smash my head with a full beer tin if it didn't.

Is their a spot for our ex-captain? No. Short and simple, you're done mate. You'll be cheered loudly every time you come back to the club but for now your work is done.

Will Curtis be a super star? Not this year, but he's going to provide a lot of highlights.

Is Goldy our best ruck? Didn't even have to play to show us he is.

Has Logue and Clarko fixed our defence? They've gone a long way to making a big big difference. But I think it's going to be a while before we have a settled back 6 that will make us a top 4 contender.

Will we show any semblance of a decent game plan? Hell yeah. Quick ball movement and an inside 50 kick to space or long to talls. First instinct from a free or mark is look for a handball. It worked really well most of the time but a few times we made the wrong decision. That'll come with more game time. From the TV (not always the best way to judge) it looks like we had a really high press. Good to lock the ball inside 50 but resulted in a couple of quick turnover goals. Just need to make sure we have the right general back there protecting the space. McDonald and JZ failed, maybe Corr can play that role.

Will Sheezal be better than JHFF? Only joking, wasn't really a question. We've know all along.

Is it ok for grown men to wear signed footy jumpers? Hell no, you looked like a right dick when the camera pans to you.
 
W

The wind perhaps? That said a young man wearing #3 didn’t seem to have any problem with his disposal.

Just one of those days. Just came off his boot wrong. It happens. It’s probably more that he doesn’t realise how much time he has, that will come. He’s only just started to find so much of the footy, probably struggled with the pace of league footy for his first couple of years, so he can rush his kicks.

Similar thing happened with Simpkin once he started getting a lot of the footy.
 
Will? NFI

We still have players to come back into the side who would normally be in our best 22 so there movement is probably going to go in the other direction. I think Corr might get the chocolates over Bonar but hard to say. Bonar should play ahead of Ziebell but we know that isn't going to happen.

Perez didn't play too flash, he might go out for a Hall or Young perhaps, hard to tell.
Backline still a bit of a puzzle to strike the right balance, there are options and could depend on match ups each week. I thought Young was our best of the vfl bit. Goater simply has to play but I can see him on a wing over Shiels. I think Bonar looked good and don’t see him as an either/or with Corr I think there’s room for them both being able to play tall or small. At this stage I prefer young over both ziebell and Perez.
 
Y
Just one of those days. Just came off his boot wrong. It happens. It’s probably more that he doesn’t realise how much time he has, that will come. He’s only just started to find so much of the footy, probably struggled with the pace of league footy for his first couple of years, so he can rush his kicks.

Similar thing happened with Simpkin once he started getting a lot of the footy.
Yeah I got no prob with LDU’s disposal. Love the guy just super impressed with how composed Sheezel is (and just seems to be a super level headed kid too).
 

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I liked the bull in his new role, but probably needs to get quicker on hands and be more mindful of the heat in the engine room.
 
Why doesn’t anyone lead toward the ball carrier? Especially the forwards. We need to introduce more short kicks to keep the opposition honest. It was all run handball and long kicks.
Because modern defensive zones are hard to unsettle.
 
By far the most pleasing part of today was our system. Both behind the ball and in transition. The press, the extra number around the ball, the slingshot, the whirlpool. It’ll go a long way in making us competitive this year.

Other mentions:
  • LDU is our best player
  • Phillips disposal is sharp, can tell he has gone to basics and is just executing to perfection, he and Powell (a little quieter then last week) will help us climb up the ladder
  • Goater provides a real point of difference, he had 4 or 5 moments that completely broke the game open, he and Perez are going to give our back 6 a totally new look
  • Turner is best 22 and will be until we have a better pressure forward
  • Logue and McKay is very exciting and you could really see their dominance through the periods that we were in control of stoppage
  • Comben could have kicked 5, he and Larkey together is the way forward
  • Xerri and CCJ were both solid, gives me faith post Todd
  • Curtis just keeps impressing me
  • Jaidyn is fantastic in the slingshot transition
  • Fringe players like Bonar look a lot fitter, in fact we look fitter across the board
  • Shiels used in a support role, good to have a senior player that does the basics well
 
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It was so good going down today, the aura around there is very different to when I went last pre season.

All I can say is that I think it was an extremely ****ing good effort by our boys, not that worried about turnovers in match sim because we will learn and not make that mistake again.

The fact that we didn’t let it blow out indicated that we are 2 steps in the right direction.

We have a talented bunch.
 

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Game Day Match Sim - Roos v Tigers - Arden St - 10am

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