VFL Rd 14 Sandringham Vs Nth Ballarat Sat 2nd July- reports

[Teflon]

mini has started in third qtr so appears raph or bakes will be ledgers replacement

Nth must be shyttin themselves...

[borderbarry]

McQualter playing for Sandy. Why keep two players back? Bakes or Raph injured?

[vergs]

Pretty average day for Sandy with not many positives to speak of. As per usual it was quite windy at the Northern Oval and North Ballarat used their home ground knowledge to play the conditions far more effectively. Sandringham's use of the ball was shocking therefore it was difficult to get a gauge on the talls who played forward. I didn't think there were any dominant performances from the Saints listed players but here are a couple of my observations:

- Crocker will be a pretty handy. Was played mostly through the midfield and although he wasn't a prolific ball winner he did a few things that impressed me. Only built slightly but has a very penetrating left foot and seems to get himself in the right areas. His ability to get front and centre at contests was praised by the coaching staff at three quarter time.

- Geary's form was encouraging given his comeback from injury. Ran hard all day and found a bit of the ball.

- Winmar was ok. Provided some run and carry out of defence but also missed a few targets and got caught out sagging off his direct opponent at times.

- Simpkin battled hard and has a great knack of getting the spoil in. Like most he did struggle at times with his disposal in the windy conditions but overall I'm a fan.

- Archer/Walsh in the ruck didn't really work. It's hard to see either of them making any kind of impact as a back up to McEvoy in the AFL when they struggle in the VFL. Walsh was thrown around from end to end quite a bit and I'm not sure whether that is a positive or negative in regards to his development. Looks most comfortable down back but did compete well up forward with limited opportunities and had a couple of shots at goal. His kicking seems quite good and he read the play relatively well apart from a couple of lapses in awareness. His effort to constantly provide a contest was applauded at three quarter time.

- Cahill spent most of his time deep in the forward line while Johnson had the license to push a little further up the ground. Neither had a real impact but the delivery was poor and the conditions were tough for marking forwards. Siposs did a couple of nice things but didn't get enough of it for my liking. He seemed to be a bit frustrated on a few occasions.

- Lyon, Berbakov, Harvey, King, Kingsley (I think) and Hutchison were present. Berbakov paid particular attention to Walsh and Winmar during the breaks.

If anyone has any questions then feel free to fire away and I will do the best I can to provide a decent answer.

[Dr Spaceman]

Pretty average day for Sandy with not many positives to speak of. As per usual it was quite windy at the Northern Oval and North Ballarat used their home ground knowledge to play the conditions far more effectively. Sandringham's use of the ball was shocking therefore it was difficult to get a gauge on the talls who played forward. I didn't think there were any dominant performances from the Saints listed players but here are a couple of my observations: 

- Crocker will be a pretty handy. Was played mostly through the midfield and although he wasn't a prolific ball winner he did a few things that impressed me. Only built slightly but has a very penetrating left foot and seems to get himself in the right areas. His ability to get front and centre at contests was praised by the coaching staff at three quarter time.

- Geary's form was encouraging given his comeback from injury. Ran hard all day and found a bit of the ball. 

- Winmar was ok. Provided some run and carry out of defence but also missed a few targets and got caught out sagging off his direct opponent at times. 

- Simpkin battled hard and has a great knack of getting the spoil in. Like most he did struggle at times with his disposal in the windy conditions but overall I'm a fan. 

- Archer/Walsh in the ruck didn't really work. It's hard to see either of them making any kind of impact as a back up to McEvoy in the AFL when they struggle in the VFL. Walsh was thrown around from end to end quite a bit and I'm not sure whether that is a positive or negative in regards to his development. Looks most comfortable down back but did compete well up forward with limited opportunities and had a couple of shots at goal. His kicking seems quite good and he read the play relatively well apart from a couple of lapses in awareness. His effort to constantly provide a contest was applauded at three quarter time.

- Cahill spent most of his time deep in the forward line while Johnson had the license to push a little further up the ground. Neither had a real impact but the delivery was poor and the conditions were tough for marking forwards. Siposs did a couple of nice things but didn't get enough of it for my liking. He seemed to be a bit frustrated on a few occasions. 

- Lyon, Berbakov, Harvey, King, Kingsley (I think) and Hutchison were present. Berbakov paid particular attention to Walsh and Winmar during the breaks. 

If anyone has any questions then feel free to fire away and I will do the best I can to provide a decent answer.

Thanks a lot for the comprehensive assessment vergs

[Mr Magic]

Siposs/Smith?

'Heyne in the reserves?

[saintbrat]

well done vergs

Curren did ok.
Mini Kept going all day.

margliaini and magner are tough and Gallagher did ok for second game back
Irving seemed out of sorts.

Sandy kicked the ball too high in the strong winds -Roosters kept the ball down when kicking into the wind and did well in both those quarters,

[bobmurray]

Those reports make it sound like Sandy is full of duds....

Dark days ahead for the Saints

[Con Gorozidis]

Thanks vergs. Appreciated.

[vergs]

Siposs/Smith?

'Heyne in the reserves?

Didn't get to see the Ressies. Siposs kicked a great goal and had a few quality disposals but didn't really feature consistently. Much like most of his time in the AFL I guess. Seems like he is the type of player who can be effective when he has some space but probably isn't big enough yet to prosper in the contested marking situations. I would have liked to have seen him run a bit harder on a few occasions today but as mentioned earlier the delivery was consistently poor so was pretty hard to get a good gauge on the forwards. Smith managed to break the lines a few times but he just seemed to blaze away a lot therefore most of his disposals were ineffective. Reminded me of a Jason Gram kind of game. I don't think either put forward a strong case for a senior recall on today's form but to be honest I don't think we had many winners overall.

[Iceman234]

Thanks vergs, just got home from my first VFL game this year and was going to give some comments but not really needed now.

Admittedly I did get stuck in the bar for quite a bit of the second half after running into some old Ballarat mates but...

Anyone here thinking Archer and Walsh could be brought in to sufficiently support Big Ben in the ruck are absolutely kidding themselves. Kosi and even Blake are still far more qualified in this respect, particularly while we are still mathematically capable of hitting September. But even then, if we can't make it, these blokes aren't the future of our ruck stocks.

With my faith having no confidence whatsoever in Gardi getting back at all, let alone making an impact, I believe we have huge issues with where our ruck situation is. If Ben goes down, we are really stuffed, I can see now why we don't have a genuine 2nd ruck option selected.

Tommy Walsh - as if it's not confusing enough being an Irishman, I reckon today he played 50% in the back half, 50% in the forward half and 50% in the ruck.

Geary looks chunkier through the waist and hips from what I remember of him in 2010.

No. 60? (threw away the record) Looks to have some good foot skills and makes space well.

Siposs is much bigger than I thought, has a fair build for a young kid and as vergs said, kicked a lovely goal across wind from 55’ish... Not sure if it’s that he doesn’t run hard enough, I watched him a couple of times and he actually double backs to dead space to drag a defender away. Having said that, he did wave furiously a few times when he was clear around 50-55 and just didn’t get the delivery.

[Iceman234]

Also I noticed Rossy was spending a lot of time getting into Nick Winmar's head at the breaks.

[MCG-Unit]

Thanks for that report, Vergs - did you see much of Curren (43). I'm interested in his progress

[saintbrat]

No. 60? (threw away the record) Looks to have some good foot skills and makes space well.
.

60 = Crocker

Thanks for the record..

[Iceman234]

No. 60? (threw away the record) Looks to have some good foot skills and makes space well.
.

60 = Crocker

Thanks for the record..

Thanks, yes Crocker looks a likely type.

No probs on the record but that wasn't the one I threw away...

[vergs]

Thanks for that report, Vergs - did you see much of Curren (43). I'm interested in his progress

Curren was ok but he did spend a fair bit of time on the bench today. He has quite a solid build for someone of his age and height and he seems to use it quite well in close. He laid a couple of good tackles and attacked the ball aggressively but didn't find a heap of it. Hopefully he gets some more game time in the coming weeks because even though its early days I think he could be a handy rookie pick. He really impressed me a few weeks ago when I saw him on TV.

[MCG-Unit]

Thanks for that report, Vergs - did you see much of Curren (43). I'm interested in his progress

Curren was ok but he did spend a fair bit of time on the bench today. He has quite a solid build for someone of his age and height and he seems to use it quite well in close. He laid a couple of good tackles and attacked the ball aggressively but didn't find a heap of it. Hopefully he gets some more game time in the coming weeks because even though its early days I think he could be a handy rookie pick. He really impressed me a few weeks ago when I saw him on TV.

Thanks again. Yes from what I've seen on TV and read prior to the draft, he was a hard at it type for Dand Stringrays. Regarding his build, I'm surprised he's still listed at 76kg - that must be from when he was drafted.

[Eastern]

Thanks for the reports folks. Sounds like it was a very underwhelming performance !!

[plugger66]

Thanks for the reports folks. Sounds like it was a very underwhelming performance !!

Yep but they will do better in 30 goal better competition.

[Eastern]

Thanks for the reports folks. Sounds like it was a very underwhelming performance !!

Yep but they will do better in 30 goal better competition.

Do you mind if I take a while to think about that? !!

[Choppa]

Tommy Walsh - as if it's not confusing enough being an Irishman, I reckon today he played 50% in the back half, 50% in the forward half and 50%

in the ruck.

Played 150% of the game - a good performance by Tommy then.

[Iceman234]

Tommy Walsh - as if it's not confusing enough being an Irishman, I reckon today he played 50% in the back half, 50% in the forward half and 50%

in the ruck.

Played 150% of the game - a good performance by Tommy then.

Yeah that was part of the "as if it's not confusing enough..."

[Iceman234]

And Siposs is just a natural kick.

One of those kids that when the ball gets in his hands it fits and just drops onto his foot in that natural sort of way. He's like a natural left-footer but a right footer.

We don't have many of them.

I'm a fan.

[bobmurray]

Thanks for the reports folks. Sounds like it was a very underwhelming performance !!

Yep but they will do better in 30 goal better competition.

Do you mind if I take a while to think about that? !!

I'll join you Eastern in that think tank.....

[ando051]

Thanks vergs, just got home from my first VFL game this year and was going to give some comments but not really needed now.

Admittedly I did get stuck in the bar for quite a bit of the second half after running into some old Ballarat mates but...

Anyone here thinking Archer and Walsh could be brought in to sufficiently support Big Ben in the ruck are absolutely kidding themselves. Kosi and even Blake are still far more qualified in this respect, particularly while we are still mathematically capable of hitting September. But even then, if we can't make it, these blokes aren't the future of our ruck stocks.

With my faith having no confidence whatsoever in Gardi getting back at all, let alone making an impact, I believe we have huge issues with where our ruck situation is. If Ben goes down, we are really stuffed, I can see now why we don't have a genuine 2nd ruck option selected.

Tommy Walsh - as if it's not confusing enough being an Irishman, I reckon today he played 50% in the back half, 50% in the forward half and 50% in the ruck.

Geary looks chunkier through the waist and hips from what I remember of him in 2010.

No. 60? (threw away the record) Looks to have some good foot skills and makes space well.

Siposs is much bigger than I thought, has a fair build for a young kid and as vergs said, kicked a lovely goal across wind from 55’ish... Not sure if it’s that he doesn’t run hard enough, I watched him a couple of times and he actually double backs to dead space to drag a defender away. Having said that, he did wave furiously a few times when he was clear around 50-55 and just didn’t get the delivery.

Cheers for the reports everyone. I liked the look of Gears last week for his first game back, so good to see him back it up with an ok game today.

I also like the look of Sippa at only 18 years of age he will get bigger and he needs to work on his endurance.

I have seen a few Sandy games this year and the coaches at Sandy are doing nothing to help with Tommy Walsh development to a foreign game. At the moment he should be playing at Full Back and Centre Half back, he is not a ruckman.

I also like the look of Crocker, he has great balance and lovely left foot. My only concern is someone could break him in half, if he does not bulk up soon.

I am not 100% sure, but i don't think Raph can play tomorrow because he played for Sandy when the Saints had the bye last week. So it looks like Bakes is in.

[saintbrat]

[I am not 100% sure, but i don't think Raph can play tomorrow because he played for Sandy when the Saints had the bye last week. So it looks like Bakes is in.

I tried to find out all last week and the best that came to light was P66 suggesting that if teh saints applied for permission he could play last week having only ben sub the previous week

but now given the Sandy game was before the saints game does that count as him NOt having played for the VFL side in the previous round to an AFL round