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There hasn't been much written or said from a Sandringham perspective about the game at Bendigo so here's a report from Demonland's Barry from Beach Road who got most of his information from a "source" at the game.
"Well, the game was close and it was really Sandy's first fully fledged hit out with a large list of Demons (15 in all) for the season. My spy reports that it was game that the Zebras should have won but in the end missed out by a narrow margin 15.8.98 to the Bombers' 15.10.100. Either side could have been said to be unlucky to lose and let's face it - there's always a lot of rotation and experimentation (there were about 8 on the bench) so it ended up as a good leadin for the opening game next week at Cramer Street, Preston against the Northern Bullants. There were some very good signs that you like to see in practice matches.
I'll start with the Sandringham players. Nick Sautner is on the comeback trail after undergoing an ankle operation in the off season. This week he managed only four kicks but he finished with four goals so we should see him kick his 500th VFL goal on Sunday. Much like Glenn McGrath, Sautner was left stranded on 499 after his last game - the 2004 Grand Final.
Sean O'Keeffe and David Gallagher didn't play and some of the other regulars like Chad Liddell, Peter Summers and Rod Crowe each played halves, before giving others such as Conroy etc a go. Summers played well against his old side - he was a rookie with the Bombers last year.
Sandringham's best was the man who lost his place in the senior side to Ryan Ferguson. Yes, big Al Nicholson slaughtered them at CHB to give the Demon selectors an interesting problem. He was best on ground according to my correspondent. He was well supported by Nick Smith playing a very good game at half back flank.
Steven Armstrong played a whole game picking up 33 possessions and kicking two goals. Simon Godfrey kicked four goals (26 possessions) and Shannon Motlop started slowly but improved throughout the game for 19 possessions. Nathan Carroll took a dozen marks and finished with 15 possessions.
Brendan Van Schaik struggled in the ruck but when Paul Johnson took over the ruckwork, he looked the goods and gave first use with 21 hitouts. Every time Johnson went into the ruck Sandy pegged back the opposition on the scoreboard. He changed between CHF and ruck and for such a big bloke his disposal was impressive.
The two young 17 year old recruits - Matthew Bate and Lynden Dunn impressed my source who claims they were better than Sylvia and McLean were at this time last year."
