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footyman
Last seen: 2 years 9 months ago
Joined: 19/01/2004 - 00:00
Sandringham v Geelong
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Just a few thoughts on the game today, fairly hurried but you'll get the main points – Sandringham 1.3 4.8 6.10 10.13 (73) Geelong 3.3 9.5 17.10 22.14 (146) Goals: Sandringham: Summers 2, Hughes 2, O’Keeffe 2, Williams, Biddlecombe, Ott, Gallagher Geelong: Garth 4, Chambers 3, Trenfeld 2, Lonergan 2, Prismall 2, D Byrne 2, Callan, Rahilly, Batchelor, Sheringham, Torney, Bett, Graham My Best: Sandringham: O’Keeffe, Biddlecombe, Gallagher, Rigoni, Liddell, Fletcher Geelong: Egan, Sheringham, Batchelor, Buckland, Garth, Callan Ordinary game of footy with Geelong a far better skilled side from the outset. It took 15 minutes for the opening goal it was that scrappy – to Chambers from Geelong - and throughout the game he along with Lonergan and Garth gave them a few decent targets up forward. Nick Trenfeld was busy across half forward kicking two goals by quarter time, but seemed to be on the bench for the second and third term before having another run at the end. Nathan Ablett was very quiet for the first quarter and a half thanks to some decent work by Andy Biddlecombe, before coming off for the rest of the match with a possible knee injury. I’d expect O’Keeffe and Gallagher would have racked up the most stats for Sandringham, and they seemed to be two of the more effective players in a fairly weak Zebras side. Andy Biddlecombe played well in defence during the first half, and went forward in the last quarter taking a couple of strong contested marks. He was on the bench during the third quarter as the trainers worked on him. Melbourne’s AFL players hardly helped the Zebras, although a 50m goal by Luke Williams was his highlight in what I felt was a fairly ordinary game from him. He spent most of the day across half back on an unknown VFL listed player, and although he showed some attacking dash, some basic skills errors let him down badly. Guy Rigoni got plenty of the ball, although he won the award for mistake of the day when he belted the ball forward out of the centre for Geelong at the start of the last term. Chad Liddell worked hard when he was on the ground, Leigh Fletcher showed a bit up forward and Lachlan Smith who I thought struggled a bit early started to have an impact as the game went on in the back half. Sandringham’s forward line, without Sautner, was ineffective as Mentiplay and Ott really struggled to have any influence on the game. Mentiplay appeared to be injured and was off for most of the 2nd half. They need Sautner and need him quickly. Geelong had plenty of positives. It’s the second time I’ve seen them and they’ve impressed me in both hit outs. Aside from the forward line talls that I mentioned above, Thurley can do a bit down there. Matt Egan is terrific at the other end for them and appears to have added a bit of weight in the off season. They have a host of midfield/flank types who are also extremely effective. Today I thought Tim Sheringham was terrific across half back, along with the high leaping Luke Buckland. Brent Prismall will be handy through the midfield, as will Tim Callan. One bloke who I think it going to be a terrific player is Nick Batchelor. In what I’ve seen the last two weeks he has all the attributes to be an AFL player. He’s only a Geelong rookie at the moment from SANFL club Norwood but he’s got pace and skill, and should only get better once he adds to his 68kg frame. Geelong coach Mark Thompson was there…hopefully he was impressed as well. And a few sidenotes... It must have been the first game at TBO this year cos the water buckets and mops were out cleaning the coaches box windows at half time. James Byrne standing the mark as Steve Armstrong took a set shot gets the award for spray of the day about Armstrongs overuse of the solarium. And the umpiring...still ordinary. Gotta love the 3 foot high bounce in the forward pocket. Throw it up fellas if the grass is too spongy! Or use common sense and call it back.
Edited by: admin on 28/12/2008 - 02:16