A most entertaining game of football, with great pressure from each side and the extremes of good and bad skills on display. The sequence where walker didn't quite get the ball over the line was one of the wackier bits of play I've seen in my time.
Murphy stood tall today, with a great performance. He was well supported by Henderson, cripps, bell as the stand outs for me. Good to see Kruezer back and take some strong marks, along with Casboult who is starting to look like a real footballer.
Skill errors though are the killer and some awful turnovers from defence. Carrazzo had a couple of shockers along with Simpson whose preference for his left foot is the difference between him being a very good player and just a brave ordinary player. It frustrates me no end that such an experienced player still struggles to kick both sides of his body and has to turn to get onto his left.
At least our set up was more up to date with a spare man in defence for a period, then moving to more one on one as the game progresses.
Umpiring stunk today, with poor decisions going each way. Paying Casboult that mark deep forward was ridiculous and the holding the ball decisions are now providing too much reward for tackles. Its a case where the umpires are required to adjudicate to force a style of game to be played rather than the rules themselves.
This is the intensity level required as a minimum for the rest of the year. Now the skills nedd to lift to get a better return from effort. Such a shame for Judd to get a knee injury, and it could be a truly underwhelming end for a champion of the game.
By the way, we saw why Betts, great forward pocket that he is, still couldn't provide run in the middle when it was needed.
Murphy stood tall today, with a great performance. He was well supported by Henderson, cripps, bell as the stand outs for me. Good to see Kruezer back and take some strong marks, along with Casboult who is starting to look like a real footballer.
Skill errors though are the killer and some awful turnovers from defence. Carrazzo had a couple of shockers along with Simpson whose preference for his left foot is the difference between him being a very good player and just a brave ordinary player. It frustrates me no end that such an experienced player still struggles to kick both sides of his body and has to turn to get onto his left.
At least our set up was more up to date with a spare man in defence for a period, then moving to more one on one as the game progresses.
Umpiring stunk today, with poor decisions going each way. Paying Casboult that mark deep forward was ridiculous and the holding the ball decisions are now providing too much reward for tackles. Its a case where the umpires are required to adjudicate to force a style of game to be played rather than the rules themselves.
This is the intensity level required as a minimum for the rest of the year. Now the skills nedd to lift to get a better return from effort. Such a shame for Judd to get a knee injury, and it could be a truly underwhelming end for a champion of the game.
By the way, we saw why Betts, great forward pocket that he is, still couldn't provide run in the middle when it was needed.