VFL Rd 14: Northern Blues vs Geelong

[DJC]

There is one point that is a bit left field I would like to make about the game. In a lot of ways, there is more in yesterday's game for Carlton than Geelong. While Geelong won by 11 goals, their problems relate to their lack of run out of defence. They won so easily because of their mid-field dominance and big forwards, and they were too strong in close and ran too hard for the smaller and younger Northern Blues players. Their problem is Mackie, Enright and Bartels down back, all are very good to champion players. There was nothing in Geelong seconds to deal with this problems, so they are going to have to trade the likes of Vardy, Stanley and others to get half back flankers. At least with Carlton we have the likes of Curnow, McKay, Byrne Cunningham ahe can make a difference, while Buckley, Jaksch, Jones, Korcheck, Graham and Gowers could make a difference. That is one positive to take from the game.

That is a very good point BM.

My experience of watching the NBs in the flesh was the win over Box Hill and there was a lot to like.  However, what I took away from the game was the way the NBs were emulating Bolton's approach and that there are a couple of players who could be competitive in the seniors and several more with the potential to do so.

It was also apparent that there are some pretty good non-Carlton listed NBs but others are barely at VFL standard.  Recruiting a couple of solid VFL standard players to provide leadership and more support for the Carlton listed players would help them achieve their potential.