VFL Round 11: Northern Blues vs. Frankston

[crashlander]

One of the things that has bothered me this year has been the relatively poor contribution of the Preston part of the Northern Blues. I can understand why: when you pay peanuts you often attract monkeys. However, we got a good contribution this week from most of those guys:

[1] Tom Wilson
Wilson is a VFL player because he isn’t express paced and he is small. Otherwise he is a real goer. To see him going up against 2 or 3 taller opponents and do enough for the mark to be incomplete tells you a fair bit about him (and no small amount about the idiots kicking it to him, expecting him to be a marking target). He is an excellent inside player and gets over 20 possessions each week.
Well, he had a picnic this week. We won the ruck for about the 1st time this year and he reveled in it.
I would not be surprised if he went well in the B&F, as he is one of the few VFL guys who really outs in each week.

[2] Dean Soncin
Soncin is in and out of the side, but he picked an excellent week to be in. He had a very good game with 24 possessions and 6 tackles.

[3] Wilko
Wilko is a big lump of a lad with a lot of athleticism who is often let down by his decision making. Wasn’t that way this time. He did an excellent job. He is one of the VFL guys the Northern Blues depend on each week.

[4] Kieran McGuinness
For an assistant coach he provides an excellent example and get close to 20 possessions each week. He actually had a relatively quiet game, as he wasn’t required to do the heroics for a change. He has been an excellent pick up this year.

[5] Box Bransgrove
Little Box is knee high to a grasshopper, but his heart is bigger than he is. He has struggled for form this season, but as Captain has had to play.
This time he found his touch and had a good game. He was at the bottom of the packs.

[6] Alex Aurrichio
The American they call Cheese had a good game, even though he only had 1 possession (a handball). He had 10 tackles and 37 hitouts, with almost every one going to our advantage. He is a big pump of a lad at 197 cm but he isn’t slow and he has an excellent leap.
He has a long way before you’d say he was ready for senior footy, but he has made excellent steps in short time. He attacks the ball nicely and the man who might be silly enough to have it. He doesn’t move to the right places yet, but if he keeps going, we won’t be calling out so desperately for a ruckman for the VFL.

We need more depth and more consistency from our VFL guys, but we appear to be headed in he right direction. The question now is, can we keep these guys?

[townsendcalling]

So, after all that, we must have a couple of rookies eligible to be elevated due to Judd and Warnock. Who do we move up and give a chance to??

[crashlander]

So, after all that, we must have a couple of rookies eligible to be elevated due to Judd and Warnock. Who do we move up and give a chance to??

At the moment Fields would lead the race. Walsh has looked promising and can't be too far away, but he will be better next year. Johnson might get a go: he has some inbuilt issues for his position, but with the change in our playing style he might be interesting. Besides, he can hardly get fewer possessions than Menzel is at the moment. If he is 100 % fit, my name is Göring.

[ElwoodBlues1]

[6]  Alex Aurrichio


One handball in a team that smashed the Poor Dolphins, outsized, and outmuscled them, .......one possy and  being only at 197cm for a ruckman I think I would be moving him on...

[laj]

Sorry this has taken so long, but things have been busier than expected.

Thanks, RR, for your report. Always appreciated.

My 2 cents worth:

As a number of posters have identified, this was not the best representation of where our guys are really at. It is, however, one of the great demolitions and a record breaker in a number of ways. It also tells you how ordinary Frankston were as an opponent on the day.

One of the things it did suggest is that the new confidence and freedom of play that the seniors have discovered has filtered down somewhat to the NB's. For almost 3 quarters we attacked incessantly and moved the ball much better than we did only a few weeks ago. In the last quarter we played a more Malthouse sort of style and went round and round the mulberry bush. With Frankston playing their best footy, we really lost momentum.
However, you cannot be anything but pleased by the result.

The players:


[10] Kristian Jaksch
I didn’t think Jaksch was that bad. He needs to work on his movement as a defender, as he doesn’t have a huge amount of closing speed. His marking was good. He would make a better forward, I feel, as he doesn’t react as quickly as a defender often needs to, and he needs to work a LOT on his body work. He is much better when he is proactive.

He did recruit him to play forward. McKay said over summer he would learn and develop initially as 3rd tall defender before going forward eventually. Heard the interview myself on SEN.

[DJC]

[6]  Alex Aurrichio


One handball in a team that smashed the Poor Dolphins, outsized, and outmuscled them, .......one possy and  being only at 197cm for a ruckman I think I would be moving him on...

Ten tackles isn't bad for a bloke who is still learning the game.  I'd give him another year to ruck for the NBs and see how he progresses.