Williamstown vs Geelong - Preliminary Final TEAC Oval 17/09

[luvlicca]

thanks so much!!!

[Snoop Dog]

my view on the pie boys;

Anthony - very good. had a few kicked on him but competes well and runs straight at the footy. good courage as well. He needs to be brought into the side. Can generate run as well so was pretty happy with him.

Yakka - If this bloke isnt given game time next year I'll go hee. He was a terrific inside mid today and picked up 23 possessions in dangerous spots and thru the middle. Retain

Davies - Disappointing but at least tried. Willy needed his run thru middle and long kicking to break the lines but he couldnt deliver. Good to see him running back with footy. Retain.

Toovey - Contrary to others I thought he was ok. Deceptively quick and kicks long. Also not scared which I like. Could see him playing a wing when he comes in. Convinced me Lonie can go. Retain on rookie or possibly promote

Nicholls - Has something - just needs to impose himself more in the game. Beaut skills and vision. Gosh if he could be more consistent he would be handy BP. Retain on rookie

Rowe - An absolute dud. Delist

Cook - Dud. Far be it from me to question the great Hines but gee he is ordinary.

Stanley - We know the family so it pains me to say but this kid aint up to it possibly. Certainly has the body for it but seems to lack vision, pace and the ability to use it quickly.

Cox - Sensational. Cannot wait til he gets a senior game. He clearly carries a little more around the guts than he should but his hands, feet and vision are brilliant. Also very composed. Was the delight of the day. Retain on rookie

Pendlebury - I am not yet sold on this kid. I dont reckon he kicked it long once. Everything was short and sideways. Clearly has good vision and good in close but needs to put himself in more dangerous spots and run the lines.

Richards - the most disappointing. He cost them the game. With so many talls out he had to give them first use. The other bloke smashed him early and Meyer had to come in and fix it which he did. Then when they stuck him back in the middle Richards stuffed it again. Delist.

V disappointing Cloke and Walker did not play. Hope Clokes old man was not in his ear. Just a bit odd......

[eddiesmith]

Yes it is extremely odd a player with a torn hammy doesnt play

[stui magpie]

Watched the last quarter and half of the 3rd on the ABC. The pies players were generally outplayed by the willie players. In fact, the only collingwood listed player who deserved NOT to be taken out the back of the grandstand and shot was anthony. Size, speed, presence. give him no 41.5 and play him on a wing

[Cakewalk]

Some of the selections were mystifying , either some blokes were seriously buggered from the season or Williamstown wanted to give all the young blokes a chance , which is odd timing to be so generous.

Guy Richards was so bad that I actually wished Fanning was playing instead. He was that awful and costly.

[eddiesmith]

I was told they were 'rested' the missing Pies players, now if that means they were being rested for a grand final next (Complete arrogance and a big chance based on precedents) or the Pies decided Williamstown wasnt worth it, who knows? But surely these blokes shouldnt have been too stuffed to play a VFL game or 2 as they should have been able to go another 3 weeks

[conno]

Richards was abysmally shite. Didn't even look up to scratch at VFL level.

Or is that just my biased opinion?

[magman29]

disapointed with Pendlebury..didn"t chase,seemed disinterested to me..expected more from him...

[Nath]

Pendles has so much time with the pill, as evident yesterday and his ability to slip tackles, but he also practices my pet hate, kicking off one step. Gee boy, would you step through your kick.

Yakka was Willy's best and Shannon Cox was good. Patrick Rose was very impressive as well, continuing on from a fairly good year. John Anthony was beaten in the end however with the way the Geelong boys delivered the pill in the 3rd quarter, was pretty tough to stop the supply.

[WKB]

disapointed with Pendlebury..didn"t chase,seemed disinterested to me..expected more from him...

I got into quite a heated argument with family over Pendles game, he was clearly one of our better players today. I don't think people watch his game and see what he does. The fact he seems to do everything in slow motion (part of why he always seems to find space) probably wouldn't help this.

One incident stood out in the middle of the ground when a loose Geelong player picked up the ball, Pendles didn't run rashly at him to lay a tackle, was able to read the play well enough and see that two Geelong players had spread wide, went in close enough to force the player to handball to these wide players but far enough away to corral them into not getting an easy possession. My mum was certain it was a lazy effort and he didn't want to tackle, running in to tackle would have achieved nothing, the original player with the pill would have got a handball away and Pendles would have been rendered useless in the contest. His ability to read what was ahead of him meant he made the exact right choice, he would have hoped that a teammate would come over to assist at some stage which didn't happen but was able to force extra possessions from the opponents.

Dissappointing game overall though. Almost could have had a commanding lead going into quarter time. Missed easy chances, and the fact those turd umpires where handing there forwards whatever the hell they wanted.

Cook - Dud. Far be it from me to question the great Hines but gee he is ordinary.

An unfair call, did he have his best game today, no, bloody far from it. I'm not bothered to check your posts to see if you went to a lot of Williamstown games this year, if you did I don't think you'd be calling him a dud. Yes, he needs to get some consistency in his game but he's a kid who has played most of the year as a key forward or the small crumbing forward, not an easy place to get consistency in a team that has mastered inconsistency.

Stanley - We know the family so it pains me to say but this kid aint up to it possibly. Certainly has the body for it but seems to lack vision, pace and the ability to use it quickly.

Geez I'd hate to see what you'd say if you didn't know the family and weren't pulling your punches. On this player I'm going to have to flat out disagree, probably fair to say their is a player called Scott Burns who could have been accused of all these things. Will he go on to the same sort of career, who the bloody hell knows but I think he certainly has a future in AFL football.


Yakka - His personal game was much like the overall team, started off well, trailed off, got back into it for small patches for the remainder. One of the better players today though. You sense he was playing for his spot on the list, I'd like to think he still has something to offer but when you're not getting senior games you must start to wonder.

Rowe - an enigma if i've ever seen one, he's light but seems to have everything else going for him, can kick either side (sadly a rarity these days) is a decent mark, will run all day, can kick a goal, but sometimes he's just off his game. Overall I'd say he's had a pretty good season, been one of the more consistent players and probably should have played more senior games (and games where he spent more than 5 minutes on the ground).

Cox - Arguably his best game for Williamstown, been up and down for most of the season and has probably been shadowed by Nicholls and Toovey in regards to our rookies this year. finished off the season well and would probably be kept on the rookie list.

Davies - Was poor today, after a good season it was dissappointing to see him play two of his worse games in the finals. part of that I put on the shoulders of Gotch. Seem to start in a back pocket for both finals when I can't remember him playing there much, if at all during the season. I'm all for experimenting players in different positions, has worked wonders with Chris Egan who played fullback, centre halfback, back pocket at williamstown this year, but don't experiment with a player out of position in a final. Maybe the opposition read this and they put his opponent deep to drag Davies out of the play, where he has been damaging all season, but its up to Gotch and co. to not let that happen.

Danny Nicholls - was one of the better players today, ran as he always does, straight at a contest, and often ran off contest to be the loose man to kick to. Quick, hard player could do worse than putting him on the list proper but if not is a monty to stay on the rookie list.

Richards - Just doesn't move well enough. In the ruck gets his hand on every ball, but then you ask do the ruckman ruck to the rovers or should the rovers rove to the ruckman. Richards gets first hand on it but our midfield is never there to recieve it, who is at fault?

Toovey - Was allowed to run off the backline as much today but was still pretty handy, definitely been the bolter of the rookies, and has been a hell of a lot better than some players on our list, I'd say he could be in line for promotion but how many medium sized backman do we need? Unless Pies have a different role lined up for him.

Anthony - I'll put this as eloquently as I know how. This kid is the sh*t. Just does everything right, punch from behind, doesn't lose position in front, knows when to run, isn't afraid if the footy is on the ground and will back himself to get it and use it well. And the anger, passion and filthy looks he showed when that front-running piece of crap, kingsley, got a bullsh*t free kick against him in that last quarter showed me how much every contest means to him.

And other bad decisions how dare Andrew Williams outmark his opponent in that last quarter, and so right of the umpire to punish him because he was running with the flight of the ball (which clearly means he was interfering with his opponent).

And back to that bullshit free kick to Kingsley against John Anthony, that turd in orange talking down to Anthony saying "no you had your back to play so you were holding on to him, no he wasn't holding on to you, you had your back to play" So Kingsley could grab onto Anthony but because Anthony had his back to play that makes it ok.

Unfortunately that umpire had to stand right near me at a boundary throw in later on in that game so I informed him of a few home truths, which JAJH will vouch is such a rare thing for me to do, which combined with my quiet, reserved tone towards means the umpire would learn from my advice.

[SNicKerS]

Gee. . dont know how Pendlebury was named best today. Was always around the ball but was very very soft and played as if disinterested. Went in on a few occasions one handed.

Yakka willys best today, no questions.

[Dark Beanie]

Obviously you get a different view of the game on the TV, than from the back of the grandstand.
Agree with WKB's rundown, especially the umps (how many frees in the 1st quarter?).

Thought Nicholls, Pendles and Greene were good for Willy. Poor delivery into the forward line and some bad misses cost Willy in the end.

Despite the loss we had fun taking the piss out of the Cats supporters nearby - Rule 1, Support your team through the whole game not just in the last ten minutes when the game is won.

Good to see some of the Pies boys there at the game - Bucks, Licca, Pebbles, Josh, Heater, Lonie, Ruzza, Harry, Swanny, Maxy, Iles. Although the game mustn't have been that interesting because Heater was having a bit of a snooze during the third quarter (or was it a big night?).

Mick was watching looking quite relaxed.

[rand corp]

Booch our best, should be retained as we (as a club) desperately need more of what he showed today.
Pendles, lifted after half time but needed to
Cox, unusual talent, plenty to work with
Toovey and Nicholls, very promising
Anthony, should have a very bright future ahead of him
Davies, blotted his copy book, gone backwards this year
Rowe, gawn
Richards, should be let go
Cook, early days, ?
Stanners, early days but a few concerns

[favourites 2008]

Anthony - 6-7/10 tried all day is the future of the backline.

Yakka - 7/10 was very good in the centre found the footy a fair bit and used it pretty well.

Davies - 5/10 showed his fitness by running the game out very very well, however was missing for most of it. I think he was played out of position.

Toovey - 6/10 thought he was fantastic. Really ran hard and played back and dont think he had a goal kicked on him.

Nicholls - 7/10 loves to run and deliver, what we really need at collingwood. Size might be a problem but seems to rack them up. Also is front and centre where good rovers should be.

Rowe - 2/10 Delist

Cook - 5/10 limited opp but when he was on did some good things. That mark in the second qtr was great.

Stanley - 5/10 built like brick sh*thouse, will be a god player, just needs to find more of the ball

Cox - 8-9/10 was so so good. Provided a mountain of run out of the backline, has come on in leaps and bounds, all he requires is a big preseason. He was the biggest positive out of the game

Pendlebury - 8/10 Im sold. Thought he was super. You have to remember its his first year. Didnt have a great first half but was very creative in the second.

Richards - 1/10 Delist.

[Coin_Toss]

Anthony - 5/10 tried hard, struggles one-on-one.

Yakka - 6/10 good midfield game.

Davies - 5/10 runs and carries the ball, but can he improve??

Toovey - 6/10 good defender, backs himself.

Nicholls - 7/10 finds the ball and uses it beautifully. A touch of class about him.

Rowe - 1/10 lazy attitude. Lacks desire.

Cook - 4/10 did a few good things but struggled.

Stanley - 3/10 poor performance. Too slow and probably gets run down at an excessive degree.

Cox - 9/10 not built like your standard aboriginal, his strong body could come in handy at the pack-spillage. Possesses clean hands at ground level for his size.

Pendlebury - 7/10 dodges tackles with ease. If only he could carry this ability through the system... he'd be dynamite!

Richards - 1/10 nowhere near AFL standard. Needs a miracle over the preseason.

No forward pressure cost Williamstown along with a big strong target, I was surprised Travis Cloke didn't play. They relied on smalls (Rose 4, Picken 2) to kick the goals whereas Geelong's goals came from talls.