VFL VFL Round 5 v Essendon. Saturday April 27. 2:05pm @ Victoria Park

[Timmy from Thomastown]

We have the same lack of talls as we had last week. I don’t know why people keep banging on about the obvious, whinging on Bigfooty won’t fix things! Need to wait for Eyre Kreuger and Steene not to mention McStay…. As far as I’m aware there’s no April draft. or May.

That said, Begg, jiath and most importantly AJ played good games

 

[Jen2310]

'He's one of the most exciting players I've ever played with': Lane

Hear from Collingwood VFL Co-captain Campbell Lane following his side's narrow loss to Essendon on Saturday.

www.collingwoodfc.com.au

'We need to revisit what our good stuff looks like': Fraser

VFL Senior Coach Josh Fraser speaks following his side's Round Five clash against Essendon.

www.collingwoodfc.com.au

 

[Dead Eye Didak]

Disappointing loss. Two losses now to the bottom teams. Do we have to many local footballers in our VFL program and not enough ex AFL players.
I just wonder if our young AFL listed players would get more out of playing alongside ex AFL talent, than park footballers. Unfortunately some of the VFL listed players we have just aren't VFL standard....

 

[pugsville]

Positives: Macrae, maybe Jiath.

Negatives: Begg is the worst ruckmen in the VFL
Jakob Ryan is just i don't know
Reef is not a forward
Not sure why we drafted Bytel
DeMattia looked lost
Allan does not do enough
Markov Johnson and Carmichael are not up to it

Reef McInnes is a forward 32.16 from 15 vfl games last year 7 from 4 AFL games this year.
He's not a key forward and perhpas not his best LT position, but does time his leads better than most, general sticky hands and some goal sense.

 

[No SPIN]

Can’t remember the last time Carmichael played midfield for us.

Thought his decision making and disposal has improved dramatically - now if can show the same composure/skill playing mid he could make. Particularly as he can play a second position.

 

[live fast pieyoung]

Positives: Macrae, maybe Jiath.

Negatives: Begg is the worst ruckmen in the VFL
Jakob Ryan is just i don't know
Reef is not a forward
Not sure why we drafted Bytel
DeMattia looked lost
Allan does not do enough
Markov Johnson and Carmichael are not up to it

I'm confident Reef is an AFL standard player.
But I tend to agree, I find it hard to see him really as a forward.
He does have certain skills that are not really being used, such as he's a strong handball game, and fairly clean inside

 

[FromTheBoundaryLine]

Disappointing loss. Two losses now to the bottom teams. Do we have to many local footballers in our VFL program and not enough ex AFL players.
I just wonder if our young AFL listed players would get more out of playing alongside ex AFL talent, than park footballers. Unfortunately some of the VFL listed players we have just don't VFL standard....

Think this is a valid point worth consideration.

 

[barrackers]

Thought his decision making and disposal has improved dramatically - now if can show the same composure/skill playing mid he could make. Particularly as he can play a second position.

I liked Carmichael’s game, as you say his decision making was improved, even down to choosing when to use his size to take the opponent/game on.

 

[No SPIN]

I liked Carmichael’s game, as you say his decision making was improved, even down to choosing when to use his size to take the opponent/game on.

Based on today - if he replicates that composure playing mid, and given his similar size and grunt, I wouldn’t be selecting Long in the MSD.
I’d use the spot to fill another need.

 

[CPH12]

Would be nice if we had a 200 gamer helping the team out there. Shiel helped them across the line.

We had our opportunities. Crocker just couldn't put it through the sticks
Those ones Sullivan missed too. Multiple opportunities. Essendon put it on when it counted.

Thought we looked good in patches, but then poor in others. Need to put together a 4 quarter performance.

Fin was our best, he was damaging around stoppage and in the middle. That goal he kicked was nice too.
Ryan had a good first game back.
Parker, had a quieter game, but had some nice defensive moments.
Harry did a couple nice things for his first game.

Reef played a bit through the midfield in the 2nd half, and had some good moments.

Johnson looked better down back, but then they put him forward and he looked better. More confidence?

Best post I've seen, pretty much my exact takeaways.
Only additions would be that I'm loving jiath, and Dean seriously needs to work on his kicking.
Begg showed a bit I thought, a couple of strong marks and immediate playOns made me think this guy is a natural forward.
Not sure If ruck is his spot though, if he's getting monstered at vfl, no way he can transition to afl.
Some of our poor kicking and inefficiency was due to lack of kp which will be better when kreuger, eyre and Steele return.

 

[Kappa]

Based on today - if he replicates that composure playing mid, and given his similar size and grunt, I wouldn’t be selecting Long in the MSD.

Long just looks like your average VFL midfielder, don't know why people keep talking him up.

 

[barrackers]

Reef McInnes is a forward 32.16 from 15 vfl games last year 7 from 4 AFL games this year.
He's not a key forward and perhpas not his best LT position, but does time his leads better than most, general sticky hands and some goal sense.

We should developing McInnes’ tank with more time through the midfield when selected in the VFL. Was pleased to see a little bit of that today, albeit not inside the centre square.

 

[PieBeast]

Maggos getting done 2 weeks in a row by 2 bottom sides in the VFL. No one apart from McRae demands promotion and we all know by now how he performs at AFL level.
The only reason I'm not stressing cause No Spin reckons our future is bright.

 

[jmac70]

Ok, so the VFL side is not competitive.

Doesn’t matter.

The AFL listed players can still be developed.

Results in the VFL don’t matter.

 

[memoryofmchale]

Not the point - their 2024 squad is far far better than that which lost all those consecutive games - therefore the constant shaming of our performance last week, using that context, is completely irrelevant

It was still a very poor performance. Easily outplayed.

 

[jmac70]

Maggos getting done 2 weeks in a row by 2 bottom sides in the VFL. No one apart from McRae demands promotion and we all know by now how he performs at AFL level.
The only reason I'm not stressing cause No Spin reckons our future is bright.

You’re basing development on a scoreboard result in the VFL.

You need to think beyond that.

 

[jmac70]

It was still a very poor performance. Easily outplayed.

Zero relevance to the AFL side.

 

[SchuPie]

Good see the team were able to turn it around in the 2nd half.
Did our improvement signal that we have a few players coming through that may be able to take the step one day or that we simply got better against Essendon (or both?)

The way we played in the first half, the only team we'd have any chance of beating would be the North Melbourne seniors.

I guess Fraser sent AJ forward to try to help with the scoreboard ut it was a shame he didn't get the opportunity to play a full game in D50 - I'd like him to play there a lot more. It may not make him a Blackman, but it will assist with his forward craft in developing the way he attacked the ball and positioning.

Having got the lawn mowed (it's a pretty good feeling looking at a cut lawn), I didn't get to see if:

• Allan's intensity lifted (he's contracted to 2026 - so there's plenty of time - I just like this trait to be innate)
• Ryan settled and gained more composure
• Fin indicating he's ready for the 1s (is he an AFL or VFL player? - I think only a run of games in the 1s will inform us of this)
• Reef: can he play up the field? Will he end up being our 3rd tall in the 1s?
• Carmy: is he a viable option for the 1s?
• Does Joe show enough?

What shame Eyre did his hammy - would be great to see a young KPD coming through.

 

[Stripes B and W]

I reckon they should give me a 4 week block to find out if I'm up to it. I might play better at AFL - some blokes just do - I'm not really sure who they are - but it would be worth finding it if I'm one of them.

you had me pencilling you in until you demanded Number 36!!

 

[Timmy from Thomastown]

Based on today - if he replicates that composure playing mid, and given his similar size and grunt, I wouldn’t be selecting Long in the MSD.
I’d use the spot to fill another need.

If we use it at all.

 

[The Kaiser Chief]

Disappointing loss. Two losses now to the bottom teams. Do we have to many local footballers in our VFL program and not enough ex AFL players.
I just wonder if our young AFL listed players would get more out of playing alongside ex AFL talent, than park footballers. Unfortunately some of the VFL listed players we have just don't VFL standard....

you cannot be serious.....that was nearly a full AFL listed team out there today, plus you all keep banging on about Long and Hutchinson going in the mid season draft.....
Why would ex AFL players want to play VFL when they can get cash playing local footy?
And isn't Crocker that ex AFL player you are asking for?

 

[Maggie5]

Was at the game.

I feel that this team is capable of better. This week and last we had 4/5 new ins and I imagine limited time in training all together as a group. Chemistry yet to be built.

Still too soon for me to single out those that will not make it at AFL level, going to give it 4 more games before I name anyone but with our aging list we certainly need more than a couple.

I did like Johnson at full back then we needed him forward. He took some good grabs.

 

[Vicky Park]

Long just looks like your average VFL midfielder, don't know why people keep talking him up.

He was voted best afield by the coaches in two of our games his year. He has been playing well, if not so well the last couple of weeks.

 

[The Kaiser Chief]

It would have been handy if our 2nds had made the finals last year

they did play finals last year

 

[Rorzza]

So, AJ was excellent today, good to see!