CASEY coach Justin Plapp reviews the Melbourne-listed players who played in the VFL
2016 Peter Jackson VFL
Saturday, June 11, 2:10pm, Casey Fields
Collingwood 8.11 (59) d Casey Scorpions 2.7 (19)
From the coach …
“It was a disappointing result. We’ve had a good six to eight weeks where we’ve played some really strong team football. It was a different beast on the weekend, as the heavy conditions played a pretty big part in the outcome. A lot of credit has got to go to Collingwood. They were able to play the conditions a lot better than us. They did the really simple and fundamental aspects of the game well. We overused the ball and didn’t take our opportunities in the game early on. From that respect, we probably deserved what we got on the weekend. Although it was disappointing, it was also a good opportunity for our players to learn plenty from the result. Next time, in that situation, we need to get better and remain stronger for longer.” – Justin Plapp
Colin Garland: Colin had 14 disposals, six inside 50s and three tackles. He was strong in some situations where he was able to come off and influence the ball in the air. Like a lot of our players on the day, there were some inconsistencies around the contest where we probably needed Colin to be a bit better but that was a reflection of our whole team across the day.
Jeff Garlett: Jeffy put some good defensive pressure on and I think he had about seven effective tackles on the day. [But] from a possession point of view, he ended up having only eight possessions and didn’t kick any goals. He was another player, where coming in and out of the game, we needed him to be a little bit more consistent in that area of the game. We’re looking for him to bounce back this week.
Jack Grimes: Grimesy was a really solid contributor on the day. He ended up having 15 possessions and 11 effective tackles so his effort around the ball and his willingness to compete and play the style of footy in the conditions was really strong. He was taken off the ground at three quarter time due to some stuff at AFL level that we just needed him to be ready for but we were really happy with Grimesy.
Liam Hulett: Liam had nine disposals, five tackles and only had the one scoring shot. Liam would be the first to admit that it probably wasn’t his best performance for the year. Like a lot of our players, he was a player who took a lot of time to adjust to the conditions and was out marked and probably didn’t compete and bring the ball to ground as we would have liked him to do. Liam is a really good kid who will learn from it and he’ll certainly work hard throughout the week to bounce back next week.
Matt Jones: Matt was a solid contributor; he had 28 possessions, four inside 50s and eight effective tackles. He played on the wing on that outside role and he won a lot of the ball in the conditions. Matty is the type of player who relies on a bit of space so there were a lot of disposals that were probably not effective for the way that the game was going to play out. He’s building after having a long lay-off – it was his second game back so we’re really looking forward to him improving again.
Max King: Max had 10 possessions and he also played ruck-forward where he had 10 hit-outs and seven tackles which is pleasing. The last couple of weeks, playing in the conditions that we have, it hasn’t allowed Kingy to play at his best because we know he’s a marking type player so we felt that he played his role well in the ruck when he was there and competed strongly. To have seven effective tackles is a good effort. It’s been two weeks in a row now where the conditions haven’t been great and he’s been able to give something else to the team. Without being a dominant game, I thought his game was solid.
Viv Michie: Viv had 25 possessions, 14 of which were contested, 10 clearances and had four tackles so he was a pretty good servant on the day. Like I said, those midfielders were going to get a lot opportunity because of the way the game was played but he did some pretty classy things at times in the conditions. I thought he was one of our better players on the day but to get the best out of him and a lot of our guys, we’d want the conditions to be a bit better.
Alex Neal-Bullen: Alex had 19 possessions, 14 of which were contested, five clearances and eight effective tackles. Like a lot of our midfielders, they were going to be around the ball a lot because of the way the conditions were on the day. Alex had his nose to the ground and he was really boring-into and winning those critical contests. It wasn’t a day to be over-finessing the footy so a lot of his possessions were sort of quick-kick out of stoppage situations and just trying to get some yardage on possessions. We thought he competed really well and like a lot of our players on the day, he probably wasn’t at the top of his game but he certainly played his role.
Ben Newton: Ben had 19 possessions, 13 of which were contested, six clearances and eight tackles. He was another player who spent a lot of time around the ball. To [provide] a really detailed report of his game is really hard because of the conditions but the effort was there and certainly being around the ball was going to allow him to play a fair bit more. For a lot of these guys, a lot of their better footy is played at the top of the ground so we’re looking for Benny to bounce back next week as well.
Cameron Pedersen: Pedo had ten possessions, only one scoring shot and seven tackles. For a day where it was going to be a really trying time for key position forwards, I thought Pedo competed well. We played him in different positions to try and get him into the game and get his hands on the ball. We felt that his effort and his ability to play the role for the team were good but he’s another player who is a marking type player so he found it hard to get himself into the game because of those reasons.
Jake Spencer: Jake was huge on the weekend; he ended up having 82 hit outs which is a massive amount. He [also] had 11 possessions and seven tackles but like a lot of other bigger sorts of players on the day, it just becomes a real slog-fest so we thought Spencer was very good on the day and played his role.
Dean Terlich: Dean had eight possessions, three inside 50s and five tackles. It was a pretty quiet day from Terls and like a lot of our forwards, there were a lot of times when the ball came into our forward 50 and would come back out quite quickly. It’s hard to make a strong judgment given the conditions but we know that Terls is better and can perform better for us so we’re expecting him to bounce back as well this week.
Mitch White: Mitch had 19 disposals, four clearances, had one shot on goal and had 10 effective tackles. He played that high defensive, small defender role and was really strong in the one-on-ones aerially and at ground level which was pleasing. Mitch has been in pretty solid form over the last six to eight weeks and continues to grow and learn and improve each week. He was certainly a player who could walk off the ground knowing he played his role and competed.
AFL Victoria Development League
Bye
No Melbourne-listed players featured in the Development League
