A report on the Swans Bombers hit out?

[Jeffers1984]

easy win for the swannies. some points on players

jolly really dominated the ruck abiet he was up against laycock and another young ruckman.

Doyle also looked good..took a good contested mark at FF against fletcher in the 3rd

Vogels ...seems to be the one to contest campbell as the rookie to debut this year. good one grab player and quick on the lead for someone his size

Buchanan - very zippy weaving through the packs. still my tip for the standout fringe player for this year.

Spriggs - looked alright, kicked one goal

LRT - probably the biggest suprise, looks alot bigger and does seem alot more coordinated. gave a few silly frees at FB against laycock so may need help there. but looked good.

Clarke - OMG he's HUGE for a bloke so short

Jude - Alot more beefy and played very well

Campbell - Looked OK. has good speed on him

Schneider - Very lean, got into it, but skill errors let him down a bit

All in all a good hit out with alot of optimism for our budding youngsters.

[liz]

Pretty much agree with thoughts already posted but I'll add some more

I thought Jude was the best of the midfielders - not brilliant but in everything and in control.

However, McVeigh was the eye-catcher. He may not have got quite so much of the ball as Jude but his use of it was consistently very good and occasionally sublime. His fed a couple of beautiful handpasses through crowds to team mates, ones that they were able to collect without breaking stride. He also got into a bit of the physical stuff with his brother, which was fun to watch. Mark was initially the one dishing it off but Jarred came back and gave some of his own later in the game.

Bevan looked very much like a senior player amidst a heap of newbies.

Doyle was good, very good. For me, his performance was the second highlight of the evening.

James was easily the most impressive / composed of the fringe key backmen - but then he probably should have been.

Buchanan looked slow and off the pace until the ball came near him, at which point he zipped into action. Impressive, clean skills.

Schneider looked like a kid who couldn't wait to play football again. He was lively, worked hard, chased and harassed well and mixed some excellent skills with some overly ambitious stuff that didn't come off.

Kennelly looked like he was saving himself for when the real stuff starts but when he did get involved in the action he showed his class.

LRT did look impressive but was really worried by Laycock's height and size in the second half. If he plays at CHB he will be vulnerable to being dragged back towards the goals, where he looked a lot less comfortable. He also needs to take O'Keefe with him and trot off to the barber asap! (He might as well take Hird and McVeigh Snr with him too.)

Powell didn't do much but he looks a bit stronger and what he did do was good. He snapped a pretty clever goal from a pocket.

Of the newbies and yet-to-debuties

Vogels looks a bit raw and he rushed a couple of disposals but he can take a nice grab and wasn't scared to get involved right from the start.

Campbell has a very nice physique but looked like he was trying a little too hard to impress. Playing his first game against players he trained with last year may not have helped. Will be interesting to see how he settles.

Grundy did some nice stuff early on. He didn't look particularly slow, which seemed to be one of the question marks over him. He isn't skinny but also didn't look as tall as I had expected - not dissimilar size to O'Keefe maybe.

Dempster didn't seem to get too involved but what he did looked pretty good. Nice, balanced, penetrating kicking and took some strong grabs. He also kicked a good goal.

Clarke is big but he looks to have lost a little bulk from his lower body since last year. He kicked a couple of beauties of goals too. Could definitely be a player.

In terms of who played, it is slightly easier to list who didn't:

Hall, Williams, Goodes, Davises N&M, O'Loughlin, Mathews, Crouch, Maxfield, Schauble, Ball, Barry, Ablett, Schmidt, Willoughby, Saddington, Malceski, Sundqvist, Fixter.

Overall it was a pretty controlled and polished performance from a team with so many rookies in it. They never looked like losing the match. Their aggression was a few notches up from the Bombers', most of whom only looked marginally interested in the game. Laycock was their standout, at least as a forward. He can take a strong mark and will certainly add another dimension to the Essendon forward line this year.

A match report of some description will follow at some point but not until our publisher returns from holiday on Sunday.

[DST]

Any reason why Schmidt, Willoughby & Matthew Davis didn't play?

Is Fixter still in revovery mode ?

DST

[liz]

Originally posted by DST
Any reason why Schmidt, Willoughby & Matthew Davis didn't play?

Is Fixter still in revovery mode ?

DST

Schmidt was reported as having hamstring troubles just before Christmas and I think he is being gradually nursed back to health. He had similar problems mid last season so they probably want to be careful with him.

Matt Davis was reported as suffering from some mild OP so he's another one they are probably being careful with.

The other two I'm not sure - I haven't read anything about any ailments.

[Grant]

Originally posted by liz

In terms of who played, it is slightly easier to list who didn't:

Hall, Williams, Goodes, Davises N&M, O'Loughlin, Mathews, Crouch, Maxfield, Schauble, Ball, Barry, Ablett, Schmidt, Willoughby, Saddington, Malceski, Sundqvist, Fixter.
.

13 of them would be in first 22 selected each week,so a great performance by all who did play.
Did Essendon seem to have the same amount not playing,and of the same calibre?

[liz]

Erikson was another missing - just remembered!

[ugg]

LRT was very impressive in the first half and had me thinking he could spend some time at CHB, but gave away silly frees to Laycock, who was among Essendon's best.

McVeigh was very polished and I'm looking forward to seeing more of him in the midfield this year. Did anyone else notice a nice little bump his brother gave him during the first quarter after he had kicked the ball.

Nicksy kicked two nice goals and spent all his time up forward and worked well with O'Keefe early on.

Doyle was impressive both in the ruck and up forward where he took a nice grab against Fletcher.

Of the new boys and seldom seen players:
Spriggs was okayish, found a bit of the ball.
Jolly shared the rucking duties with Doyle and Shaw and worked hard around the ground.
Vogels and Grundy started up forward and they certainly have the body to play seniors if required.
Campbell spent a bit of time down at fullback in the 2nd half and was handy, even though he messed up a bounce after taking a strong mark.
Didn't see too much of Garrubba.
Potter only spent the last 5-10 min on the ground. Looks way too small to play in the seniors.
As mentioned already, Clarke is definitely big for his height. Kicked two nice goals and could be an outside chance.

[ugg]

Originally posted by Grant
13 of them would be in first 22 selected each week,so a great performance by all who did play.
Did Essendon seem to have the same amount not playing,and of the same calibre?

These were the Essendon players I noted playing:

Dyson, Henneman, Watson (2nd half only), Hird (1st half), Monfries, Winderlich (2nd), Ramanauskas (2nd) McVeigh, Peverill (2nd), Cupido, Alvey, Bradley, Thomas, Cartledge, Bolton (2nd), Stanton, Lucas (1st), Laycock, Reynolds, Hunt, Fletcher, McPhee, Bullen, Nash, Haynes, Lovett, Lovett-Murray

[stellation]

re: LRT having problems pulled closer to goals.

I'm not overly concerned about this. It was, obviously, a lot easier to pull him close to goals from CHB on NSO than it will be anywhere else (even the SCG)... but the main thing for me is that it looked to be a positional thing and if he gets to play as a key position back with Andrew Schauble back there to direct him around hopefully that will be slowly corrected. I was dissapointed that Heath did not get more of an opportunity to play with Schauble last year, I cannot think of a better teacher for the young backmen.

re: McVeigh

Liz made an excellent point (among others!). McVeigh feeding handballs from packs,"ones that they were able to collect without breaking stride". I think everyone realizes how important this is, there were a few players on the night, for both teams, who missed targets with handballs when under pressure or made a running player have to stop to get the ball.

[dread and might]

i was very happy with everything but the longest beer queue in the world which caused me to miss most of the third quarter

Most stuff has already been said, i will add weight to the LRT vote. he looked good, but quite strange with his capper style hairdo.

i thought mc veigh was our best midfielder FWIW and was also impressed by buchanan.

There were some nice passages of running football, it was a nice evening, we won, nobody was injured.....

The only downside was O'keefe's decision to start wearing one of those soccer player type hairnet/headband things

[Jeffers1984]

Originally posted by dread and might
The only downside was O'keefe's decision to start wearing one of those soccer player type hairnet/headband things

I Did notice that! WTF is the go with trying to look like Francesco Totti??

[EMJ]

Nicks played brilliantly. Crouch has no sling on his arm. Signing autographs and was moving okay - so hope they are good signs. I liked the play of C & J Bolton, LRT MCVeigh would like to see tallker, not possible so doing okay with buk and centre breaks. Nic Davis has lost weight good to see too. Leo Barry can't wait to play he said as well as the enthusiasm for Ball - really looking forward to the season.

Campbell needs game time and was better midfield - okay with running but he seemed really nervous with disposals. Solid build and built okay to take the field with seniors once he gains confidence.

Looking forward to Wizard Cup - but see in NSW we dont get the game till 3 am Saturday morning - what a drag. Not organised well.

[dread and might]

i didn't realise how small Spriggs is!!! He looked ok though.

who was the young Koori wearing 41 for the bombers? Looked quick!! I wanted the bombers to play that ethiopian kid too.

[liz]

Originally posted by dread and might
i didn't realise how small Spriggs is!!! He looked ok though.

who was the young Koori wearing 41 for the bombers? Looked quick!! I wanted the bombers to play that ethiopian kid too.

Andrew Lovett? - cousin of Nathan Lovett-Murray. He was probably their most lively through the middle in the first half.

[dread and might]

ahhh. very possible liz. i didn't pick up that thing with all the players listed on it but did hear the PA say something about "lovett". i just thought they had stuffed up and meant Lovett-Murray.