Match Thread (merged)

[ugg]

Davey was hardly in the game up to halftime so you can't be too unhappy with that effort. Had to be a bit quicker in his disposal from half back though.

However, it was a masterstroke by Roos, because it allowed Crouch to shut down Yze.

[monopoly19]

What a great game! Was so impressed by the efforts of the entire team, think it was the most well-rounded game we've played (despite Barry getting soundly beaten). Buchanan is a master at working hard, and it's hard not to be impressed with him. The forward line worked well (7 straight for Bazza!) and while others drifted in and out of the game, there were few players with little impact.

Other random comments -
At 3 quarter time Dempster had 15 mins game time. WTF? It's like playing with 21 men.
LRT impressed me tonight. Works hard, never shirks a contest and had some important last quarter touches. Wasn't playing on the best opponent, but didn't let Holland get away with floating into the backline to help out. If only he'd converted.

Schneider's role was interesting...perhaps attempting to make him more accountable. Don't think he did badly, but didn't have a huge influence on the game. Can't remember Davey scoring too many at all.

Wished Schauble was in there tonight. Leo was getting beaten, and would have loved another option.

Luke Ablett faded in and out of the game a bit, but he is so valuable when he gets boot to ball at the centre clearance. Almost always sends it inside 50, and allows the forwards a chance to beat their opponents, or at least make a contest without crowding their space.

Can't wait for next week!

[Glenn]

Interesting to hear Walls now Sydney are playing good football
"I always knew they could play it, thats why I said what I did earlier in the season"

[satchmopugdog]

I thought B2 was fantastic as he completely negated Russell Robertson who usually saves his best games for us andbreaks my heart. This time all his relations from Penguin 12 kms down the road can't give me any stick. Bring on Monday.

P.S. LRT played a good game with Robert Walls saying Ben Holland shouldn't go down and help in defence as every time he did LRT would get the ball.

I can go to bed knowing the Gods are in their right places.

What about that free kick Barry Hall didn't get in the last quarter!!!!!!!!!!!

[barry]

Originally posted by NMWBloods
Yep - 'the best' is probably the best description.

Yep.

B]
I was just very unimpressed with Schneider - waited for the ball and didn't commit to contests, was poor on Davey and did nothing when he got the ball. [/B]

I thought Schneider did ok. Did some handy things, while not really being involved. I think he will take a lot from this game and may stay in the side for the rest of the year. There is a pretty big step up in tempo from 2's to AFL and that game was high tempo.
Face it, its has good a senior game as he's played all year!

[Mark]

I know he did not get much game time, and it has been said before but Malceski:

@@@@ that boy can kick a football

Never leaves chest height and hits the player square every time.

More game time please

Best win of the season by a long distance, worst game from leo by a long distance.

[NMWBloods]

I'll watch the game properly tomorrow and see whether my grabs of Schneider's performance were accurate or I just happened to see the bad bits.

[satchmopugdog]

My heart bleed for Leo. Neitz got his confidence up with a 50/50 decision and didn't look back. Made me realise he was a deserving winner of the Coleman medal a few years back.

[barry]

Originally posted by Mark
I know he did not get much game time, and it has been said before but Malceski:

@@@@ that boy can kick a football

Never leaves chest height and hits the player square every time.

More game time please

Best win of the season by a long distance, worst game from leo by a long distance.

Couldnt agree more. What kept the demons in the game early on was that when they got the footy clear it was 2 or 3 clean kicks to leads, then shot at goal. While we miss targets, kick to contests, bounce it in.

Probably not this year, but in years to come Malceski will be one of our quality driving midfielders.

[hammo]

It is always pleasing to see such an good all round contribution. Very few bad players tonight.

Thought Buchanan was excellent, as was Goods, Jolly and Ball. Ablett is turning into a star for us and thought Fosdike was also good again.

Shauble should be in the 22 to cover for nights like tonight when Leo is off his game.

[dimelb]

Originally posted by cruiser

Dunno what Roos is thinking taking LRT into our fwd line (FFS - his two misses for goal were dreadful) and Schneider in defence.

LRT's spell in the forward line was interesting - it seemed to upset Melbourne's balance for a while, and I couldn't call his misses dreadful when Magic, of all people, hit the post from a better angle and shorter distance.
As for Schneider as a small defender, I suspect that Roos was trying to resurrect some of our run out of defence. Didn't work because Schneids imho is inclined to lairise and needs to get rid of the balll quicker against such a tight marking side as Melbourne. Maybe he is worth trying down back for a bit, but I'd rather see him crumbing up front. Mind you, as we saw tonight, Baz can do his own crumbing!

[apincombe]

The umpiring deteriorated in the last. That charge on Hall and then at the other end a guess as to Barry's handball and calling it a throw could have swung the game. Very vital decissions, But the boys were up to the task andplayed the ball hard and eventually got their own breaks.

[Nico]

Craig Bolton - a seriously good game.

[punter257]

i cant wait to watch the full game tomorrow, sounds like a good team effort by the boys and 8 from our last 10 is pretty damn good, imagine if we stole the richmond game

looking forward to the west coast game

[SimonH]

The way things are panning out, I should really extend my stay in Russia. Me being here is obviously a good luck charm.

Having missed the boards for the last few weeks but having seen the media reports of the matches, it'd be interesting to see whether the many thousands of Fosdike-haters are revising their opinion.

It is very sad that all talk of 'inappropriate matchups' and Schauble has been ditched, and Sydney are seemingly making it clear that they don't want him any more. A pretty awful end for a deserving B&F winner who has barely put a foot wrong since.

That said, looking at the line-up for today's game compared with when we were playing iffy footy earlier in the year, it's basically the same with just some tinkering around the edges. More or less the same players in the same positions doing the same jobs, with Paul Williams being the only crucial addition. So it's great that the fellas are seemingly getting more out of themselves.