It was a mixed bag for me yesterday, the colts lost to a very good WP side.
The reserves won and won well with Brooks, Medhat, Peake and Graham all pressing for the league side. It was a balanced performance with all players doing what was required, the blocks, smothers and overall pressure was very classy.
Only lasted one quarter of the league, went home and watched it on the PC. It was a very workman like performace in the first half bi=ut we just overran WP in the third quarter and seemed to coast home in the last although the rain was a like having a handbrake on.
Some of the stats are interesting and perhaps reflect on a dominate mid field. The backline was very solid with Milner and Regan doing their jobs very well,any time knott is kept to one goal with the Boy limited to 2 shows how well the played individually and collectively.
Would I change anything for our next outing well the players mentioned in the reserves summary and Watts all have to be seriously considered. Brooks for Boules (nothing to do with the work by Adam), Watts for … , Graham for Middleton the output would be the same but Graham offers a bit more.
A good summation, Grump, and it’s great that our reserves team has finally strung together a couple of wins, while hopefully the colts can soon regain their early-season form.
Given the inclement conditions, I thought the quality of the footy the league team produced from midway through the second quarter to midway through the third, booting six unanswered goals at one stage, was our best all season.
We may’ve lost some midfield strength (Mitch Crowden, Angus Schumacher, Michael Randall) in the off-season, and Hamish Brayshaw was missing yesterday through injury, but the likes of Tom North, Liam Tedesco, Zach Raykos and Christian Ameduri certainly thrived in the heavy conditions.
I’m always amazed when I look at the match stats to see just how many possessions Angus Scott accumulates (30 yesterday), while the versatile Jimmy Sturrock also got plenty of the ball.
And Scott Jones (57 hitouts) was his usual imposing self - where would we be without him?
Nice to see Sam van Diemen (four goals) hit the scoreboard after a relatively quiet season thus far, and his fellow small forwards, notably Coby Burgiel, were lively, while Sebit Kuek, Mitch Schofield and Ben Middleton were reliable marking targets up forward given the difficult conditions.
I feared the worst when Tyler Keitel booted the game’s opening goal in the first minute, and while the former Royals colt was influential throughout, I thought Harry Macreadie and Ethan Regan played pretty well on him.
Full credit also to the smaller members of our underrated defence.
I’ve never liked the term “a disappointing crowd”, preferring instead to say I was shocked by how few were in attendance at Leederville Oval yesterday - it was the smallest Perth derby crowd I can remember (and I’ve attended “a few” derbies over the years).
Maybe the enforced “renovations” in the clubhouse kept plenty of the regulars away, while the outer is very much a work-in-progress and provides no shelter on days like yesterday (the ice-cream van attendant would’ve been very lonely).