Your boys had a red hot crack Grump but ran out of puff due to having only 2 on the bench on a hot evening. They were very good and Barnard will take a lot out of it. A big wrap for your Robertson…BOG for mine and showed why he came to Perth last year with such a high profile…he was terrific. Overall Grump it was a good game of footy in front of a decent crowd with plenty of spirit shown by both sides.
Agree with what you said BC, EP losing those 2 players made a big difference. Ep started really well, their pace, run and spread had us a 6’s & 7’s, we looked slow and would not man up when they had the ball, Putt, Kitch and Marsh were doing well but the backs seemed out of sync. We managed 2 very late goals so only trailed by a couple at 1/4 time. Putt battled manfully against EP 2 big fellas but had more influence when Jones copped what looked like a bad corky and sat out the rest of the game. Things got very willing when I think it was Stainsby copped a late one after the kick and it was an all-in brawl. EP’s Dobson must have run 60m to get involved, kick given down the ground was taken quickly before the umps could intervene and make another silly decision to reverse, which is what the EP boys were after. Flared up again after a bad tackle by a Subi player left the EP boy dazed and he didn’t come back on, didn’t look good so the Subi boy might be looking at a holiday. We started to close down their run and the backs tightened up so by halftime we had closed to within a point after being 4 goals down in the first. We dominated the 3rd qtr but could not convert that to goals, we had the ball in our forward line for what seemed like 75% of the qtr, had 18 more inside 50’s for the game, the only stat we won all day. Managed to get a 2 goal lead by 3/4 time but the EP boys were looking tired due to only 2 on the bench. especially big Ajang which allowed Putt to have more influence, he’s a real player and will get better as the season progresses, so good to gave a real ruckman at last. The last qtr was more of the same, as we dominated a spent EP team but still only 4 goals to 2 so credit to the EP mids and backs for sticking at it, would have come down to the wire if they had a full bench all day.
For us, Kitch and Marsh were terrific all day in the mids, Putt battled against the odds all day and did well, Heal was a success at CHF, Braut was good when he went forward, such a powerful player, often had 2 or 3 blokes hanging off him and still got the ball away, his 3 goals plus Sok’s and Heals 3 each meant we had multiple targets up forward, Dela was busy but not dominant, Clark was solid and Stainsby showed plenty of dash. Solid team performance but we will need to lift significantly and be more effective and efficient with our inside 50’s if we are to get close to raging flag favourites Souths and also Claremont and Perth.
EP have a very good mix of talls and smalls plus a few real hard nuts that will keep all teams honest this season.
Nice summary SS.
Have to say a huge thanks to the Subi contributors for their commentary, it is really appreciated when some many are willing contribute in a sensible and supportive way, Thnx
Just following your lead Grump.
Great start and for a fair while it looked good - some quite talented youth in your ranks or coming through which is beneficial long term
Well if the VFL doesn’t pick the midseason eyeballs out of it all anyway
Pretty good signs overall