Good Signs from Young Guys and a few returning

[Sam23]

Despite not meaning a lot tonight other than be able to stay on the big grounds and on TV it was good to see

Ledger, Smith, Johnson, Cripps, Crocker, Armitage, Clarke, Gamble, Lynch all good signs.

Good too see, I think we will see a bit of youth injected into the side this year.


Gamble was great really - exactly what we need - we look for anything in the NAB Cup and I think Gamble and Walsh are the two biggest plusses tonight.

[SainterK]

+1

Too many kids in the 30's number range though

[fingers]

How did Cripps do?

[savatage]

How did Cripps do?

Very lively in the first game. Rested for the second.

[Sam23]

He had 5 or 6 touches in the first 15 minutes of the first half and then was seemingly subbed off.

Didn't play the second match.

Looked good I thought - got a penetrating kick.

[savatage]

He had 5 or 6 touches in the first 15 minutes of the first half and then was seemingly subbed off.

Didn't play the second match.

Looked good I thought - got a penetrating kick.

Shared the ball around well too & did a number of clever quick things, like blocks behind the play. I was impressed - it was great seeing the 35 going around again.

[InkerSaint]

Crocker put his amazing left foot to good use at least 3 times and was in plenty of the traffic.

Lynch was all over the ground. If he'd held onto a couple of those marks inside 50 you'd swear Riewoldt had dyed his hair red.

[Sam23]

Archer tried hard as well, looks raw but was throwing his body around and getting to as many contests as possible.

Shame we lost the lead towards the end in the second game it was still a very positive night and at least we can see our guys on the big grounds again next week.

[savatage]

Crocker put his amazing left foot to good use at least 3 times and was in plenty of the traffic.

Lynch was all over the ground. If he'd held onto a couple of those marks inside 50 you'd swear Riewoldt had dyed his hair red.

Lynchy normally has neat disposal. He's a bit lumbering with his movement as a negative. Not a smooth mover. Tried his guts out & kept presenting & linking. Overall a definite improvement in his development!

One grab D. Archer took made him look like a Riewoldt clone!

[St Chris]

Crocker looked to have great skills, but was a bit slow with decision making and disposal. Not knocking the guy, just an observation. This will certainly improve with time in the system.

[saintnick12]

Crocker looked to have great skills, but was a bit slow with decision making and disposal. Not knocking the guy, just an observation. This will certainly improve with time in the system.

Agree, but I also noticed he didn't seem to let this bother him too much and had plenty of second and third efforts.

Great signs.

[lefty]

crocker has a really big nice kick, was clam too.
ledger was really good too, was the reason for our last goal

Cripps was alright, didn't see as much of him, didn't play as much as the other two.

[DWOODROW]

Was I the only one impressed with ledger?

[savatage]

Was I the only one impressed with ledger?

Definitely not! At 4 foot nothing, there isn't much of him - but he is a natural footballer. With confidence at the higher level, he could be a gun!

[avid]

I think I'm going to like Sam Crocker a lot.
And Ledger was very impressive.

[DWOODROW]

Definately knows how to find the footy.

[savatage]

Shame we won't see Sipposs in this series! I wonder if Jackson Ferguson can get a game next time.

[saintnick12]

Saw great signs from all three draftees - all three looked likely types. Crocker looked great and also very impressed with Ledger, especially as he was a lower pick. Liked the look of Cripps too though we didn't see as much of him as the others. It's easy to see why Ross has been mentioning Cripps and Crocker all summer. Cripps was very quick too.

Loved seeing Gamble doing well. I also liked the fact that two of his goals were scored in opportunistic ways. Our forward line will be nothing like it was tonight come the season as most of them were out, but it was great to see him do so well first up.

[The OtherThommo]

Seems most have skipped over the Irish. I thought he was more than useful, and showed strength borne composure a number of times (and good hands in close).

The fella is a monster, with great attitude and a development path that has a bullet next to his name.

All this s***'s great. Kids and wierd draft paths.

To all those waiting for us to collapse - read it and weep, we're here for the long haul.

I'm rapt with what I saw tonight, as meaningless as it was.

[goddardisgod]

Question is, with 3 players less next week, plus Roo, Gilbo, Schneids, Lenny, Jones and Ray to come back (I'ld also assume Polo will get a run at some point) who misses out?

[InkerSaint]

So many good performances, probably my only disappointment was being a little underwhelmed by Winmar.

At least 8 or more players must be in genuine contention for spots. If the medical room stays quiet we are going to have some serious depth this year.

[bigred]

Pretty happy all up.

I did not expect us to win a game. Not bad for our first hit out.

Draftees as a whole look alright.

Archer, with that haircut looks like a character out of Futurama. He goes for the pill though.

Not reading much into Gamble's four goals. Did ok. Will get a chance for sure.

Mids stopped early in the second half of the dons game. Not really good enough. Was happy enough with Armo. He looks fit. Needs to run the game out though. I hope he takes his chances this year.

Walsh was good. Clean. Looked a bit awkward kicking but he got his own ball. Looks much more comfortable reading the play now.

First round of the NAB cup. Take it for what it is. That was really just our intra club. The kids got a run. I think we do have some depth there.

[ando051]

I liked what i saw from the kids, I did not like Mcqualter in the centre, not enough pace. Grammy looked like he had a bit more penetration in his kicking compared to last year. We had some good signs from our first game of the year, and with at least 8 of our starting side missing thing can only get better.

[Zed]

Lynch is not far off our best 22 - just needs to focus on holding his marks.

Walsh has improved, in particular his 'footy smarts' - but I would have liked to see him tried up forward.

Crocker, Ledger and Cripps showed glimpses

Johnson and Archer will be found wanting as the tempo of the games picks up in the coming weeks

I havent formed an opinion on Smith just yet. Hope we get to see more of him.

Of the senior players, Raph looked good. Fingers crossed he stays injury free. Dempster looked clean. McQualter is a waste of space. I'm not convinced Gamble is the missing link just yet, need to see how he backs up over the coming month. But you couldnt really have expected much more than what he produced.

[AnythingsPossibleSaints]

Plenty of really good signs. As I said at least once last year, we will hopefully be better this year than last, with the likes of McEvoy, Armo, Smith, Walsh, Stanley, Steven (and now Gamble and possibly Ledger, Cripps, Crocker) giving us a lot more depth and putting a lot more pressure on those in the starting 22 for spots. A lot of them will be much more ready this year. That is only going to make us stronger. (The "mental scarring" could offset that, though, unfortunately).
Really impressed with Tommy Walsh. Pretty much everything he did was perfectly good and I absolutely love his attitude and the way he goes about it. He throws himself in there like there's no tomorrow and seemed really keen to run forward and attack at every opportunity. Very much looking forward to seeing him playing up the ground a bit and hopefully up forward sometime soon. He didn't look out of place at all.
Another one that I was really happy with was Gamble, who was impressive on the lead and on the stretch overhead and showed he knows where the goals are. He's ready to go and could be exactly what we need up forward.
Also liked what I saw from Big Ben. He looks driven and ready to produce the goods consistently. Love those hands in marking contests.