Player Summaries Tonight

[doggerel]

I liked the 3 brief glimpses of Eljay Connors I saw. Made 100% of each disposal in a tricky situation. Just seemed to have that clarity of thought and extra time that many players don;t. One to watch.

[Sobraz]

I liked the 3 brief glimpses of Eljay Connors I saw. Made 100% of each disposal in a tricky situation. Just seemed to have that clarity of thought and extra time that many players don;t. One to watch.

agree 100%.. Eljay was my highlight of the night... Only got a few possies, but moved really well, had plenty of time and guts and did all the right things... Is a really good size too... We must remember he is still very young....

IMO will push for senior selection this year... Looks a really likely type..

Unlike others, I wasn't so happy with Geary... Got alot of it, but just seemed rushed and paniced abit... Dont think Miles has what it take to make it either..

For mine, the kids that will push their way into the team this year are Heyne, Steven and Eljay... McEvoy should make ground also this year...

[meher baba]

I think I must have been watching a different game last night to the one some of you seem to have seen.

First of all, unlike many on here, I was surprisingly impressed by Jones last night.

He looked a lot more confident than he did last season, and his disposal by hand was heaps better (no more looping handpasses). He still can't kick, and I still think he is no better than a backup player, but I thought he was ok.

I also thought McQualter was ok: and also looked a lot more confident. For those who are bagging his game: have you ever seen the much-heralded Armitage play a better one?

Geary impressed me as well - was one of our best IMO - as did Eddy for the brief time before he was injured. They too both looked more confident. Steven and Connor went ok too.

Apart from Geary, our best players, expectedly, were BJ, Milne, Ball and Sam Fisher. Raph went ok: posters on here should stop judging players on the basis of their making one or two stuff-ups, and start looking at the whole game they played.

I saw Raph do lots of good things (kicked a goal, saved another couple, set up some forward raids) and a couple of stuff ups. Gilbert, on the other hand, did bugger all even though he seemed to be on the field a lot of the time.

Dal is another case in point. His disposals were below par, but he kept presenting and he got lots of ball, as did Gwilt for that matter (but his disposals were even worse).

Disappointments?

Gilbert, as I mentioned before: where has the Gilbert of 2007 gone?

Farren Ray: will need to do more to make me think he deserves a spot in our top 22.

Gardi: was a waste of salary cap space in 2007, ditto in 2008 and looks set to be the same in 2009.

McEvoy: has clearly got some talent, but he's more of a 2011 or 2012 proposition by the look of it, so we will need to be patient.

Dawson and Howard didn't excite, but they are only rookies.

I just can't see why some on here get excited about Miles: to me he's just a run of the mill VFL player with average skills and a bit of pace.

All in all: a practice game, with half of our frontline players out, and yet still we almost won. Brisbane ran off us into spaces a lot, but that's what you would expect when you are rotating your players as much as we did. Apart from their general tackling and endeavour, I thought that the Lions looked to be a pretty poor outfit and I feel sorry for Black, Brown and Bradshaw coming back into that lineup.

[Batnoe]

2 King- Solid as usual, dominated hitouts against inexperienced Lions combination. Showed he should be able to hold down no.1 ruck spot in 2009.
5 McEvoy- Nice early grab but quiet otherwise. Glimpses of promise, but a long way to go.
6 L.Fisher- Contested well, but far from damaging. Nothing to write home about.
14 Ball- Nothing special, but courageous as usual.
15 M.Gardiner- Some good signs, but slow to react. Not sure he's in our best 22, King and Kosi may be better Ruck options.
16 R.Clarke- Hope this was an abberation, because it looked like the bad old days. Lacked poise as he has in the past.
17 Begley- A trier but quiet.
18 Goddard- One of our best, should be played forward. Strength and class shone through.
19 Gilbert- Best on the half-back line, Goddard a better option up forward. Good at times.
21 Heyne- Very impressive, did some nice things.
22 Ray- Quiet and not all that accountable. Did a couple of courageous things though.
25- S.Fisher- Not his best game, but had little help down back.
26- Dal Santo- Same old. Class but not enough drive or impact.
27 Blake- Same story as Chips.
30- Howard- Little game time and will need to improve substantialy on what he dished up.
31 Maguire- Promising, took a couple of good grabs, and could well settle into our back six yet.
32 McQualter- Put his body on the line but didn't do much.
33 Gwilt- Poor really, sloppy and not damaging.
34 Steven- Pretty quiet, did a couple of good things.
37 Connors- Not enough game time for comment.
38 Jones- Barely sighted, don't know how much game time he got.
40 Eddy- All right before injured early.
42 Geary- Very promising, got some grunt and looks a real player.
43 Dawson- Easily our worst. Had the fumbles, gave away frees, and lost marking contests. Won't get a chance with that form.
44 Milne- In our best two or three. Came up with the goods more often than not, we would've lost by 5 goals without him.
45 Miles- A trier with some genuine skill, a significantly better back-up option than Dawson.

Overall in the second half we showed that we can play some good footy when we play vith vigour. Lack of accountability in the first half cost us, as did a fear of adventure. Defence looked a bit worrying, with only Max to come back. We seemed to miss Dempster's composure. Gilbert should be played down back, and Montagna will help.

4/10 for the night, but how much can you take away from a game where both sides were missing multiple stars and we were coached by our assistant.

On Ray- how was he quite? he had 24 possessions

[mad saint guy]

On Ray- how was he quite? he had 24 possessions

Most of those possessions were useless numbers in chains of handballs. I thought Ray went alright, but the stats are meaningless in a game like that. I was most impressed by his first contest. Put his head down and took a solid hit for the team when he could have easily let the opposition get the footy.

[meher baba]

On Ray- how was he quite? he had 24 possessions

Can you remember any of them? Apart from a couple of turnovers, the only ones I can remember were when he was running around in a flap and ended up handballing backwards to a player in a worse position.