IntraClub Practice Match

[joffaboy]

A couple of things. Hutchins didnt play. Kallan Geary wore his number. There was no where near 10000 there. Maybe 3-4000 thousand. And finally on Milne. Wouldnt take any notice of a stupid intra club game. If he plays well during the season he will play in finals or do we say Milney you have kicked 20 in the last 4 weeks but we are dropping you now as the finals start next week. Not going to happen.

Tend to agree - 3000 maybe.

Milne looked slow but was only an intra club.

I pulled the trigger on Milne after the GF, but have since been told his GF (apart from him missed shots) was pretty good - dont know cause i wont rewatch that game.

I thought a couple of positives P66 was Roo having no strapping on knees or shoulders aqnd kicking a lazy 6, Steven's form, and Peake's pace (although he will have to get the Freo tunover out of his game)

[InkerSaint]

I liked the look of Will Johnson and Paul Cahill. Promising.

Jack Steven looks ready to tear games apart.

Ross Lyon was shown after the NAB Cup game last night talking up Roo and Peake, and fair comment too.

Will post photos up. Surprised nobody else has done it yet.

[goodie]

Could not make it last night................

did Pattison play?

He did. He got very little time in the ruck, Gardiner, King and McEvoy were the main ruckmen, Stanley definitely had a go, don't remember seeing him.

Around the ground he bobbed up once or twice, most memorably for an inadvisable play on where he was over-thought it and was then caught holding the ball

[InkerSaint]

[saintsRrising]

Thanks for the pics.

Kosi looks like he may have built up a bit.

[SainterK]

I think Kosi has, he had trained before the gates opened...

Here is some more pictures.

http://images.slatterymedia.com/photogr ... ults/?q=st kilda&sub_code=all&page=1

Wow, who writes up the names for the official photo's....Geary has managed to pass as both Baker and Eddy.

[Solar]

Agree with most that has been posted.

Raph ran off after the first quarter with a hammy twinge but it looked alright and might be pre-cautionary at worst. Didn't pull it and might come up next week IMO.

Lots of talent off the field yet the stantdard was pretty good. Armo was very good with little help. Did alot of things in close that could be missed and was pushing hard.

mcenvoy just got better as the game went on and should push for round 1 selection. Gards looked a little sore but I don't think he will ever be 100% again.

geary impressed me and shrugged some tackles, bigger stronger body now. Peake is very quick and seems to work well off the ball. You could tell the senior players because they just knew where to go to find the ball. Blake is such an important player because he reads the play so well. Made walsh look like a 15 year old kid with his reading of the play.

but the story for the day was how well roo was moving. He is back to the fitness that saw him carve it up a couple of years ago. Add experience, muscle to that equation and he will push ablett for best player honours.

Special mention to the club, it's staff and volunteers. They got it organised 2 hours before the game, had the street and staff parking cordoned off. Very professional and impressive!

[Milan Faletic]

A couple of things. Hutchins didnt play. Kallan Geary wore his number. There was no where near 10000 there. Maybe 3-4000 thousand. And finally on Milne. Wouldnt take any notice of a stupid intra club game. If he plays well during the season he will play in finals or do we say Milney you have kicked 20 in the last 4 weeks but we are dropping you now as the finals start next week. Not going to happen.

Thanks p66, re-edited my post for you. Anything positive to say about it or just keep correcting it if you want

[ballbaker]

doe anyone know who the ring in player who looked a litle like aaron fiora was? played in various nos. 16, 33 and others.

[AnythingsPossibleSaints]

Jack Steven looked really good, was hitting targets as well as anyone i thought. Found it interesting that he was in the yellow with the rest of the best 22, whilst Armitage was not. Whether that means anything or not, i dunno, but Armitage seemed to be very vocal out there which is a good sign that hes trying to step it up to the next level.

The tall guys, like Gaertner and Stanley did some nice things i thought, just the quick pick ups and speed impressed me for such tall guys.

Maybe they wanted Armo to go head to head with the likes of CJ, etc, to see where he's at and to speed up his development. They probably wouldn't have learned much if they put him in the yellow team, against someone like Alistair Smith. It also meant he was able to go head to head with Steven, to see who did better.
Armo came over near us to sign autographs and has a seriously built upper-body. His upper arms are huge.
Rhys Stanley showed genuine speed when he was near us, but is very lightly-framed. He'll hopefully compliment Big Mac very well down the track. Mac providing the bulk, with Stanley there to go up against the thinner, more quick and athletic guys, like Paddy Ryder. I doubt Stanley will ever bulk up much.

[On the Bench]

doe anyone know who the ring in player who looked a litle like aaron fiora was? played in various nos. 16, 33 and others.

Jonno Nash, now with Sandringham played. It could easily have been him. How did he play?

Plugger66 did you go? If so, did you know how Jonno went. I only have family reports, so they're a bit biased.

[savatage]

Thanks for the pics.

Kosi looks like he may have built up a bit.

Really? I walked past Kosi & to me it looks like he barely touches the weights!

[saintsRrising]

Thanks for the pics.

Kosi looks like he may have built up a bit.

Really? I walked past Kosi & to me it looks like he barely touches the weights!

Not saying he looks huge..just that he looks bigger.

[saintsRrising]

Thought Lenny was ok

In today's (Feb 13) paper it has Ross the Boss saying:

* definitely not a stress fracture
* is a calf twinge...but did not stop him training for over an hour pre-game
* that if it had been an AFL match that he would have played.

[ballbaker]

thanks "on the bench", was definitely jonno nash. looks a really likely type.
can't believe he is not even rookie listed

[Thinline]

Typical intra club. Not great positives but hardly any negatives as well apart from Raph hurting his hammy. Walsh will not play this year unless he is a very quick learner. Schneider played on the ball. Chips up forward. At least 8 stars missing.

Hammy again for Clarke?

Just for a change.

For christ's sake, are the made of freakin tissue paper????

[On the Bench]

thanks "on the bench", was definitely jonno nash. looks a really likely type.
can't believe he is not even rookie listed

Thanks Ballbaker.

He was pretty damned excited to be asked to join in yesterday.

He's over the disappointment (nearly) of not being picked up by an AFL side.

There's always next year.

[vacuous space]

I got there at half time. I was a bit disappointed to see Armo in green, especially with the number of best-22 players who missed. I thought he was clearly BOG for the Greens (not that it means much). Jack Steven was flying. Can't wait to see him in a NAB game.

Roo's a monster. He looked like he could have dominated with a blindfold on. I think Archer was on him when I got there. Poor kid.

[bergholt]

Thanks for all the great reports.

I got there at half time. I was a bit disappointed to see Armo in green, especially with the number of best-22 players who missed. I thought he was clearly BOG for the Greens (not that it means much). Jack Steven was flying.

Yeah, that's interesting to me that Steven was a probable, Armo only a possible. Sounds like Steven's already gone past Armo...

I presume none of the players are red-green colour blind like me? Because all those jumpers look the same colour from where I'm sitting.

Did big Blake McGrath get a run? Should be easy to pick him out at a couple of inches taller than Kingy. And how about Ali Smith and Heyne? Haven't heard much about them either.

[saintsRrising]

In the NAB I am hoping that Armo and Steven will be given a large amount of midfield time to test them out...and give them more practice at the highest level.

We know what we will get from our more experienced mids...so what I want to see, is this two in particular used for a large % of time in the midfield....along with Geary and Peake.

[St Loxton]

Thanks for the pics, wish i could have been there

[BackFromUSA]

was jonno nash the kid with the scraggy blondish hair? if so he showed some real flashes of good creative footy when wearing 33 and looks like he could be a player

and 43 ... who i thought was Hutchings but now i find out was Geary Jnr showed the second and third efforts i like to see

both should at least be rookies ... shame ... they were the best of the rest.

my thoughts on fringe players:

- Peake is a walk up to this team at the moment
- Steven - has stepped up and is starting 22
- Armitage - has stepped up and is starting 22
- McEvoy beat King and on that game is #2 ruck
- Geary is more ready for AFL this year - should be in best 22
- Raph Clarke was out of touch and then injured (sigh)
- Stanley is being groomed to be a centre half forward as well as ruck
- Heyne looks more solid and more disciplined
- Pattison is no more than a back up if 2 rucks are injured at same time
- Tommy Walsh is a work in progress (long way to go)
- Will Johnson is a real propect
- Alistair Smith runs well and to right spots but lacks an AFL ready body
- Paul Cahill ... had a severe lack of supply but showed he can present
- Daniel Archer ... had obviously upset Ross the Boss and got Nick R
- Luke Miles is a prospect as a rebounding half back but can get lost
- Leigh Fisher could be a handy rookie if we have a deep injury list

[Milan Faletic]

I think Kosi has, he had trained before the gates opened...

Here is some more pictures.

http://images.slatterymedia.com/photogr ... ults/?q=st kilda&sub_code=all&page=1

Wow, who writes up the names for the official photo's....Geary has managed to pass as both Baker and Eddy.

I got a photo with Kosi and even his head was twice the size of mine and I'm 188cm. McEvoy is huge, I had to stand on my toes with him.

[vacuous space]

Yeah, that's interesting to me that Steven was a probable, Armo only a possible. Sounds like Steven's already gone past Armo...

p66, love him or hate him, kind of called that a while ago. I don't think it's a case of Steven being better - just different. Since Elshaug took over from Rock we've been much more likely to play smaller running types than extractor types (hi, Luke Ball!). Rock was all about turning big bodied players into midfielders. He did it at North last year too.

I think there's room for both. We'll see how it shakes out. They both looked AFL standard yesterday, but ours is a very tough team to crack.

[Quixote]

Personally I think the reasoning behind playing Armitage in the opposing team was to gauge how he goes against top notch opposition. And from all reports, he did pretty well.

More a positive than a negative I'd say.