Surprise of the night was.....A Smith

[maverick]

I thought he was excellent too.
Although slight, I thought his body was OK enough to handle the rough and tumble of AFL, thought I read elsewhere he wasn't physcially ready?

[SaintHomer]

Was great

feel sorry for him as we have a settled team

who will he replace

but looks promising

should and will keep the likes of milne honest... which is a good thing

[Con Gorozidis]

Hate to pump up my own tires.... but this is from the 9th of March 2009

I would like to finish up with a bit of a rap for Alistair Smith, he probably impressed me most this afternoon. I believed that he was an athlete first and a footballer second, but after today I believe he is a competitor first and everything else next. He DEMANDED the ball, he was on of it no the most vocal player out there and he really surprised me. In one of the little training exercises they were practicing how to kick it to a contest in a zone, there were 3 attacking players and 2 players playing a zone defence, the point of the exercise was to hit your man in the zone but he would actually wait for players to make their leads or go out wide because he NEEDED to hit his target, everytime he was an attacker he'd give a loud clap when one of his team mate won the ball. He eventually got a speaking to from who I assume was Leigh Tudor about the point of the exercising being to try and kick it in the hole in the zone. But it was just so great to see a guy that really loves to compete and win. His skills were good enough and we all know he has the fitness and speed to play AFL, I now know he's got the attitude, I really hope he can develop into a good young player, I believe he may just need to put a bit of development into his decision making and ability to read the game but IMO he could very well have a future.

hats off to you. well done. your description sounds exactly like he played last night.

[SainterK]

Hate to pump up my own tires.... but this is from the 9th of March 2009

Liar

[Armoooo]

Hate to pump up my own tires.... but this is from the 9th of March 2009

Liar

[evertonfc]

Hate to pump up my own tires.... but this is from the 9th of March 2009

I would like to finish up with a bit of a rap for Alistair Smith, he probably impressed me most this afternoon. I believed that he was an athlete first and a footballer second, but after today I believe he is a competitor first and everything else next. He DEMANDED the ball, he was on of it no the most vocal player out there and he really surprised me. In one of the little training exercises they were practicing how to kick it to a contest in a zone, there were 3 attacking players and 2 players playing a zone defence, the point of the exercise was to hit your man in the zone but he would actually wait for players to make their leads or go out wide because he NEEDED to hit his target, everytime he was an attacker he'd give a loud clap when one of his team mate won the ball. He eventually got a speaking to from who I assume was Leigh Tudor about the point of the exercising being to try and kick it in the hole in the zone. But it was just so great to see a guy that really loves to compete and win. His skills were good enough and we all know he has the fitness and speed to play AFL, I now know he's got the attitude, I really hope he can develop into a good young player, I believe he may just need to put a bit of development into his decision making and ability to read the game but IMO he could very well have a future.

Great call...

Nice to see he's made on good on all that potential

[Bardon Saint]

With no early picks last year and a disruption in the draft process with GC and GWS, it is pleasing that we have a few boys developing well. Looking ahead from the Harvey/Hayes/ball midfield we'll have Armitage/Steven/Smith to hopefully carry us for the next 10 years. They all seem very capable. It looks like Smith maybe a bit of a surprise packet this year and challenge Armo along with Steven for that 'Ball' position.