Rate the new & newish 1st grade Bloods

[SCGonasunnyday]

I thought Moore was fantastic and often did great work in getting centre clearances. Stats show he got 5 equal with Bolton (5) and behind only Kirk (6).

Jack and Barlow also I thought were great. Mattner had a great game and is deservedly named as one of our best - he made a couple of errors which were noticeable on tv but at the ground you could see he was everywhere and a big reason our defence was so miserly last night.

Bird had only 7 possessions but no clangers and two centre clearances. I think he is doing enough and of course there is enormous upside given his age and experience.

[barry]

Jack..Kerr almost gave up by 3/4 time. Combine this with Power last week. Jack is the most exciting youngster at the moment.
Bird..Handy. Will be in and out of seniors for the year. Looks very good though.
Barlow...Good, but he's no Goodes and I dont think ever will be. In best 22 now.
Moore..Hard at it, tough, but doesnt have the polish of a "star" yet. In best 22.
Brennan...Looked really good last night. Kicking is dodgy, but some play was good.
Mattner... greater than the combined skill of dempster and Schneider. Top pick up

[2005]

Crackers would surely be close to a Rising Star Nomination on his job last night. He has really improved and looks the part and more importantly looks comfortable at the elite level now.
Will probably be the wrong week though with the Barry Hall thing.
Luke Brennan was pretty good last night as well, Has to be given another crack at it before Grundy.
Moorey was quite last night, that happens though.
Cheese was Ok , 2 nice goals and footskills were good.
Birdy was thereabouts and has another game under his belt.
Best test for our young kids next week.

[liz]

Pretty sure Bird played on Braun for much of the game - another seasoned Eagle who had next to no impact.

[cruiser]

One of Jack's solid tackles last night would have had his father beaming proudly. I cant praise Jack enough at the moment. Barlow likewise. You've gotta be thrilled about the performance of all of our youngsters so far this season.

Brennan, however, isnt a youngster and no matter what else he did last night, his kicking on occassion was inexcusably diabolical.

PS Have just looked at the match player stats and see that Jack made 9 tackles for the game, 4 more than the next players (ROK and Moore) on 5.

[NMWBloods]

Pretty sure Bird played on Braun for much of the game - another seasoned Eagle who had next to no impact.

I thought Ablett was on Braun?

[Reggi]

Bird could probably do with some reserves weeks at this time in his career, wasn't at the game cannot attest to his tag

Brennan needs to work on his decision making but worth persisting with

[mcs]

Brennan did ok but his kicking is so pathetic it really is diabolical. Unless that improves he simply isnt part of our 22. But Id like to see him given another go last week, as he did defend quite well I thought.

Bird had his best game so far I thought, he is not quite at AFL speed yet but his decision making/general play is at least 3x better then rd 1 and he is getting better every week.

Barlow works hard round the ground and is a good kick for goal when he wants to be as well. Very impressed again by him and he gets in and works hard.

Moore again impressed me- granted he was a bit quiet in patches but did some really good stuff in and around tough contested footy. He looks very promising to me.

And then their is Jack. Well I cant say enough to say how impressed I am with him. He gets better and better every week and he pissed Kerr off no end last night with an excellent tagging effort. This combined with some good solid work when we had the ball, and some absolutely fantastic tackling (There was one absolute bottler of a tackle at one stage). He is going to be superb I believe and a real star.

What impresses me about the young blokes though is the way that they are playing together and not only a bunch of individuals trying to get themselves a permanent spot in the team. They are looking out for each other and already are developing an excellent understanding between each other. And they have also managed to life the rest of the team and thus a lot of the older blokes are really playing some good footy. Its all bodes well for a really good season this year, and if some of our other younger blokes can step up over the next couple of years as well, then the foundations of a really good young team.

[BSA5]

I doubt Jack will get a Rising Star nomination this round, as taggers don't tend to get rewarded with that sort of thing, but he definitely deserves it. Fantastic game. At the ground, it seemed to me that Kerr got most of his possessions during the period in the third quarter when Jack was moved off him (why he was moved off him in the first place, I'm not sure). Kerr got four or five quick possessions, I think, before Jack was moved back onto him for the rest of the game. From that point on, barely a peep was heard.

Barlow looks by far his most dangerous as a tall forward. There's something, dare I say it, Franklin-esque about him when he plays forward. However, he has a much better kick than Franklin. Exciting times, very exciting.

Moore continues to impress. Hard at it, quick enough, skills are decent, but the lines he runs, the way he takes on tacklers and bursts through packs, are the most exciting things about him. Like Schneider and Buchanan combined, with better footskills. Could be a superstar, most likely will just be a very solid contributor.

Bird had his best game by far in terms of ball-usage and decision making. He also put in a fair bit of work around the ground. He didn't find as much of the ball as he has previously, only picking up 7 possessions, so not his best game overall, but that was just a bad night. Maybe his direct opponent (not sure who it was) had a good night, and he just suffered as a result. BUT, in every game so far this year, his decision making, skills, and general adjustment to the speed of the top level has increased markedly. If he can use the ball as well as he did on Saturday, and get as much of the ball as he has previously, he will really begin to step up to the same sort of level that Moore has stepped up to.

[ScottH]

Great to see Moore, Bird and Jack starting to take control.

Excellent games from the 3 of them. Is this the beginning of our new era?

[Nico]

Great to see Moore, Bird and Jack starting to take control.

Excellent games from the 3 of them. Is this the beginning of our new era?

Jack did a good job on Stanton who hardly had a sniff, but what I notice about him is his passes drop metres short of his target because he doesn't seem to kick through the footy. He needs some oomph into his kicks to make his target.

[ScottH]

Jack did a good job on Stanton who hardly had a sniff, but what I notice about him is his passes drop metres short of his target because he doesn't seem to kick through the footy. He needs some oomph into his kicks to make his target.

A bit like P Kelly!!

Your right Nico, but the kids played a handful (or 2) games, so he can only get better.