Reserves Coach Shane Woewodin gives his appraisal of each of the listed Lions who played on Saturday against Aspley.
“Firstly from a team perspective, we had 16 Academy players and only 6 (well, 5 ½ of our listed boys available) on the weekend.
“We had 8 or 9 listed players go down due to injury during the week and had to call on a lot of Academy boys pre-game. It’s never good for our boys to be injured but to give opportunity to our Academy boys was fantastic – to expose a few more ones to NEAFL level.
“We held ourselves well for probably the first two and a half quarters. We only played with 21 men in the first half due to Hugh Beasley only playing half a game (coming back from injury). We decided to hold him over until the second half just to get himself through the game.
“It meant a bit of a difference in how we played the game, particularly early, just to be able to save our legs in the first half, considering we’re a very young team.
“I’m very proud of the group and their efforts and what they were able to achieve even though we went down on the day against probably one of the top three teams in the competition to date in Aspley.”
Josh Clayton
Josh was our highest possession winner as an inside mid with a little bit of time spent up forward. He had his 30 disposals, his 6 tackles, 6 clearances. His contested stuff he’s working really hard on in his game is really improving and it’s good to get him in and around traffic and around the bigger bodies, which he’s not used to. He generally plays as a high forward but he’s certainly learning a bit about the role at a NEAFL level and he found plenty of the footy. Hopefully he can continue his form.
Jarrad Jansen
He came back into the NEAFL team due to a week off as the emergency for the senior team. He was probably our best player on the day, particularly his first half – he had a big impact as an inside mid. He had 28, 15 of those contested, 6 tackles, 6 clearances. He didn’t hit the scoreboard which we would’ve liked him to do when spending time forward but his ability to use his size in and around the contest. To fend players off, be strong with tackles and give our players first use around the contest was pretty good.
Billy Evans
Played as an inside mid also swapping forward in his midfield rotation. He was a bit quiet this day possession wise for Bill, but he still had his 16. Of those 14 were contested. He’s still doing the grunt work inside which is a hallmark of his game. Our inside mids were able to get their hands on it at stoppage and get it going forward. A good thing for Bill was he hit the scoreboard which is important for him. He’s been working really hard on all aspects of his game at the moment.
Trent West
Probably one of our top-two players on the day behind Jarrad. He shouldered the load as our ruckman for the majority of the day. He had 38 hit outs and a lot of them went to advantage. He not only got back into defence and rebounded the footy but also pushed the footy inside 50 as a ruckman and hit the scoreboard too. I thought his presence in and around the contest and in ruck duals was very good for us to be able to give our midfielders first-use.
Jono Freeman
Working back into some form, Jono. He was even better this week compared to last week. He’s been focusing on his aggressive-engage-separate in and around the contest. He took 5 marks, three of them contested. He could’ve clunked a few more, we’re still working on some technical things with his marking. His work rate was a lot higher with his GPS improving again this week. He hit the scoreboard with two goals, but also his follow up and second effort as a key forward was pretty good. He worked in tandem in ruck with Westy. Unfortunately Jono got a poke in the eye late in the game so he didn’t spend the last 20 minutes of the game on the ground. This week he won’t play due to that internal bleeding in his eye. We’ll get Jono for the last game of the year.
Hugh Beasley
First game back from a long term injury (knee). He only played a half, and came on in the second half just to add one listed player to our six or seven Academy boys in our defence and some seniority. It was great for Hugh to be able to get through the game unscathed and just add a bit of an older head to our young boys down there. He had his 8 possessions and three rebound-50s. He looked composed with the ball in hand when he got it. We’re looking to build his game time this week against Sydney.
More on Lions.com.au
Jack Clayton: NEAFL Rising Star
