The Reserves lost to Sydney Uni by 43-points, 8.12 (60) to 16.17 (103), on Sunday at Blacktown.
Please find below Coach Shane Woewodin’s appraisal on each of the listed Lions who played against University.
| Zac O’Brien | A solid contributor for the day. He played as an inside mid for the majority but at times played as a fifth. A really good contested game from Zac – seven clearances and 14 contested possessions. Battled hard all day, he’s starting to focus on a couple of things around stoppage and around scrimmage situations with his handballing. |
| Liam Dawson | Probably one of our best players again on Sunday. Four weeks now where Liam’s been consistent. He took another eight marks, he was very consistent in that area and is really starting to push for senior selection. He was a little bit untidy with his disposal by foot on the weekend and probably lacked a little bit of organisation behind the ball, that’s something he has to work on for the next level. |
| Billy Evans | Inside mid, a really good contested game from Bill. The highest contested possessions for the day, seven clearances – a really good effort which we’re asking a lot from him to do and had 25 disposals. He’s really starting to now work on his offensive game which is pretty good for him as a midfielder. Still a couple of things around take on tackle, which he’s looking to work on but good to see ball in hands for Billy again on the weekend. |
| Tom Cutler | A different role for Tommy, he played as an inside mid and had a job to do on one of their more experienced midfielders. A bit of a mixed bag this week in terms of contest stuff and didn’t work as hard as what we wanted him to. A different role but something certainly very good for his development in the contest side of the game for him. |
| Mitch Golby | Again a different role for Mitch. He played as an inside mid this week rather than outside. Probably not getting the leadership from him from the inside because he provides so much on the outside for us. Probably in his game now it’s just his efficiency by foot. He didn’t use the ball as well this week than he had previous. |
| Josh McGuinness | Probably a step backwards from the previous few weeks, particularly with his disposal. It didn’t feel like he kicked the ball that well and gave it back to the opposition a bit last week. He had nine marks which was great. |
| Hugh Beasley | Played as a key defender, more a gate keeper for us this weekend trying to patrol a young defence. We thought he was OK, solid throughout the game and in the contest, used the ball well. |
| Archie Smith | Better on the weekend from Arch. Better in the ruck, still a few technical things he needs to work on with the ruck but in terms of his offence around the ground, he contributed a lot more. When he gets his hands on it, he’s still working to mark more ball around the ground particularly in contested situations. I thought he had more impact on the game. |
| Josh Clayton | A different role for Josh. Put him back this week to play defence. He did a couple of good things, still got to work hard on his tackling and his ability to work in the air with his contest stuff but certainly he didn’t look out of place and it would have been a great learning curve for his development playing as a defender. |
| Josh Watts | First game back in seven weeks after a groin injury. Only played half a game and came on and played as a wing role – something different. Certainly didn’t look out of place. We felt he used the ball pretty well, he intercepted the ball a couple of times. He played the role really well, now we’re just looking for him to build on that game and continue to build his match fitness back up. |
| Luke McGuane | Started as a wing, his first game back for a long period off (pre-season v. StKilda). Started as a wing, definitely looked short of a gallop but hopefully to build on similar to Wattsy and then played the rest of the game as a forward. He had some opportunities to mark the ball. He could have probably kicked three or four had of he taken those chances but good to have Sticks back as well. |
| Trent West | Westy’s second game back, we gave him a little bit more game time and ruck time. Things to work on as a key forward, he probably didn’t impact the game as well as he would have liked. He didn’t hit the scoreboard and didn’t mark the ball as much as a key forward. Played more ruck time which was handy for Archie and again will continue to build with confidence. |
| Jordon Bourke | Started well, we used him as a key forward again this week before he injured his knee which is really unfortunate. It probably ends his season. He took a couple of catches and hit the scoreboard when he did. It’s going to be a big loss for us with another one in surgery. |
| Matt Hammelmann | Not a good game from Matty. He played as a key back, wasn’t very good in the contest, which is unfortunate. Again a continual learning curve for him, hopefully he took something away from it. Learnt how to be stronger in the contest and we’ll look to continue to develop him in these areas for the next few weeks just to help his game a bit more. |
| Jono Freeman | Second game back for Jono. He had more game time, played three quarters this week. He didn’t impact the game too much. He took one grab early which was fantastic and scored with that. That was the Jono Freeman of old – crashing packs. Needs to work harder as a key forward in offence and defence and continue to build on his match fitness so he can impact more games in the back half of the year. |
