The Bedge wrote:Pulteney give Farmers Round 1 Blues
Over the years I've been known to speaking before thinking.. still a terrible habit - and one piece of advice I've generally got has been "leave it 24 hours, sleep on it, then action."
Saturday afternoon/evening was a pretty deflating and sombre feel - was hard to see light shining in the darkness, finding positives was difficult, and generally was just feeling defeated. Had you asked me Saturday night my views, would've been all gloom and doom, and talking about the greatness of Pulteney.
Fast forward today, and I reflect back, think about my pre-game predictions and honestly the match went to script pretty well as I thought it may have - and in fact better in the B grade. I guess whilst I anticipated what the outcome would be, the reality of it hit harder than i'd hoped.
Pulteney are good. Make no mistakes about it - I would rate them a 10-15 goal better unit than last season. Langford forward is an imposing figure, but don't get too caught up in him otherwise the likes of Polec, Giddings and Forbes turn up and burn you. They've added some class and depth to their squad, Hoppo-Luckett worked well with Lindner through the mid, both super impressive work rates, and helps when you have a dominant ruckman like Cleveland giving you first use, and even Comerford in the ruck proved more than a handful.
I thought Grosser and Latchford on the wings were extremely good, and Currie appeared to bring his own ball off half back - although was gifted plenty of space from our forwards, and allowed to zone off a kick behind, we need to be better than that.
I thought Tucker and Giddings were reasonably quiet to be honest, which could be worrying signs for sides, as they wont be quiet every week!
On the flip side, where the Blues are a 10-15 goal better side, Ingle Farm have gone the other way, and a probably a good 10-15 goal lesser side AT THE MOMENT - we lost Gannell (ruck), Grant, Sumner, Lynch, Phillis, Matthews - that's 6 of our top group of players, was always going to be hard to replace and cover, and we will take our beatings at times this year, but I have faith that the players we have in and around the A grade setup are going to be positive talents to move the club forward, it's just going to take time.
Of the side Saturday, more than half have been predominately B grade recent years, and graduates of the Bedgegood Football Factory - add in a few regular A graders who are still very young (average age well below 25 at a guess), a couple of additions of Wheaton who was very good Saturday and Brimer who didn't play, I think the raw ability is there, and in due time we will begin to see how this group moulds together, especially those new to A grade footy and the pick up in quarter length and game speed - 155 point defeats wont (hopefully) be the norm.
Our fitness levels aren't where they need to be, and the heat added to the fatigue - chasing a well drilled unit isn't easy. On the upside, learned a bit more about some guys, who is and isn't capable of certain roles, and the excellence of Pulteney helped highlight weak points that need addressing for individuals and the side.
Hopefully we can bounce back this week, look forward to seeing how the CBC v PUL game pans out - two sides that I suspect will occupy 2/3 top spots on the ladder.
Thanks to Astro Boy and the Blues lads who came up for a drink after the game, they were very humble in the victory, and good bunch of blokes, good luck for the rest of the season.
Where/ why have they all gone Bedge ?
