Singa I didn't hear to much complaining from the peelmantle folk probably because they only had about 10 of them there, I did count them after they kicked a goal and there were 10 people clapping.
Yes we did get value for effort on the free kick count in the first half and rightly so as we dominated possession and play but our conversion was abysmal.
Our pressure on their ball carriers was terrific and also our tackling. pretty even team effort but Horse, Phez and Twomey were outstanding, Twomes 's best game for some time, his run and link was terrific as was most of his disposals. Dela worked his guts out in the ruck against the Freo monsters, we were well beaten in the hitouts as usual 47 - 24 but he and Clang were well on top around the ground with there mobility.
The Freo Talls were a real problem up forward, especially Tabener who didn't move around much but his size was too much for our backs and he ended up with a good 4 goal return. The #21 for peel, Bell is a quality local boy who did some damage to us in the GF as well, solid build and excellent skills, he would be a good late draft pick.
Our tackling was nice and intense and particularly in the first half we out numbered them at the contested ball but we did fade in the 2nd half and only a couple of nice late goals late in the 4th managed to ice the game.
By my calcs, and I'll stand corrected, Peel had just 9 listed players, must be a record low apart from the finals fiasco a few years ago but the ones they had were mostly experienced players with the likes of Taberner, Griffin, Suban, Dawson and Suttcliffe all strong contributors. Peelmantle used the flood all day which made it an ugly contest at times and maybe the reason we kicked at goal so badly but we also missed a lot of very gettable set shots.
Liam Ryan kicked just the 2 goals so some may look at that as a quiet day, but he had 18 disposals from a forward pocket and 2 or 3 direct goal assists. but the game highlight was when he rose to new heights, even for him and took what is clearly the mark of the year ... well there are 17 more games so I'm sure he'll do something even more extraordinary before the season ends. Ryan came down with snow on his head he was up so high. Don't know if he has a nickname but maybe just call him "highlights" as he provides so many.
We have the other scumbag alignment team next Friday for the annual Good Friday game sharing the day with the WP v Peelmantle game which has a 2.15 start, we start at 4.15.
Cockie had another near BOG in the 2's with 34 disposals so obviously Schoey is really working him hard after he missed most of the pre-season with injury but he must be very close to a call up, same for Madut who had 41 hitouts in the 2's, Boges had 39 touches so he must also be pushing hard for a call up.
