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I was very pleased with the performance, but I suppose with the outfit we had, with 19 Collingwood players available, compared to about 13 or 14 over the past couple of weeks, we had a strong side, but you’d take a 74-point win anytime.

Because we were playing a stand-alone club in Frankston, we could only play 12 AFL-listed players, so seven of our players had to play Williamstown reserves. We were endeavouring to come up with some sort of criteria to sell to the players, because naturally they don’t want to play reserves down at Williamstown.

In the end we decided the three rookies (Wellingham, Nicholls, Macaffer) were the obvious choices, we had Rusling and Dawes coming in for their first and second games of the year, but that left us with two other players. So we thought a couple of the younger guys in Dick and Brown could go back and play at a lesser intensity and help them just enjoy the game, and as it turned out, all our players performed famously on the weekend.

Below is my run down of each of how each player performed, exclusive to collingwoodfc.com.au.

WILLIAMSTOWN SENIORS
Chris Bryan
Chris had ten marks and 22 possessions as a ruckman, and had a few shots at goal. I reckon he had four shots at goal, didn’t quite make the distance with three of them and kicked the other one on the full, but he was within a whisker of all those other three. He worked hard and was good value, just needs to finish off with his kicking.

James Clement
I think he had his first test in the first couple of minutes where his man led him up the ground and, at pace, he was able to keep with him, get the spoil in and put it out of bounds, so that was really pleasing to see him get through that. From that he just built on his game and was his usual self, just the rock of Gibraltar down back. Had the four kicks and seven handballs, and his one-on-one contesting was there and he was moved around a fair bit, so he would’ve been pleased to get through the game without any incident.

Ryan Cook
I put him back the last couple of weeks after giving him a bit of a stint through the middle of the ground, and wherever he’s going at the moment seems to be working for him. There’s no doubt that he’s worked really hard on his game this year to take it to a new level with his training and his intensity, and I know he’s done a lot of work with Tarkyn Lockyer, and Tarkyn’s having a great year as well, so I think that’s rubbing off on Cooky, and he’s getting a lot of confidence and belief in himself. He provides a lot of dash out of the backline, he’s doing his one-on-one work strongly, and he’s shutting down different sized players. You’d naturally think he’s knocking on the door of Collingwood selection.

Shannon Cox
Coxy was on fire in the first quarter, then he complained of some tightness in his groin, so he came off. But then we got him going again at half time and he played the second half. He got dragged deeper, because his run in the first quarter, when he had seven possessions, was really damaging. He was out-marking them, taking them on. He had one passage where he got it, took off, had two bounces, got it back, split between two blokes, passed it and hit his team mate lace out, so it was brilliant play.

Ben Davies
Ben was interesting. He fell out of the midfield a little bit because of Stanley and Toovey. So I had him back, and he was on a good opponent who tested him out and kicked a couple of goals on him, so then I moved him up to the wing, and the last quarter I had him on the ball, and on the ball he was good. On the wing in the second quarter he had nine possessions, and in the last he had 13, and ended up with 24 for the game. But when he was down back he was taken fairly deep, but a good experience for him.

Brodie Holland
Unfortunately we know about Brodie, how he felt a bit sore in the Achilles and didn’t come back in the second half. He had 14 possessions to half time, he was going really well, so that was a shame.

Sam Iles
Sam started well, but I thought he just dropped off a bit in the second quarter. He then fought back after half time. I put him on the wing in the latter part of the game, and he played really well there, especially in the last quarter when he had nine possessions. Because his hands are so clean and he uses the ball well, he’s in good nick.

Paul Medhurst
He’s had a couple of stints back with us throughout the year, the latest one being the last two games, and what we’ve done with him is not pencil him into the deep forward line, we’ve allowed him a little more freedom to run around from a half forward flank to a wing, and even on the ball through the centre. He’s really enjoyed that, and I think the last two weeks he’s had 27 and 23 possessions, and he’s told me, in his career, he wouldn’t have had too many games over the 20-possession mark. He’s getting fitter, working harder, and it’s giving him a lot more confidence, so when he does break back you’d like to think he’s got the confidence and belief back in his ability.

Ben Reid
Ben was very impressive. He took 11 marks playing up forward, and enjoyed not having to deal with a centre wicket area. He straightened us up, and was able to lead up the ground with a bit of confidence. Gee whiz, he’s good when he comes up at the ball and arcs around on that left foot. He didn’t kick a goal, but took a mark five metres out and handballed to a team mate running past, and also, he took another mark inside 50, spun around and saw a guy running into goals and chipped it to him, and he missed two, so he could’ve kicked four. He’s going to be a good player.

Rhyce Shaw
I thought he was the most pleasing of all the players. I started him on the wing and he burst out of the blocks in the first quarter and provided the usual Rhyce Shaw run, carry and good use into the forward line. There were a few little patches throughout the game where he might’ve fatigued a little bit and his kicking wasn’t as good as what we know it can be. But, in the main, he played about 80 per cent game time, his leadership was invaluable, and you can just see he’s so much more mature now than when we first had him many years ago, so he was really solid with 22 possessions.

Danny Stanley
Stanley had a really good game playing as a ruck rover/half forward. He found plenty of the ball with 27 possessions, and is in reasonable touch. It was good to see his work-rate, and to see him win the ball and then what he did with it afterwards. He got forward for a goal, and was pretty good at half forward as well, so Mick was happy with him.

Alan Toovey
Toovey had a bit of work on ball and down back, and he’s getting into some reasonable touch, too. He had five tackles and 15 possessions, so I’m happy with that. He seems to be getting back on track, after a bit of a mid-season quiet patch.

WILLIAMSTOWN RESERVES
Nathan Brown
We moved Nathan from centre half back to centre half forward after we saw the way the game was going in the first quarter, it was 5.9 to 1.1. He ended up with 20 possessions and eight marks and 2.2, so that was a great hit out for him, to get some confidence.

Chris Dawes
In his second game back after recovering from a knee reconstruction, Dawesy played about 75 per cent game time and had 15 possessions and kicked 2.3, so that was really good.

Brad Dick
Dicky had 26 touches and kicked 2.3, could’ve kicked five, with a few of those snap shots under pressure.

Brent Macaffer
Brent played as a half forward and on the ball, and he was quite exciting with 24 possessions and four goals.

Daniel Nicholls
Nicholls was fantastic. 30 touches, two goals and four tackles. He was terrific and generated plenty of drive.

Sean Rusling
Sean kicked 5.4 from 14 marks in his first game of the year after a shoulder reconstruction, so what a great return that was for him. We have a bye this week, but we’ll certainly play him in the Williamstown seniors after that.

Sharrod Wellingham
Wellingham had probably his season-high possession rate and looked really classy with 32 touches, played a fantastic game.

This weekend we have a bye, and we’re looking forward to the final three rounds of the season after that and cementing our spot in the top four.