Mick's Message - Round 6

richo · Joined: 06 Sep 2004

The ANZAC Day game is one of the iconic games of the year, and it means a hell of a lot to both clubs involved.

It makes bottom sides fight a lot harder, it makes top sides become more human, because they're confronted with an opponent that is all for upholding the tradition of ANZAC Day. On this occasion it was two sides outside the eight, both on two wins, both vying for credibility.

As I stressed to the playing group, these types of games bring the best and worst out of people, in terms of whether or not players can handle the pressure of performing in front of a huge crowd. I believe it was one of our better performances where every player upheld the ANZAC tradition, and importantly in terms of the four points, were able to be good contributors on the day.

While Paul Medhurst won the ANZAC Medal, and we believe that three or four of our players were very, very good, by and large it was a relatively flat line performance in as much as much as we didn't necessarily rely on one player, we relied on 22, and every one of them delivered in one way or another, so that was one fantastic part of it.

We introduced a new player in 19-year-old Sharrod Wellingham, who played in place of Anthony Rocca, and we also brought in Ryan Cook for his first game of the year, and both players contributed.

The second part was we were able to kick 20 goals, something we haven't done since 2006, so that's an indication that we can
score, and we kept a side down to 21 shots on goal, of which they were
able to kick 10 goals in two quarters and two goals in the other two
quarters, which I think is significant.

I'm a big fan of Anthony Rocca's as most know, and not to have him in the side meant other players had to stand up, and we had a different configuration in our forward line, which I think worked okay, I don't think we'll be going back to that format too often, we really do rely on our big forwards to take marks, and our small players to crumb.

Essendon were able to load up their forward line with talls, and I thought our backs � Wakelin, Brown and Maxwell � held up pretty well against that type of formation, and on top of that, I thought our big talls, when they went forward, were a cause of trouble to Essendon. Josh Fraser, while he didn't kick a goal this week, was still dangerous, and Cameron Wood was able to kick a goal from a forward pocket, which is a very good thing for him, because he's a young man still learning his trade.

All up I thought it was a memorable game, and a very good one for our football club, which takes us to 3-3, and importantly with a very good percentage increase.

Now we look ahead to Saturday afternoon. Hawthorn hasn't lost a game, and they're playing some very good football. Even when Richmond played with Matthew Richardson behind the play, the Hawks were still able to have an enormous amount of shots on goal, which highlights their quality. It's going to be a big day at the MCG. A big crowd, a lot at stake,
playing an undefeated side, we only narrowly went down to them last year
and we think we match up reasonably well against them, but of course
we're going to be tested, particularly with Franklin, Williams, Rioli,
Roughead, who have kicked the majority of their goals.

They have an excellent midfield comprising Mitchell, Hodge, Sewell, Lewis, Bateman, Crawford. They're the number one clearance side in the competition, and I think we're in the top four, so we'll need to be at our best.

Their back half players let nothing through, and their percentage is 145, which after six rounds is massive, so they're doing the right thing at both
ends. We know we've got our work cut out, but it's one of those games you really look forward to.

Keep on cheering,

Michael Malthouse