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On the weekend we went down to Bendigo at Windy Hill by 49 points in round 18.

We kicked 2.11 in the first half, and seven behinds in the second quarter when we had the scoring end. We were getting enough ball going forward, so it would’ve been nicer to be closer at half time.

To the boys’ credit, we kicked seven goals in the third quarter, but they kicked seven as well, so it was just one of those days where we couldn’t get close enough to really threaten.

Below is my assessment of how each Collingwood-listed player performed for Williamstown on the weekend, exclusive to collingwoodfc.com.au.

Nathan Brown
I had Browny on Kepler Bradley, who’s a good player. Bradley probably had a five-minute patch in the first quarter where he kicked two, and a 10-minute patch in the third quarter where he kicked two more and took a couple of grabs. So I thought Bradley was getting on top of Browny a little bit, so I took Nathan off him for a while, but put him back on Bradley in the last quarter and he kept him under control. So it would’ve been a good learning curve sort of game for him to play on a good player, and to go through the highs and lows. He finished with 14 disposals and seven marks.

Shannon Cox
Coxy got injured early, which was a shame. It was just a bit of a corky, so he should be right.

Ben Davies
Again, Ben had a role to play, and he played that role probably the best of any of our players. He certainly was able to hold his head high at the end of the game. He played on Jason Cloke, who was playing on the wing and floating back, which he’s so good at doing. Ben was able to shut him down from having an influence defensively, and then as he went forward, Ben got into some really attacking positions, got plenty of the ball with 27 possessions, and finished with two goals, so he actually hurt Clokey a little bit, had twice as many possessions, so it was a really good game from Ben.

Chris Dawes (Williamstown reserves)
Kicked 7.5, played really well, so that was a good hitout. That’s his third game now. Took a lot of marks, moves around, presents, so he had a good day.

Brad Dick
Dicky was pretty quiet, only had the six possessions. He’s known for his chasing, and tackles, and excitement, but he just didn’t seem to have the work rate. He laid a couple of good tackles, and was trying, but he just seems to be having a bit of a rough patch at the minute.

Sam Iles
Ilesy played in the midfield. We’ve been really pleased with the cleanness of Sam this season, he’s got good fitness, and he uses the ball pretty well. I ended up putting him onto Houli who was going pretty well, and he subdued him a touch, but he was under siege because they had so many good midfielders. He kicked a goal when he went forward, and had 20 possessions, so he was ok, but was under the pump a bit against a quality midfield.

Brent Macaffer
Brent did ok. He played about 75-80 per cent game time. He’s known as a forward but I actually moved him back because Coxy went off injured, so Macca played as a half-back flanker/back pocket. He didn’t get a lot of the ball, but didn’t get beaten one-on-one, which was good. Had a 10-possession second quarter, which was good.

Daniel Nicholls
Danny struggled a little bit on Houli early, but I ended up putting him back, and he was quite promising down there. He’s one of the guys who’s been given the most opportunity in the midfield and has done quite well, and on the weekend, in a slightly different role, he had 22 possessions.

Guy Richards
He rucked the whole day. I was waiting for him to put his hand up to come off, but the big bugger never put his hand up all day, which was quite interesting, so I just left him there and let him run the game out. He’s always complaining that he never plays 100 per cent game time, so I thought I’d leave him there. To his credit, we had him registered for 41 hitouts, which is a pretty fair effort, so it wasn't his fault that we couldn’t clear the ball, because he was certainly getting his hand to the ball, but they had smart midfielders and they probably sharked him a number of times. But he was in pretty good nick and worked hard. Probably didn’t take a lot of marks because we made him follow the ball rather than sit back in the hole, so he’s had 14 possessions, and I was pretty pleased with his performance.  

Ben Reid
Reidy took seven marks, but only had the eight possessions. At times he was looking alright, and then he’d go missing, he had one of those spasmodic sort of days I thought. With Rus being a focal point, Ben probably needed to do a bit more work up the ground than what he did, and that ground doesn’t really lend itself to that, because it’s not long.

Sean Rusling
Rus kicked 2.5, had 10 marks and was getting into some good positions. Windy Hill was a little bit windy, as you know. He wasn’t far off with some of his shots, but at Windy Hill, it’s not a very wide ground, so he was trying to find space but the space was towards the boundary, and they were forcing him out there. So unfortunately Sean had a few shots from towards the boundary, and unfortunately 2.5 wasn't his best return, but to see him take ten marks and have seven shots at goal was very promising, and I think Mick was pretty happy about that.

Danny Stanley
Danny was promising in the midfield again. He had 24 possessions, and came up against good players like Heffernan and Camporeale, so it was a good experience for him to go through that and not look out of place. Those guys are pretty smart, were getting a run on and getting a lot of the ball. Danny was probably chasing a bit of tail at the time. But he still kicked a goal, and did some good stuff at the clearances. That’s about the third week we’ve been persevering with him as a midfielder, and that was a promising performance. He’s getting fairly consistent with his output, so he’s one to keep watching.

Shane Wakelin
Wakes was just ok. He went about it his usual way, he plays pretty solid most weeks. It’s always good to have that experience in the backline.

Sharrod Wellingham
I played him on the wing, because, as we know, we’re probably a little bit deficient through the midfield at senior level, and this kid’s got a fair bit of skill and class. He came up against a good opponent in Mark Johnson, who’s played a lot of senior football, and Sharrod held his own, although Johnson’s a pretty smart player and got away from him a little bit, but Sharrod showed a fair bit with nine kicks and 12 handballs. He was in the mix for Collingwood last week, and I wouldn’t see any reason why he wouldn’t be in the mix again, so it was a promising performance from Sharrod.

This Saturday afternoon at 1:10pm we’re taking on Port Melbourne at TEAC Oval in Port Melbourne, so it would be great to see plenty of Magpie supporters there, otherwise watch the game live on ABC television.

Please find below photos from Sunday's game. All photos copyright John Anthony.


Danny Stanley


Shannon Cox


Guy Richards


Sean Rusling


Shane Wakelin


Sharrod Wellingham


Brad Dick


Daniel Nicholls


Ben Reid


Ben Davies


Nathan Brown

For more Williamstown photo galleries from John Anthony please visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/macrocomp/sets/