Highly respected AIS/AFLAcademy coach and former Fitzroy coach Alan McConnell runs through the playerswho caught his eye in the second round of division-one matches played at MCLabour Park in Carltonon Friday. In the first match, Western Australiamade it two from two after defeating Vic Country by 43 points, while Vic Metrochalked up its first win with a 26-point victory over South Australia in the second match. Hereare McConnell's thoughts.

WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Rhys Palmer
Palmer continued on with the form he demonstrated in thefirst match. He showed an ability to use both sides of his body andinfluence the game with his possession and work-rate. He is exceptional insideand outside the contest.

David Myers
Myers demonstrated his ability to read the playexceptionally well again. He had another high-possession count and probablyused the ball better today than he did in round one, which was a good resultfor Western Australia. 

Chris Masten
Masten runs opponents off their feet. His athleticbackground comes to the fore and he just grinds away. He finished up withmassive possessions. He worked closely with his teammate Palmer in thestoppages and it was interesting to see Masten working in tendem with Palmer,who was getting tagged. He tried to give his teammate a free run at the footy. 

Cale Morton
Morton was excellent again on a wing. He loves kicking agoal. He and (Vic Metro's) Patrick Dangerfield had a very good duel up and downthe wing for most of the game. 

Daniel Rich
Although he's not eligible for this year's draft, I thoughthe demonstrated that he is a real player of the future with his work-rate andhis ability to influence the game. He's fortunate at this stage, because Western Australia has alot of frontline midfielders, that he can be managed in a slightly lesser role. 

Tayte Pears
A key defender who wasn't far off AIS selection last year,Pears has certainly been one of the more impressive defenders over the courseof the carnival. 

VIC COUNTRY

Nick Suban
Suban was an interesting one. He actually played on Palmer.Palmer's work-rate will be a great learning experience for Suban in terms of whatyou have to do to play in the midfield. He's only a bottom-age player at thisstage, but it was certainly a fine lesson for him to know how hard you have towork to play in this competition and you want to be at the top end. But to hiscredit, he kept at it and didn't lose his composure. He continued to find thefooty over the course of the game. 

Ben McEvoy
I thought McEvoy was impressive again for a big man. Herelies a bit on his marking and the conditions didn't favour him. It wasn't agreat day for big fellas to catch the ball, but I thought again he showed someclass at different stages. 

Ryan Hobbs
Hobbsstarted at centre half-back and then went forward as a key position player. Hedemonstrated an ability as a key position player to play at either end of theground.