It was one of our best wins of the year last Saturday night and I’m sure the group will take a lot of confidence from our first win over a top four opponent this year.
Fittingly, while our old, wise heads led the way, our young guys were also able to play a really significant role.
Brett Kirk’s job as a defensive forward opposed to the Bulldogs key play makers in Robert Murphy and Lindsay Gilbee was a real win for us. Kirky has great ability to find the footy, he sets up play and was able to boot two goals, so his effort was outstanding.
Another wise old head in Rhyce Shaw was able to shut the dangerous Daniel Giansiracusa out of the game, keeping him to just seven possessions.
Adam Goodes has had a really strong patch of form over the last six weeks, while Jarrad McVeigh has also got himself going again after a few quiet performances. So on the weekend, our good ball users and best attacking players were able to set-up plenty of opportunities up forward.
It is also great to see our young players performing so well. Dan Hannebery was given the job on one of the Bulldogs biggest ball winners in Daniel Cross and kept him to a season-low 13 possessions, while also picking up 27 touches himself. His form, along with the continued emergence of Kieren Jack, has been really encouraging.
For Trent Dennis-Lane to bob up and boot four goals was another very good effort for a young player who has not played a great deal of senior football. Obviously Trent still has a number of areas to work on in his game and is getting used to the tempo at this level but he is very smart in his forward play and obviously knows how to find a bit of space to take a mark and kick a goal.
With young guys like Lewis Jetta and Gary Rohan, you can see their confidence growing with each game they play. The monkey is off Jets’ back as far as the goals are going and we’re seeing him run with the ball and really take on the opposition. Rohan returned to the team on the weekend and looked really confident attacking from the backline, so the game time we’ve been able to get into the first year players has been invaluable and really sets them up going forward.
We knew it was a special night with Brett and Paul’s last game at the SCG, but obviously we had to stay focused on the Bulldogs. I think you really felt the excitement though when you saw players like Jetta get the footy, when Kirky kicked his second goal and put the icing on the cake and during Brett and Paul’s final lap of the SCG. The crowd involvement was special and we will be hoping for that again should we play our first final in Sydney next week.
Looking to this week, Brisbane will be keen to finish their season on a good note and they’ve got some real quality players in Simon Black, Luke Power and Jonathan Brown of course, who is a match winner by himself.
This time last year, Brisbane were in the top eight and setting themselves for a finals campaign, and we were outside the eight and out of finals contention. While we didn’t get over the line, we certainly gave the Lions a fright, going down by just eight points. So, with the shoe on the other foot this year, we know we can’t afford a lapse in concentration, particularly when there is a home final at stake.
There will be a bit of pressure on selection this week with Ryan O’Keefe and Jarred Moore both likely to return.
With the loss of Shane Mumford, it still means one player is likely to miss out despite coming off a game where you could easily say our whole 22 contributed and deserve to hold their spot.
While Jesse White will probably be used to help out Mike Pyke in the ruck, he’ll still play through our forward line, along with Adam Goodes, so we may have to tinker with a few things but I’m pretty sure we’ll be able to hold our structures pretty firmly.
Let’s hope both young and old continue their good form this weekend against the Lions and set us up for a home final here in Sydney next weekend.
