VFL Senior Coach Leigh Tudor talks us through the performances of Essendon’s AFL-listed players from the VFL side’s match against Werribee.  

Will Snelling

19 disposals, 10 tackles, five marks 

Defensively, ‘Snell’ had a pretty good game for us. He worked in with the forwards and mids around the ground well and really got going in the last quarter. Attacking-wise, the longer the game went on, the more he got involved.

Lewis Hayes 

14 disposals, 13 kicks, three marks 

‘Hayesy’ took a few intercept marks on the day and defended really well. It was a strange game with that four to five goal wind, so he actually stood up pretty well, getting a bit of the ball and joining in on the attack.

Nick Bryan 

14 disposals, 46 hit-outs, seven tackles 

He’s playing good footy at the moment, Nick. Dominated the hit-outs again and had a few clearances himself, taking four marks around the ground as well. He’s joining in through all facets of the game. 

Kaine Baldwin 

19 disposals, seven marks, two goals 

After a couple of weeks off and coming back into the side, Kaine is getting his confidence back again and he was really good defensively. 

Against the wind in the last quarter, we threw him forward as we needed something different and he scored for us, so it was really good to see Kaine back playing good football. 

Alastair Lord 

11 disposals, nine kicks, one tackle 

There were some nice rebounds from ‘Lordy’ on the day. He joined in our attack with five handball receives and tried to influence the game. 

Defensively under pressure, I felt he did a pretty good job along with the rest of the backline. 

Zach Reid 

Eight disposals, three marks, two tackles 

Zach started the game really well. We had the wind in the first quarter, but the way he set up and positioned himself had the opposition kicking back to him quite a few times. 

He had a really good understanding of the way we play, so it was disappointing to see him go down with an injury. 

Rhett Montgomerie 

24 disposals, 11 marks, three tackles 

A really good game from Rhett. He took a lot of marks, both contested and uncontested. 

Again, like ‘Reidy’, he set himself up really well and is starting to show a good understanding of the way we want to play, especially defensively. 

He also got quite a bit of the ball, his rebound was good, and he tackled well – one of his better games this year. 

Pat Voss 

10 disposals, six tackles, one goal 

A tough game for our forwards with the wind, as he set up well but had the ball carry over his head a few times and missed some opportunities through no fault of his own. 

When he had the chance, he competed strongly and tackled well, and even kicked an important late goal for us. 

Tex Wanganeen  

15 disposals, five tackles, two goals  

I really liked Tex’s game. He’s defending really well as a pressure small forward and averaging a lot of tackles over the past few weeks. His patterns and intensity of running have been good and had a purple patch with a couple of goals in a row on the weekend. 

Cian McBride 

Five disposals, three marks, two tackles  

I thought the back six in general defended well, and Cian was definitely a part of that with the way they set up and helped each other. He didn’t have a lot of the ball offensively, but as part of the back six, he certainly did his job. 

Massimo D’Ambrosio 

24 disposals, nine marks, four tackles 

A really consistent game in attack and defence from ‘Mass’. He played on the wing in parts and gathered a good mix of contested and uncontested ball, winning a few clearances and inside 50’s as well. We liked his game a lot. 

Anthony Munkara 

Three disposals, one mark, two tackles 

We’re working on his chasing and pressure game at the moment, which has improved over the last few weeks with another couple of good tackles on Sunday. A bit of a quieter game for him with the ball, but we’ll work at his running patterns and that’ll come for him soon.