VFL Senior Coach Leigh Tudor assesses the performances of our 14 AFL-listed players from the weekend's loss to Port Melbourne.

Nick Hind

27 disposals, 12 rebound 50’s, seven marks

A good effort from ‘Hindy’, who flew back from Perth on the Saturday night to play on the Sunday, which is always a tough gig. He really embraced it, he wanted to play, and he came out and helped us with our maturity in a young backline, which was a real positive for us. He set up a lot of our attacking movements and came back to do what he needed to.

Massimo D’Ambrosio

25 disposals, eight marks, three clearances

‘Mass’ played predominantly on the wing and across the back half, getting quite a bit of the ball. We’re challenging him to find more of the footy in the forward half, so it was a learning game where he helped us with our defensive stuff, but also a good opportunity for him to get forward on his wing opponents and take his game to another level.

Kaine Baldwin

22 disposals, five marks, three tackles

Kaine was one of our better players again. He hurt his ankle early in the game, but he just toughed it out the whole way and took some really nice contested marks. He’s in a really consistent patch of form at the moment, putting himself in some good spots to win the footy where he can beat his direct opponents but also help out his teammates in defence.

Elijah Tsatas

21 disposals, six tackles, four clearances

Elijah had a mix of inside midfield and forward time this week and won enough of his own ball. He also had the six tackles, which was good to see because he’s been working on really getting amongst it in the contest, so that was important for him on the defensive side of things.

Pat Voss

18 disposals, eight marks, two goals

‘Vossy’ competed really hard again, and he’s been a really good leader for a young man in our side. He got in all the right spots forward and ended up with 2.4, so he’s been practicing his goalkicking this week and is really keen to turn that part of his game around.

Rhett Montgomerie

16 disposals, eight marks

Rhett took some nice intercept marks for us, so he’s getting a really good balance of when to fly and when to stay down. He’s still working on his decision-making around when to punch or mark, and he did that really well on the weekend. He’s still putting himself in dangerous positions which is great, and he’s piecing together a consistent year for us.

Tex Wanganeen

14 disposals, five tackles, three marks

Tex had a balance of midfield and forward time this week, and in patches is doing some really damaging things for us. We’re looking to see a bit more four-quarter consistency with it, but he really embraced his defensive work and tackling pressure again. The key now is to get him involved in more of our attack going forward.

Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti

11 disposals, seven tackles, three marks

I thought ‘Walla’ was one of our better players this week. His leadership was really important for our younger players, and he played the way we wanted him to on the turnover, laying some big tackles. We’d love to get him more involved in the play because of how dangerous he is with the ball, but the way he worked hard to set up the ground and play to our structure was great.

Alastair Lord

11 disposals, three marks

‘Lordy’ was involved. He had some good moments with ball in hand where he looked to take the game on, which we’re really liking about the way he plays. Again, in that younger defensive group they’re looking to improve their communication, and he’s really driving that organisation back there at the moment, which is great.

Alwyn Davey Jnr

10 disposals, five tackles

Similar to Tex, Alwyn was mixed between mid and forward this week. Defensively he’s going really well and doing exactly what we want him to, but we’d just like him to get involved in our attack a bit more. We’re working on running patterns and ways to use his strengths in our game style, and he did show some explosiveness at times on the weekend which was good to see.

Lewis Hayes

Nine disposals, three marks

‘Hayesy’ had some good moments where he had to come off his man to intercept and put himself in tough spots. Another really good learning game, we’re giving him bigger matchups every week and he’s playing on better players as we go, so it’s good to see him growing.

Nik Cox

Nine disposals, four marks

‘Coxy’ started on the wing this week. Port Melbourne fielded their winger behind the footy, so once we sent Nik back to follow him, his opponent had very little influence on the game after that. ‘Coxy’ might not have gotten a lot of the ball early, but he played a very important role for the team which is exactly what we wanted to see. He took some contested marks and looked pretty comfortable in the air, so we were happy with his game.

Cian McBride

Seven disposals, five hit-outs

Cian played key defence and pinch hit in the ruck again. You know he’s always going to compete and give his all, winning us a few hit-outs whenever we use him up the ground. Down back he was solid, and despite a couple of slight positioning errors, we loved his effort.

Anthony Munkara

Six disposals, six tackles, one goal

We really liked some of Anthony’s chase-downs and his ability to get involved in our team defence. Whenever he gets the ball, he looks dangerous with his speed and he was in some exciting little passages of play, so it’s nice to see him back out there.

Cover Image: Gallivant Photo.