Dale Tonkin
LET’S start by saying even a broken clock is right once a day.
Yes, that’s right. The Honky Tonk picked the Robins by 17 points and the final score was West 72, Central 55, 17 point margin.
Anyway, I will stop gloating. The game was quite free flowing with Westies’ marquee player Mitch Robertson basically dominating the game.
Out of all the marquee players to come to town, Mitch has probably shown the most output. I was watching the game quite closely and I really don’t think Central’s style of play is going to cut it at the pointy end.
Their kick and catch game then bomb it long to the big forwards and hope they mark it or get a free kick is not the way to go, and they have limited ground ball speed.
Westies have finally worked out how to transition the ball from defence — short kicks with run.
Young Casey Ferguson’s game was very good. Kicking the ball to where they should be, not where they are and having the ability to run on after kicking is a rare ability in this competition.
Nug does it from South. Kel does it from North. Luke Jones from Central and Atto from Central. They all run on when they kick to try and make better field position.
The key to Westies’ future moving forward, in my opinion, is their big ruckman. He is very good at his craft and gives them first use. The only thing that was a negative for the Robins was their clearance work.
Instead of finding the easy loose, they continued to kick to a 50/50 contest. I kept scratching my head thinking why are they trying to force something that isn’t there, when they had loose options out wide?
All in all, it was quite a good game. Central tried to come home late in the last term but it was all too late.
Really, the Robins had done the work early and got home by 17 points.
Next week will be interesting for the competition.
