Northern Blues coach Josh Fraser assesses the performances of every Carlton-listed player who featured in the loss to Essendon at Ikon Park on Saturday:

Tom De Koning
Stats: 10 disposals, 4 marks, 2 goals
From the coach: Tom kicked 2.1 including a couple of strong marks in the air. As a young tall, he’s developing his leading patterns as a key forward really well, and his second efforts at ground level were really impressive. We liked his game on the weekend, particularly his first half.

Jarrod Garlett
Stats: 18 disposals, 4 clearances
From the coach: Jarrod played mainly on the wing but also up forward, where he used his speed on the outside a couple of times really well and had a good combination of contested and uncontested possessions. We’ll keep giving him exposure on the wing and also as a pressure forward.


Jarrod Garlett impressed with more time in the midfield. (Photo: Tim Murdoch)

Jesse Glass-McCasker
Stats: 9 disposals, 3 rebound 50s
From the coach: He had some good moments in the game defensively — when he’s able to reposition himself and defend hard on his opponent he’s quite effective. He had some good intercept marks and we’ll continue to work on his consistency over four quarters.

Nick Graham
Stats: 8 disposals
Went off early in the second quarter.

Matthew Lobbe
Stats: 10 disposals, 20 hitouts, 3 clearances
From the coach: He was down a little bit but he fought back late in the game. He’ll keep working hard on his ruck craft and his impact around the ground. As an experienced player, we know he’ll respond and his leadership for our younger players is great.

Harrison Macreadie
Stats: 4 disposals
Went off early in the second quarter.

Andrew Phillips
Stats: 11 disposals, 22 hitouts, 6 clearances, 1 goal
From the coach: I liked Flip’s game. He rucked well and as a big ruckman he’s starting to get around the ground and launch at his marks which has been a feature at VFL level. On the back of his ruck work, his follow-up work was great and gave us a good look around stoppages.

Cameron Polson
Stats: 9 disposals, 4 clearances
From the coach: Not a huge game possession-wise, where he missed some opportunities through some fall-of-ball method while he was also unlucky when he ran really hard to receive possessions, but we didn’t execute. He’s splitting his time between forward and midfield and we’re expecting a spike in his performance. He’s building the right way with some good habits.


Cameron Polson in action against Essendon. (Photo: Tim Murdoch)

Angus Schumacher
Stats: 11 disposals, 4 marks, 3 rebound 50s
From the coach: Possession-wise he was down but his defensive positioning and contest as a younger player is getting better each week. We’ve got to make sure he’s more consistent in terms of his decision-making, but he’s an exciting young player and we think he’s improving as the weeks go by.


First-year player Angus Schumacher continues to improve in the VFL. (Photo: Tim Murdoch)

Matthew Shaw
Stats: 18 disposals, 8 marks
From the coach: Matty played the majority of his game across half-back with a bit of time on the wing. He provides really good run for us at VFL level. He continues to try and do the right thing with the ball and after two weeks with no footy, we expect his form to keep building from here. 

Jack Silvagni
Stats: 22 disposals, 7 tackles, 6 inside 50s, 4 clearances
From the coach: The plan was to play as both a midfielder and forward, but like Cam Polson he ended up playing more in the middle due to injuries. He was really good around stoppages and in contested ball, while he used drive in his legs to get out of stoppages and congested situations while using the ball really well in general play.


Jack Silvagni was a standout for the Northern Blues on Saturday. (Photo: Tim Murdoch)

Tom Williamson
Went off early in the game through injury.