CARLTON RESERVES Coach Daniel O'Keefe analyses the performances of the 10 AFL-listed players which took to the field in Sunday's VFL clash.

4. Lochie O’Brien 
Stats: 12 disposals, eight uncontested possessions, four tackles. 

His work rate was pretty good. He probably didn’t run the patterns that we’ve seen him run in the past, which in the end enabled him to win the footy. There’s no doubt he broke out the space with vigour which made it really attractive to get the ball to him but it was moreso where he ran and the patterns: rather than getting up the ground, he was moving laterally. That’ll be something to work on for 'Loch' and I’m sure he’ll bounce back pretty quickly.

16. Jack Carroll 
Stats: Nine disposals, six contested possessions, four clearances, four tackles.

When he balanced out the stoppage really well was when he put himself in a position to hunt and find the footy or make a tackle. However, on the day, his consistency of his starting positions at stoppages weren’t as good as they’ve been in the past. His defensive spread is still something that we’re working on but it’s certainly getting better and there has been some growth from outlets and numbering off oppositions. 

17. Brodie Kemp
Stats: 13 disposals, four contested possessions, four one percenters, three tackles. 

After a few games back, he’s really starting to hone in and understand our defensive system and he’s really working on owning the right dangerous space, which puts him in the game. He’s getting some good switch plays and running some really good patterns off the back of that. He’ll just continue to work on the aerial contest, so we know he can do it well, but the next step for him is balancing his decisions in terms of whether to spoil or mark. Once he is in a good position to defend, he just needs to work on finishing off the work, making sure his defensive prowess comes to fruition. 

26. Luke Parks 
Stats: 11 disposals, nine one percenters, five contested possessions, three rebound 50s.

It was a day where he competed all day and that’s what we expect from Luke: his teammates expect that from him now. He was able to support his teammates in the air and roll off and put seals on the opposition, particularly the bigs so they couldn’t fly for the ball. On the last line, three or four times he was spoiling the ball over on the goal line and saving a couple of goals, which is great.

Working back and defending leads is something he’ll continue to work on: there’s a couple of these that creep in most weeks but they’re getting less and less as we go on, which is great. He’s a learner so it’s just about his body positioning and the way he sees the game and sees the opposition at the same time. 

29. Corey Durdin
Stats: 10 disposals, seven contested possessions, five tackles, one goals.

Corey played predominantly a small forward role all day. His ability to press the front end of stoppages or our offensive end of stoppages was really strong. Off the back of that, he gained five tackles and put really good pressure on the opposition.

His ability to win ground balls and be really clean in the front half is gold, it was fantastic. What we’re just looking at with Corey is how he can get into the game more, so some of his positioning at forward-50 stoppages, how he can influence the play a little bit more and get him involved because he is so dangerous when he is. 

31. Tom Williamson
Stats: 13 disposals, five contested possessions, three tackles, three rebound 50s. 

When the ball came in high, which it did a lot from the opposition, his thought process to be able to put seals on and help his mates out in the air was really good. Unfortunately, it probably wasn’t his day, in that he gave away quite a number of free kicks which really hurt us going the other way. I’m sure he’ll bounce back and have a good one this weekend. 

33. Sam Ramsay
Stats: 29 disposals, nine contested possessions, six rebound 50s, five inside 50s.

Sam Ramsay was one of our best players on the day. He played back at the start where initially he didn’t defend that tightly but then after a message, he was able to close the gap really well and compete really hard. We put him through the midfield and he was probably our midfielder that had a really nice day in there once he got in there. He won the ball 29 times and used the ball really well by foot, as he normally does. It was a great, resilient game from him. 

36. Josh Honey 
Stats: 15 disposals, eight score involvements, seven contested possessions, three tackles. 

His work rate was phenomenal. There were some passages of play where he’s worked all the way across the ground and all the way back and no opposition can go with him when he does that. He’s got great pressure and he had eight score involvements which is quite high for a day where we didn’t hit the scoreboard that much. The unfortunate thing for Josh was that he didn’t finish off his work.

He worked really hard to get three shots on goal, which normally you can pencil them in, but we didn’t see any of those go through the big sticks. I think he needs to continue to work on his patterns to create more space and we’re looking for him to get as much space as possible because his leg speed can drive him out of one-on-one contests. 

37. Jordan Boyd
Stats: 14 disposals, seven rebound 50s, two one percenters. 

Boyd played as a half forward at the start but also went back in the second half. When he went back was when he ended up finding the ball and that’s what we want from him: we want the ball in his hands, because he’s such a beautiful user by foot. When he went and competed as a defender and he put himself in competing positions, he was really strong and his ability to own the dangerous space was great too. We’re just working on his patterns up and down the ground as a half forward: he’s still running into a few roadblocks in terms of understanding our system. 

46. Matt Cottrell 
Stats: 18 disposals, five tackles, three clearances, three rebound 50s, one goal. 

He played mainly outside on the wing all day but went inside for a little bit. I thought he was probably best on ground in the first quarter and then the ball started to stay in the contest more and he didn’t have as much influence there. His ability to get back and support our defence was great and he’s been working on his forward-run patterns and as a result, he went back and got the first goal of the game off the back of some good decisions running forward.

When he had the ball in hand, he was balanced when it came to whether he’d find a free player or just get the ball forward for territory under pressure: that was really good. Because he works back defensively really well, we just have to make sure that he keeps taking body when he goes up to defend the third man when he goes to support his teammates.