Trent Dennis-Lane
Trent had four shots on goal and only converted one of them, but he looked dangerous every time he went near the ball and applied excellent defensive pressure once again. He’s so clever and Collingwood realised this and had to play one of their best defenders on him.

Sam Dunell
Sam was good again. He kicked two goals and played his role offensively, but probably what I was most pleased with was his defensive work. This aspect of his game was the best it has been all year and his second efforts and tackling around the contest made it very difficult for the Magpies to rebound efficiently from our forward 50.

Darren Minchington
Minchy continues to play some very good footy. I really like the way he’s going about his footy. He’s keeping his feet more, and he’s disposing of the ball cleanly even when he gets tackled. Darren’s last three games have been probably the best three he’s played for the club, and it’s no coincidence that he’s been doing extra fitness sessions during the week over this time period. He’s so focussed and driven.

Tom Simpkin
Tommy had the job on big Quinten Lynch. Tom really got under his skin and did a fantastic job, keeping him goalless and to just four marks for the day. He had a ripper game and played a typically important role for us with his crashing and bashing style.


Simpkin and Lynch. (Photo: Dave Savell)

Jason Holmes
Holmesy had 40 hit outs and eight tackles. Although he didn’t get a lot of the ball, he did have one goal assist where he turned and kicked it to space out in front of TDL. It was a really clever bit of footy and shows how far Jason’s come in terms of his game awareness. The challenge for him is to get more of the ball next week, but his ruck work was again really promising.

Josh Saunders
Josh had over 25 possessions and had most of these between the arcs, so he was good link-up player for us. He’s using the ball really well at the moment and he’s using his running ability to get into the right spots. Josh didn’t push forward as much as he has done in previous games, but we were pretty happy with his output.

Lewis Pierce
Lewis had a funny sort of day. He had the first shot of the day down forward and took some strong marks around the ground, but then he just lacked a bit of body work and timing in other contests. He finished with 18 hit outs and had a reasonable game overall, but like most of our players, he has things to work on ahead of the Port Melbourne clash next Saturday.

SEMI-FINAL
Sandringham vs Port Melbourne
Saturday, September 6
2.10pm
North Port Oval
Televised on ABC