The Blues put up a fight in a wet, high-scoring affair against Box Hill on Saturday, falling short in the last quarter. 

This was the last practice match the Blues will play, before their season commences on Saturday. 

Here's what Daniel O'Keefe had to say about the AFL-listed players that featured on the Reserves side at Box Hill City Oval. 

4. Lochie O’Brien 
Stats: 17 disposals, four contested possessions, four marks.

It’s a funny game to play on the wing role purely because of the shape of the ground and the game was played pretty much on one side of the ground all day. He did go inside for a little bit and he balanced up really well, particularly in his sweep role where he gave us cover and he made some really good decisions by foot when he found the ball in his hands. Lochie continues to work on his defensive awareness and taking out the opposition outlets but overall, it was a decent game for Lochie. 

11. Mitch McGovern 
Stats: Nine disposals, seven marks, three goals.

'Gov' played a full game this time round which is really good. His leadership was superb: there’s no doubt he’s buying into whatever team he plays in at the moment and right now it’s with the reserves. The younger AFL-listed players and the VFL-listed players too really enjoyed having him there. To be honest, Gov played like an AFL player should play in a game like this which was really pleasing to see. He’s got his base back. I feel at a really good level and his pressure was really good: when the ball hit the ground, he was able to get at the opposition. He was very dangerous in one-on-one looks and dangerous in the air too. He kicked three goals, he could’ve pretty easily kicked five. At times with the new reset rule with a couple back in the 50 at all boundary throw-ins, it probably is different for Gov because he’s not used to that and nor should anyone that plays AFL because it’s such a unique rule. At times, because of that rule, he found himself complying, which was great, but it kept him away from the ball at times, so that was just a learning for him but hopefully he doesn’t have to worry about that too much in the future.

13. Liam Stocker 
Stats: 21 disposals, five tackles, three clearances.

He played inside mid for the majority of the game, but at times we did throw him down back as a spare defender, whether it was him or to free someone else up in defence with the heavy breeze to give us a bit more support. When he did that, he actually played that role really well. It’s probably not a role we’ll see him play often but when it was asked of him, he certainly complied really well. He was really good with the ball: at times, we were mucking around with the ball when we’d won it at stoppages, but Liam was able to just get it moving forward and gain territory which is really important for us. At times, he probably got pushed in at stoppages too much, his opponent then goes on the outside and gets the loose balls and clearances pretty easily. That’s not something that he does very often but it’s a learning for him and there’s no doubt he’d grow from that game. 

29. Corey Durdin (played half a game)
Stats: Eight disposals, two tackles.

He played half a game on the weekend purely as a small forward. He brought his best in patches during the game. When he’s at his best, he brings really clean hands, particularly low on the ground, his pressure on the ground is superb and he just continues to just get at the opposition and get in their face and with that comes tackle pressure as well. The beauty with Corey is that when he does all those things, he brings scoreboard impact so whether it be him or in this case, more about assisting, then that’s what we love about him. We’re trying to work with him on how he can get more involved in the game from an offensive point of view, with his reaction and some of his patterns. Corey has AFL attributes but it’s just more about building himself up now, building a really strong game base and we’re looking forward to working with him moving forward. 

33. Sam Ramsay
Stats: 27 disposals, seven tackles, two goals.

Sam strung together another really good game, he was one of our best players on the ground during the day. He played midfield and he really relishes his role as a midfielder, I think he plays with a lot more freedom up around the ball and instinct which really helps him. His ability to balance up our stoppages is really strong but what we love about Sam is his ability to spread and because he’s a great runner, not only endurance-wise but also with speed, he’s able to continuously beat his opposition and even his teammates from contest-to-contest. He’s often first to get the forward ball and that gets him in the game, and kicked two really nice goals from stoppages so that again is an asset to his game. We’re just working on some of his defensive reaction stuff but apart from that it was a really solid game from him. 

34. Sam Philp
Stats: 19 disposals, five clearances, 1 goal.

Philp played a full game this week which is good for him. To get a full game in is enough to tick a box with his limited preparation over summer, so that’s a great start without any footy content involved and he’ll be better for that. His patterns as well as his ability to get back and support our defence as a winger and as a midfielder was really good. His ability by foot a couple of times to be able to pierce the opposition through the corridor was a strong point in his game. We’re going to encourage Sam to do more of that, we rate him as a kick and he can get the ball through the air really quickly so we’re looking at that to be more consistent in the future. The learning for Philp was probably what Stocker did really well and finding territory with the ball when he’s under pressure at stoppages: a couple of times held onto it for a bit longer trying to find the perfect pass and they were on him. The other thing is because he hasn’t played in a long time, just balancing up stoppages and making sure the opposition doesn’t get goal-side of him and get a free entry out, but apart from that, Sam’s game was quite sound.

36. Josh Honey 
Stats: Seven disposals, four tackles.

Josh is very strong athletic type build, he’s extremely powerful and he had an enormous amount of sprint efforts, more than I generally see in any game from anyone: he had over 30 sprint efforts which is incredible. He’s capable of doing that so we expect that from him, but what he did was he played with physicality. At times, it was a little bit too much where he might’ve been a bit undisciplined where he gave a few free kicks away late in the game, which hurt our team, but in saying that, he did play with physicality which is exactly what we want from Josh. He laid a couple of bone-crunching tackles which is great to see, his speed certainly gets into the game and makes him hard to defend. The important part for Josh is how we fix up that discipline which I’m sure we can do that moving forward. 

44. Matt Owies 
Stats: 12 disposals, five tackles, two goals.

He was very consistent, he brought a really good ground game with his manic pressure: I think he had five tackles again which he just continues to keep getting. It's what we expect from him now, it’s how he continues to do that moving forward. He’s really great with his competitive one-on-one work across the board, whether that be on the ground or on the outs, and his reaction when the ball goes our way is second-to-none at the moment so that certainly gets him in the play. On the weekend, it was probably more about the running patterns. It’s a funny ground, it’s very wide and not very long so the ball was often stuck on one side of the ground and I think Matt was just trying to work out the best way to work into the game with his patterns off the back of that.