Bankers & Anchors: Rnd 9, 2025 vs Gold Coast

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

This is the Round 9, 2025 edition of the weekly Bankers and Anchors thread. Once tonight's game against Gold Coast has concluded.

has concluded post your nominations for:

The Bankers = 3 guys/aspects of the game that we banked on to do the right thing during the game
The Anchors = 3 guys/aspects of the game that weighed us down by their errors or poor play

Please limit it to no more than three of each player or aspect of the game, but feel free to make honourable/dishonourable mentions. As usual try to make it constructive criticism.

Try and restrict it to individual players rather than aspects of the overall match - I will allow more freedom now as the thread seems to be going down more of the aspects of the game path so you can have 3 for each made up of aspects of the game and individual players.

[GVGjr]

Bump

[Bumper Bulldogs]

Bankers
Libba. Unbelievable yet again
Richards. He has become awesome and just so strong
West. I know a few other played better but he has really made the forward role his own. Never gives up and looked our most dangerous forward

Anchors
Naughton. His kicking is a liability
Harms had a shocker
Fridge he blew it tonight and just looked so untidy

[The bulldog tragician]

Bankers
Libba. Career best form. Is he quicker? He should have been rewarded for some brilliant tackles.
Richards. Gun.
Davidson - bringing home the coaching cliche it might not be your night but can always be your moment. He’s struggled the last two matches but doesn’t give in.

Anchors
Darwin. Enough already.
Naughton. He could be forgiven for not marking cleanly but he had the old clown feet happening as well
Cool room non use? Please explain!

[Grantysghost]

Bankers
Libba - wow. Clearance king. Couple of turn over goals against early but just boy o boy
Spirit - never say die was brilliant against a side that is now 7-0 up there. We've got a very good side this season.
Davidson's tank - I was waiting for him to stand up in the last and ....take it to the bank.

Anchors

Naughton - has he plateaued? Something's stalling with his development. Still a very good player but tonight was poor in big moments and had little effect on the game.

Cool room non use - um. It's a cool room? It's hot af . What am I missing ?

Playing in Darwin - I think we've done our fair share.

[merantau]

Bankers
Libba - career best form
JOD - tracking well
Richards - consistent ball winner, generates a lot of momentum

Anchors
Naughton- we are not getting anything
Turnovers are killing us
Our draw

[jazzadogs]

Bankers
Libba - career best form
JOD - tracking well
Richards - consistent ball winner, generates a lot of momentum

Anchors
Naughton- we are not getting anything
Turnovers are killing us
Our draw

Our opening 9 games:
Marvel, MCG, Marvel, Perth, Marvel, Adelaide, Marvel, Canberra, Ballarat, Darwin (then Marvel, Geelong).

Let's compare to top of the ladder Pies:
Sydney, MCG, MCG, bye, MCG, Adelaide, Brisbane, MCG, MCG, Perth (then MCG, marvel, MCG, MCG, marvel, MCG).

[SonofScray]

B

JOD was the standout performance in our colours. Went up a notch last night, in tough conditions and in a game where the ball was coming in freely too often.

Libba, he is putting together some footy at this point in his career that absolutely affirms his status as a club champion.

West, I was watching him closely and his stats because I wanted to make sure it’s not just a bias where I keep pumping his tyres up. On the stats sheet he is in a cluster of players who I would say were poor. But he separates himself from them with impact and a real will and physicality to his game. Just stays in the contest.

A

Naughton’s form line is getting problematic. I trust he’ll come good but to be in the bottom handful of contributors at 84% game time, fluff match winning moments when they came, Is a terrible look.

Frejiah, conditions seemed to really blow him up early. Was on his haunches at half time halfway through the break.

We discussed the draw and the challenge getting sent up there, here there and everywhere has on us. In a season where some things just haven’t gone right despite best efforts, the systemic stuff really kicks you in the guts.

[Mantis]

Bankers:

JOD - Really commanding performance in the air. Some of his ball use wasn’t great but overall his best performance in our colours.

Richards - Just continues to shine. Over 800m gained and strong in the contest. He’s a star.

Resilience - I was resigned to a 6 goal loss early in the last qtr. We had come back a few times but when the rat Noble goaled after a shit free kick I thought we were cooked. To come again shows this team is made of the right stuff.

Anchors:

Sloppy ball use - just way too many errors. Didn’t play to the conditions and tried to play ‘pretty’ footy.

Forward line - bar West who probably won his spot, but also burnt some opportunities we struggled. McNeil was ****ing horrible for 3 qtrs, Poulter used it poorly and Khamis & Naughton lowered their colours. It’s always going to be a struggle when 3 1st team forwards are missing, but unless the mids hit the scoreboard heavily we’re going to struggle to score with that team. I’d be loading up with Lobb up forward and running Davidson through there more.

Bont - not sure he’s been in the anchors for me, but his ball use wasn’t what we needed from him.

[BornInDroopSt'54]

Bankers
Libba - career best form
JOD - tracking well
Richards - consistent ball winner, generates a lot of momentum

Anchors
Naughton- we are not getting anything
Turnovers are killing us
Our draw

I thought Libba was gone last year from head knocks alone.
Libba's legend, coupled with his dad's, grows on.
He already deserves a statue, and I have plaster of Paris.
JOD is a KPI of our club, having had such faith in the unlikely recruit from get go.
Red haired Richards, Louie ( Lewis Thomas Charles) would be proud and how good is it that we had faith in him when CFC didn't?
Our draw, I believe will prove a great one at season's end.

[BornInDroopSt'54]

In my Squiggle ladder prediction I was bullish and had only a loss to Lions, us finishing 2nd.
We'll drop som games but have a great opportunity this season, with Darcy and Treloar returning late and fringe players with the rest of the season to consolidate their positions.
We can bank on Bont, Libba, Richards, Lobb, Dale and English weekly.
Our second tier are getting consistency and reliability.
'25 is as season of opportunity.

[lemmon]

Anchors

Naughton - has he plateaued? Something's stalling with his development. Still a very good player but tonight was poor in big moments and had little effect on the game.

I think we know what Naughton's ceiling is now, and we have to re-evaluate our expectations.

He's your 'Josh Darling' type second forward - you'll get 40-50 goals per season, he'll work his butt off to chase and harrass, but the best key defenders in the comp have an edge on him and he's not really going to get off the chain without the main guy next to him. That's fine - those players are hard to find and valuable, but he's not going to develop into the top-tier key forward that we thought he might.

Jarryd Roughead managed to step up as 'the man' when Buddy left, but we just haven't seen it from Naughton, and this should have been his forward line since Josh Bruce went down.

I think the good news long-term, is that we have the Kennedy to his Darling and the Lloyd to his Lucas in Sam Darcy, but right now we need to find ways to manufacture marks in the forward 50 with another lever - whether that's Lobb forward, Bont playing down there or Croft when he has some form.

[hujsh]

I think we know what Naughton's ceiling is now, and we have to re-evaluate our expectations.

He's your 'Josh Darling' type second forward - you'll get 40-50 goals per season, he'll work his butt off to chase and harrass, but the best key defenders in the comp have an edge on him and he's not really going to get off the chain without the main guy next to him. That's fine - those players are hard to find and valuable, but he's not going to develop into the top-tier key forward that we thought he might.

Jarryd Roughead managed to step up as 'the man' when Buddy left, but we just haven't seen it from Naughton, and this should have been his forward line since Josh Bruce went down.

I think the good news long-term, is that we have the Kennedy to his Darling and the Lloyd to his Lucas in Sam Darcy, but right now we need to find ways to manufacture marks in the forward 50 with another lever - whether that's Lobb forward, Bont playing down there or Croft when he has some form.

Croft's return from injury timeline is about the same as Darcy at this stage.

[Mofra]

Bankers:
- JOD. He's damn close to overtaking Lobb now.
- Libba. Career best form?
- Dale. He's doing it all now.

Anchors:
- West and Bont missing goals. It's killing us
- Naughton's worst game for a few years. Absolute shocker
- Bramble, did he peak late last year?

[Scott2016]

B
JOD intercept marks. (stuffed a few kicks in 1st qtr but was really good)
RIchards just kept going
Kennedy again

A
Naughton miss from 2 metres out
Poulter miss
Mcniel lack of impact. Got a junk time goal but did stuff all for the rest of the game

Lobb did well and was used everywhere. I think he has to go forward as naughton and buku are not getting it done. I would even be happy to see English play forward for a game and see how that goes.