Bankers & Anchors: Rnd 16, 2025 vs Sydney

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

This is the Round 16, 2025 edition of the weekly Bankers and Anchors thread. Once tonight's games against Sydney 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 player.

[1eyedog]

Bankers

Bramble the best sequel of all time. An Empire Strikes Back performance.

Is it a bird is it a plane. No it's mini-Bont.

Bont, Richards, Libba, Darcy, Dale all down after quarter time but we find a way to win.

Wankers

The surface

The umpiring in the second to give them a sniff

Dinky shit loopy kicks in defence at critical moments. JOD and Coff chief offenders. Don't operate outside your means!

[westbulldog]

Bankers
Bramble, much mailgned by me and others, played a great game, impactful in the 3rd quarter.
Freijah, sky is the limit.
Naughton, redemption game tonight

Anchors
SCG playing surface, a disgrace to our national game.
O'Neil , is our patience unlimited ?
Ed Richards, didnt handle the tag well.

[merantau]

Bankers
Bramble - got us out of a lot of tight situations with dash, dare and coolness. Kicked a team lifting goal.

Sanders - continues to impress with his poise and good hands.

Freijah - talent with a huge upside. Has looked at home since game one.

Anchors
The ground was a DISGRACE

Players who don't take their chances.

The scragging of Ed Richarfs. I thought he was being blocked and held a lot.

[Bornadog]

The above posted Bankers are great, so instead of repeating, I will post individual Bankers

Bankers

1. Freijah's goal from the boundary
2. Naughton's Right foot goal
3. Sam Darcy running along the boundary and slotting in a goal.

Anchors

1. SCG surface, a disgrace to Footy in this day and age.
2. Umpires two x 50 to them for no reason
3. The deliberate against VDM - a joke

[Hot_Doggies]

The above posted Bankers are great, so instead of repeating, I will post individual Bankers

Bankers

1. Freijah's goal from the boundary
2. Naughton's Right foot goal
3. Sam Darcy running along the boundary and slotting in a goal.

Anchors

1. SCG surface, a disgrace to Footy in this day and age.
2. Umpires two x 50 to them for no reason
3. The deliberate against VDM - a joke

The VDM deliberate was the correct call. He just needed to pick it up , pretend to kick and end up out of bounds. I don’t mind him as a player but he lacks poise.

[BiteNibbleChomp]

Bankers:
- Naughton. We've been waiting all season for him to find his form again, welcome back Astronaught! Him getting us the momentum in the second was huge.
- Fridge. Crazy to think he's not even played 30 games yet.
- Bont. Not so much for that game specifically, but for everything he's done since getting drafted.

Anchors:
- McNeil. I know it's a bit of a tired trope to be ragging on him, but this is like the third or fourth time in the last six weeks he's been subbed off after having no impact all game.
- The SCG playing surface. I've seen people have an easier time keeping their feet on Wipeout.
- Toby Greene. If I never see him again on my TV it'll be too soon.

- BNC

[comrade]

Bankers

- Naughts obviously. If he can bring that each week, we are a different proposition.
- Hynes has something and I’m glad we’ve given him time to show it
- Didn’t have a huge game but Williams is just Mr Reliable these days. When others were fumbly or falling, he stood up with a critical possession late.

Anchors

- Defensive group was all at sea for large portions of the game. JJ getting pinged early was a ridiculous decision by a senior player, Lobb second guessing himself deep, JOD kicking 2 shallow passes in a row to cough up the first goal, Coffield showing all his limitations. It’s the D50 group that causes me the most concern. Doesn’t feel settled, doesn’t feel cohesive.

- Timmy got trounced after quarter time. Just add it to the list of games Grundy has feasted on us.

- Our defensive pressure wasn’t good enough inside 50 for most of the night. Vanders & McNeil had stinkers obviously, but overall the entire forward half allowed easy exits all night which on a small ground just can’t happen. Plenty to work on.

[whythelongface]

Bankers
- keeping Hayward scoreless and nullifying his influence was excellent. Not sure who was on him most of the night but a bloody good job.
- Naughton was excellent. Presented and had good hands both at ground level and in the air
- our newer kids are great - Fridge, Sando, Hynes - were all influential last night. Great to watch.

Anchors
- didn’t mind English’s game. Did get beat but had some key moments but two pieces of play irked me. Grundy in our fwd 50 taking a mark and then another was his snap on goal- where was Tim? Lumbering behind.
- our lack of awareness of players getting on the outside around stoppages in our fwd 50. They kicked 3 or 4 goals - they were freakish goals but nonetheless shouldn’t have been able to get their hands on the ball
- some of the decision making to go wide in our defence half to contests that just weren’t on. Lead to turnovers and goals. Need to cut that out and be aware.

one more huge Banker - Brambles best game for the club. Well done. Love it when lesser lights step up.

[Bornadog]

The VDM deliberate was the correct call. He just needed to pick it up , pretend to kick and end up out of bounds. I don’t mind him as a player but he lacks poise.

Sorry don't agree - The game is ruined by dumb decisions like that. How many times do players do that, pretending to pick it up and forcing the ball out.

[Hot_Doggies]

Sorry don't agree - The game is ruined by dumb decisions like that. How many times do players do that, pretending to pick it up and forcing the ball out.

I don’t have an issue with the decision to take it over. The execution was terrible by VDM.

[Scott2016]

B
Freijah lifted us up and carried us over the line
Sanders improvements starting to pay off
Hynes showing he is going to be OK. His repeat efforts really helped.

A
Mcniel and VDM keep doing nothing and keep being protected. Hynes better than both of them and only 4 games in.
Backline were poor especially in first qtr.
The lack of respect of Sydney mids by our mids cost them. The stoppage goals in Sydney's forward line was unacceptable. Libba was reminded by Heeney when he slotted one. Its not hard man up the good ones and let the lesser ones have the shots.
We need to learn from what happened to Dale after half time and Richards for full game. Others will copy that model in coming weeks because it worked.

[Mantis]

B
Freijah lifted us up and carried us over the line
Sanders improvements starting to pay off
Hynes showing he is going to be OK. His repeat efforts really helped.

A
Mcniel and VDM keep doing nothing and keep being protected. Hynes better than both of them and only 4 games in.
Backline were poor especially in first qtr.
The lack of respect of Sydney mids by our mids cost them. The stoppage goals in Sydney's forward line was unacceptable. Libba was reminded by Heeney when he slotted one. Its not hard man up the good ones and let the lesser ones have the shots.
We need to learn from what happened to Dale after half time and Richards for full game. Others will copy that model in coming weeks because it worked.

I thought Libba was really poor... he just struggles so badly against teams with quick midfields and couldn't go with Heeney or Warner when opposed to them. Too much hunting the ball, and not enough time being accountable.

[Ozza]

Bankers:

Lachie Bramble - Credit where due. I've been critical of how he is going and how he handles pressure. If he brings that level of decisiveness and run as a new baseline then I'm here for it. He not only handled pressure Friday night - but he also busted his way out of half back in a way we haven't really seen from him before in a hot game. Tip of the hat.

Naughton - he got involved!! Over and over got on leads and kept moving. Played a great game.

Freijah - What a stunning second half. What a pick up he has been.

Anchors:

McNeil struggled again
Thought Libba was down on the night.
O'Donnell early was a worry.

[jeemak]

I thought Libba was really poor... he just struggles so badly against teams with quick midfields and couldn't go with Heeney or Warner when opposed to them. Too much hunting the ball, and not enough time being accountable.

It's been a long time bugbear of mine when it comes to Libba's game at different times. Maybe he's been told to play see ball get ball footy and we'll win the balance, but like you said against high quality fast midfielders we can get burned by it.