Bankers & Anchors: Rnd 17, 2025 vs North Melbourne

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

This is the Round 17, 2025 edition of the weekly Bankers and Anchors thread. Once tonight's game against North 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.

[GVGjr]

Bump

[Scorlibo]

Bankers

Naughton - impressive return to form the last couple of weeks. Might be going too early, but things seem to have clicked for him.

Stars without things going their way still having an impact - Darcy, Bont, Dale, Richards.

Matt Kennedy - best recruit in my time, has fit in perfectly to the mid/fwd rotations.

Anchors

Our back six is a sieve. Lobb and Williams the only two consistent defenders, and we're running out of time to find a support crew. Would love to see LJ get back on the track.

First quarter handballs into corridor traffic - poor decisions that exposed our defence.

Whinging Roos supporters - could taste the salt from the couch.

[Bornadog]

Bankers

Whinging Roos supporters - could taste the salt from the couch.

It was awful to listen to. Two guys behind me the whole game whinging about free kicks. The bloke next to me finally told them to shut up and it was almost a fight.

The frees were one in their favour but the North supporters acted like it was one sided.

[Bornadog]

Bankers

1. Tim English - two goals and broke even in HO and HTA. Xeri is a strong bloke and used his bulk a few times, but Tim fought back and two goals was the icing
2. Coffield - I was critical of him in the first half as he dropped lots of marks and his field kicking was poor, but he fought back and had a good game in the end.
3. Libba - 250 games and played like he was still 21 years old

Anchors

1. As mentioned above, the North supporters crying for every single free kick and even booing at the end of the game.
2. The insufficient intent frees - North gave away at least 4 - a dumb rule
3. Sanders - went back to his old self, constantly looking for the handball - more HB than kicks and put others under pressure.

[merantau]

Bankers

1. Darcy. After a poor start he showed the resilience needed to come out the other side and have a good game. Put that in the memory bank Sam

2. English battled hard. He is more proactive at throw ins now and he was far more effective around the ground than his opponent.

3. Naughton has got his mojo back and his concrete hands have gone.

Anchors

1. We overused handball. Little dinky handballs to blokes standing still - yeah, NAH!

2. Our field kicking was off at times due to over kicking the ball.

3. Snap shots. We have to do better.

[Scott2016]

B
1. Tim did well given the opponent. We need him at his best in the next 2 weeks
2. Naughton was good and hope it continues
3. Libba just keeps showing us all why he is rated so highly

A
1. Playing Poulter ahead of Buku was wrong. Poulter and Gardner could be joint winners of the Liston Medal but still no good at AFL level. Put a line through them
2. Missing forwards. Yep Naughton was good and Darcy good in last quarter but where is help? VDM goal in first minute and West a goal in the last. No other contributions. Freijah kicked 4 last week, Kennedy hitting scoreboard but cannot say the same for Poulter VDM Dolan Hynes Mcniel West (few good games) and many others playing in forward line. Sydney showed last year that when Heeney Goulden and Warner didnt hit scoreboard they are no good. Our midfielders should be bonus goals not replied upon. Last night Bont 2 Tim 2 Libba 2 Freijah 1
3. Losing the clearances 2 weeks in a row is a concern given we say we have the best midfield in the comp.

[azabob]

Bankers

1. Tim English - two goals and broke even in HO and HTA. Xeri is a strong bloke and used his bulk a few times, but Tim fought back and two goals was the icing
2. Coffield - I was critical of him in the first half as he dropped lots of marks and his field kicking was poor, but he fought back and had a good game in the end.
3. Libba - 250 games and played like he was still 21 years old

Anchors

1. As mentioned above, the North supporters crying for every single free kick and even booing at the end of the game.
2. The insufficient intent frees - North gave away at least 4 - a dumb rule
3. Sanders - went back to his old self, constantly looking for the handball - more HB than kicks and put others under pressure.

Hard to always see at the ground but Sanders third quarter was bloody great. His ability to find time and space and then make the right decision was very similar to his game V Sydney.

[Bornadog]

Hard to always see at the ground but Sanders third quarter was bloody great. His ability to find time and space and then make the right decision was very similar to his game V Sydney.

Watching the replay, yeah I agree with you