Last week’s win over the Western Bulldogs was a tough win, but a good win for the club. To kick 21 goals from 54 entries was I think our best result for the year in terms of percentage of goals from times inside 50, and obviously Kurt Tippett kicking six straight really helped that. While Kurt did kick a bag, once again, we also had a number of multiple goal kickers, which is something we have really prided ourselves on this season.

Kurt’s game against the Bulldogs would have really given him some confidence. We’ve always felt he had the ability to kick as well as he did on the weekend, so the results everyone else saw last Sunday was what us coaches have been seeing each week at training. It was good for him to get that confidence boost and for him to see his hard work at training now paying off on the field.

We’ve also been pleased with the synergy we’ve had between our talls on field this season. Tippett, as well as Jesse White, Shane Mumford and Mike Pyke have all spent time in the forward 50 this year with positive results. I think they are working pretty well and they’ve all got different strengths and they’ve all been isolating each other as best they can. They’ve all contributed defensively and on the scoreboard and they are all very different players. Tippo is different to Pykey and Jesse is really different to those two, and Mummy is different again. They are all playing their role which is important.

This week we also get back Benny McGlynn, who despite his three-week suspension is still leading our goal kicking tally for the season. To get Benny back is a good result for us and he certainly is a leader in the forward line, and his work rate up and down the ground is as good as anyone and he gets the set-ups right and drives the others, so we’re looking forward to getting him back out there.

While Benny was out of the side we had some really terrific performances from some of our younger players. Brandon Jack is one of those players and what makes his efforts this year so special is that he hasn’t played a whole lot of footy at any level but has been able to really step up. He’s obviously got really good pace and the biggest thing about BJ is that he wants to learn and he wants to get better, and that’s seen him improve so much this year.

Jed Lamb is a bit more of a natural footballer and he’s played football all his life and understands all the shapes and the patterns to run and get to the right spots. He understands all the structures and learns really quickly, so he’s come in and played his part in that aspect firstly, and then his attacking play has come off the back of that. We know he can hit the scoreboard and he’s kicked seven goals since he’s come in. Along with Tommy Mitchell, those three players have really given us something, certainly in the last five or six weeks.

We’ve got another big game this weekend against Collingwood, who showed what they could do last week against Essendon. The Magpies have a few newer players in their defence with Marley Williams and Ben Sinclair, and Tyson Goldsack coming back there, as well as some more experienced guys like Nick Maxwell, Heath Shaw and Nathan Brown. They have a bit of a mix of youth and experience and they certainly give their side a lot of drive.

One player we might not have to worry about in defence for the Pies is Ben Reid, who looks like he has become the problem of our defensive coach John Blakey with his move into the forward line. While we’re not sure which end he’ll line up at, we know he’s a key player for Collingwood, so we’ll have to keep an eye on him on Saturday night.