Get the latest insight from Sandringham Senior Coach and St Kilda Development Coach Jake Batchelor following Sandringham's Round 12 match on the road against Sydney.

VFL MATCH CENTRE: Get all news, stats and videos from Round 12

SYDNEY  3.1  6.2  11.5  12.7 (79)
SANDRINGHAM  3.4  3.6  8.7  11.10 (76)

GOALS
Sydney: Buller 5, Morrison 3, Hall-Kahan 2, Longmire, Bartholomaeus
Sandringham: Zagari 2, Membrey 2, Watson, Owens, Lowe, Latreille, Keeler, Heath, Harms

BEST
Sydney: Stephens, Buller, Edwards, Mitchell, Magor, Bartholomaeus
Sandringham: Highmore, Paton, Sharman, Zagari, Gown, Connolly

Ben Paton

27 disposals, six marks, five rebound-50s

Pato started the game really strongly off half-back and looked really composed with ball in hand. He was a part of our attacking chains early on, and as the game went on probably wasn’t involved in our attack as much as possible. When he’s up and about he’s too good for VFL level, so it was a good opportunity for him to put another week together.

Tom Highmore

28 disposals, 13 marks, five rebound-50s

Tom was our best defender on the day. He competed really hard against some fast Sydney attack and tried really hard to get some turnovers in the front half for us. He did a good job overall and when the opportunity arises, he will be ready to go at AFL level.

Leo Connolly

18 disposals, nine tackles, four inside-50s

Leo was the only AFL-listed midfielder, so there was a fair bit of responsibility put on his shoulders. He did some good things, got some good link-up for us and got involved with a good amount of tackles around the contest. He probably didn’t have the outside run that we would have liked that we didn’t have as a full team also, so hopefully with a few more mids coming back in it’s a good opportunity to get working on the inside and outside balance.

Cooper Sharman

21 disposals, 10 marks, four inside-50s, three rebound-50s

Cooper did a tremendous job to get back and play with not much prep after being the sub for the Saints-Swans game. He chose to play the night before the game and rocked up, and his buy-in was great. He performed really well on the wing, ran really hard and gave us some good looks both ways. 

Tim Membrey

14 disposals, eight marks, two goals

Tim had a bit of an in-between game. He had great opportunities early on and just didn’t finish his work. He had some really good selfless plays throughout the middle game and then almost single-handedly got us back into the game in that last quarter with a crucial goal and setting up another one.

Olli Hotton

14 disposals, three tackles, one clearance

Olli did pretty good for his first game back. He played mostly as a high half-forward on the outside connecting on the off-ball side and also a little bit around the ball as well. He showed some good signs with his chase and pressure when we’re talking about in-tight defence. There were a couple of little structure and pattern things that are going to be off obviously with never playing a game with our team, but it was really positive from Olli. What better way to keep your rehab progression going than playing a game of footy? He’ll work a lot with DC over the next couple of days and just keep improving because there’s a lot there and I’m looking forward to uncovering it.

Tom Campbell

16 hit-outs, 15 disposals, eight clearances

It probably wasn’t his dominant day as he normally would have, and he was pretty frustrated after the game with the way that we played as a team. He’s big on that. He’s one that just wants to get back out there again and just get to compete, going back to the physical, aggressive ruck that he is.

Zaine Cordy

12 disposals, five marks, four tackles

Zaine worked well with Tom Highmore. A couple of times he reverted to folding back a little bit with their fast attack, but had some good come-forwards in his contest work. As a part of the leaders that play at Sandy, there’s the expectation of identifying scenarios that are happening live and getting them done, and it’s another opportunity this week to be able to move on that.

Jack Peris

11 disposals, five tackles, two inside-50s

We played Jack as a high half-forward again, probably more so around the stoppage. He ran really hard and he’s getting some close attention, which is what you’d expect in that role. We’ve spoken about how he can keep using his strength of power running just to hurt the opposition and smile at them at the end of the day and say ‘I can keep going’. He keeps getting front and centre, keeps getting shots on goal and keeps tackling, so it’s a positive for him.

Max Heath

16 hit-outs, nine disposals, one goal

Moose had a mixed bag. He had some really good, competitive efforts in the ruck and then forward of the ball. He played on some good opportunities that defended him really hard, but when he was there he competed. We didn’t make the most of our entries - we had a lot, but a lot of the time wasn’t kicked to his favour. That said, his around the ground stuff probably wasn’t an improvement on the previous weeks. There are still some areas he can work on when it comes to running when he’s not involved, so there’s another opportunity this week.

James Van Es

12 disposals, four tackles, three marks

Jimmy had another week as that in-between defender. It wasn’t much of a contest day because of how quick both teams tried to move the ball, but his team defence is improving and he’s just got to keep the consistency of gameplan, physicality and aggression is there, because when he does it he’s hard to play against.

Oscar Adams

13 disposals, five marks, two inside-50s

Same as Jimmy in terms of positioning for the week, Oscar got to some good spots as an outlet defender. He’s covering those spots off generally pretty well, so we’ve just got to make sure the consistency of performance is there. As young players it’s easy to go up-and-down, up-and-down but the downs aren’t as low anymore which is pleasing to see. I just want to see how these boys just bounce back from a poor result as a team and go against another outfit who will be disappointed from last week.

Isaac Keeler

Six disposals, three marks, one goal

It probably wasn’t the same output Isaac’s had over the last couple of weeks. He got beaten in the air and although the ball didn’t come in anywhere near what a key forward knees, the brand we’re seeing Isaac build of intent and complete effort was probably just off in the slightest. It just shows that you’ve got to be on your A-game for 120 minutes. He’s one I already know that’s looking forward to bouncing back and getting back to his aggressive, effort-based best.