GIANTS VFL coach Wayne Cripps has heaped praise on Toby McMullin and Conor Stone while revealing a GIANTS Academy star will make his VFL debut this weekend.
On Sunday the GIANTS fielded its youngest and most inexperienced VFL side of the season as they fell by 10 goals to a strong Box Hill side in Victoria.
Despite the loss, Cripps was quick to highlight the performances of McMullin (21 touches, seven clearances) and Stone (14 touches, four tackles, a goal) who had particularly eventful weekends after spending most of it in Tasmania as part of the AFL side before travelling to Victoria for the VFL clash early on Sunday morning.
With McMullin playing as the AFL sub in Launceston on Saturday, where he came on late to play the final 30 minutes, and Stone the travelling emergency, the duo spent Friday and Saturday with the AFL side in Launceston before an airport closure due to fog resulted in a two-hour plus bus trip to Hobart and an overnight stay in the capital before a last-minute flight out of Hobart on Sunday morning to make the 2pm VFL game in Victoria.
“They would have been up at probably 4:30am on Sunday for a 6:30am flight after travelling down to Tassie on the Friday,” Cripps said.
“’Muff’ [McMullin] was obviously the sub [in the AFL game] and ‘Stoney’ was the traveller [travelling emergency] so it was a big effort from those boys with that sort of preparation to come out and perform to that level.”
Cripps was thrilled with McMullin’s development as the crafty half-forward’s impressive move to the midfield continues to bear fruit.
“We know that he can play that crafty forward role and he still can, but he’s been especially impressive since he’s moved into the midfield,” Cripps said.
“We are trying to add to his versatility, so he’s spent the last month or so as a midfielder and he’s getting better and better.
“He showed on the weekend just how clean he is around the contest and his ability to break through congestion is first class.
“’Meanwhile ‘Stoney’ was close to having another big day out on the weekend. He had that running power back this week and he was clean, he had great defensive pressure, he set up a couple of goals - he was really good in all phases.”
Cripps was also full of praise for veteran Lachlan Keeffe as well young key forward Max Gruzewski, who kicked 2.3 as he continues to press his claims for an AFL debut.
“’Keeffey’ [Keeffe] had that time in the ruck and up forward and he’s another who is starting to take his marks.He’s taken a couple of big, contested marks in recent weeks,” Cripps said.
“He had some low possession games earlier on in the year but he’s consistently having up in the high teens now and getting himself plenty of footy.
“Then that was probably one of Max’s better games as well. It was nice to see him take a couple of big contested marks and really launch at the ball.
“Once again he probably just didn’t quite finish his work, he should have finished with four or five [goals] as he missed a couple that he normally kicks.
“But on a day where the ball wasn’t coming in with great supply, he was often able to create something out of nothing.”
Turning his attention to this week’s clash, Cripps revealed that GIANTS Academy ruckman Logan Smith is in line to make his VFL debut against Port Melbourne in Blacktown on Sunday.
“He’s been going really well with the Allies and the Academy and we’ll get him in for his first VFL game this week which will be great to see,” Cripps said.
“He’s another young quality Academy ruck prospect. We’ve got a good history of that with Kieren Briggs and Nick Madden coming through and hopefully Logan is another one we can get some VFL games into and speed up his development.”
Isaac Cumming and Nathan Wardius will both face fitness tests later in the week as possible inclusions for Saturday’s VFL side.
The GIANTS and Port Melbourne will meet at 11:05am in Blacktown on Sunday.
AFL-listed GIANTS’ stats against Box Hill on Sunday:
18. Conor Stone
14 disposals, four marks, four tackles, one goal
24. Harry Rowston
19 disposals, five clearances
25. Lachlan Keeffe
16 disposals, 17 hit-outs, seven marks, one goal
29. Phoenix Gothard
14 disposals, one goal, three tackles
31. Toby McMullin
21 disposals, seven clearances, one goal
35. Max Gruzewski
11 disposals, six marks, two goals
37. Joe Fonti
19 disposals, seven marks
45. Wade Derksen
14 disposals, six marks
VFL Player Shoutout: Nathan Richards
11 disposals, 29 hit-outs, four clearances
“He was great on the weekend and gave our mids some great service. He’s got some real talent as a tap ruckman so he’ll definitely play plenty of football for us.”
