Western Bulldogs Development Coach Peter German looks at how each of the Bulldogs listed players fared in the VFL on the weekend. 

Tom Campbell: In the conditions he took some strong marks and played a combination of forward and in the ruck. It was just a tough day for big men but he still found a way to use his strength at times and contribute.

Mark Austin: Aussie was down back, he played on [Dean Galea] and kept him to a couple of goals. He’s had a reasonable month and shown under a bit of adversity that he can keep fighting away. His defence has been pretty good and his overhead marking has been good. He was probably one of our better players.

Lukas Markovic: Marko started forward but probably struggled to have an impact there. He went down into the back half and was pretty solid for us. In the conditions it was really tough for a lot of the big boys, especially in the forward half, to really be effective.

Christian Howard: Christian played a little bit of everywhere and kicked a really nice goal in the first quarter with the conditions. He was able to take advantage of that. He laid a few tackles and was in the mix. He was a reasonable contributor on the day.

Patrick Veszpremi: He started really well but dropped away. Port were able to really dominate the game and it just made it tough for players particularly our forward players in the second half. He was a little inconsistent on the day but if things had gone our way early, he might have been responsible for three or so goals if we had taken our forward half chances.

Daniel Pearce: Pearcey was a little inconsistent – we would like to see him impact the game over four quarters rather than a quarter and a half. That is probably the challenge for him over the next month or so, to lift his rating and really start playing consistent footy to push for AFL selection.

Ayce Cordy: Another big fella in the conditions who struggled. It’s hard for big blokes to influence it when the ball doesn’t move really quickly. He spent more time in the ruck this week, after a month’s layoff with his ankle. He has been back for about three weeks now and hopefully in dryer conditions we can see him become more influential.

Alex Greenwood: He played on the wing, half forward and a bit in the middle. He finished off the game well and his last quarter was quite positive. He won some contested ball and was effective with them. But we probably need Greeny to try to step up – It’s important for him when he plays VFL seniors that he takes the game on and has that impact from the start.

Lin Jong: Jong was in the mix and we know he doesn’t lack any courage. He was playing on ball and laid five or six tackles. He scrapped and fought but he’s another player who has had a long layoff and is coming back to senior VFL. Hopefully over the next couple of weeks we will start to see him have more of an impact and intensity that comes with the step up.

Fletcher Roberts: He was good. He played forward and back and I thought he was really good down back. He was probably our best player in being able to handle the conditions, with his ball handling and his execution and his ability to be effective with it.

Tom Young: He was reasonable. He had his good patches but once or twice he got out positioned by his opponent. There were better signs this week than last week and again, it’s another player coming back after a long layoff and we are hoping that each week and each training session he will get back to full fitness and we can feel confident about playing him at AFL level again.

Development League

Easton Wood: Easton was quite good in heavy conditions. He got through the game in a real positive manner. His running and his GPS results showed that he covered some good ground and hit good speeds. We think that now is the time for him to start stepping up and in the next two or three weeks he can get back into AFL standards with his running and he will certainly help our AFL team.