Blue puts hand up for AFL recall as Tigers, Dogs and Dees pick up VFL wins

Round 16 of the VFL season is complete with three games taking place across Sunday.

The day’s first game occurred at Punt Road Oval with Richmond defeating Gold Coast 96-70.

In a similar vein to last week, Richmond’s VFL-listed players led the way but the club would have loved the performances of AFL-listed options Kaleb Smith (22 disposals) and Oliver Hayes-Brown who had a whopping 63 hitouts. Midfielders Kane McAuliffe (one goal, 19 disposals) and Thomson Dow (22 disposals) also continued their strong form.

For the Suns, Rory Atkins (one goal, 32 disposals), Brayden Fiorini (25 disposals), James Tsitas (31 disposals), Jack Mahoney (one goal, 28 disposals) and Thomas Berry (one goal, 34 disposals) all had huge numbers in defeat.

The day’s second game took place at the Whitten Oval with Footscray beating Carlton 88-79.

For the Dogs, Riley Garcia was dominant with two goals and 34 disposals while Caleb Daniel (29 disposals) and Anthony Scott (33 disposals) found a lot of it.

For Carlton, George Hewett put his hand up for an AFL recall with one goal and 34 disposals while Jesse Motlop also pushed his case with one major, 13 disposals and nine tackles.

The final game of the round took place at Casey Fields with the Demons beating Essendon 90-68.

The home side had huge performances from Bailey Laurie and Jack Billings who both kicked two goals to go with 29 disposals, while Blake Howes had a heap of it with 24 touches and nine marks.

For the Dons, Ben Hobbs (27 disposals) and Elijah Tsatas (31 disposals) got a lot of it in the middle.

Other standout Round 16 performances from AFL-listed names included Jack Bytel from Collingwood who kicked a goal to go with 33 disposals against Geelong who had Brandan Parfitt collect 34 touches and St Kilda forward Matthew Allison who kicked five goals for Sandringham against Williamstown.