ROSE Bell was one of the driving forces behind Murray Bushrangers’ 7.10 (52) to 4.6 (30) victory over the Western Jets at Avalon Airport Oval on Saturday, producing a composed and aggressive performance from defence that went well beyond simply holding the line. Eleven rebound 50s, 30 disposals, and a disposal efficiency of 83.3 percentage in a winning side – Bell was the kind of defender who makes a team go, pushing hard out of the defensive arc and punishing any invitation to run.

Rose Bell
Club: Murray Bushrangers
Position: Defender
Height: 170cm
Date of Birth: 18/03/2008

STRENGTHS:

+ Kicking
+ Skills
+ Rebounding
+ Aggression
+ Aerial ability
+ Decision making under pressure

IMPROVEMENTS:

– Endurance
– Speed

Statistics (Round 6 vs Western Jets): 30 disposals (21 kicks, 9 handballs), 9 marks (1 contested), 2 tackles, 5 inside 50s, 11 rebound 50s | 83.3% disposal efficiency

Bell is a top-age prospect with a mature defensive profile – she plays with a purpose and a tempo that better suits a state leaguer than a teenager, and her 11 rebound 50s from Saturday are a statistical reflection of a game that she shaped repeatedly through good positioning and smart ball use. The 83.3 per cent disposal efficiency tells the fuller story: the performance was not accumulation for its own sake. The knocks on Bell’s game have not come from her on-field ability, but in a tale as old as time, the footballer vs athlete debate comes into play with Bell excellent at the former, while needing to improve the latter.

FIRST QUARTER:

Bell started at centre half-back and made her intent clear early – it was not going to be a conservative, defensive performance. At the five-minute mark she got her first touch in defence with quick hands before gathering it again and thumping it long down the wing effectively. Midway through the term she made a proactive decision to bring the ball to ground and lock it up, a smart read that disrupted an opposition movement before it could develop.

The moment that best captured her composure followed thereafter with a great mark 55 metres from goal, after which she played on and attempted to sidestep on the mark, slipped, but recovered and got it away. A lesser player panics in that moment. Bell steadied. Later in the term she executed a long kickout to half-back, and finished the quarter with a mark in the middle and a thump to the pocketa. Five disposals and two marks from the opening term.

SECOND QUARTER:

Bell started the quarter with a strong mark deep in defensive 50 and kicked it outside the arc to a contest – her defensive zone was secure, and she was playing on Paige McHutchison. She started to get her hands on the ball in the second half of the term as she pushed hard through the middle and found a handball option, a sign that she was not content to stay back and wait for the ball to come to her.

In the 16th minute, the ball bounced kindly to her in the middle and she thumped it to the hotspot inside 50, but it was intercepted. The standout moment of the quarter was around 90 seconds later where, after marking in the back pocket, she hit a short pass to the defensive 50 – won it again moments later – and rather than going long down the line, she picked out the short option on the 45. That kind of decision-making, looking for quality over distance, is a marker of a defender who understands how to use possession. In the final minute she won the ball one-on-one, kicked long, followed up to win it again and handballed off on the forward side of the middle. Five kicks from the quarter, five disposals.

THIRD QUARTER:

Bell’s best quarter of the game and possibly the most compelling 20 minutes of her season so far. It began with a strong contested mark in the fourth minute – she burst off the handball immediately before competing in the air to bring the next contest to ground when it came back. Already making herself the centre of gravity in defensive contests.

The defining passage came in the seventh minute. Playing aggressively from half-back, she pushed up to the stoppage as it moved to the defensive side of the middle, tracked it to the wing to win the ball and handball off nicely – then pushed again to win the handball back at half-forward. Rather than recycling, she stepped inside under pressure and took a shot that just missed to the right. The willingness to have a go after that much hard work in the lead-up was striking.

At the mid-point of the quarter, Bell thumped a ball clear from the defensive 50 to half-back, and shortly after, produced quick hands off to a teammate and bumped her opponent. The best highlight of the quarter however came in the 16th minute as Bell burst forward and found Ebony Chapman with a precision kick inside 50. The goal assist confirmed her as a player who can hurt the opposition, not just protect her side.

She finished the quarter with two more effective involvements – a powerful boot out of the defensive 50, and a mark in the back pocket followed by a quick dish off, winning it back for a kick outside defensive 50 on the siren. A massive 11 disposals for the term.

FOURTH QUARTER:

Bell started on the Western Jets’ Xanthe Chard but looked to peel off from the match-up whenever the opportunity arose, positioning herself in the dangerous contested areas rather than staying glued to her opponent. In the first two minutes she intercepted a ball in defence and thumped long to the wing, and two minutes later she was composed on the last line with a careful handball under pressure – an important moment in a tight defensive sequence.

As the fifth minute of the final term rolled around, she pushed up to half-back to intercept and took off to clear. Her one direct turnover of the game – a long thump down the wing that was intercepted – came shortly after, though that was a rare moment where the aggressive option didn’t pay off. She quickly recovered a minute later by taking an intercept mark deep in defence and hitting an effective short kick before pushing up to apply a shepherd.

As the quarter ticked past the halfway mark, Bell took a grab at full-back, kicked to the pocket, followed up to win a handball and then kicked long to the wing; a complete defensive-to-rebound sequence. The final two involvements were significant with a kickout right to the defensive 50 with a nice long kick that started an end-to-end play, and in the 16th minute, she pushed right up to the attacking side of the middle and delivered a precise kick inside 50. Nine disposals and three marks to close out a strong individual performance.

SUMMARY:

Rose Bell’s ability to intercept and return the ball to sender downfield is a quality of her game that consistently appears whether she is playing for Murray Bushrangers or the Allies. In her team’s preliminary final loss to Eastern Ranges last season, she racked up 20 rebound 50s in a ridiculous performance behind the ball.

While Bell did not quite have that number on the weekend, 11 is still a high-volume return, and they are not all from easy kick-ins. She quite often intercept marks, or even mops up and drives the ball out of defence. While her penetrating kick is a strength, Bell hits up those short 45 kicks to open up transition plays and eye off different angles of attack for her side. A naturally strong player, Bell is one to watch going forward as a rock solid reliable defender.

Though Bell is a New South Wales native, she is not tied to the Giants Academy, and instead is available to the open drat pool. What is clear about the talented top-ager is that when it comes to football, she just gets the job done every week, and the improvement focus is on her athletic side.