i can’t see rids getting up for round 1. i think most of this is a lock for rd1 barring further injury but there are still a few spots up for grabs. This also assumes duursma at half forward will be a thing
mcgrath Mckay Redman
Nguyen Reid Roberts
Fiorini Parish wing2
Blakiston Caldwell Durham
Merrett Caddy Duursma
Kako 2mp Langford
7thdefender sharp tsatas huss 5thbench
win2 role - prior is probably the front runner, SEH, johnson and cox in the conversation. maybe they yet resort to Duursma or perhaps they push roberts up
7th defender - seems to be a race between farrow, johnson and seh, if ridley gets up for rd1 the spot probably disappears.
5th bench really hard to know probably any one of those guys already pushing for one of the last roles or maybe guelfi and gresh get into the conversation. i could see May perhaps sneaking a wild car spot to play key forward when 2mp relieves blakiston in the ruck
i think ultimately if we lined up like this it would be a pretty strong team
mcgrath Mckay Redman
Nguyen Reid Roberts
Fiorini Parish Duursma
Blakiston Caldwell Durham
Merrett Caddy Sharp
Kako 2mp Langford
Farrow tsatas huss SEH May
i think SEH ultimately gets the nod ahead of johnson because his got more aerial tools and physical maturity but it’s a really close call. Farrow seems to be elevating himself very very quickly. clarke may yet come into contention if he finds some form through February
Gonna be some awkward mismatches with that line-up if the Hawks run with the sort of forward setup they had in round 24 when all of Mitch Lewis, Mabior Chol, Calsher Dear and Jack Gunston played.
true, i’d been thinking they’d play small ball again but maybe they change things up.
i guess it adds strength to the idea that the 5th bench spot should be for a tall. perhaps may could pinch hit down back if necessary or maybe that makes them pick cox.
i’m pretty content to let Redman play as third tall and i really don’t think rids will be ready.
I’m not sure that Nguyen is as locked into the first team as we’d all like him to be. He hasn’t been in the first backline this preseason and Brad is Brad.
That set up is screaming out for a KONDO type player to become a very good footballer.
Has the height to (at a pinch) cover a tallish forward, but if not needed in that capacity, can be a rebounding player. Redman in theory can do that but he is not really Mr. Consistent. Otherwise, no real match up/set up flexibility.
Its still 5.5 weeks away until we play the Hawks in round 1 so anything can happen but I wouldn’t think they will play all of Lewis/Chol/Gunston & Dear in their forward line at once.
Their forward set up be more like;-
Moore Lewis Ginnivan
Gunston Chol Watson
Dear (or one of the talls) would likey start on the bench.
If we were to match this up it might be something like;-
Moore (Redman) Lewis (Reid) Ginnivan (Roberts)
Gunston (Ridley) Chol (McKay) Watson (McGrath)
Those match ups dont look too bad - but its not our defence I’m worried about its more our forward line where we will likely have a bunch of very inexperienced players in Caddy/Kako/HAS/May etc rotating through
I would argue that most teams, most games, get the match-ups right. Yes, there are some poor days, such as Brad going tall in the wet, but most one on ones are okay. It’s the system that seems to get us. Forwards separating, or not; blocking, peeling off, moving the ball quickly etc etc.
Hopefully 2026 sees us playing as a team. Getting the match-ups right should be something we can do most games, injuries permitted.
We might see Archie Roberts in midfield rotations this year - he has great evasive skills and is a bit of a point of difference in there along with Sharp who looks ready for round 1;-
