3 of our starting 6 backs get injured when the wind changes
Centreline/ Ruck consists of another injury prone guy, a snake who hates the club and someone traded in, and straight to our leadership group, and then the followers is a ruck coming off an ACL, a guy who hasnt been good since 2021 and durham, who is a huge tick
Forward line, lol. Caddy and kako ticks, but thats where all the attention will go from opposition, the rest ugh. Where do you start. Caldwell is a bonafide mid, we all know that. We’re gonna struggle to kick over 7 goals. Why the fk is guelfi even on the list, let alone best 18
I expect we will (should) adopt a very conservative approach with the lad to avoid any chance of back related stress fractures. I’ve read he grew by 17cm in his final 2 junior years and the discovery of some hot spots early in the preseason demands caution.
Will be eased into the year for sure. We cannot be making the same mistakes with these kids as we did with Reid and Cox
Seems to me like this is the clear core of our best 23. Obviously a couple other probables, but these players will likely play each game this year if fit.
Is your ? In the middle for a ruckman? I presume bryan in penciled in for it
The forward pocket ? Is definitely a very interesting question. I imagine guelfi and gresh will get first crack though
I’d like to think Clarke is a lock but I’m not convinced he is yet. He’s probably the front runner for a wing/7th defender slot but I could see Scott having prior ahead of him. I think prior makes us to too slow down back with 3 talls and Redman. I’d prefer Johnson, seh, Nguyen, be in contention for that spot and Clarke used exclusively on the wing.
So many people overlooking Jones and Perkins, Gresham and Guelfi.
There is nothing more certain in this world, ie Brad’s World, that they will, if fit, play 23 games this year.
Love the fan speculation but let me break it down for you. Last season’s investment in youth will not necessarily carry over into this year. Don’t assume Brad enjoyed picking the likes of Unwin, May, Johnson et al. He had to. It was a hard pill to swallow for the man who baulks at picking youth and always has.
So, keeping it real rather than dreaming of what could be, again assuming availability, Starting 23 in 26 will be as follows
^^That line-up is a nice capture of possibly the least pallatable line-up for a lot of Essendon supporters, which I suspect was the intent.
But actually it’s a good (worse case scenario) baseline from which to compare the actual round one line-up - how many of those cloggers are actually pushed out.
