I am almost certain that we played with seven defenders most of the time last year.
With Redman and Gleeson seemingly unavailable for round 1, it’ll be interesting to see who take the 6th & 7th spots because you can make arguments for Dea and Ambrose and Brown.
I think the bench will look like this: def/mid (Guelfi), swingman (Brown), mid (Parish or Myers), mid/fwd (Langford).
Assuming Hooker, Francis, Hurley, McKenna and Saad will take the first five spots, my bet is on Ridley and Guelfi even though he has been training with the mids all pre-season (right, @nackers?)
I think Zaharakis can pay permanent hbf. He played that a bit in the back half of last last year particularly late in the year. With Goddard and Kelly gone he’d slot in there nicely.
Yep Baguley in over Laverde would give us small defender coverage for the 7th back brigade.
My argument for playing mids more time in the back half is
Tippa, has improved fitness, McGrath, Heppell, are super fit
We need to give midfield minutes to - Shiel - goddard wasnt really playing there, also more time to McGrath, Parish, Langford.
Master coaches Sheedy and Clarkson do it.
Play Hodge and Burgoyne through backline and the middle.
Played M Johnson and McVeigh and Welsh through the middle as well as defence.
I think Adding Ambrose we will be too top Heavy in ndefence, and I Want to squeeze Laverde into the team as I think he will breakout this year.
Heppell could at times be a general at half back, McGrath could play a role there if required even just to stay out on the park rather than go to the bench.
Tippa add some spark if required and get into game.
6.5/10 Needs work on spelling. bombers1 has shown that they can be very competent when they choose to. Unfortunately, they are prone to taking shortcuts. A bit more effort and concentration will go a long way!
Been having a look at the probable GWS forwards for Round 1
Cameron & Himmelberg will take the starting tall spots.
They’ll certainly play Tomlinson as the other tall / relieving ruck off the bench.
Dawson Simpson as their ruck ( Mummy unavoidably detained) so not much of a worry if he rests forward.
They love their 4 small forwards
DeBoer as the defensive forward
Greene & Zac Langdon as attacking smalls
Tarantino/ Delideo / resting mid as the other option.
So in terms of our defence 3 talls in Hurls, Hooker & Francis is more than enough.
DeBoer will take Saad or McKenna probably in a bid to restrict our run and do a Bags in terms of hurt factor. Assume the other takes Greene.
Happy to play Franga on Delideo / Tarantino if Tomlinson is rucking or off the field.
Langdon is the trickier one - a Guelfi match up?
We all agree that Hurls’ best game LY was on FRANKLIN, when he knuckled down & just beat him outright. He had less luck playing on slippery flankers like Gunston & Degoey.
Put him on the best key forward each week, unless it’s a monster like Hawkins.
And if Greene likes out marking blokes his own size, let’s see how he goes against Franga. This is the year Franga takes on blokes like him & the other 2 flankers I mentioned above.