Yeah I’m talking about being ready for selection not whether he warrants it or not.
It’s early in the year, so I’ll lean towards selection for team role than for specific matchups.
I just don’t know enough about the way other teams have gone through pre-season to know how they line up in round 1. The Hawks play this weekend, so we’ll have a better understanding next week, but for now, I’ve got…
Small Defenders - Nguyen, McGrath (Johnson)
Medium Defenders - Redman (Farrow)
Tall Defenders - McKay
Loose Man Setup - Reid
We’ll aim to set up Reid as the loose man / third man up, just like early last year. It won’t work every time, but it should return more benefits across time. The only problem is, the Hawks will force us to make a tough decision on who to leave loose and hopefully get lost in the contest. It’ll be Moore, Watson or MacDonald. Each have their own way of forcing Reid to not hand off his opponent and stay honest. I suspect that’s why we went to the ruck playing a kick behind play to create the loose man, but that’ll only happen on a stoppage in our front half last year. Maybe Blakiston changes this and 2MP has had a year to get his fitness up to speed to help cover the ground as a ruck. The stoppage on the wing or back half is more likely to come from allowing a player to work up to the contest.
I struggle to provide spots for the developing defenders. They all warrant selection and we know Redman and McGrath will get games. I wouldn’t be surprised if Farrow misses out on selection and comes in after a few rounds depending on form / injury.
I also struggle to get Johnson in there. His attacking game is perfectly fine but I’m really concerned about his defensive game. This has all the signs of playing him in a spot where his deficiencies are exposed which will diminish his positives. This is likely to be another Massimo situation. If Johnson could play on the wing, that would be great as that’ll help another issue we have. I’m not sure what his running capabilities are like.
Half Back rotating to wings - Roberts (Clarke)
Wings - Duursma, Fiorini (Prior)
Ruck - Blakiston
Midfield - Parish, Merrett
Defensive Midfielder - Caldwell
Half Forwards rotating to wings - ?
We really do lack a half forward that shifts up to the wing. Even though this is earmarked for Duursma, I don’t think it’ll hold for long. I get shifting Prior to the wing because Duursma is more of an offensive threat, but I’m not sure that’ll work well either. I’d be tempted to shift Roberts or Clarke there and see if they can develop more of an attacking game, but that probably is a tad too risky as they should probably just settle in a spot and allow them to develop their game a little while longer. Unfortunately, no Martin means we’re going to be even more susceptible to attacking defenders like Bailey Dale. And the Hawks have two of them in Impey and Amon. Not good at all for us.
I don’t like the Parish & Merrett pairing, but they’ll both play there. If Parish attacks the contested ball and gets it out to Merrett, it’ll work well. It just doesn’t have much affect when it’s the other way. I don’t mind Caldwell being the defensive midfielder and rotating with Durham / Sharp. It’s definitely an upgrade on Setterfield with more attacking possibilities.
High Half Frwd (rotates with midfield & works up to contest to keep loose man in defence honest) - Durham (Sharp)
Tall Forwards - Caddy, 2MP (assists as ruck backup)
Medium Forwards - Langford
Small Forwards - Kako
Weirdly, I’m comfortable with Durham and Sharp as high half forwards working up to the contest and back. I think Durham will keep the loose man honest and force a matchup, Sharp will struggle a bit more but if his fitness levels are up, it might be enough to force his opponent to stay honest. It’s still our most difficult spot to assign to a player. We just don’t have a high impact, low possession player that slots into here to force the opposition to be honest.
I think long term Kako will be a good high half forward. But we have very few small forward options (Huss needs time to develop, Guelfi & Gresham are a chance, but if Kako is fit, he’s prioritised). Regardless, he doesn’t need to be the traditional small forward. Charlie Cameron and Bobby Hill work their way up to the wings just as much as they stay and home and remain dangerous at the base of packs. Kako can be that kind of small forward.
Bench - Clarke, Johnson, Farrow, Sharp, Prior
This was tough. If we get this kind of mix (4 players with less than 2 years experience and 1 that more experience) we should be content with it but this is Blitz so we’ll go on and on and on and on about Prior. If anything, maybe Farrow comes out and Perkins goes in.
Regardless, expect a few players here to have low gametime percentage. I’d expect at least four of these players to be less than 45% and being rotated around the ground and the other being in the 60%.
Emergency - Perkins, Kon (there needs to be a tall as an emergency just incase for a late change), Huss, Guelfi
Like it or not, Perkins is next man up. It is what it is.
I suspect we’ll name Kon as an emergency just incase we need to make a late change to one of our talls.
I doubt Huss will be able to run out a full game yet. The signs have been good, but I’d like to see him run out a VFL game before playing him in seniors.
I’m leaving Tsatas out completely until proven otherwise. I cannot see how with the interchange being extended and rotation remaining as is, how you can find a spot for a player who is so limited.
Regardless, this team is likely to get beaten by the Hawks. If the margin is between 3 and 6 goals, that’ll be a good effort, but if the Hawks get their game going, they’ll beat us by 10 goals. It’s their speed and ball movement out of defence by Amon and Impey that is the worry. This is why I don’t want Huss on either of them. Let him develop at VFL level. Maybe Sharp can run with them. Durham and Duursma could, but it takes them away from other areas. If Guelfi is fit, I can see him tagging one of them.
And if they get Dear one out on the lead on McKay, it’ll be problematic. It’ll be interesting to see how they setup with Lewis, Dear, Chol and Gunston. I think their tall forwards will be more troublesome than last year’s lot. They’ll get out on the move and open up space for each other and their other small forwards.
Midfield might be where we have the advantage on them. But I think Nash will sit on Merrett. Newcombe probably takes Parish. I think we have the outside run advantage there, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they try Moore or Watson there for a point of difference.
It’s going to be a long season. And I wouldn’t be surprised if our first win is in round 11 against Richmond. At best, 3 or 4 wins by then would be a good result.
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We are a bang average team, but I think people are forgetting just how bad some of the other teams are
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I’m not ready that essay - but I’ll assume you have us undefeated at Round 11.
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Honestly, the great thing about this year is it may well be the year that decide’s the coach’s future.
Not in a million years will we see the Dons playing as directly and with so much freedom as I saw from the Swans in that second half. Let’s not forget they’d only kicked 2 goals up to half time. That turnaround was a coaching inspired result.
We have the nucleus of a very good side of coached properly. take the shackles off Brad and let the boys just play their natural game
No Clarke means the round 1 situation gets slightly clearer.
B: McGrath McKay Nguyen
HB: Johnson Reid Redman
C: Fiorini Merrett Prior
HF: Sharp Caddy Langford
FF: Kako Wright Huss
C: Blakiston Durham Caldwell
Int: Parish Roberts Duursma Farrow __________
Last spot is one of May, Kondo, SEH or Perkins depending on match ups etc.
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Free food every time we win this year:
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Too late… SHUT. UP.
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So there will be a famine relief program set up in late August for Essendon supporters?
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Possibly.
Or a lot of punters in red and black who call themselves Gold Coast or Brisbane supporters when at Grill’d in Melbourne.
Rebuilding shallowly coded comments
- Coach last year accusing people of being resultist - not about wins if you’re rebuilding
- President saying it’s going to be a tough season but we’re heading in the right direction - don’t expect too many wins because … we’re rebuilding
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With Kako a likely out for Round 1, do we expect Guelfi or Gresh to play? If they do, I can see them kicking 2-3 late goals when the game is dead and keeping their spot all season
Huss better play. I don’t care if he’s gassed at 3 qrt time.
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Agreed. Just play him deep so he doesn’t gas out too much.
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Don’t think Kako plays
Yeah I dont think so either should be right for round 2
Giants tall fwds doing a number on the hawks backline. We need to consider playing May also next week. Stretch them
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There’s a good chance of rain on Friday so you just know we will go in with:
HF: May, 2MP, Perkins
FF: Caddy, Langford, McMahon
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Tad confusing with not playing Tsatas again today in the VFL given we have said he needs k’s in the legs.
If he doesn’t get selected for the game next Friday (which he won’t) when does he actually next?
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