Round 6.5 (don’t ask) Essendon v Tenthmond @ Punt Road Oval, 4pm Saturday 27 May 2017

Essendon are 7th on the ladder with 12 points and of 141%, Richmond are sitting at 10th of course, with 118%. Interestingly, Richmond have a more potent forward line while we have a better back line in terms of scoring for/against at this point in the season…

Potentially we have lost Boyse, Ferry and Hind to the State squad but if Ferry plays in the Vic squad we might have to use Marty and Francis as KPDs or use an extra VFL listed tall. Both have played these positions last year.

Come along to the G early, drop in at the Punt rd. Oval and support the boys in the VFL. Should be quite a good crowd.

Theres even a presentation at the end. Last year Jerret won it with a big game in the midfield. I reckon this year TBell or even The Langford will be a chance

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What does Richmond charge to get in?

I thought we were playing Nth Ballarat this week?

EDIT: sorry, that’s next week

What a day this would be. Royal. Punt road vfl. G vs tigers. OH BOY

Round 18 is before round 7 (or somesuch).

As I noted elsewhere, hopefully McKernan is good to go. Might end up with him and Bellchambers swapping FF and ruck, and Draper at CHB.

I’d rather see Draper in the ruck.

Kid looks to be developing confidence there, why change?

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Both McKernan and Belly would play fwd. With either or both taking turns at giving Draper a chop out in ruck.

Last week we had Belly as only tall marking target as there was no one else available.

If Francis is back he’d be far more likely for CHB than Draper would IMO.

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My point is that the only definitely available senior player of any size to play back this year is Draper. And Richmond were stacked with height pre-season, so going with (say) Marklew at FB and Redman at CHB may not work.

It’s certainly not ideal. The alternative is to go full shootout with Tommy and Smack forward, and hope our midfield wins.

I’d say Joel Madden will get a call up. He played a fair bit of last year in defence for Coburg.

Assuming Maric is fit (he tends to miss a game every month due to back issues), they’ll likely have Chol (198), Moore (193) and one of Elton (197) or Soldo (204). Saw them 2 weeks ago and neither Chol or Moore were remotely threatening, but Chol has had the occasional day out at VFL level.

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Paul Amy‏ @PaulAmy375 May 23

Dandenong Stingray Mason De Wit called up to Essendon’s VFL team to play against Richmond on Sat. Classic utility.Had 31 touches on Saturday

191cm defender, likely to play as our 23rd man.

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Worth noting we smashed them in that pre-season match, of course…

Darby is the only (available) guy on our VFL list over 191cm to get a game this year.

A chance Lil Hepp will get the chance to come back. Last year he tried out as an inside midfielder and got plenty of time at stoppages and won a lot of it ( roving to the Russian which was a distinct advantage in a lot of games )
Unfortunately, the list is back to normal and there are plenty of mids in the team. Its going to be difficult to get the same opportunity.

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last week at Coburg he mentioned he expected to play this week against Richmond

HepA!

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B: 20. J Merrett, 63. M Darby, 19. K Mutch
HB: 41. B McNiece, 25. A Morgan, 34. J Long
C: 8. M Gleeson, 5. B Stanton, 57. N Hind
HF: 27. M Redman, 10. A Francis, 24. C Bird
F: 37. D Clarke, 44. S McKernan, 16. J Begley

R: 38. S Draper, 30. K Langford, 40. B Howlett

I: 56. J Peters, 62. M Luxford, 55. D Younan, 69. A Marklew, 59. A Heppell, 54. N O’Brien, 51. A Boyse, 66. K Strachan

23p: 75. M DeWit

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182cm guy named at CHB. He’s no Harvey, and there has been a couple decades of player size inflation since then.

Boyse and Hind cut from the State squad? Yay!

McKernan replaces Bellchambers.

Obviously Marklew will play.

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Everytime the VFL team wins, so do we. Let’s smash this mob and then we can finish them off Saturday night.

That’s a strong squad. Good to see McK, Hep & Francis back.

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