Couldn’t find a thread for this so thought I’d start a new one…
Plenty of water to go under the bridge before this is locked down but here goes an early try;-
Ridley Stewart Kelly
Redman Laverde Hind
Merrett Stringer Shiel
Snelling Langford Smith
2MP Jones Waterman
Draper Parish McGrath
Bench: Heppell Caldwell Cox Francis
SUB: Tippa
The backline picks itself - I’d like to see Read or Zerk in there early on in 2022 but I dont think it will be round 1.
I have Stringer as a starting mid - obviously he will rotate forward but I just think we look so much more dangerous when Jake starts in the guts and bullies the ball out to our smaller running mids - our midfield is starting to look really solid now…
The forward line is a bit tricky - I’ve got Waterman in there ahead of Perkins - I just think he’s more mature at this stage and Perkins might benefit from some time in the two’s to build his midfield craft.
Langford as a mobile center half forward (can rotate in middle with Stringer), Jones & 2MP the tall targets and Snelling & Smith the small pressure forwards.
The bench players all could end up starting on the ground, as could Tippa who I’ve named as SUB simply because I dont know where he is at and how he will go with another arduous pre-season given his mental health issues towards the end of 2021.
All in all its a solid enough starting 2022 - come at me if you see it differently…!!!
we have to pick him up first.
we are getting a more mature lineup and will be tough for young players like Hird,Ham, ( NWM if selected,) Wanganeen, Reid to break into the lineup.
Baldwin, due to having a huge frame looks ready to go.
He’s got Kelly as the back pocket. Kelly is going to push someone out. I can’t see it being Heppell, reckon Redman and Cutler will be battling it out for the 7th defender spot.
Too hard to pick a 22, but I’d think that ins from the elimination final side would be Langford, Tippa, Jones, Reid, Cox, Kelly and probably our first round pick. Hurley too if he can do a proper pre season and be at AFL fitness.
Talk about jumping the gun: we haven’t finished the trade/draft period yet! It’s exciting, looking forward to 2022 but we need to see what our stocks are come Round 1, before making pronouncements.
I don’t think we can have both Wright and Waterman in the same forward line, their style of play is too similar.
My thoughts are exactly the same, except Smith for Baldwin and Cutler to sub.
I think the two biggest questions for the coaches this year is how many talls we have in the forward line and working out the right roles in the midfield.
For most of the year we preferred to run with 3 talls plus Stringer up forward. But when Jones went down, we moved to 2 talls (Waterman played as a quasi 3rd tall late in the season). Jones is pretty mobile, so id guess they’d go with Jones, Wright and Francis first up.
While Archie is eventually likely moving further up the ground, I would be working on his forward craft this preseason so he can be more of a threat up forward. This will allow us to run with a 2 talls plus Stringer forward line, which I think is more balanced on paper as you need 3 pressure players these days. Also, as Cox develops he will be able to be moved forward when needed giving us that flexibility.
In terms of the midfield, I would prefer Caldwell to be the one who switches with Stringer, as I think he complements Parish and Merrett better than McGrath as he is a more in and under player.
I would also go to Cox and Langford on the wing, but it was interesting to see McGrath play a lot of wing when he came back from injury. I personally don’t see McGrath playing wing as being best for the team. But maybe he was only playing there because Cox and Langford wasn’t playing. McGrath attends all general stoppages and the CBAs that either Merrett or Parish don’t attend. Shiel plays more high half forward, like Treloar for the Dogs.