Out: Hurn (inj), Waterman, Jones, Cripps
In: Witherden, Langdon, XON, Trew
Sub: Winder - we did say we weren't going to play someone as sub two weeks in a row, but he essentially played a full game anyway.
Two additional midfielders in the team this week (although only one additional in comparison to the Port game)... Should give us more run and get some more games into XON and give Trew his first run. We don't need 7 KPP + Brander + Rotham playing non-KPP roles. Unfortunately that leaves Waterman in the cold. I think we all like Jake, but it's a struggle to fit him into this team structure. He's just going to have to bide his time. I can see JJK being rested for some away trips later in the year, and inevitably some injuries crop up. Second ruck to be more shared, rather than defaulting to Oscar, especially against Grundy.
Wouldn't kill me if Langdon was still out in the cold. If it wasn't for Jones 3 v Dogs and Petch's 4 v Saints, the small forward role (a strength not long ago) has been pretty average this year so far. If Langdon still misses I'd rather play Jones in front of Cripps. If we were playing a final this week, I'd be picking Cripps over both (and holding my nose a bit) but I feel like this should be one of those times were you drop an under performing best 22 player to send a message.
On the small forward situation, whilst Ryan isn't in any danger of getting dropped, he too needs to pull his finger out a bit. He is running on 2020 output but back with normal amount of game time. He's an All Australia now - time to start leading like one.
Our midfield bridge needs to start hitting the scoreboard. They've combined for 3 goals this season so far - 1 each to Kelly, Sheed and Vardy. In 2018 we had Yeo (14), Gaff (12), Redden (10), Lycett (10), Hutchings (9), Sheed (8), Masten (7), Shuey (6) and NicNat (6) combined for 82 goals. That's about 2.5 goals a game we are missing at the moment.
If we don't bounce back this week our season could spiral out of control.
Absolutely spot on. Couldn't agree more with everything here