Not enough runners/mids. Too many defenders and forwards.
Out - Dear (he is miles off impacting in 2025)
In - Ward or Butler
Morrison into the 22. Scrim (or CJ) to sub.
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Toast Half-time 2025: Mid Season Appraisal
- Thread starter Bedi
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Out - Dear (he is miles off impacting in 2025)
In - Ward or Butler
Morrison into the 22. Scrim (or CJ) to sub.
My appraisal?
Who/What has improved:
Ward, Morrison, Chol, Gunston, Weddle. Butler looking promising
Who/What has gone wrong?
Our starts
Selection - playing two too many defenders until recently
Sicily, Day’s injury, Scrim, McKenzie
Bruest is done.
Our vibe in general has been off
Once we stopped celebrating we lost our dare.
At this stage of our development, we still need to be underdogs to fire up.
7/10.
Who/What has improved:
Ward, Morrison, Chol, Gunston, Weddle. Butler looking promising
Who/What has gone wrong?
Our starts
Selection - playing two too many defenders until recently
Sicily, Day’s injury, Scrim, McKenzie
Bruest is done.
Our vibe in general has been off
Once we stopped celebrating we lost our dare.
At this stage of our development, we still need to be underdogs to fire up.
7/10.
I’d give us 7/10 so far. A lot to like, but some areas of concern.
We can be very up and down and our worst can be pretty ordinary. Injuries, new players and lack of continuity haven’t helped.
That said, I think of all teams in the race, we have the most upside. We could storm through September if everything clicks.
Need to get all our ducks in a row for that to happen. It’s possible.
We can be very up and down and our worst can be pretty ordinary. Injuries, new players and lack of continuity haven’t helped.
That said, I think of all teams in the race, we have the most upside. We could storm through September if everything clicks.
Need to get all our ducks in a row for that to happen. It’s possible.
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Not tooting my own horn here but our record is exactly where I thought we’d be.
We have won all the games we should have won except the Port game, and lost all the games I thought we would win.
Disappointed that we didn’t win one of the GCS, Pies or Lions game but the way we have come back the last two weeks were significant and hopefully a sign of things to come
Positive so far:
1. Weddle
2. Meek
3. Gunston
4. Ward
5. Barras
6. Import
Negatives so far:
1. Injury to Day
2. Sicily’s form
3. Start stop game style
Second half:
Ladder predictor showing we need 15 wins to guarantee top 8 - so cannot drop any of the following games
North
Saints
Carlton
Melbourne
Port
And have to beat one of Adelaide, Pies or Brisbane.
Day, Sicily and one of Lewis/Deer huge positives.
Would love Mackenzie and McDonald in the side if their form deserves it
We have won all the games we should have won except the Port game, and lost all the games I thought we would win.
Disappointed that we didn’t win one of the GCS, Pies or Lions game but the way we have come back the last two weeks were significant and hopefully a sign of things to come
Positive so far:
1. Weddle
2. Meek
3. Gunston
4. Ward
5. Barras
6. Import
Negatives so far:
1. Injury to Day
2. Sicily’s form
3. Start stop game style
Second half:
Ladder predictor showing we need 15 wins to guarantee top 8 - so cannot drop any of the following games
North
Saints
Carlton
Melbourne
Port
And have to beat one of Adelaide, Pies or Brisbane.
Day, Sicily and one of Lewis/Deer huge positives.
Would love Mackenzie and McDonald in the side if their form deserves it
tommyk72
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I kinda feel like you've contradicted yourself here!
Good pick up
And yes I forgot a sentence which was - I put us down to lose one of those games still to manage my expectations
Also have a game against Freo too.
So 5 games against bottom 10 sides (currently) and 4 against top 6 sides (currently)
If we win those 5, we can easily win 1 of Freo, Lions, Pies and Crows.
We should expect to win them all and finish top though.
We are 17-6 from our last 23 H&A games which is a full H&A season and got Sydney top spot last year.
Difference is we've done the last 10 of those weeks now without Day, when the first 11 of that run can on the back of Day coming into the team and midfield being settled at the back end of 2024.
Day comes back in for at least the pies, dees and lions games possible crows too. So that's a big boost for the 3 toughest opponents of our last 9 weeks.
- Thread starter
- #60
Am inclined to agree with you about Ward. Has been great this year. What are you thinking for best 22?
B: Hardwick - Barrass - Battle
HB: Sicily - Scrimshaw - Amon
C: Morrison - Day - D’Ambrosio
HF: Moore - Lewis - MacDonald
F: Ginnivan - Chol - Watson
FOL: Meek - Newcombe - Ward
INT: Weddle - Nash - Worpel - Impey - Mackenzie (sub)
Trying to find a spot for Gunston but there isn’t an obvious out.
Morrison sub, Gunston in and one of Battle, Weddle or Scrimshaw wing.
Tough
- Thread starter
- #62
Glad you found a way to fit Mackenzie in. Reckon he's more likely than not to be best 22. Lot can (and will) change between now and late August but surely Gunston is a lock on present form.
Gunston in and someone else sub and Mackenzie out?
- Apr 25, 2010
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Crazy that we could argue we're missing out best Defender, Midfielder and Forward.
FB: Sicily - Barrass - Hardwick
HB: Impey - Battle - Amon
MF: Meek - Day - Worpel
MF: Nash - Newcombe - Ward
HF: Moore - Chol - Macdonald
FF: Watson - Lewis - Gunston
INT: Ginnivan - Weddle - D'Ambrosio - Butler
SUB: Morrison
That's my go at our best 23. Doubt we'll see it.
Think only one of Dear/Gunston plays.
CJ/Morrison/Mitchell competing for the sub.
FB: Sicily - Barrass - Hardwick
HB: Impey - Battle - Amon
MF: Meek - Day - Worpel
MF: Nash - Newcombe - Ward
HF: Moore - Chol - Macdonald
FF: Watson - Lewis - Gunston
INT: Ginnivan - Weddle - D'Ambrosio - Butler
SUB: Morrison
That's my go at our best 23. Doubt we'll see it.
Think only one of Dear/Gunston plays.
CJ/Morrison/Mitchell competing for the sub.
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Scrimshaw in I reckon still.
I agree. Butler too, I hope so.
I hope they push out Worpel, it means the teams in a good position. As bad as it sounds for Worps.
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Easy to forget he had a career best game v Giants only a couple of months ago. Seems to have really struggled post injury (maybe struggling to run out games)?
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I’d hate to think what the Bigfooty scribes of this board would have predicted had they known that we’d play out the first half with no Day, Sicily having to be managed, Ginnivan dropped to find form, Mass, Newc, Moore and Worp having subdued years, Frenchy at Box Hill, Nash being suspended for 4 weeks and the media roundly questioning why we’d traded for Barrass and Battle.
Turns out being 9-5 at the bye is actually pretty good going.
Turns out being 9-5 at the bye is actually pretty good going.
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I don't think he's shown enough polish at BHH. He's getting the ball, but I've been disappointed with his ball use generally and his lack of creativity/ability to break the game.
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One of my favourites, but the team balance looks weird with him in.
Who for do you think?
Gotta find a spot, he’s a superb aerialist and has an elite kicking ability. Move someone to the wing or forward
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How many players are playing better than they were last season? Very few IMO.
Most players have seen a decrease in their stats and form compared to last season: D'Ambrosio, Newcombe, Worpel, Nash, Meek, Moore, Hardwick, MacDonald, Sicily - they are some of our best and most important players.
A few are playing at the same level: Watson has essentially identical stats compared to last season. Ginnivan and Amon are having comparable seasons too.
In fact the only player we could really say have seen an improvement in their stats and form are Ward, Chol, Weddle and Gunston. They are all playing better than they did last season.
Then there have been the injury issues to multiple key players (Day, Lewis, Sicily, Scrimshaw).
But despite that we are still in the hunt for a top four spot.
Most players have seen a decrease in their stats and form compared to last season: D'Ambrosio, Newcombe, Worpel, Nash, Meek, Moore, Hardwick, MacDonald, Sicily - they are some of our best and most important players.
A few are playing at the same level: Watson has essentially identical stats compared to last season. Ginnivan and Amon are having comparable seasons too.
In fact the only player we could really say have seen an improvement in their stats and form are Ward, Chol, Weddle and Gunston. They are all playing better than they did last season.
Then there have been the injury issues to multiple key players (Day, Lewis, Sicily, Scrimshaw).
But despite that we are still in the hunt for a top four spot.
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If you use the AFL player comparison tool, Newcs stats this year are nearly identical to last years; averaging just under one disposal less, but over a tackle per game more; metres gained are up, disposal efficiency a little down. Given there has been no Day for most of the year I'd say he's playing as well as he did in '24.
One player whose output is really down from last year who you've missed above is Dear. He was a big part of our resurgence last year and has not had any influence at all in 2025. His absence is one of the bigger disappointments of this season so far. Hopefully it's just due to his interrupted preseason and he'll get back to the trajectory he was on last year either later this year or in 2026. It would be massive for us if he became a genuine key forward star.
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