Preview Round 2 v Gold Coast MCG Saturday March 21st 1.15pm - Sonsie In For McAuliffe

[Grrr]

Not sure why anyone is surprised of the inclusion of Prestia. By signing him on last season we all knew it would come to this, Taranto, Hopper, Prestia in the middle. At least Ross can tackle and uses it well, point of difference. The hope is that Hopper and Prestia start on the bench so that we can start with Lalor in the middle. Will need a lot of defensive support ala Graham and Lambert from our half forwards at stoppages.

And what is wrong with Gibcus playing in the VFL. He doesn't know whether he is a defender or an attacking back right now. You watch Al Nour play back these days, great balance of defence and attack. Gibcus needs to find that blend then come back in with some good footy under his belt, also too tall vs GC with him in the side.

Any chance that Brown might play forward/third tall. They will be very Lynch conscious so lowering the eyes to a leading mid/forward like Brown or Armstrong should be on. And Brown can kick it from outside the 50m.

 

[From45SlightAngle]

I'm backing us to bring the suns down to our level then we crush them

 

[beema limapep]

3 talls out 1 tall in. Or 2 if you include Brown.

Feels like a better balance. Still too many slow players in the midfield. Guys like Hotton and Cumming need to be pushing guys like Hopper and Prestia out of best 22 when fit.

Peuker included in the emergencies is a great sign.

We don't have the speed in the midfield or quality in all positions to compete. Suns by 60pts.

 

[beema limapep]

Also Hopper last chance saloon to avoid the #1 whipping boy title. Prove us wrong.

 

[Yze does it]

Spot on. They need to get the blend right in the seniors, you can't play all the kids each week but you need to introduce guys throughout the year.

Alger
Trainor
Brown
Gray
Fawcett
Retschko

All need 10+ games this year if not more. And rotate Seth, Rioli, Lalor, Grlj through the midfield more often.

Le fau has gone ahead in selection calculations. Don't think Fawcett will play much
. Alger got overlooked again. Behind Green, mrj, now Prestia
Trainor played the most of any of them. Kicking an issue.
If hugo is starting the season I can't see retscho playing at all
Brown been there for a while and dropped for round 1.
Maybe he plays up the field.
Gibcus hasn't played much either. Not great in the preseason but sign him for a million years and then drop him.
Oppo talls didn't win it for Carlton. Lynch lost it

 

[DontArgue4]

I have this feeling that i cant shake that if we score more we will win

 

[Drunken Wookie]

Le fau has gone ahead in selection calculations. Don't think Fawcett will play much
. Alger got overlooked again. Behind Green, mrj, now Prestia
Trainor played the most of any of them. Kicking an issue.
If hugo is starting the season I can't see retscho playing at all
Brown been there for a while and dropped for round 1.
Maybe he plays up the field.
Gibcus hasn't played much either. Not great in the preseason but sign him for a million years and then drop him.
Oppo talls didn't win it for Carlton. Lynch lost it

problem with bloody fawcett is you can almost guarantee if we cut him he'll get picked up by the pies or some team looking for a bargain basement forward and become a decent player with good supply/support around him.

alger a totally different forward to any of the ones we currently have. hes more a fritsch type than a typical small. if he strings together a couple of bags hell be in.

 

[Grrr]

Isn’t it funny that immediately before our practice matches I was thinking we had 30 really good options as our best 23. After two practice matches and one real game I have got that list down to about 16

That's a little harsh. Of course in practice matches the game is slower so the younger players look good. Most have the required skills to look good without the pressure of the game. But the fact that we have a lot of kids means they take longer to adjust to the tempo, and we are only one week in.

McAuliffe was staring through the preseason but struggled v Carlton, not because he isn't good enough, but he didn't adjust to the lesser time you have with the ball (and they played him on the right wing rather than the left). But he missed most of last season so deserves some grace.

It might take the younger players a bit more time to find their feet but plenty of time. Plus injuries have robbed us of a few.

 

[Rocco sifreddi]

Midfield of Taranto, Hopper, Ross, Prestia what
Could possibly go wrong?
Goldcampaigners by plenty.

 

[Grrr]

Midfield of Taranto, Hopper, Ross, Prestia what
Could possibly go wrong?
Goldcampaigners by plenty.

I feel they know that the names you have mentioned will not cut it in the midfield. Yze said as much preseason with Taranto mentioned more playing forward and Hopper starting lst week on the bench. But they are not going to drop those seasoned players until they give them a solid chance to play, that is just the way it is with senior players.

But Lalor is a mid and is being nursed a bit because he is young. I think Ross is different to the others because he is more outside and is involved in a lot of chains of play with quite good skills. Hopefully they will play McAuliffe through there a bit more this week because he is a mid and he is pretty quick and strong. Pity for Cumming and Hotton because they are the sort of mids we need.

GC mids are pretty seasoned and very good, so we will need to get our hands on the ball or they will cut us up. At least our old mids can do that, it's when we lose the ball that we will be in trouble. Can't let them jump us like Carlton did first Q last week.

 

[tiger_tough]

Anyone feel like we could pinch one? I would have preferred Sonsie in for Ralphsmith, but otherwise feel the side looks more balanced. Hope that Hopper makes up for his barry last week

I have a good feeling for some reason.

I don't mind if we lose, but I was a strong showing. Remember when Rowell had 20 clearances against us a couple of years ago? 20 ****ing clearances

 

[Yze does it]

problem with bloody fawcett is you can almost guarantee if we cut him he'll get picked up by the pies or some team looking for a bargain basement forward and become a decent player with good supply/support around him.

alger a totally different forward to any of the ones we currently have. hes more a fritsch type than a typical small. if he strings together a couple of bags hell be in.

Alger looked good in a couple of VFL games. Got a goal sense. Green is quick but I hope he can score more.

 

[Groupie_]

midfield should bring plastic chairs and just sit down in the centre

 

[UncleBob]

midfield should bring plastic chairs and just sit down in the centre

Take one chair away every center bounce so that there's competition to sit down. Might see them crack in a bit more

 

[baazzaa]

We still have 10 x players under 50-games. Including a 15-gamer, 9, 12, 11 and 1.

What's relevant for whether Lefau plays in our next premiership side is his age, not his experience. Tresize and Green look to me like mediocre role-players like Mansell or HRS.

A big issue is every year people say 'look at all these inexperienced players we're playing' but they're low-ceiling types who don't stick around long. Coulthard, Smith (still on list for depth), Bauer, Young, etc. That's in addition to players with some decent attributes like Dow, Blight, Cumberland, RCD...

Realistically 1 of our '5 picks under 30' from 2021 is on track to have a great career. The only diamond-in-the-rough we've found since 2018 who looks like a 200-gamer is Campbell. And the only guy from the 2024 draft who played all last year is in the twos. And we get to watch Nank + Prestia + Hopper + TT get humiliated again in the centre in the third year of our rebuild.

I reckon Yze's not going to survive the rebuild, our nadir is in the future as all the veterans we still rely on retire or get even slower. And when we do a retrospective as to what went wrong there'll be basic questions like 'why wasn't there more experimentation with players in the centre in 2025 given we had nothing to lose?'.

 

[Waca Jr]

While i'm far form optimistic if the midfield come somehow break square i don't predict it to be a blow out. Our defence is pretty strong it's just the rebound entries that torch us.

 

[prodigy]

Cue the melts

 

[Daka]

Cue the melts

McAuliffe always seems to have something, he can never put a period of games together.

 

[prodigy]

Cue the melts

The tweet has since been deleted but it said McAuliffe is out with an illness and Tyler Sonsie comes into the 23.

The fact it's been deleted may mean that is changing so take it with a grain of salt


Here's my notification history if people need further verification.

 

[Grrr]

McAuliffe always seems to have something, he can never put a period of games together.

Let's give him more than a week, he missed all but 6 games last year so he's just getting going.

 

[beema limapep]

The tweet has since been deleted but it said McAuliffe is out with an illness and Tyler Sonsie comes into the 23.

The fact it's been deleted may mean that is changing so take it with a grain of salt

View attachment 2556433
Here's my notification history if people need further verification.

****ing WHAT!!!?

 

[beema limapep]

Sonsie in costs us another 5 goals.

Prediction upped from 60 point loss to 90 point loss.

 

[rfctiger90]

So unlike 90% who thought all this youth brought in was going to propel us back would be more of a miracle than hope. GWS taught me that nothing is as it seems. Out of all the youth Lalor and Grij are the only 2 stand outs with the exception of Hotton baring injurie can join them the others are just players we may or may not improve. The fact we are playing a team basically of failed players or ageing stars proves the point that selector's also inclined to failure once again of drafting kids. Point out again Gray dropped and big deal Lefau in I rest case.

Lol they’ve barely played mate relax

 

[tiger_tough]

The tweet has since been deleted but it said McAuliffe is out with an illness and Tyler Sonsie comes into the 23.

The fact it's been deleted may mean that is changing so take it with a grain of salt

View attachment 2556433
Here's my notification history if people need further verification.

Did the club let the cat out of the bag too early by mistake?

 

[Reservoir tiger]

The tweet has since been deleted but it said McAuliffe is out with an illness and Tyler Sonsie comes into the 23.

The fact it's been deleted may mean that is changing so take it with a grain of salt

View attachment 2556433
Here's my notification history if people need further verification.

It’s official now.

I reckon sonsie will do better than what kmac2 did last week.