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Prediction 2024 Round 1 Team
- Thread starter witsend
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My best attempt at what I think the side in Rd 1 will be. Not my personal best 23.
Best 22 not included: Blicavs, Rohan
Injured/coming back from injury. If they are fit and firing they'll be in come round 1.
Potential subs: Parfitt, Bews, Clark, Knevitt, Dempsey
Close but I don't think they get in for for round 1 and will have to bide their time for an injury or form issues.
Wildcard: Mullin
Not sure where he fits. Some good comments yesterday morning from Chris Scott talking about his physicality. May just slot straight in.
Debutants: Mannagh, O'Sullivan
Pointed comments from players/coaches with how ready and talented O'Sullivan is. Big + for him is his versatility. Chris Scott made comments about De Koning back in 2022 alluding to the difficulty in getting players like him game time as you can't stick them on a wing or flank like you can a midfielder.
O'Sullivan already being tried on flanks and wings in match sim bodes well for the match committee to be able to include him from day dot.
Mannagh is ready made to me and should be a difference maker as soon as he comes in. Hasn't been much discussion of him coming out of the club so this may be just an incorrect read on my part.
Best 22 not included: Blicavs, Rohan
Injured/coming back from injury. If they are fit and firing they'll be in come round 1.
Potential subs: Parfitt, Bews, Clark, Knevitt, Dempsey
Close but I don't think they get in for for round 1 and will have to bide their time for an injury or form issues.
Wildcard: Mullin
Not sure where he fits. Some good comments yesterday morning from Chris Scott talking about his physicality. May just slot straight in.
Debutants: Mannagh, O'Sullivan
Pointed comments from players/coaches with how ready and talented O'Sullivan is. Big + for him is his versatility. Chris Scott made comments about De Koning back in 2022 alluding to the difficulty in getting players like him game time as you can't stick them on a wing or flank like you can a midfielder.
O'Sullivan already being tried on flanks and wings in match sim bodes well for the match committee to be able to include him from day dot.
Mannagh is ready made to me and should be a difference maker as soon as he comes in. Hasn't been much discussion of him coming out of the club so this may be just an incorrect read on my part.
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Good looking team. Who drops out if Blicavs is fit? Tuohy / O'Connor to sub maybe? Nothing against the Irish of course...
Id be mega surprised if Neale goes ok in the practices matches and doesn’t get a game if Rohan + Blitz are both unavailable.
It pretty much tells us that Neale is never playing unless one of Hawkins/Cameron are out.
I hope the club has more faith in him than that after what is hopefully a solid preseason from him.
I’m not Neales biggest fan by any stretch…. But if he isn’t named with both Blitz and Rohan out, even his biggest fans will start to have doubts about how the club actually rates him.
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Yeah I should have written something about Neale. I'm pretty much in the same boat. I had him in until I realized I had forgotten Zuthrie.
It's a difficult side to put together and I've included some injuries that might be fine come round 1.
Pete Ryan from The Age made a note of Neale starring in match sim. My only concern of Neale playing round 1 is COS. When the young talented players are ready to go we've typically included them pretty early on in recent times.
Mostly I'm referring to Jordan Clark round 1 against Collingwood and Holmes Easter Monday.
My team is guesswork for the ~10 players fighting for the last 4 spots. I can't say I have a great grasp on those spots as this is from a purely external point of view. The only thing I would latch onto is I think they will want to prioritize the debutants, but that is just a hunch on my part.
Who plays second ruck if Blitz is out.
You have COS in the bench and unless it’s SDK it looks like COS would need to second ruck and I can’t see us chucking the kid in the deep end like that at all (also not keen on SDK rucking).
This is why I’d have Neale in if Blitz and Rohan are out.
Funnily enough Rohan spent time chopping out the ruck late last year.
Neale just covers Blitz/Rohan as good as anyone on our list.
He can play forward and then move into the ruck to help Stanley.
Also if COS comes in and is playing as that taller wing type… he immediately goes straight past Knevitt… and that would also surprise me as Knevitt is two years ahead of him and hopefully just about ready to roll.
Still… Either of COS and Knevitt don’t really solve the second ruck issue unless we want to unsettle SDK from the get go this year.
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Good point re the ruck situation. Time again and I would include Neale for that reason. I'll leave the original post as is.
I'd find it very difficult to exclude someone from the team I put down, and if I had to choose it would be Mannagh going out and Neale coming in with Henry moving off the bench onto the flank.
COS coming in playing multiple positions including wing past Knevitt is based on the commentary from the club, and in particular Miers yesterday. Like most growing up and playing in team sports it's as close to a pure meritocracy as you can get and people don't get put offside when someone is just better.
Per my previous post, this is purely speculation from the outside looking in. I'd have to see it with my own eyes to be giving my own opinion on this any great weight regarding players I haven't seen exposed form of.
Yeah I don't know. I had enough trouble fitting the team in with those two injuries let alone if they are fit.
If I had to guess I might say Mannagh with Henry coming off the bench onto the flank. I don't have much faith in that opinion though.
Bowes gets backline before Bews
Given the way our team is tracking for the future, I think this might be right.
Because I think he is excellent
just looks moree balancede.
Cant even blame autocorrect?
as collingwood says I will try to do better
Agree. He is going to be A star. But no need for him to play round 1…
we need to see the hype for what it is…excitement around a great long term player who has come in ready to learn and excite
All logical. I don’t think either debutants will play round 1 so you will need to find two from your almost list.
‘I might be wrong but not Cats style to rush in players and neither are critical to Geelong round 1
I am in two minds on this. I agree entirely with your sentiment… (and I am increasingly a fan and think Neale will be a very good player 2025 and beyond). But I can’t really see him co-existing with Hawkins and Jezza. Maybe, as you say, if O Henry/Rohan also missing we can have him as the third tall - but those two are hybrid talls so it completely changes our look?
What I do think is that they (finally) start resting Hawkins - say 4 games - throughout the year and Jezza a couple…so that gives him 6 games as replacements…and then I think maybe Blitz is rested/injured for another 4-5 games and they use Neale as second ruck. That gets him 10+ games?
Maybe that isn’t enough to keep him happy and developing? Not sure
Fair.
I don't think we've had the caliber of player in recent times like Mannagh and COS. COS based on 'vibes' and word of mouth admittedly.
Counterpoint is we need to start strong and young 1st year players rarely contribute to winning in a net positive way.
You'd be hard pressed to do better, given what you already bring to this board. I guess I'm just noting that you don't need to bring extraneous letters to the table, alongside everything else you already contribute.Because I think he is excellent
just looks moree balancede.
Cant even blame autocorrect?
as collingwood says I will try to do better
My comment with Neale playing R1 was if Rohan + Blitz both didn’t play.
Primarily Neale would be in to chop out in the ruck where Blitz would normally spend time.
Rohan also being out in the assumption just made Neale play make even more sense to me.
I’m far from all in on Neale… but I was just addressing a posted R1 team that didn’t have a second ruck option.
I think Neale rucking over Conway… especially with Rohan out made sense.
In the end if he performs really well in the practice matches and Rohan + Blitz are out I think he’d be stiff not to be named.
Unless we are happy ruck SDK (which I really hope we don’t).
If Blitz doesn’t play… who is second ruck?
Someone will need to fill that void.
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You're just trying to prevent Ablett comparisons by making people think he's not a descendent of the Normans tooBecause I think he is excellent
just looks moree balancede.
Cant even blame autocorrect?
as collingwood says I will try to do better
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J Henry and SDK have both played as second rucks a number of times. And Neale's ruck work isn't clearly better than them.
I'd guess Neale plays if we think he's in our best forward line. It won't be so we don't need to play Henry or SDK as ruck chop out.
cats_09
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2022 - we saw the likes of Higgins & Dahlhaus given a chance, but ultimately both ended up in the VFL, replaced by younger guys
Last year was a bit different as we battled with injury concerns across season, and at times we had guys selected that may not have been had we not be dealing with those injuries
lettheboysplay
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I'm hoping we don't play too safe - we are playing the Saints who are a quick, swift ball movement team who run very hard on the counter - this style of play has always troubled us. I'd be disappointed if we didn't pick two of Mannagh/Clark/Knevitt/O'Sull/Conway/Mullin - but also understand the balance of not throwing too many inexperienced kids to the wolves when we still have a very strong core. Preseason should tell us more.
Important to remember when speaking about rucks - SDK is pretty much our standalone key back now, O'Sullivan won't be thrown to the wolves even though I hope he plays 12+ games in the seniors - Henry more an interceptor, Stewart should just be roaming, Kolo not big enough to play on King. Highly unlikely SDK will do any backup rucking from this point forward, even without Blitz. As such, I'd expect us to pick Conway or Neale, if Blitz doesn't get up. Hoping we don't sacrifice Blitz to a backup ruck role.
Important to remember when speaking about rucks - SDK is pretty much our standalone key back now, O'Sullivan won't be thrown to the wolves even though I hope he plays 12+ games in the seniors - Henry more an interceptor, Stewart should just be roaming, Kolo not big enough to play on King. Highly unlikely SDK will do any backup rucking from this point forward, even without Blitz. As such, I'd expect us to pick Conway or Neale, if Blitz doesn't get up. Hoping we don't sacrifice Blitz to a backup ruck role.
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My guess, and this is based on my own previous observations. Is the MC will be conservative for round 1, unless someone is absolutely smashing the door down, or there is a need due to injury.
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Team I would like, and think would give us a decent chance against the relatively quick Saints:
B: Mullin, SDK, Z. Guthrie
HB: Holmes, J. Henry, Stewart
C: Mannagh, C. Guthrie, Duncan
FO: Stanley, Danger, Bruhn
HF: O. Henry, J. Cameron, Miers
F: Stengle, Hawkins, Close
INT: T. Atkins, Bowes, Dempsey, Tuohy
Sub: O'Connor
EMG: S. Neale, Kolo, Bews, Parfitt
**Rohan and Blics in for Dempsey and Tuohy if available
Feels like a nice blend of toughness and class, with a fair bit of speed to boot too.
B: Mullin, SDK, Z. Guthrie
HB: Holmes, J. Henry, Stewart
C: Mannagh, C. Guthrie, Duncan
FO: Stanley, Danger, Bruhn
HF: O. Henry, J. Cameron, Miers
F: Stengle, Hawkins, Close
INT: T. Atkins, Bowes, Dempsey, Tuohy
Sub: O'Connor
EMG: S. Neale, Kolo, Bews, Parfitt
**Rohan and Blics in for Dempsey and Tuohy if available
Feels like a nice blend of toughness and class, with a fair bit of speed to boot too.
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