Prediction Best 22, Round 1 2017

[Xhoquelin]

FB: N.Jetta O.McDonald S.Frost
HB: J.Hunt T.McDonald C.Salem
W: B.Stretch D.Tyson B.Vince
HF: J.Watts J.Hogan C.Lewis
FF: J.Garlett The Pedo C.Petracca

Foll: M.Gawn, N.Jones, J.Viney

Inter: G.Brayshaw, C.Oliver, Hibberd, Harmes

No Kent?

 

[KickLongTackleHard]

FB: N.Jetta O.McDonald S.Frost
HB: J.Hunt T.McDonald C.Salem
W: B.Stretch D.Tyson B.Vince
HF: J.Watts J.Hogan C.Lewis
FF: J.Garlett The Pedo C.Petracca

Foll: M.Gawn, N.Jones, J.Viney

Inter: G.Brayshaw, C.Oliver, Hibberd, Harmes

Chris Lewis lifts the age profile a bit, not against it.

 

[Marc_Remillard]

No Kent?

It came down to Kent or Garlett for me.

At his best Garlett is a better player and more damaging, although they both have their issues. If Garlett is either injured or not playing well then Kent comes in.

There is no one else on that forward line who I'd drop for him. On the bench Brayshaw and Oliver are clearly in front, I begrudgingly had Hibberd in because I know the coach likes him and Harmes gives more versatility.

 

[Marc_Remillard]

Chris Lewis lifts the age profile a bit, not against it.

Having him playing will give us genuine leadership forward of the centre, something we've been lacking over the last couple of years. Pinch hit him in the from time to time but the forward line is where he should play most of his footy.

 

[Dory_77]

Chris Lewis lifts the age profile a bit, not against it.

I thought it was Carl Lewis? To add some outside pace and class?

 

[ponsdale]

I thought it was Carl Lewis? To add some outside pace and class?

Wouldn't pass a drug test.

 

[Marc_Remillard]

Wouldn't pass a drug test.

We could also sign Ben Johnson and Flo Jo although the latter may have to spend a bit of time with the medics to get her ok to play

 

[Sellout Scully]

FB: N.Jetta O.McDonald S.Frost
HB: J.Hunt T.McDonald C.Salem
W: B.Stretch D.Tyson B.Vince
HF: J.Watts J.Hogan C.Lewis
FF: J.Garlett The Pedo C.Petracca

Foll: M.Gawn, N.Jones, J.Viney

Inter: G.Brayshaw, C.Oliver, Hibberd, Harmes

 

[stretcharmstrong]

It came down to Kent or Garlett for me.

At his best Garlett is a better player and more damaging, although they both have their issues. If Garlett is either injured or not playing well then Kent comes in.

There is no one else on that forward line who I'd drop for him. On the bench Brayshaw and Oliver are clearly in front, I begrudgingly had Hibberd in because I know the coach likes him and Harmes gives more versatility.

Surely Kent > Harmes?

 

[Topkent]

It came down to Kent or Garlett for me.

At his best Garlett is a better player and more damaging, although they both have their issues. If Garlett is either injured or not playing well then Kent comes in.

There is no one else on that forward line who I'd drop for him. On the bench Brayshaw and Oliver are clearly in front, I begrudgingly had Hibberd in because I know the coach likes him and Harmes gives more versatility.

Kents in our best 22 but I am also a Harmes fan, can play in all 3 areas of the field now and has something a little bit different about him

 

[schmuttt]

Everyone fit and firing for round 1:

FB: Jetta OMac Frost
HB: Melskham TMac Hibberd
C: Salem Tyson Hunt
HF: Kent Hogan Lewis
FF: Petracca Watts Garlett
FOLL: Gawn Viney Jones
I/C: Brayshaw Vince Stretch Oliver

I've picked that purely to play against the Saints. A smaller forwardline with more of a focus on defensive pressure and flooding the contest, then breaking fast. Do to them what they do to us, we've got a stronger midfield so we 'should' be able to overpower them.

I think that back 6 still has a lot of rebound in it, yes I've moved Hunt and Salem up the ground but not a single player in there is slow and I think the footskills of Hibberd and Melksham are an improvement on what we had there last year. Hunt and Salem further up the ground along with Viney/Kent/Petracca gives us a lot more pace around the contest to boot, and that forwardline is pretty hard to match up on with how athletic they all are (With the exception of Lewis but he would play more as a mid drifting forward than a pure forward).

Thoughts on a few guys who will play next year but have some obvious flaws that need to be worked on:

Stretch and Gus - Too talented to play in the VFL right now, and with an extra preseason of physical development I think they'll both shine next year, particularly Brayshaw. A lot of people have forgotten how smart a footballer Gus is, he is just so well rounded as a player. That sounds super cliche but watch any of his highlights from the last two years, always seems to be involved in scoring chains and not only makes good decisions but uses the ball really well. Stretch obviously has the run and disposal that we need, simply must play as much as possible at AFL level next year

Pedersen - I'd have him in the team most weeks but at Etihad against the Saints I'm happy to have Watts 2nd ruck just for that game and take some extra run into the game

Melksham - Understand not all will have him in their side but I rate what he can bring to our defence, very damaging kick (Although can be up and down, a bit like Kent in he can be brilliant and terrible in the same game), has reasonable pace, experience and is another campaigner to add to our unsociables
Harmes - Yes he can play both ends now and that bodes well for him as we don't have a whole lot of versatility among our players, his decision making and disposal let him down though (And his set shot kicking is crap). If he improves on his ball use he'll go close to best 22

VDB - Great overhead mark and hurts people when he tackles, but he doesn't put on that pressure consistently and his disposal is again very inconsistent. Like Tim Smith and BenKen I think he needs to have elite defensive pressure to be getting a game

BenKen - Reasonably quick without being lightning, tough and has an eye for goal. His problems are he drifts in and out of games, I don't think he'll make it as a mid so like VDB if he can bring some really high level pressure to our forwardline he will most likely get games

Bugg - Close to my favourite player but yet another guy who doesn't have the disposal or decision making to play regular footy in a finals side IMO. If he can just limit his errors I think he could be very handy as a stopper like Crowley but I'm not sure if Goodwin likes to play a tagger

Weideman - Simply isn't ready yet. That could change over the preseason games but until he has the body to play at AFL level he can't play week in week out or we will be carrying a player. I see the Weid as a pure FF who needs to work on his tackling, he has all the skills aside from that but just needs the work ethic and the physical development

Oliver - Talent wise he is best 18 but his fitness and discipline is the obvious question mark. If he can get his fitness to a decent level in 2017 and keep building on from there I'll be happy

ANB - Just doesn't have a clear standout attribute at AFL level, and will find it very tough to break into what is a very strong inside group

Wagner - Will play a few games next year, I thought his 2016 was reasonably impressive for a 1st year albeit mature player

Garland - He'll play if we have a serious injury down back but otherwise I'd imagine we will probably pay out his contract at the end of 2017

Hulett - Further KPF depth and will probably be competing neck and neck with the Weid as although he isn't in the same talent bracket he is a lot more developed from what I've seen. Is OOC next year but I'd imagine he'll be kept as depth at the very least

Trenners - Feel awful saying it but is cooked in my eyes. Would be a huge comeback from what he showed in 2016

JKH - Career defining year, what is his best position?

 

[Crusty Demon]

Stretch is best 22 for me. Strung together some nice games in the back half of the season. I like having him and Hunt running off half back. He's ahead of Harmes, Wagner and maybe even Melksham. It's great we have a good solid group of 30 odd guys who are fighting for spots. No easy gifted games anymore. Really looking for Brayshaw and Salem to improve greatly next season. We need them to..

 

[Marc_Remillard]

Kents in our best 22 but I am also a Harmes fan, can play in all 3 areas of the field now and has something a little bit different about him

Who would you drop out of my team for Kent?

 

[Marc_Remillard]

Surely Kent > Harmes?

Is he? Harmes can play both ends of the ground which gives him the edge imho.

Kent is a small forward, don't get me wrong, he's a good player, it's more a reflection on the depth we have in the team. There's nothing wrong with making Kent earn his spot, it will probably get the best out of him

 

[Xhoquelin]

Why is everyone picking the small forward line against the Saints? Hoges always dominates them, and the last time we played against them, we lost due to not having enough targets up forward with Pedo and Weed both out. Gawn ended up nearly saving the game for us; IMO we need another target man, so I'd definitely pick Pedo in my team at this stage.

 

[Topkent]

Why is everyone picking the small forward line against the Saints? Hoges always dominates them, and the last time we played against them, we lost due to not having enough targets up forward with Pedo and Weed both out. Gawn ended up nearly saving the game for us; IMO we need another target man, so I'd definitely pick Pedo in my team at this stage.

I disagree with that, we lost because they moved the ball from the back line to their forward line with ease getting in behind our press with little to no pressure because hogan watts and our smalls didn't do their jobs properly

Our midfielders were also beaten in transition

 

[Topkent]

Who would you drop out of my team for Kent?

Probably Harmes, but you could throw a blanket over all of our players from 15-30 in depth and come up with arguments as to why they should all be in the team

 

[Marc_Remillard]

Probably Harmes, but you could throw a blanket over all of our players from 15-30 in depth and come up with arguments as to why they should all be in the team

Garlett was the one I was thinking. Is the team better with both of them in it? Not sure, a lot will depend of form and development.

Going from these discussions it looks like we're going to start to have these good problems more and more, nothing wrong with strong competition for spots.

 

[Gysberts2Bate]

I would prefer to win games than give games to kids at this point. Pederson was given a contract extension for a reason. Unless Weideman knocks pre-season out of the park I would be more confident that a line up of Hogan-Pederson-Watts could kick us a winning score than Hogan-Weideman-Watts

If Weideman improves as much as OMac did this year though we'all win A LOT of games in 2018.

 

[Sprout]

Surely Kent > Harmes?

Easily.

 

[Sando22]

Easily.

Yeah I agree.

 

[Proper Gander]

KENT

Sorry Harmes.

 

[Proper Gander]

I disagree with that, we lost because they moved the ball from the back line to their forward line with ease getting in behind our press with little to no pressure because hogan watts and our smalls didn't do their jobs properly

Our midfielders were also beaten in transition

Crossing fingers that our midfield can do considerably better this time. Brayshaw just back really struggled in that match - I'm picking him for a breakout year. I also think it's the time to introduce some flexibility into our game, change things up when momentum is lost, instead of playing out the agreed plan for better or worse as a learning exercise. I'm hoping some experience in the form of Lewis can help us get games back on terms, because our problem against Saints to date is that they just take control of the game, the tempo and structure, and we kind of run circles and hope for the best.

 

[Marc_Remillard]

Based on 2016 Kent is not easily better than Harmes

 

[Proper Gander]

Based on 2016 Kent is not easily better than Harmes

Opinions and arseholes and all that, but I think he is. At least at the moment. But I get where you are coming from re Harmes. Good or even very good gut skills - a good attacking player and better than good overhead. Needs to calm a bit and be more measured or something in disposal. But his best work is the right idea. It's a good feeling to have a few blokes with his abilities on the cusp of selection.