Preview Changes: R18 2019 vs Essendon

Ins & Outs this week?

  • OUT: Mackay

    Votes: 34 75.6%
  • OUT: Seedsman

    Votes: 9 20.0%
  • OUT: Knight

    Votes: 7 15.6%
  • OUT: Murphy

    Votes: 1 2.2%
  • OUT: Hartigan

    Votes: 3 6.7%
  • OUT: Kelly

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • IN: McHenry

    Votes: 3 6.7%
  • IN: Gibbs

    Votes: 9 20.0%
  • IN: Fogarty

    Votes: 14 31.1%
  • IN: Jones

    Votes: 23 51.1%
  • IN: Douglas

    Votes: 2 4.4%
  • IN: Sholl

    Votes: 4 8.9%
  • OUT: Stengle

    Votes: 3 6.7%
  • IN: Ootiib C

    Votes: 5 11.1%

  • Total voters
    45
  • Poll closed .

Murray2503

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Haha - hope so..!! You will start heavy favorites at home and rightly so - only way I see us winning is if young Dylan Clarke can do a tag job on Matt Crouch somehow...apparently Heppell is some chance to play also and it will certainly help if our captain gets up for this one...
You haven't seen us play lately it sounds. Genuine 50/50 game. Your speed will be a major worry for us especially if we don't bring in some more speed. If Hurley is out that will definitely help us. Whichever team wants it the most will win.
 
You haven't seen us play lately it sounds. Genuine 50/50 game. Your speed will be a major worry for us especially if we don't bring in some more speed. If Hurley is out that will definitely help us. Whichever team wants it the most will win.
Which is why Gooch &/or Jones should be considered this week. Gooch is a must.
 
Jul 17, 2006
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If Clark tags Sloane do we start Sloane in the forward pocket?

No reason Brad couldn’t start in the middle with Rory out of the square.

I’d give Clarke something to think about by putting Rory on the wing at times. Keep the role moving, don’t get him comfortable


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mattymac

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We have used Milera in the middle, particularly late in games & Smith off a wing late in games when we have won with sports in the last quarter.

I would hope we continue to use these 2 particularly when the pace has gone out of the game to break it open... but also when needed during the game.

It's why I was annoyed against Port we reverted back to the same 4 slower mids rotated even when we were being slaughtered.
That's the thing. We've only tried it late in games when it's too late or it doesn't matter. It's like an experiment. It needs to go beyond the experimental stage now. It works and the alternative will only get us so far.

And I disagree heavily about using Smith and Milera in the middle "particularly late in games when the pace has gone out of it". We need to use them from the outset because we don't have any pace to go out of the game. Milera in particular is custom built for the midfield with his skills in traffic.
 

Murray2503

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Jacobs for ROB. You know they want to do it.
ROB on his worst day is still better than Jacob's. Our conservative match committee won't change it. This is one case where their conservatism will work to our advantage.
 
That's the thing. We've only tried it late in games when it's too late or it doesn't matter. It's like an experiment. It needs to go beyond the experimental stage now. It works and the alternative will only get us so far.

And I disagree heavily about using Smith and Milera in the middle "particularly late in games when the pace has gone out of it". We need to use them from the outset because we don't have any pace to go out of the game. Milera in particular is custom built for the midfield with his skills in traffic.
Our tactics have been to grind out early parts of the games then put our foot down... so yes, we should be accelerating during games not just late.
 
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Our tactics have been to grind out early parts of the games then put our foot down... so yes, we should be accelerating during games not just late.

The pendulum post NM has swung too far, congested slogfests down the line, contest to contest but ultimately unable to spread in either direction well enough.

Hard to read anything into the flat track bullying of GC but the Milera/Smith move could be the genesis of something great to get us moving towards the middle ground of the fabled ‘total football’.

An ingredient we need to add is physical toughness and spite...all we have is CEY and Fog. We’ve missed a trick not rolling the dice on Fog while Lynch has been out. That said, CEY should return soon.


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Murray2503

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Weak opposition or not I do like this team especially with 3 small forwards of Betts, Murphy and Stengle. The only players to come back in would be Lynch and CEY and somehow I think they'll both still be out.
After listening to Riccuito it sounds like Lynch may potentially be out for the rest of the year. Mentioned tendon and nerve pain. Also mentioned Lynch has no clue how long he will be out. That says to me that it could be some time.
 

Thetrader15

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The pendulum post NM has swung too far, congested slogfests down the line, contest to contest but ultimately unable to spread in either direction well enough.

Hard to read anything into the flat track bullying of GC but the Milera/Smith move could be the genesis of something great to get us moving towards the middle ground of the fabled ‘total football’.

An ingredient we need to add is physical toughness and spite...all we have is CEY and Fog. We’ve missed a trick not rolling the dice on Fog while Lynch has been out. That said, CEY should return soon.


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While our back line contains Kelly, Brown, Talia, Hartigan and Keath, we're only ever going to be conservative getting the ball out of defence. That's a lot of work for Laird to do.
 
Jul 17, 2006
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While our back line contains Kelly, Brown, Talia, Hartigan and Keath, we're only ever going to be conservative getting the ball out of defence. That's a lot of work for Laird to do.

And I’m not enamoured with Laird’s disposal either!!

I think Keath took some strides v GC in terms of attacking ball movement.

The other factor is the wings and mids are often pushing back so in reality they are often guys disposing from half back


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Houston

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After listening to Riccuito it sounds like Lynch may potentially be out for the rest of the year. Mentioned tendon and nerve pain. Also mentioned Lynch has no clue how long he will be out. That says to me that it could be some time.
Short term this is very problematic as he's the only player who can kick effectively for inside 50s. Long term though this might be a win, because when he gets back someone else might have figure out how to lower their eyes as well.
 

Thetrader15

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And I’m not enamoured with Laird’s disposal either!!

I think Keath took some strides v GC in terms of attacking ball movement.

The other factor is the wings and mids are often pushing back so in reality they are often guys disposing from half back


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I'm ignoring any progress we've made in a training drill v witches hats. Laird is more a 'chaos' ball type kick, which is probably being polite. He's good at being that guy at the back of the pack who is the one we feed out to, but I'd rather we had someone like Smith playing that role because he can kick short or long with some accuracy.

I'll disagree our wings don't push back - Atkins in particular likes a cheap kick from the back pocket. I actually don't know who our other wing is - DMac? who'd know where he was, it's hard to tell with that "non-statistical" role.
 

JPetro83

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Unchanged this week. Lynch and CEY are still 2 weeks away?
If Fog shows a bit this week put him in against Carlscum
 

Thetrader15

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Which is why Gooch &/or Jones should be considered this week. Gooch is a must.
I would say Jones is a must - I'm still yet to be convinced on Gaucc, and I'm not seeing his defensive pressure or offensive impact.

At least Murph shows obvious intent to apply defensive pressure, and you just know Jones will do the same
 

Thetrader15

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We don't need to be any slower
So I suspect (no changes) that Essendon's forward line match ups will be:

Fantasia - Brown
Brown - Hartigan
Tippa - Kelly
Laverde - Keath
McKernan - Talia
McGrath - Laird

We are going to be too slow I suspect, especially if Essendon manage to isolate defenders by pushing wide.

This is the perfect scenario to say we need to make structural changes and omit Hartigan, and possibly Kelly IMO, for some more running types
 
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I'm ignoring any progress we've made in a training drill v witches hats. Laird is more a 'chaos' ball type kick, which is probably being polite. He's good at being that guy at the back of the pack who is the one we feed out to, but I'd rather we had someone like Smith playing that role because he can kick short or long with some accuracy.

I'll disagree our wings don't push back - Atkins in particular likes a cheap kick from the back pocket. I actually don't know who our other wing is - DMac? who'd know where he was, it's hard to tell with that "non-statistical" role.
Mackay was predominantly in defence as the 7th rotating defender (replacing Smith). Seedsman was the other wing.

I don't wanna go all 'heat maps' but I reckon these guys would get a heap of their ball helping out the defence.

Agree 100% re Laird!

Given McPherson, Hamill and Sholl are unlikely to play this year our options are:
- put Smith back into permanent defensive role (I think we need him in the middle)
- Rotate Smith/Milera at half back instead of high half forward. Tough call as they were excellent across HF against GC...but it was GC. Obviously we'd love to clone these guys. In terms of the forward position, it may just be there is a clone...Ben Davis! Play him!!
- Put Seedsman back into defensive mix...we seem very hesitant to do this. He's another who has dabbled in the high forward role, did ok but not as good as Smith.
- Keep Mackay where he is...no thanks, we can do better.

For me, I'd go Option 2 and select Davis over Mackay. If we find we want to push Milera/Smith forward, simply shuffle Seedsman and Davis along a line.
 

Tex200

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I would say Jones is a must - I'm still yet to be convinced on Gaucc, and I'm not seeing his defensive pressure or offensive impact.

At least Murph shows obvious intent to apply defensive pressure, and you just know Jones will do the same
He had 9 tackles and 7 I50’s yesterday so that goes some way to ticking off those concerns.
 
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