Review Changes V GWS.

[Sunny_]

Moving on quickly....

Simple enough. Lose this, we get the spoon. Win, and we hope that GWS don't win any more, and we finish second last.

Starting with forced changes over our six day break...

OUT: Smith(inj), Hunt(inj), Russell(inj), Rischitelli(inj), Prestia(inj)
IN: Hickey, Horsley, A.Hall, Iles, Stanley

At the very least, we'll see Iles, Horsley and A.Hall play. Injury has forced them into the side. Hope Stanley is good to play.

2s had a bye this week. Hopefully they will at least a bit fresh.

Not very confident at all. Usually the boys bounce back after a shockingly dissappointing game, especiallly at home... but you never know what you're going to get with us.

Going to be a long, long tail end of the season if we lose.

 

[Big Red Machine]

OUT: Smith(inj), Hunt(inj), Russell(inj), Rischitelli(inj), Prestia(inj), Day
IN: Hickey, Horsley, A.Hall, Iles, Stanley, Fraiser

 

[rueben]

Heard a rumour ILES is injured ?

 

[Herbs]

Absolute must win, even though injuries have struck bigtime - again.

 

[SUNS]

OUT: Smith(inj), Hunt(inj), Russell(inj), Rischitelli(inj), Prestia(inj), Day
IN: Hickey, Horsley, A.Hall, Iles, Stanley, Fraiser

I'd say Nichols will get a game this week before Fraser. . . Unless they give him a farewell game! Also think Flanagan could come in for his debut

 

[Sunny_]

Apparently Swallow is in doubt with a knee, and Day in doubt with a foot injury. Might struggle to get up in time for the Giants.

 

[Sunny_]

From the Courier-Mail.

Zac Smith (ankle), Dion Prestia (hamstring), Luke Russell (shoulder) and Michael Rischitelli (knee) have already been ruled out while Karmichael Hunt (shoulder) is extremely doubtful and David Swallow (knee) and Sam Day (foot) face an uphill battle to prove their fitness.

It would be very difficult to deliberately lose against the Suns at the moment, given their devastating injury toll and shot confidence.

Suns football manager Marcus Ashcroft said the side was desperate to win next week to restore morale but added they wouldn't risk long-term damage by selecting players who were not fit.

Working in the Suns' favour is that their NEAFL side had a bye, so there will be fresh replacements to chose from.

"If there is any issue we just won't play them, so it could be potentially seven changes we have to make," Ashcroft said.

 

[Sunny_]

Also wouldn't mind if Hine was taken out. Maybe bring Jackson Allen in for him, who's been on the verge of a debut for a while now.

 

[supernova_]

Also wouldn't mind if Hine was taken out. Maybe bring Jackson Allen in for him, who's been on the verge of a debut for a while now.

Disagree, keep Hine in for another opportunity to go up against opposition his own age. Get him some confidence back.

Extremely way to end a dissapointing season plagued by injury to key components of our best 22.

 

[Dammit]

Wowee. Don't think I've ever seen 7 injuries in one game. I'm not saying that it'll be easy by any stretch, but if we can somehow manage to win this week it may serve as a real platform to build from and be a real confidence and team builder.

 

[Sunny_]

Wowee. Don't think I've ever seen 7 injuries in one game. I'm not saying that it'll be easy by any stretch, but if we can somehow manage to win this week it may serve as a real platform to build from and be a real confidence and team builder.

Definitely, though it won't be easy with our outs.

They will have nearly a full strength team. Only one of their top 10 is injured, that being Shiel. He looks set to miss against us as well.

I just really hope we win. The fans need it as much as the players.

 

[Dammit]

IF we do pull it off, I think you're right. From a fans and team culture point of view, it really would show that we are a club with pride, and a club that fights till the death.

Giles coming off a couple of monster games is a massive worry with Smith out as well. Probably would've been a worry even if he was playing. Now it's catastrophic!

 

[supernova_]

Both Fraser and Hickey to come in perhaps if we assume Giles and Brogan are playing? Or do we just use Dixon/Brennan to rest the ruckman and add an extra runner

 

[Sunny_]

Hickey will come in, no doubt about that. Every game he's had in the NEAFL has got him listed in the bests. Good tap ruckman that should compete with Giles, and give us good around the ground marks and work-rate.

Unlikely to see Fraser again this year, to be honest. If he were to come in though, you'd think this would be his last game.

 

[supernova_]

Hickey will come in, no doubt about that. Every game he's had in the NEAFL has got him listed in the bests. Good tap ruckman that should compete with Giles, and give us good around the ground marks and work-rate.

Unlikely to see Fraser again this year, to be honest. If he were to come in though, you'd think this would be his last game.

Would you put Hickey against Giles AND Brogan if they play both though like they did against Port?

Giles is 24 or 25 and has been in the system quite a while. Brogan is obiously a veteran and was quite often a barometer at Port, haven't seen enough of the Giants to be honest if he still plays the same way but would imagine you cant take the competetive beast out of him.

I think Fraser almost has to come back in.

Fingers crossed Patton is out for them also with a shoulder injury.

They lined up with Chad Cornes, Patton, Cameron, and Giles in the forward line...some pretty tall timber to defend! You wouldn't change a winning formula.

So who have we got to go against them? Dixon/Warnock. Is Coad a likely return?

I dont like McKenzie as a one on one defender as we saw a couple times against Melb. He is a bit of a soft player in my eyes, does not have that relentless attitude, ala Tape which is pretty much the role he's been forced to take.

 

[Sunny_]

Coad was put back on the rookie list, so he won't come back in.

McKenzie is playing a role that he's probably not designed for, I agree. It's not his endeavour which is short IMO, it's just his size. Yeah, he's 190+, but he's built like a winger which enables him to streak off HB which is where I liked seeing him the most. He just doesn't have the one-on-one mass to really bother big bodies. Plugging the hole left by Tape, really.

Last time we played them, Smith cleaned up in the hit-outs. It was Giles' around the work ground that killed us. He only got a smidgen above 10 hit-outs, but he kicked 3.1 with 20+ touches. Obviously that will have to be stopped, and I think Hickey is up to that task. He has good around the ground skills, and should be able to stop Giles better than Smith did in round seven. Smith, who was in shocking form then. Try to remember that Giles may have beaten Port in the ruck, but I think Port were playing someone very, very young. Hickey at least has some more experience, going up against the some of the best ruck divisions in the comp.

Last time we played them too, it was during our woeful midfield days when we couldn't buy a clearance. I'm hoping we at least have some more midfield dominance this week. Prestia's gone, but with Ablett fully fit and ideally Swallow plus Horsley, we'll get some strength.

If Chad goes forward, I will be screaming if Hine goes to him. Chad is pretty much their Brad Green, and has every chance of destroying us. Warnock to Cameron and Dixon to Patton should give us servicable returns.

If Day doesn't get up, Dixon to FF and May to take Patton.

 

[supernova_]

I thought Stanely to Cornes might be a good matchup? Obviously give up a bit of height, but might be able to compete physically with him.

IN: Stanley, Hickey, Iles, Horsley
OUT: Smith, Prestia, Hunt, Rischatelli

Does Josh Hall come in for Day perhaps if he's over his injury (ankle was it?).

What was Russells injury also?

If Bennell and Ablett can tear it up in the middle again it gives us a great opportunity to win the game without a doubt. We missed probably 6-8 very very gettable goals, about 3 or 4 within 15m I think, and a few 40m set shots which unfortunately didn't go through.

We were not that far off the pace even when injuries happened and running out of players.

 

[Scotty_222]

i thought swallow was playing injured.. hickey should come in for smith
campaigner will be a loss..

 

[Sunny_]

Russell is gone for the season. Sent straight to hospital after the injury. Possible an AC joint or broken collarbone.

Can't see Josh Hall coming back in. If Day is out, Dixon will move to FF with May coming in at FB. Same situation against the Swans.

Good point about Stanley, supernova_klown. If he does make the squad (still not sure why he was withdrawn?), then he'd take the Cornes match-up.

Swallow was playing with sore legs left over from the bad corkies he got in the past fortnight, hence the more padded strappings on his thighs. I'm unaware of any knee injury he picked up during the game. The only place that said he has an injury is the Courier-Mail, which I guess can be questioned. There was no injury reported on the AFL site, nor anywhere else. Same with Sam Day. Swallow's obviously a sore boy though, playing a bit more time up forward. Though he did slowly work his way into it with 23 touches and a few tackles.

 

[Sunny_]

Just checking the AFL site. Swallow was listed in our best. 15 contested possessions, 6 clearances and 5 inside 50s. I barely noticed him, which makes me sad. That's certainly not a bad effort!

 

[Sunny_]

...and just as I post that, Mike Whiting tweets @ me saying that it's not looking good for Swallow or Day.

 

[supernova_]

Just checking the AFL site. Swallow was listed in our best. 15 contested possessions, 6 clearances and 5 inside 50s. I barely noticed him, which makes me sad. That's certainly not a bad effort!

Swallow was definitely one of our best, the unnoticed clearances

He hasn't been himself since the first couple of rounds unfortunately, just battling injuries constantly the poor kid. Probably will continue for the rest of the year and will explode next year I reckon.

 

[Sunny_]

Updated!

OUT: Smith(inj), Hunt(inj), Russell(inj), Rischitelli(inj), Prestia(inj), Swallow(inj), Day(inj)
IN: Hickey, Horsley, A.Hall, Iles, Stanley, May, Gillbee/Jolly/Flanagan

The loss of Swallow as well as Prestia leaves us in a bad spot. So much of our clearance power will be gone, much like it was when we got thumped by some big margins when we didn't have those two. WCE game anyone? No Hunt either.

FB: Stanley, May, McKenzie
HB: Shaw, Warnock, Harbrow
C: Iles, Ablett, Horsley
HF: Hall, Lynch, Matera
FF: Brennan, Dixon, Brown

Fol: Hickey, Caddy, Bennell

Int: Weller, Patrick, Hine

Sub: Gillbee/Jolly/Flanagan

At least the back-line doesn't look too disturbed. But that midfield is nearly alien.

 

[Herbs]

7 new injuries, frig me.

 

[Scotty_222]

i was at the game yesterday.. swallow did look sore.
it was a really hard game to watch.
will be back at the g after gws to take on the hawks which could be frightening
with all these injuries.
hopefully the horse comes back in.
day is hopeless, dropped marks slow around the contest, cant bend over
we really need to think hard when it comes to recruiting in the offseason..
add a bit of depth