Preview Changes v Saints

[TommyD13]

Williams was close to our best player round 1, and had outstanding form in the preseason games too.

He's probably our most in-form player right now, zero chance he's dropped unless he injured himself between now and the weekend. Suckling was awful round 1, but is a coaches favourite and very important to our game plan, so will likely retain his spot. Young was among our worst round 1, so he'd be the one I'd be dropping, along with Gardner

Plus one more... And I wouldn't drop Young as it leaves us too small down there. I like Williams a lot but I think based on runs on the board JJ, Crozier, Daniel and Wood have to be picked ahead of him. And Suckling for that matter

 

[TommyD13]

William's out?????????
It seems you feel about William's the way I feel about Dale. What was it about his Round 1 performance you didn't like compared to all the other players you would keep in?

Nothing against him at all. Think he is a terrific player, although in my books hes probably 5th best out of an abundance of small/medium defenders. Would love to but on team balance I couldnt squeeze him in

 

[Virgin Dog]

Plus one more... And I wouldn't drop Young as it leaves us too small down there. I like Williams a lot but I think based on runs on the board JJ, Crozier, Daniel and Wood have to be picked ahead of him. And Suckling for that matter

Dropping a player in as good of form as him is a great way to ensure he has one foot out the door for the rest of the season, destroys his confidence and sends a bad message to other players.

We can't play favourites here - Williams deserves a game even ahead of Bont this week based on form, he has to be one of the first picked, even considering runs on the board. We have the room to keep him in the side. If anything, McLean missed out based on his disappointing 2019

 

[Deadly Darcy]

Wondering Why Toby Maclean can't play Hunters role ? Seems a good replacement
A premiership player ..

I’m just gunna call it. Maclean would be my first pick to duck for Australia at the Olympic Games. He was better at it than Joel Selwood but he doesn’t have the same level of Selwoods other high class abilities. The rule change in ‘17 (getting rid of the old knee drop and twist) took 30 - 40 percent off Maclean’s apparent value on game day. Happy to trade him if we can get some value out of him. Could we send him up to QLD for Will Brodie who is also fringe and not really maximising his talents at the suns? He’s a hard nut we could rotate through the middle and I think a fresh start would do him good.

 

[Deadly Darcy]

Was watching the Saints v North Rd1 match the other day and I reckon Saints aren’t as bad as some on here think they are. Me included a few weeks ago.

Rubbish coach so we won’t be out coached, but they’ve put a decent 22 together over the off season so won’t be easy beats.

If we are 3/4’s fair dinkum we’ve got them covered but if our boys have another off day, I can see us getting rolled.

Hopefully we’ve got our act together by Sunday.

I don’t see how Ratten is a rubbish coach given what he did at Carlton? Held together a shithouse team that overperformed on his watch. The Blues board made the mistake in my opinion and they’ve been shockingly disjointed at every level since he left. I think St Kilda did very well to get him.

I agree we have to play at the top of our game to win this one - not an easy beat team by any imagination.

 

[Dazb86]

I’m just gunna call it. Maclean would be my first pick to duck for Australia at the Olympic Games. He was better at it than Joel Selwood but he doesn’t have the same level of Selwoods other high class abilities. The rule change in ‘17 (getting rid of the old knee drop and twist) took 30 - 40 percent off Maclean’s apparent value on game day. Happy to trade him if we can get some value out of him. Could we send him up to QLD for Will Brodie who is also fringe and not really maximising his talents at the suns? He’s a hard nut we could rotate through the middle and I think a fresh start would do him good.

Macleans drop in form coincided with less midfield time.

 

[Charlie Bucket]

I don’t see how Ratten is a rubbish coach given what he did at Carlton? Held together a shithouse team that overperformed on his watch. The Blues board made the mistake in my opinion and they’ve been shockingly disjointed at every level since he left. I think St Kilda did very well to get him.

I agree we have to play at the top of our game to win this one - not an easy beat team by any imagination.

Personally I don’t think they over performed.
If you look back at the teams they had over the years he was at Carlton, there were some very good players. No top shelf Hawks type team but better than plenty that have ran around in recent years.

Midfield - Kreuzer, Judd, Murphy, Gibbs, McLean, also had Simpson running through.

Fwd - Walker, Waite, Betts, Garlett.

Backs - Thornton, Henderson, Scotland, Jamison, Simpson

Outside - Yarran, Houlihan, Carrazzo.

There abouts/Traded out - Sam Jacobs, Shaun Grigg, Jeremy Laidley, Jordan Russel, Mitch Robinson

Admittedly, I didn’t rate Carltons list back in the day but I think that was more due to them being a basket case so you didn’t expect anything other than to see them lose.

Have been watching quiet a few footy flashback matches on Fox the last month or two, as have most I suspect, few of the games were Carlton from early last decade and I was surprised by the talent they had.
It’s no GWS list but taking them to finals should have been a moral imo.

I must admit though, I’m starting to regret calling him rubbish. The Saints will probably bend us over and give us a Hopoate now.

 

[Dazb86]

Just looking at the potential Saints side. We really shouldn't be losing this one. If we turn up switched on we should come away with the 4 points.

 

[Yojimbo]

B: Easton Wood, Aaron Naughton, Zaine Cordy
HB: Hayden Crozier, Alex Keath, Bailey Williams
C: Lachie Young, Jackson Macrae, Jason Johannisen
HF: Sam Lloyd, Josh Schache, Patrick Lipinski
F: Tim English, Josh Bruce, Rhylee West

Followers: Jordon Sweet, Marcus Bontempelli, Bailey Smith

I/C: Josh Dunkley, Matthew Suckling, Ed Richards, Bailey Dale.

Triple Bailey's, Triple Josh and a "Sweet" debut, what more could you want.

 

[Northernsoul74]

B: Easton Wood, Aaron Naughton, Zaine Cordy
HB: Hayden Crozier, Alex Keath, Bailey Williams
C: Lachie Young, Jackson Macrae, Jason Johannisen
HF: Sam Lloyd, Josh Schache, Patrick Lipinski
F: Tim English, Josh Bruce, Rhylee West

Followers: Jordon Sweet, Marcus Bontempelli, Bailey Smith

I/C: Josh Dunkley, Matthew Suckling, Ed Richards, Bailey Dale.

Triple Bailey's, Triple Josh and a "Sweet" debut, what more could you want.

Throwing Naughton back to defence really does balance the team up when you see it written down.

 

[Yojimbo]

Throwing Naughton back to defence really does balance the team up when you see it written down.

I think he is a defender and with the potential addition of Ugle-Hagan next year why not just bite the bullet, 22 Inside 50's with
17 Rebound 50's for Collingwood in Round One helps make it an easy call for me.

 

[weltschmerz]

Throwing Naughton back to defence really does balance the team up when you see it written down.

I definitely see it.

 

[Del165892]

I’m just gunna call it. Maclean would be my first pick to duck for Australia at the Olympic Games. He was better at it than Joel Selwood but he doesn’t have the same level of Selwoods other high class abilities. The rule change in ‘17 (getting rid of the old knee drop and twist) took 30 - 40 percent off Maclean’s apparent value on game day. Happy to trade him if we can get some value out of him. Could we send him up to QLD for Will Brodie who is also fringe and not really maximising his talents at the suns? He’s a hard nut we could rotate through the middle and I think a fresh start would do him good.

This is a shit take. 2018 was McLean's best year by far, which contradicts your narrative here.

 

[Northernsoul74]

I think he is a defender and with the potential addition of Ugle-Hagan next year why not just bite the bullet, 22 Inside 50's with
17 Rebound 50's for Collingwood in Round One helps make it an easy call for me.

I still think the potential as a forward is too huge to ignore and I can’t go past that Richmond game. I guess it depends if Schache comes on enough to be considered best 22 and we have to fit the three in.

 

[Deadly Darcy]

This is a shit take. 2018 was McLean's best year by far, which contradicts your narrative here.

Not if you want the best MacLean for the team to win games rather than MacLeans best version of his footy self. He lost his midfield minutes not because he’s a terrible midfielder (he’s definately afl level) but because better mids went past him. I can’t be bothered counting but there must be 6-8 players we look to in the guts before we stick Maclean in there. So he becomes more of a forward again, where he was awesome in 2016 because of “drop, drop and roll” but when they killed the neck droop his ability to win frees up front was dramatically curtailed. He’s a goodish player but without a defined role he’s best traded at good value. He’s certainly not the bloke that will turn the Collingwood or GWS games around so trade him and use the currency to find another clay smith, Libba to train up. If Brodie has those traits great, if not use his currency to find one in a draft.

 

[Charlie Bucket]

I still think the potential as a forward is too huge to ignore and I can’t go past that Richmond game. I guess it depends if Schache comes on enough to be considered best 22 and we have to fit the three in.

Agree. It’s hard to remove a player from the Fwd line that’s had a 5.3 goal, 14 mark (9 contested) game at 19yrs of age. Bruce and Schache would have to be travelling pretty well as our Fwd 50 duo for Naughts to be shifted back.

 

[Yojimbo]

I still think the potential as a forward is too huge to ignore and I can’t go past that Richmond game. I guess it depends if Schache comes on enough to be considered best 22 and we have to fit the three in.

This is true, but do yourself a favour and analyse his full season, catch it or rat shit, but at his age it is still enormous. I think he can play
both ends at a pinch, but I worry about the supply for two big contested marks. I think the triangle of Schache, Bruce and English gives
us enough plus you can take off Sweet towards the end of quarters, Ruck English and swing on Dale who hardly plays a full game in any
case. Sounds like a plan and one of my better ones at that.

 

[DognBones]

I still think the potential as a forward is too huge to ignore and I can’t go past that Richmond game. I guess it depends if Schache comes on enough to be considered best 22 and we have to fit the three in.

It certainly was a breakthrough performance but assessment of it needs to be made with the reality that Rance and Astbury were not playing in that game. Still, you can only play against the players who are selected and he certainly made them look foolish.

 

[Sharkey66]

Anybody heard anything about why we are not playing any scratch matches this weekend for the non 22 players? I could understand if we are playing interstate but we are playing at home.

 

[Dog 36]

Was watching the Saints v North Rd1 match the other day and I reckon Saints aren’t as bad as some on here think they are. Me included a few weeks ago.

Rubbish coach so we won’t be out coached, but they’ve put a decent 22 together over the off season so won’t be easy beats.

If we are 3/4’s fair dinkum we’ve got them covered but if our boys have another off day, I can see us getting rolled.

Hopefully we’ve got our act together by Sunday.

They beat us last year when they had a dud coach they now have a very good coach IMO so this game like most will require us to be switched on and be at our best.

 

[VL3OJ]

Changes since round 1 -

• 5G
• People complaining about 5G
• Distinct Parma/Friday ratio decrease

 

[Boyd oh Boyd]

Did a review of the round 1 game. Was planning to post is but I'm too lazy to make a podcast or video and it's many, many pages of notes so I think it's too many to just post in text. Overall I don't think our mids were as bad as I thought, lots of bad ball use from everyone but some positives to take away with Dunkley's defensive game and Bont never taking bad options like the rest of the team. Smith not as good as I thought, as many positives as negatives. Hunter won't be missed based of that game, he had 4 positive contributions and 18 negatives from my notes. Defence was bad but Gardner had some good take aways. The main problems he had were about speed and disposal so Trengove would've been in the same boat. Not much to say about forwards except Dale pressured well and Bruce needs to pressure more. Daniel, JJ, Wood and Wallis much more positives than negatives so they can hold their heads high.

I'll also say that second half gave me a bit of confidence. Not a good team but an alright team, whereas that first half was one of the worst performances I've seen.

 

[Northernsoul74]

Did a review of the round 1 game. Was planning to post is but I'm too lazy to make a podcast or video and it's many, many pages of notes so I think it's too many to just post in text. Overall I don't think our mids were as bad as I thought, lots of bad ball use from everyone but some positives to take away with Dunkley's defensive game and Bont never taking bad options like the rest of the team. Smith not as good as I thought, as many positives as negatives. Hunter won't be missed based of that game, he had 4 positive contributions and 18 negatives from my notes. Defence was bad but Gardner had some good take aways. The main problems he had were about speed and disposal so Trengove would've been in the same boat. Not much to say about forwards except Dale pressured well and Bruce needs to pressure more. Daniel, JJ, Wood and Wallis much more positives than negatives so they can hold their heads high.

I'll also say that second half gave me a bit of confidence. Not a good team but an alright team, whereas that first half was one of the worst performances I've seen.

I thought speed was supposed to be one of Gardner's few strong points.

 

[Mojorisin]

Bevo has said we will have 4-6 changes this week with players missing out because of omission not injury.
Jong, libba and lipinski should be 3 of them having virtually picked themselves

 

[Northernsoul74]

Bevo has said we will have 4-6 changes this week with players missing out because of omission not injury.
Jong, libba and lipinski should be 3 of them having virtually picked themselves

Good to hear. That round 1 was not acceptable.
Interesting comment about Libba, Lipinski and Jong “probably pick themselves”.