Defence:
mixed reports on Penny playing
If he's out it will leave our defence very thin, esp if kosi doesn't come up too.
I suggest the defence will look a bit like this:
voss, maguire jones
frankie kosi black
That does leave us with perhaps our weakest defence for the season.
Kosi still looks fragile and slow, and will be required to support knobel in the ruck, as will goose, that will put addition pressure on the midfield to flood back and control the flow of ball through the game.
On the positive side with Rocca doing nothing in the magoos, and leigh brown little more than a stripling himself, the roos forward line looks equally brittle. If the roos do decide to push the Saints forward line and put Sav in the square, it may cause some problems IF we lose control of the midfield. Mckernan also is due, and if he thrown forward, I expect Kosi to run with him.
Saints may try goose on Mckernan to expose his lack of speed, however goose may be used to chop out floating b/w CHB and FB, given his phenominal courage. If it comes to a shoot out, voss and maguire will have to carry the defence.
Midfield.
Brent wannabeHarvey, adam simpleson, Wells etc form one of the hardest working talented midfields in the competition and with Stevens out, that does take away about 20% of their talent. I would say, at least in the first quarter, their midfield is the equal of ours. However, we have a depth of talent, they'll find hard to match, and our rotation will start to hurt them as the game goes on, as it did against adelaide, where roo and mcleod found themselves just running out of steam. Ball, banger, black, thommo, jones, even moyle, will compete to run them off their legs. That will be hard given brent harvey and adam simpson are too of the fittest guys going around. With no rotation and little depth, I expect us to draw away as the game goes on. However with no dedicated taggers, simpson and their harvey should rack up about 35 possies each, while our mob get about 20 to 25 spread over 5 or 6 players.
don't be suprised again to see 3 or 4 on ballers/runners benched at some parts of the game.
I expect us to control the corridor, and concede the wings to north, forcing them out wide, which is exactly what we did to Essendon and Adeliade, a dangerous strategy, but one that has paid off so far.
I expect us to draw ahead as the game wears on in the midfield. I don't think GT should ever underestimate the North boys, they conceded a massive lead to us, and nearly over ran us late last season as our boys started liairising around. It took a massive haul by FG and a last quarter from banger harvey straight out of the 97 archives to save the game.
Forward
With archer gone, king gone, their defence looks thin on the ground, leigh Colbert, if he plays, will have too much work to do, guys like hale are too new and weak to compete with the FG, Snowy, Hamill and manchild. I think if we can just lob in the general direction of our forward 50 these guys should dominate. If we start losing the midfield, I suspect GT will switch snowy to CHF and manchild to the wing to generate drive. Winning the forward line is a monty if the midfield wins. I do worry however that our boys will start party tricks and or if we do win this game, carry the party tricks in against brisbane.
odds on North are 3.10 and saints a shoe in at 1.30, I think north are not that short, and I expect us to win by about 20 points, or lose by less than a goal.
Never under estimate the shin boners, and after getting smashed by Sydney, I expect them to come out and hit us hard, this game could be a physical pre cursor to brisbane, and reminicent of the essendon game..
mixed reports on Penny playing
If he's out it will leave our defence very thin, esp if kosi doesn't come up too.
I suggest the defence will look a bit like this:
voss, maguire jones
frankie kosi black
That does leave us with perhaps our weakest defence for the season.
Kosi still looks fragile and slow, and will be required to support knobel in the ruck, as will goose, that will put addition pressure on the midfield to flood back and control the flow of ball through the game.
On the positive side with Rocca doing nothing in the magoos, and leigh brown little more than a stripling himself, the roos forward line looks equally brittle. If the roos do decide to push the Saints forward line and put Sav in the square, it may cause some problems IF we lose control of the midfield. Mckernan also is due, and if he thrown forward, I expect Kosi to run with him.
Saints may try goose on Mckernan to expose his lack of speed, however goose may be used to chop out floating b/w CHB and FB, given his phenominal courage. If it comes to a shoot out, voss and maguire will have to carry the defence.
Midfield.
Brent wannabeHarvey, adam simpleson, Wells etc form one of the hardest working talented midfields in the competition and with Stevens out, that does take away about 20% of their talent. I would say, at least in the first quarter, their midfield is the equal of ours. However, we have a depth of talent, they'll find hard to match, and our rotation will start to hurt them as the game goes on, as it did against adelaide, where roo and mcleod found themselves just running out of steam. Ball, banger, black, thommo, jones, even moyle, will compete to run them off their legs. That will be hard given brent harvey and adam simpson are too of the fittest guys going around. With no rotation and little depth, I expect us to draw away as the game goes on. However with no dedicated taggers, simpson and their harvey should rack up about 35 possies each, while our mob get about 20 to 25 spread over 5 or 6 players.
don't be suprised again to see 3 or 4 on ballers/runners benched at some parts of the game.
I expect us to control the corridor, and concede the wings to north, forcing them out wide, which is exactly what we did to Essendon and Adeliade, a dangerous strategy, but one that has paid off so far.
I expect us to draw ahead as the game wears on in the midfield. I don't think GT should ever underestimate the North boys, they conceded a massive lead to us, and nearly over ran us late last season as our boys started liairising around. It took a massive haul by FG and a last quarter from banger harvey straight out of the 97 archives to save the game.
Forward
With archer gone, king gone, their defence looks thin on the ground, leigh Colbert, if he plays, will have too much work to do, guys like hale are too new and weak to compete with the FG, Snowy, Hamill and manchild. I think if we can just lob in the general direction of our forward 50 these guys should dominate. If we start losing the midfield, I suspect GT will switch snowy to CHF and manchild to the wing to generate drive. Winning the forward line is a monty if the midfield wins. I do worry however that our boys will start party tricks and or if we do win this game, carry the party tricks in against brisbane.
odds on North are 3.10 and saints a shoe in at 1.30, I think north are not that short, and I expect us to win by about 20 points, or lose by less than a goal.
Never under estimate the shin boners, and after getting smashed by Sydney, I expect them to come out and hit us hard, this game could be a physical pre cursor to brisbane, and reminicent of the essendon game..
