Our Starting 22 - Round 1 2022

[_RT_]

Good side overall. Like your idea of backing Ross and RCD. Not sure on Graham as a mid but until he is given a real crack in the middle we will never know. He is lucky in that he can rotate forward to the HF where he is still solid. A few unlucky players. MacIntosh and Pickett especially.

One difference I would have is having Miller on the bench over Soldo and going with Balta or Miller as second ruck/CHF. Just don't think we need a specialist second ruck more than we need an extra tall mobile forward. I thought we were really average up forward last year. Both Miller and Balta can play back and forward which gives us a lot of flexibility and pace.

I'm not a fan of messing around with Balta in terms of settling him in a role. For mine his best role has been as a defender and with Tarrant coming in to take the Astbury role I like the idea of using Balta as a more offensive KPD up around the HB line where he can use his athleticism to take the game on and turn defence into attack quite quickly.

With Nankervis and Soldo in the line up we maintain the ability to at least breakeven at the centre bounce and around the ground stoppages with 2 recognised rucks playing. We can also stretch opposition back lines by loading up with 3 tall forwards if we wanted to, meaning we can use one of them in the ruck inside F50 and also maintaining a strong marking presence a kick behind the play which helps the back line when they are faced with multiple marking options in the opponents forward half.

 

[DoItForCaptBlood]

I'm not a fan of messing around with Balta in terms of settling him in a role. For mine his best role has been as a defender and with Tarrant coming in to take the Astbury role I like the idea of using Balta as a more offensive KPD up around the HB line where he can use his athleticism to take the game on and turn defence into attack quite quickly.

With Nankervis and Soldo in the line up we maintain the ability to at least breakeven at the centre bounce and around the ground stoppages with 2 recognised rucks playing. We can also stretch opposition back lines by loading up with 3 tall forwards if we wanted to, meaning we can use one of them in the ruck inside F50 and also maintaining a strong marking presence a kick behind the play which helps the back line when they are faced with multiple marking options in the opponents forward half.

Agree on Soldo. Underrated imo. I've been watching all the games from 2019 and his work at centre bounces was something that stood out. Looking forward to him being back.

 

[RJKTiger]

B: Broad Tarrant Grimes
HB Vloss Balta Short
C: Pickett Graham KMac
HF: Rioli Dusty Castagna
F: Riewoldt Lynch Bolton
Foll: Nank Prestia Lambert

INT: Edwards, Cotchin, Stack , Baker

EMEG: Mansell, RCD, Soldo, Gibcus

 

[Grrr]

I'm not a fan of messing around with Balta in terms of settling him in a role. For mine his best role has been as a defender and with Tarrant coming in to take the Astbury role I like the idea of using Balta as a more offensive KPD up around the HB line where he can use his athleticism to take the game on and turn defence into attack quite quickly.

With Nankervis and Soldo in the line up we maintain the ability to at least breakeven at the centre bounce and around the ground stoppages with 2 recognised rucks playing. We can also stretch opposition back lines by loading up with 3 tall forwards if we wanted to, meaning we can use one of them in the ruck inside F50 and also maintaining a strong marking presence a kick behind the play which helps the back line when they are faced with multiple marking options in the opponents forward half.

Soldo or Nank, Jack and Lynch is about as slow as you can get, the ball would rebound so quickly, although we would be a bit better off in the air.

Nank is a very good ruckman who handles most of the rucks with ease. Add Soldo against Gawn, Nic Nat, maybe Grundy and a couple of others.

I sort of agree with Balta at CHB, but Miller has many of Balta's attributes and would give us the flexibility to move Balta around a bit. He has so much x factor that we don't really know how he would go up forward. He may take games apart. If it doesn't work, move him back no problem.

A third tall forward who is good on the deck and just as quick as anyone else would be a massive problem for defences.

 

[_RT_]

Soldo or Nank, Jack and Lynch is about as slow as you can get, the ball would rebound so quickly, although we would be a bit better off in the air.

Nank is a very good ruckman who handles most of the rucks with ease. Add Soldo against Gawn, Nic Nat, maybe Grundy and a couple of others.

I sort of agree with Balta at CHB, but Miller has many of Balta's attributes and would give us the flexibility to move Balta around a bit. He has so much x factor that we don't really know how he would go up forward. He may take games apart. If it doesn't work, move him back no problem.

A third tall forward who is good on the deck and just as quick as anyone else would be a massive problem for defences.

You're not playing the 3 of them in the same forward line every quarter or even every week, but it does give us the ability to change things up especially if the opposition finds themselves short of tall coverage.

A lot of sides seem to be moving back to the 2 ruck set up. Melbourne did with Gawn and Jackson, Dogs used English and Martin, Cats were using a combo of Esava Stanley & Blicavs, Port used Lycett & Ladhams and we used it effectively in 2019 & 2020 with Soldo & Nank splitting the duties even with Jack & Tom in the line up. IMO Dimma will be eager to get back to having 2 genuine rucks playing most weeks.

I'm going to be stubborn with regards to Balta, I was never a big fan of him as a ruck/forward in his first year and believe he really got people excited once he shifted to the backline and started reminding people of the things Rance could do. With Tarrant being a likely short term prospect I want to see us continue to settle Balta down back so that in 2-3 years time when the likes of Grimes & Tarrant retire he is the foundation of our back line with Vlastuin & Broad and hopefully Gibcus coming in as the 2nd KPD.

 

[crackertiger]

I think it would be wise to play some young players early. At least 1 every week at the start of the season. I suspect this year will be a battle of attrition with players isolating etc. Players like Caddy who might not be best 22 now will be handy and we will need players to be able to play multiple roles. Any club with poor depth will struggle.

 

[Hank Heavenly]

Depends a lot on the intentions with Balta, Baker, Stack to be honest...

What I would like to see, assuming some positional changes do occur:


B: Broad Tarrant Mansell
HB: Vlaustin Grimes Rioli
C: Short RCD Baker
R: Nankervis Bolton Prestia
HF: Lambert Lynch Martin
F: Riewoldt Balta Stack
INT: Graham Edwards Ross Dow/HRS

 

[boxxie2022]

I don’t get the desire to swing Balta around so much, would people be willing to do the same with Grimes? If your an elite in a position what’s the point in changing him. Can Balta make the play with initiating the lead? Or Is he better reading the oppo kicks (like broad)? flags are won on defence. If we can lock down our back half with 6-8 players rolling through their regularly. Fix the disparity in the midfield which will happen with the return of Dion and Dusty and the continued development of Ross RCD and Dow.
Jack had a good year. Lynch was hampered which completely messed with his kicking action so will be better. There’s other medium to small options, with a really good fwd half coach in Teague, we should be able to compete at the top end again. Making changes for change sake can be really counter productive

 

[Not Important]

B: Broad Tarrant Grimes
HB Vloss Balta Short
C: Pickett Graham KMac
HF: Rioli Dusty Castagna
F: Riewoldt Lynch Bolton
Foll: Nank Prestia Lambert

INT: Edwards, Cotchin, Stack , Baker

EMEG: Mansell, RCD, Soldo, Gibcus

like the look of that outfit. apart from dusty at chf. tigs by 10 goals.

 

[Hank Heavenly]

I don’t get the desire to swing Balta around so much, would people be willing to do the same with Grimes? If your an elite in a position what’s the point in changing him. Can Balta make the play with initiating the lead? Or Is he better reading the oppo kicks (like broad)? flags are won on defence. If we can lock down our back half with 6-8 players rolling through their regularly. Fix the disparity in the midfield which will happen with the return of Dion and Dusty and the continued development of Ross RCD and Dow.
Jack had a good year. Lynch was hampered which completely messed with his kicking action so will be better. There’s other medium to small options, with a really good fwd half coach in Teague, we should be able to compete at the top end again. Making changes for change sake can be really counter productive

I don't disagree at all, especially with Balta, but haven't all the reports told us he is training with the forwards???
Only reason I put him there.

Otherwise lock him down at CHB, with Tarrant alongside, great set up, takes pressure off Grimes as well.

 

[Grrr]

I don’t get the desire to swing Balta around so much, would people be willing to do the same with Grimes? If your an elite in a position what’s the point in changing him. Can Balta make the play with initiating the lead? Or Is he better reading the oppo kicks (like broad)? flags are won on defence. If we can lock down our back half with 6-8 players rolling through their regularly. Fix the disparity in the midfield which will happen with the return of Dion and Dusty and the continued development of Ross RCD and Dow.
Jack had a good year. Lynch was hampered which completely messed with his kicking action so will be better. There’s other medium to small options, with a really good fwd half coach in Teague, we should be able to compete at the top end again. Making changes for change sake can be really counter productive

Since when are key forwards, especially would be ones like Balta who are so athletic not more important than a key back. Many of the greatest players that have played the game are key forwards, Ablett, Plugger, Carey, Dunstall, Hart, Franklin. Not many key backs are in that quality group. Name one key back at Richmond besides Rance that is anywhere near Richo, Riewoldt, Roach, Cloke in terms of ability or importance to the side.

Our 2 key forwards are 33 and 30, an injury and we have zero back-up. At least in the backline we have Tarrant, Grimes, Broad, Vlastuin with backup of Miller and Biggy and maybe Gibcus. Jack and Lynch took very few mark from the wing to the 50m line for the year. We couldn't clean the defensive half of the ground because we had nobody to kick it too up the line. When Lynch did get higher up the ground we looked much better. It was often left to Chol and CCJ and they have gone.

Our big man department, or at least the numbers of tall's who can play forward have taken a hit with Chol and CCJ leaving, and I am pretty sure Balta will be a much better forward than either of them.

Grimes is no Balta, great player but no chance he is a forward. Who knows what Rance would have done up forward, a better comparison.

 

[boxxie2022]

Since when are key forwards, especially would be ones like Balta who are so athletic not more important than a key back. Many of the greatest players that have played the game are key forwards, Ablett, Plugger, Carey, Dunstall, Hart, Franklin. Not many key backs are in that quality group. Name one key back at Richmond besides Rance that is anywhere near Richo, Riewoldt, Roach, Cloke in terms of ability or importance to the side.

Our 2 key forwards are 33 and 30, an injury and we have zero back-up. At least in the backline we have Tarrant, Grimes, Broad, Vlastuin with backup of Miller and Biggy and maybe Gibcus. Jack and Lynch took very few mark from the wing to the 50m line for the year. We couldn't clean the defensive half of the ground because we had nobody to kick it too up the line. When Lynch did get higher up the ground we looked much better. It was often left to Chol and CCJ and they have gone.

Our big man department, or at least the numbers of tall's who can play forward have taken a hit with Chol and CCJ leaving, and I am pretty sure Balta will be a much better forward than either of them.

Grimes is no Balta, great player but no chance he is a forward. Who knows what Rance would have done up forward, a better comparison.

Some blokes just read the ball differently when they don’t have to make the lead or the play. Rance may have been an average fwd. Astbury proved to be a better back then forward. Your argument that backs aren’t as great as forwards I believe is flawed due to the way backs are viewed. They arent sexy players that sell posters or merchandise. Heck they don’t even have an award specifically for them. They are dour athletic types that get the job done. Dunstall had Langford and Tuck. Plugger had Frawley or Roos. Franklin played in sides with elite backs. If Balta’s number 1 position is CHB leave him there and allow him to become the champion backman he could be.
Just because he is athletic doesn’t automatically correlate to him being a quality forward. Where is we already know he is a quality back

 

[DoItForCaptBlood]

Depends a lot on the intentions with Balta, Baker, Stack to be honest...

What I would like to see, assuming some positional changes do occur:


B: Broad Tarrant Mansell
HB: Vlaustin Grimes Rioli
C: Short RCD Baker
R: Nankervis Bolton Prestia
HF: Lambert Lynch Martin
F: Riewoldt Balta Stack
INT: Graham Edwards Ross Dow/HRS

I've seen both Rioli and Mansell in the backline in a few teams now. Personally I feel they are too inexperienced to both be playing there. Can see oppo forward lines ripping us apart. Do we usually have two of Short/Baker on the ground at the same time? Depends on oppo forward structure at the time for matchups I guess. Also worried about height. But Short and Stack are both around the same height as Rioli and Mansell, so I guess I am more worried about the lack of games down back for those two.
I also hope Stack goes forward this year. But I'm in the Balta back camp.

 

[Hank Heavenly]

I've seen both Rioli and Mansell in the backline in a few teams now. Personally I feel they are too inexperienced to both be playing there. Can see oppo forward lines ripping us apart. Do we usually have two of Short/Baker on the ground at the same time? Depends on oppo forward structure at the time for matchups I guess. Also worried about height. But Short and Stack are both around the same height as Rioli and Mansell, so I guess I am more worried about the lack of games down back for those two.
I also hope Stack goes forward this year. But I'm in the Balta back camp.

I think Mansell is a great little back pocket. Defensively he has a lot of mongrel in him and hates to lose. His weakness at the moment is his ability to become more rebounding out of defence. I'm not actually worried about him defensively.

Rioli is one I am worries about, however, with the numbers he put up late last year, and Dimma's track record of giving him every chance, no way he doesn't start there in Rd 1 IMO. He in theory replaces Houli, who wasn't always great defensively (def got better late) but was our rebounding defender.

I get the feeling they will leave Short down back, but it's a move I want to see sending him to the wing, so I've run with it, but if I'm being honest, it's unlikely to happen.

The other thing not to be forgotten, if Balta plays back, Grimes can go back to playing on the small dangerous forwards like he did in 2017 taking Betts and the like.

 

[Grrr]

Some blokes just read the ball differently when they don’t have to make the lead or the play. Rance may have been an average fwd. Astbury proved to be a better back then forward. Your argument that backs aren’t as great as forwards I believe is flawed due to the way backs are viewed. They arent sexy players that sell posters or merchandise. Heck they don’t even have an award specifically for them. They are dour athletic types that get the job done. Dunstall had Langford and Tuck. Plugger had Frawley or Roos. Franklin played in sides with elite backs. If Balta’s number 1 position is CHB leave him there and allow him to become the champion backman he could be.
Just because he is athletic doesn’t automatically correlate to him being a quality forward. Where is we already know he is a quality back

'If' Balta's number 1 position... until we have a good look forward we will never know. Plenty of backs have become forwards and visa versa.

Given our forward line depth, zero, and the trouble we had scoring last year, I reckon it is worth a shot. Not exactly going to destroy him as a footballer if it doesn't work.

 

[THE THIN MAN]

No Cookies | Herald Sun

No Cookies

www.heraldsun.com.au

 

[Moppey]

Yeh Jones won't be there. He retired because he wouldn't man up and get the vax. They brought over Lewis Young from the Dogs and of course picked up Tim O'Brien from Hawthorn to play intercept defender. One or both of those two will be in the defence.

Edit: Tim O'Brien went to Western Bulldogs not Carltoon.

Hadn't realised Jones retired, makes sense that they got Lewis Young.

 

[Moppey]

View attachment 1304874

Caleb Marchbank of the Carlton Blues Career AFL Stats

Caleb Marchbank of Carlton Blues career AFL statistics

www.footywire.com

Marchbank has not played any footy in 2 years, doubtful for R1

I reckon if he is fit they will play him if they dont it will probably be ploughman instead.

 

[YeOldTiger]

I reckon if he is fit they will play him if they dont it will probably be ploughman instead.

Gotta think that their defence would struggle against JR, Lynch, Nank/Soldo, Dusty, Shai and gang. We have a lot of weaponry on paper. It takes time to integrate so many new players in a defensive structure. I think we can beat them badly in the air if the delivery is good. They will have Saad and Williams trying to run it out if it hits the deck. Our small forward set up will be critical. Will be interesting to see who we will go with.

 

[DoItForCaptBlood]

View attachment 1306141

No Cookies | Herald Sun

No Cookies

www.heraldsun.com.au

RCD seems to be getting into many predicted best 22. But will be interesting once we get to r1 with...
Ross, Caddy, Ralphsmith & Dow all putting their hand up.

 

[wegetpumped]

If a couple of the recruits don't step up like most of you are predicting and placing the king in the team we are not going far. Need new fresh faces that can play otherwise the old body's will start to fall apart once again. If I see Castagna aarts and parker in the same team again I will know our time has come.

 

[juss]

If a couple of the recruits don't step up like most of you are predicting and placing the king in the team we are not going far. Need new fresh faces that can play otherwise the old body's will start to fall apart once again. If I see Castagna aarts and parker in the same team again I will know our time has come.

Mate if I see any teamsheet this year that has Pickett, Caddy, Aarts, Castagna, Parker all running around in the same team we've either been smashed by injury or our youth sucks and we should have dire concerns for the future.

 

[Waca Jr]

Geez, if they have a fit list to pick from Round 1 with a full preseason Carlton are in for an almighty fisting

 

[JAKLAUGHING]

Geez, if they have a fit list to pick from Round 1 with a full preseason Carlton are in for an almighty fisting

Umpires say hold our beers!

 

[_RT_]

'If' Balta's number 1 position... until we have a good look forward we will never know. Plenty of backs have become forwards and visa versa.

Given our forward line depth, zero, and the trouble we had scoring last year, I reckon it is worth a shot. Not exactly going to destroy him as a footballer if it doesn't work.

We had a good look at Balta as a forward/ruck and he often time looked lost on the field and had limited impact on those games. Granted it was in his first year at AFL level, but the coaches quickly worked out that playing him down back was the way to go and since he has moved back he has become much more consistent and has a bigger impact on games.

You talk about our KPF being close to retirement, but our KPD stock now consists of Tarrant Balta Miller Nyoun & Gibcus. Tarrant has probably 3 years left in the game, in that time we can continue to develop Balta as a KPD so that by time Tarrant retires he has close to 100 games under his belt and is ready to become the number 1 KPD. At the same time we can still develop the other 3 to become the number 2 KPD who will hopefully have 30 odd games under their belts as well.

Finally we've gone down the path of trying to turn forwards into defenders and vice versa plenty of times in the past and it hasn't really worked outside of Astbury who went from a forward to defender. Guys like Post Griffiths Elton Gourdis Moore & Chol were all tried in both positions to try and find the right role for them and it always saw them revert back to their original position. Mucking around with KPPs positioning rarely works, sure there are exceptions, but when you've got yourself a potentially elite player locked in you don't go changing it.