Hoping for at least a couple of changes. Amartey has to come in, whether this is his ideal time to debut or not, we need someone to play in the ruck so Aliir can go back. Aliir would lose the hitouts substantially to Darcy/Lobb anyway and his clearances are hit and miss against skilled ruckmen, so we may as well have him down back where he's been so good this year.
Then I'd be getting rid of at least two of Hayward, Jack and Ronke. We just can't afford so little out of our smaller forwards. Quite possibly all three. I'd love to give Hayward a run somewhere else on the ground to free him up in seniors but I don't know he can fit anywhere else for now. It's got to be hard when you're not tall or that small but not big enough to get a lot of ball kicked to you like him. I'd send him back to reserves and tell him to just go out and ominate and enjoy himself for a few weeks. It all looks a bit of a dirge for him atm.
So I'd go Amartey in the ruck, Aliir down back. With Aliir down back, you don't need Dawson in defence so he moves up the field to a HF flank and drop Ronke. The other thing I'd love to see is Stoddart get rewarded for a consistent year and play at HB. With that Cunningham shifts up to a wing/HF and you drop Jack. Then Menzel comes in for Hayward. That requires a lot of change to the side, but we'd be a significantly better side than what were yesterday with that imo.
That is his Lot. He is not going to get Taller or Smaller now and he has made it on to an AFL List with those physical attributes and shown he is a mid range marking half forward who has some really good opportunistic skills about him. He has shown he can play at the level and hold a spot in our best 22 but at the moment he is way off the boil in finding the ball with any regularity and when giving himself an opportunity to have an impact by hitting the scoreboard he butchers it. How do you free him up ? Let him run around on the wing and be unsighted for 4 qtrs or chuck him on the ball where at AFL Level he wouldn't have a clue ? You send him back to the reserves play him in the role that will be his at Senior Level and keep working at it until he has the impact required for a player playing the role he does and with that hopefully get some confidence back and return to the Best 22 for which even at its strongest he is apart of.