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Unofficial Preview Round 21, 2025 v Collingwood @ MCG, August 3rd, 7.35pm.
- Thread starter M Malice
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- #52
If it's Andrews and McCluggage get out the tanks.
Section 5
Norm Smith Medallist
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Zorko ?
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- #55
McKenna's done. Zorks is struggling but doing his best to hope it'll go away.
Dunno about tanks but it's battle stations right now. Copping injuries and issues at the wrong time of the year and let's face it we've been up for a few years and it's not the end of the world if we can get everyone as right as they can be for 2026.
Not that we won't be giving it a real crack this week.
Dunno about tanks but it's battle stations right now. Copping injuries and issues at the wrong time of the year and let's face it we've been up for a few years and it's not the end of the world if we can get everyone as right as they can be for 2026.
Not that we won't be giving it a real crack this week.
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- #57
I wont be watching the footy shows tonight but hopefully we are lambasted and said to be no chance against the Magpies, would be good for our mindset.
Its time for a Bruce to Bruce talk.
Section 5
Norm Smith Medallist
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Defense injury prone or injury related issues:
Payne (return date 6-12 months), Answerth (9 month), Coleman & Doedee (who knows), Starcevich (concussion issues and possibly leaving)
Last week's defense; Andrews, Gardiner, Lester, Zorko, Wilmot, Fletcher, Starcevich.
Others: Joyce, Doedee, Coleman, Brain, Beecken, Lloyd, Zakostelsky & maybe Torrent
Gardiner over Joyce selection for the remainder of 2025?
I love Gardiners overall effort.
However, he is usually undersized compared to his opponent, usually the 2nd KPF.
Depending on who that is sometimes Lester gets the job and Diz gets the 3rd tall
Either way this makes Andrews more accountable on the main opposition forward.
This stops Andrews playing his natural role of intercept defender.
Are we better off playing Joyce, as that will allow Andrews to play his preferred intercept role.
Is the difference between Gardiners output over what Joyce may provide the team better, worse or the same
Joyce was pretty solid in 2024 when coming in for Payne including our Pies R23 1 point loss (He had 14 D, 7 M).
Previous 4 AFL games Giants (10 D, 6 M), Swans (15 D 7 M), Eagles (12 D 4 M), Demons (15 D 5 M)
Gardiner last 2 games in defense Suns (14 D 3 M) Dogs (12 D 3 M). His previous 2 games sub and subbed off.
I don't expect Fagan to panic selection wise, but a 66-point flogging gives him the latitude to make some unforced changes.
Payne (return date 6-12 months), Answerth (9 month), Coleman & Doedee (who knows), Starcevich (concussion issues and possibly leaving)
Last week's defense; Andrews, Gardiner, Lester, Zorko, Wilmot, Fletcher, Starcevich.
Others: Joyce, Doedee, Coleman, Brain, Beecken, Lloyd, Zakostelsky & maybe Torrent
Gardiner over Joyce selection for the remainder of 2025?
I love Gardiners overall effort.
However, he is usually undersized compared to his opponent, usually the 2nd KPF.
Depending on who that is sometimes Lester gets the job and Diz gets the 3rd tall
Either way this makes Andrews more accountable on the main opposition forward.
This stops Andrews playing his natural role of intercept defender.
Are we better off playing Joyce, as that will allow Andrews to play his preferred intercept role.
Is the difference between Gardiners output over what Joyce may provide the team better, worse or the same
Joyce was pretty solid in 2024 when coming in for Payne including our Pies R23 1 point loss (He had 14 D, 7 M).
Previous 4 AFL games Giants (10 D, 6 M), Swans (15 D 7 M), Eagles (12 D 4 M), Demons (15 D 5 M)
Gardiner last 2 games in defense Suns (14 D 3 M) Dogs (12 D 3 M). His previous 2 games sub and subbed off.
I don't expect Fagan to panic selection wise, but a 66-point flogging gives him the latitude to make some unforced changes.
Bucking Beads
Brownlow Medallist
The idea that Joyce is a better option than Gardiner is quite frankly nuts. Sure Gardiner is playing Rusty.. He is coming off an ACL and has been in and out of the side for various reasons. We know he is good enough and will put his body on the line for the team.
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Has been playing forward as well for some stupid reason
Bucking Beads
Brownlow Medallist
I was certainly not a fan of that. He did a fair job but he's obviously not a forward.
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And hes our key back depth. Having not played there since 2022
Sunny Land
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Well before Paynie got injured and having Doedee looking like he was going to be ready to play some time in the year, the backline wasn't open to Dizzy slotting in....hence why they considered trying him up forward. Worth the experiment but Dizzy is a battering ram backman and there he will be.
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- #65
Froggy played an intercepting marking/spoiling role against the Bulldogs when we had no other choice than Harris to play on Sam Darcy, I thought Froggy played that role really well and was his best game of the season that night.
Joyce would be perfect if he was just a bit better player . But he's break glass only at this point.
I'm sure Tom is really disappointed that he's nowhere near able to do what we recruited him for and the only option is to get in a solid pre season next year and hope he improves to an acceptable standard.
I'm sure Tom is really disappointed that he's nowhere near able to do what we recruited him for and the only option is to get in a solid pre season next year and hope he improves to an acceptable standard.
Section 5
Norm Smith Medallist
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Gardiner has played all year so i don't think his ACL needs mentioning. With our injury issues i hope he stays fit.
You said it yourself Diz is playing rusty even after 3 VFL and 10 AFL games this year.
We play R 21 this week and if selected i hope there is not much more rust to fall off.
Dizz at his best is way better than Joyce but he is past his best in my opinion.
My post was not really about who is better but what may make our defense function better.
Gardiner had 14 disposals v Dogs, 7 being clangers and 3 frees against
I don't expect a change that's the Fagan way, but it should be considered.
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- #68
You can see why we were reportedly interested in Leek Aleer who's listed as 194cm but plays taller than that, way out of our price range now that the Saints have offered him a bucket load of cash.
We are definitely light on for KPD depth. Ideally you want 2 pure KPDs, 1 3rd tall, a pure lockdown medium size, 2 balanced smaller mids who also provide a bit of run. With all our players available and in form we have that.
Wilmot, Payne, Starcevich.
Lester, Andrews, Answerth/Coleman/Zorko.
That is as good as any defence in the AFL, sadly they wont all get on the park at any one time this season.
Well nothing on the news tonight about any major injuries and Zorko looked fine at the sponsor event tonight, so definitely bs
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Section 5
Norm Smith Medallist
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Not just this season but a lot of 2026 also
Well you've got 2 of those out for the best part of a year. 2 more who aren't anywhere near what they were and not looking likely to be. One 36 years old struggling with injury despite what anyone else thinks . An intercepting tall gun who we're playing in a role that he's not particularly good at.
And we're left with Froggy and Wilmot. To be fair , not serious threats to the opposition.
So we're doing a remarkable job if we can win games against good opposition with whatever we patch together as our backline.
Meh, backlines are over rated. 9 role players who couldn't make it as forwards.......
Might make them spew up that bath water....
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If Adelaide can build an incredible defence around Mark Keane then we can rebuild
The achilles heel of Adelaide is that they're playing as if they don't need a defence and basing their game on the many guns that they have.
So let's see how they go when real pressure is applied to that part of the ground.
It's possibly their year if they keep believing and playing well but it can fall apart if that extreme level of confidence they now have wavers.
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