Preview Round 23: Essendon Bombers vs Our Second Round Pick, Friday August 15th 7:40pm, Marvel Stadium

[bommer16]

Do any of the players we were forced to play look like future stars though (as opposed to being solid players)?

I think Liam McMahon, Archer May, and Johnson are locks for mine. Blakiston I like but I might be in the minority. I’d keep him for another season.
Hayes despite getting injured shows a lot of promise.
Have not seen much consistency among the rest.
Vigo is still developing.
Nguyen has potential.
Clarke? Maybe
Lual had a great game and hasn’t been dropped since debut? Or is he just a placeholder?
Saad we will utilise again for 2026.

 

[dank420_]

Clarke? Maybe

One of the most promising imo

 

[mike14]

Do any of the players we were forced to play look like future stars though (as opposed to being solid players)?

No, but then if they were likely to be stars they probably would have been in the team prior to all the forced changes.
What this season has hopefully done is unearth some solid players from the younger brigade that will allow us to move on some 'non-star' senior guys and free up space/cash for some stars

 

[The Prosecutor]

Unclear to me what the upside of selecting Langford is.

Pull the pin on this year, focus on a long term fix to the constant soft tissue injuries. Consider the optics of him getting another one!

Also consider the benefits of being able to play a game or two to finish off the season from a mental perspective. I'm sure it would be such a boost relative to having to wait until March next year to finally do something other than train/rehab.

If he's fit than he should play.

 

[faible]

No, but then if they were likely to be stars they probably would have been in the team prior to all the forced changes.
What this season has hopefully done is unearth some solid players from the younger brigade that will allow us to move on some 'non-star' senior guys and free up space/cash for some stars

Not sure this is true; Clarke had an interrupted pre-season but came in pretty quickly once he was fit. Reid went from looking like he hadn't played football in 3 years to looking like he'd be one of the best KPDs in the AFL in the space of 6 weeks. Roberts went from fringe AFL player to being BOG.

Visentini is extremely young for a ruckman but has shown a lot for the future when he's got a couple more preseasons of strength in him.

Plus we've seen a few guys like Johnson and May look like they might be cheap finds that could be long-term AFL standard guys. Even Nguyen looks like he might be a capable lockdown back pocket. Improving the bottom half of the best-22 is as much a need as adding some elite talent.

Within a pretty disastrous season I think we've got a number of positives to take out of it for the younger cohort.

 

[The Prosecutor]

Do any of the players we were forced to play look like future stars though (as opposed to being solid players)?

May, Johnson and Clarke I'm pretty optimistic could potentially be very, very good. Maybe Vigo too.

 

[boncer34]

Never lost a game with Unwin in the side. May the streak continue

 

[Vander18]

Also consider the benefits of being able to play a game or two to finish off the season from a mental perspective. I'm sure it would be such a boost relative to having to wait until March next year to finally do something other than train/rehab.

If he's fit than he should play.

He’s a veteran, not a kid.

Long term fix is the priority, not squeezing in a couple of games at the end of a year that is already long gone.

 

[Happyskeret]

Is this our shortest match preview thread for the year?

 

[Lore]

Is this our shortest match preview thread for the year?

Round 20 only got to 3 pages but it's not far off. No need to guess why no one cared for the game against the dogs

 

[King Patty]

wonder who will get injured this week?, Maybe Davey and Johnson will get another game this year.

My Money would have to be on langford....hope he gets through, has had a horror year.

 

[Happyskeret]

Round 20 only got to 3 pages but it's not far off. No need to guess why no one cared for the game against the dogs

Oh yeah I had that one erased from my memory with a flashy stick.

 

[ghostdog]

Looking forward to this at the end of the game.

 

[VelvetSledge]

Game Day - Round 23: Essendon v St Kilda, Marvel Stadium, 15/8/25 7.20pm AEST

ESSENDON Liam McMahon > Jeremy Cameron. Surprisingly, not a complete debacle mauling as we've come to expect at alphabet soup stadium. We'll take that. Archie Roberts should be a shoe-in for the Rising Star, but no-one watches us because we are arse. Zach broke his hand and was still somehow in...

www.bigfooty.com

Over here for the first half until everyone switches over to the better game.