I think it will be interesting to see if Nash keeps his spot, as it will say a lot about how the club views this season. If he plays, I reckon we've decided with Mitchell out for most of the year, it is largely a development season. We chose to have two guys in our forward line on the weekend with 4 goals between them across their entire career. That says to me we care more about getting games into Nash than we do about results. I know Ceglar's been poor and not the avenue to goal we hoped he could be, but I'd have persisted one more week with Ceglar, and instead dropped Nash to bring Lewis in.
I like the suggestions to bring Miles in, because while Impey has done some good things down back, I think he's better being cut loose further up the ground. Looks like he's playing a more accountable role at the moment , which I suspect is stymying his run.
Morrison still not getting enough of it, but Shiels for Cousins is a more like-for-like swap.
I'm guessing:
In: Stratton, Shiels
Out: Mirra, Cousins/Morrison
But hoping for:
In: Stratton, Shiels, Miles
Out: Mirra, Nash, Morrison
That's based on a team maximised for winning chances not player development. Until finals are not looking feasible I think we should hold off on gifting positions for develop reasons. We already have development selections forced on us by injury, so opting in to more development based selections than injury requires isn't ideal IMO (hence Out: Nash).
Unlike many posters, I don't think Mirra is anywhere near as terrible as people have made out. A few mistakes, but providing a contest and more spread/mobility than Brand can. Think he'll go though simply because Brand was decent, and someone has to make way for Stratton. Gunston back to the forward line allows Nash to come out without bringing another forward in.
What I think we need most is a lift from our senior group. Quibbling about fringe best 22 players like Morrison/Nash/Mirra etc is pointless IMO when guys like Gunston, Stratton, Breust and Smith are performing below their best. I'd add Shiels before his injury to that list too. I understand Smith may have played under duress, and is helping out in roles not best suited to his skill set, but whatever the reason, we are getting less out of him than we usually do. If it is the role and not form, then we need to find someone else to fill the role because he's far too valuable for us doing what he does best.
We should beat Carlton. If not for in game injuries we would probably be 4-1. Geelong is a decent team this year, and if we'd not leaked goals badly in time on at the end of each quarter it would have been a very close game. Makes me wonder if we might be extra vulnerable to in game injuries at the moment, as the end of quarter fade outs in that game suggest a fitness issue across the board that going a rotation (or two) down will exasperate.