Preview Round 9: Essendon vs Brisbane, Carrara, Friday 31/07/2020 @ 7:50 PM

[Mr Bultitude]

On the other side, stoked to see Answorth getting a game. Noah used to dishpig at one of my old barista gigs before he was drafted. Absolutely ripper kid.

 

[cAsEy_18]

Hibberd was at least actually involved last week - which probably makes it his best game by default - but he was still pretty s**t.

Sure, he got more of the ball. But he looked slow a number of times, and his kicking didn’t look too flash.

Cant dislike the changee

 

[eth-dog]

Very good ins. I like all of them. Don’t like Hibberd out with CEY named. We’re too small in the midfield against one of the best contested ball winning sides in the competition. Zaharakis or Smith should have been managed instead.

McKernan coming out leaves Draper and Stewart as our key tally. Don’t know about that.

We're playing 2 rucks, expect Draper and Bellchambers to rotate forward

May result in Francis playing forward.

Doubt it with their forward line.

 

[Drummer_19]

Really hope the plan isn't to play Draper as a forward the majority of the time.

 

[JT_the_Man]

Happy.

Glad we had the balls to ”manage” McKenna, he was absolutely terrible outside of one run last week.

 

[JayJ20]

We're playing 2 rucks, expect Draper and Bellchambers to rotate forward

Doubt it with their forward line.

What I mean by that is Draper playing his first game from an ACL and Stewart playing his first game in over 700 days. Not sure how it’ll go. I hope they’re not too rusty.

Anyway, it’s the best we can do at the moment as McKernan hasn’t trained much this week.

 

[eth-dog]

What I mean by that is Draper playing his first game from an ACL and Stewart playing his first game in over 700 days. Not sure how it’ll go. I hope they’re not too rusty.

Anyway, it’s the best we can do at the moment as McKernan hasn’t trained much this week.

Ah, fair enough. First time I've been excited by the changes in a while.

 

[Seb78]

Solid changes Hibbo stiff. BZT to add some height in defence.
Nice to have some forward presence over 6'2.

GO DONS!

 

[TheGreatBarryB]

Laverde, McKernan and Langford out of forward line on top of Raz, Stringer. Hard to see is kicking a decent score

 

[Duckworth]

Hibberd was at least actually involved last week - which probably makes it his best game by default - but he was still pretty sh*t.

Sure, he got more of the ball. But he looked slow a number of times, and his kicking didn’t look too flash.

Cant dislike the changee

Was really strong in the first quarter and looked at home when given some time on the ball. Was among the best players in the first quarter. He was quieter after that when moved to a flank/wing. His kicking is solid and he is strong over the ball and also among the highest tacklers. Calling him sh*t is just wrong, there were many worse than him.

 

[Nuggs Bunny]

God that Hibberd omission shits me. The correct Hibberd "learning" from last week was that he should be played on ball, not on the wing and now he's dropped altogether.

 

[bombreys]

Draper won’t play as long as Worsfold’s around. Middle of next season is earliest for him. He didn’t play last time he was fit and in form, no reason to believe he’ll be played now.

This has aged quite poorly.

 

[eDPS]

We look tall

First time in awhile

 

[The Prosecutor]

God that Hibberd omission shits me. The correct Hibberd "learning" from last week was that he should be played on ball, not on the wing and now he's dropped altogether.

Well Shiel is back and plays that role. If anything, the change shows that they now view him as an inside midfielder.

 

[Lore]

Really hope the plan isn't to play Draper as a forward the majority of the time.

Anything that requires mobility around the ground should involve Draper, TBC will probably take the centre bounce and then park himself somewhere he can take a mark.

I think all our key talls in this line up are pretty mobile actually, TBC excepted.

 

[Seb78]

Laverde, McKernan and Langford out of forward line on top of Raz, Stringer. Hard to see is kicking a decent score

In fairness apart from Stringer we can barely kick a decent score with those guys in the side. A change up i50 might just be what this team needs.

 

[The Airing of Grievances]

It was. Or was it the finals of '17? ******* Covid, time is out of joint, seems like a decade ago.
Also, I think I read in the training reports that he has finally lost that god-awful stutter-step goal kicking thing which was crippling him. God, that used to be hard to watch. Like a giant red setter trying to pass a bag of peach pitts...

Absolutely right. His old method meant it was no surprise at all when he missed. Hopefully our specialist coaches have convinced him of the merit of a set shot routine involving a straight line approach and a measured run up to the kick.

 

[TheGrizz]

Hibberd is stiff to miss but Shiel takes his spot on the inside of our midfield and Cutler provides better spread outside the contest.

The insertion of Parish into the midfield in recent weeks probably doesn't help his case either.

Incredibly unlucky though.

 

[westking]

I like the changes. Not that I would know.

I also like to reserve my right to "rant and waffle on" about poor selections come next week.

 

[CBombers17]

I think we will get a better sense of what McKernan has been bringing to the team tomorrow night. He would have paired well with Draper and taken some pressure of Stewart after a mega layoff. Not much else they could do though really.

We need a huge game from our smalls in the forward line or it will come out of there at 100 miles an hour.

This game was also an argument for leaving Hibberd in and trying to get our hands on first possession in the contest. Not sure what else he had to do last week after finally getting midfield time - plus Cutler back in after a layoff (with others in the same boat) is an extra player who may be off the pace.

 

[srobbo]

I’m not happy with the Hibberd omission. Thought he was strong in the contest last week & was starting to find his niche. I dare say he’ll get another look in the coming weeks with the constricted fixture.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Yuck side on paper but ah well, the game isn’t played on paper. Let’s do this lads.

 

[Vindicater]

Yuck side on paper but ah well, the game isn’t played on paper. Let’s do this lads.

Reckon better than last weeks on paper.

 

[fairbump_playon]

We look tall

Too tall?

 

[kelvin_sheedy]

The only out that is seriously going to hurt is Mckenna but post hand and everything he hasn't been great so not that painful.

Shiel in is > all outs.

Stewart, Draper for McKernan could be a win. Doubt it could get any worse.

Cutler vs Hibberd. Meh, maybe Tom can prove his old side wrong.

Players that worry me are Townsend, Gleeson, Zaka, Cahill not being up to the pace.

Reckon we can win though if we have Shiel, Merrett, McGrath, Parish fire and some of our big guys clunk a few.