TOPIC:

wrote:

wrote:

La Hincha will we see you at the game? Might leave the wife and the grandies on the outer terraces for a beer at the club bar at halftime if your around.

I'm too out of touch with footy mate. The rule changes, the strategies. Don't enjoy it much anymore. I guess the game passed me by.

Apologies for getting in here but this was the reason I stopped paying any interest to the VFL & it's trading name AFL around 15 years or more ago - I was never really a great follower but so many of our club's players were taken into it and it was the only way to find anything about them again mate
Have even more aversion to it nowadays with the midseason raids that seem to ruin good players

Here's the team. It looks pretty strong on paper but still a few missing.  No Brandon Matera or Nick Martin.  Haydn Kennedy, Ben Reid and Johnny Narkle in the two's. 

FB 8 Angus LITHERLAND 21 Jordan LOCKYER 32 Isaac CLINCH
HB 35 Drew ROHDE 25 Michael BRAUT 2 Kyle STAINSBY
C 26 Chad Harris 12 Gregory CLARK 19 Nick MENEGOLA
HF 10 Lewis UPTON 36 Aaron HEAL 17 Lachlan DELAHUNTY
FF 18 Ben SOKOL 14 Ryan BORCHET 24 Jordan FARAONE

FOLLOWERS
27 Lewis Putt
1 Leigh KITCHIN
7 Harrison MARSH

INTERCHANGE
20 Jakob ATKINSON
29 Koby FULLGRABE
13 Liam HICKMOTT
6 Rowen POWELL

Yep, looks very good on paper and I will be very interested to see how they go on game day. Feeling good.

I think that centre line could be our weakest for a few years. But happy to be proved wrong by the unknown ability of Chad Harris.

To be honest Frothy I think our entire midfield will struggle this year without Horse and Newt. Souths and Claremont will tear us a new one through the middle but hopefully Marsh and Brandon Matera when he's fit will step up along with the young kids coming through. I reckon Delahunty will be a true ruck rover this year with the emergence of Putt which will be a huge bonus if he's not getting banged up taking on bigger ruckman. How good would it be if we were able to get Josh Deluca back but I guess that's not going to happen. We've got plenty of fire power up front especially when you add Nick Martin into the mix but I just don't think we're going to get enough of it in scoring positions.  But as you say Frothy, more than happy to be proved wrong.

Looking for a big step up from Upton this year, struggled with injuries last year so didn't get a decent run at it. Appears to be hard as nails in and under mid so hopefully his body will stand up and he can spend decent minutes in the mids. Interesting to see Heal named at CHF, I get nervous when they move class backmen up forward, it's a totally different game and the hardest position on the ground. Putt will be tested big time today, the Ferals have a few decent big blokes, lead by Ajang who is a pretty aggressive player, cant wait for 4.10pm.

Agree about Heal SS. He played up forward in the scratchy against EF and hardly got a sniff. You'd think when Nick Martin is fit, Heal will drop down back again or at least I hope so. It's not often key backs turn into key forwards...usually it's the other way around when a FF or CHF can't buy a goal the next step is to send them down back ala Clint Brown.

Heal was dangerous as a fwd last week, took some strong grabs but kicked like a backman as most of them did. Not a bad move imo but as others have said Martin to come back in also Mayo mid season

Looks like Aaron Heal has been squeezed out of the backline by youngsters like Stainsby and Clinch. Is a strong mark so i dont mind him as a target in attack and he may be looking for a fresh challenge too? Looking forward to seeing the four debutants and assessing our style of play compared to last year. 

Odds for this game - S $1.23, EP $4.00