Team Mgmt. Starting 22 round 1 2020

[blitzer]

I reckon we should look at Francis forward for a few rounds to start the season. He's clearly improved his fitness and at least he's a good marking target. That will give us time to get Hooker fit and then later Daniher. Would still leave us with Hurley, BZT and Ambrose as our key defenders. Good chance to blood BZT as well.

At least then we can stick with a decent structure of 2 key forwards backed up by Stringer as the 3rd tall, blokes like Langford or Laverde as medium size and then speedy smalls with Tippa, Fantasia and possibly McKenna if he's returned by then.

 

[WeMissYouMarkCoughlan]

What are Will Snellings chances of getting a run early or at all this year? I liked the look of him in the few games he played last year

 

[Schnitzengruben]

What are Will Snellings chances of getting a run early or at all this year? I liked the look of him in the few games he played last year

Really would be surprised if he gets a run. I think we'd be playing either Moz or Cahill before Snelling.

 

[ghostdog]

I reckon we should look at Francis forward for a few rounds to start the season. He's clearly improved his fitness and at least he's a good marking target. That will give us time to get Hooker fit and then later Daniher. Would still leave us with Hurley, BZT and Ambrose as our key defenders. Good chance to blood BZT as well.

At least then we can stick with a decent structure of 2 key forwards backed up by Stringer as the 3rd tall, blokes like Langford or Laverde as medium size and then speedy smalls with Tippa, Fantasia and possibly McKenna if he's returned by then.

BZT played well v Freo. I'm keen to really get some games into him. I'd play Francis half-forward and let him roam up the wing. He's such a good kick and has excellent vision.

 

[eth-dog]

What are Will Snellings chances of getting a run early or at all this year? I liked the look of him in the few games he played last year

I'd say higher chance than what Schnitz said. He'd be in that 25-30 bracket of the list for me.

 

[blitzer]

What are Will Snellings chances of getting a run early or at all this year? I liked the look of him in the few games he played last year

I liked him a lot personally but Dev Smith is clearly an upgraded version of him. It depends how many short players we are keen to put in the one team. I'd be surprised if Moz was ahead of him who still needs to work significantly on his body but somebody like Ham might be. What Snelling does bring is good tackling pressure and he has pretty tidy skills. Probably have a fair idea if he fits in by the end of the Marsh series.

 

[Cup_o_Jobe]

Currently looks like we will be without Ambrose, Hooker, T-Bell and JD for Round 1, which is a lot of tall timber to cover. Upside is it delays the "how do you fit everyone in" conversation until after we've had a chance to look at some of the edge-case talls for a few rounds. Expect to see something like this.

B: Saad BZT Francis
HB: Redman Hurley Gleeson
C: Merrett Parish McGrath
HF: Fantasia Smack Smith
F: Laverde Stringer Walla
R: Phillips Shiel Heppell

I: Cutler Langford Guelfi Zaharakis
E: Ham Clarke Townsend Ridley

The likes of Ridley and Begley really should be pushing for best 22 given current injury hits, but on exposed 2019 form hard to justify. Hopefully both have a strong pre-season and can put hand up. Also pessimistically presuming McKenna is still out but if he does return in time obviously would be a lock for best 22 (maybe at expense of Lav or Guelfi).

Only other qualification is that I think Ham is close to going past Zaka, but can't see them leaving him out given elevation to "leadership group".

 

[Bombers36]

Currently looks like we will be without Ambrose, Hooker, T-Bell and JD for Round 1, which is a lot of tall timber to cover. Upside is it delays the "how do you fit everyone in" conversation until after we've had a chance to look at some of the edge-case talls for a few rounds. Expect to see something like this.

B: Saad BZT Francis
HB: Redman Hurley Gleeson
C: Merrett Parish McGrath
HF: Fantasia Smack Smith
F: Laverde Stringer Walla
R: Phillips Shiel Heppell

I: Cutler Langford Guelfi Zaharakis
E: Ham Clarke Townsend Ridley

The likes of Ridley and Begley really should be pushing for best 22 given current injury hits, but on exposed 2019 form hard to justify. Hopefully both have a strong pre-season and can put hand up. Also pessimistically presuming McKenna is still out but if he does return in time obviously would be a lock for best 22 (maybe at expense of Lav or Guelfi).

Only other qualification is that I think Ham is close to going past Zaka, but can't see them leaving him out given elevation to "leadership group".

Still the two pre-season games to come against WCoast & Geelong but I think you've pretty much nailed our round 1 team.
Hopefully McKenna & Hooker can come back into the team sooner rather than later - I've pretty much written off Joe & Bellcho beyond this year, so any games we can get out of either of them in 2020 is just a bonus.

 

[Sockeye]

Saad Hooker Francis
Redman Hurley Gleeson
Merrett Shiel McGrath
Fantasia McKernan Heppell
Laverde Stringer Walla

Phillips Clark Smith

Parish(m), Cutler(m), Zaharakis(m/f), McKenna(d)

emerg: Zerk Thatcher (Hooker) Townshend (Heppell) Ridley

OUT (of best 22): Bellchambers, Ambrose, Daniher,

Clark to play on Fyfe.
Hams to come in about round 3. (First rounds are always tough fast games).
Maybe Zerk plays with Hooker forward, but on the fast Docklands deck against a depleted Freo defence, Smack and Lav as marking targets, with Stringer and Heppell forward should get it done. Would like to see how a forward line like this would go. It should create more movement.

 

[eth-dog]

Looks unlikely that Bellchambers, Daniher, Stewart, Heppell, Hooker (maybe), Ambrose, Hibberd and Walla (maybe) will play round 1. We usually go 7/8/6/1 as our structure so something like:

Francis - Zerk-Thatcher - Saad
Redman - Hurley - Gleeson
(Ridley)

Cutler - Shiel - McGrath
Phillips - Parish - Merrett
(Clarke, Smith)

Zaharakis - Laverde - McKenna
Fantasia - McKernan - Stringer
(Snelling/Townsend/Langford/Guelfi)

The really interesting bit will be what happens when Smack chops out Phillips. Do we go completely small and have Laverde or Stringer as the sole target down there or do we try to give Phillips a rest inside 50?

 

[JayDon]

Currently looks like we will be without Ambrose, Hooker, T-Bell and JD for Round 1, which is a lot of tall timber to cover. Upside is it delays the "how do you fit everyone in" conversation until after we've had a chance to look at some of the edge-case talls for a few rounds. Expect to see something like this.

B: Saad BZT Francis
HB: Redman Hurley Gleeson
C: Merrett Parish McGrath
HF: Fantasia Smack Smith
F: Laverde Stringer Walla
R: Phillips Shiel Heppell

I: Cutler Langford Guelfi Zaharakis
E: Ham Clarke Townsend Ridley

The likes of Ridley and Begley really should be pushing for best 22 given current injury hits, but on exposed 2019 form hard to justify. Hopefully both have a strong pre-season and can put hand up. Also pessimistically presuming McKenna is still out but if he does return in time obviously would be a lock for best 22 (maybe at expense of Lav or Guelfi).

Only other qualification is that I think Ham is close to going past Zaka, but can't see them leaving him out given elevation to "leadership group".

Wreckon Townsend has to be in. Set a standard of desire and intent. Do what he does but play better then you come in.

 

[BrunoV]

The interesting dilemma with the round 1 side, assuming that we get something close to full fitness of our highest profile mids, will be what we do with the wings.

The most natural wingmen on the list are Cutler, Ham and Mutch, the rest are mids playing as wingmen. None fits in to a conventional Essington best 22.

ant555 was saying in another thread that we don't intentionally play from half back, and while I think there are probably a few times our plan A has looked something like loading up from half back, we're clearly not aiming to lose stoppages/clearances (the numbers in that AFL.com article on Clarke were pretty damning) or to turn the ball over. I am in no doubt that Plan A falls apart during battle which is why we spend so much time at half back.

I think another thing that makes us look more like a side intending to attack from defence is the clear priority we have moving the ball from half back. It is McKenna, Saad and Redman, in particular, who run to transition the ball and it by-passes the wings which, as far as I can tell, we tend to roll back in defence to cover for the defenders.

If we had quality hard running wingmen we would find those players involved in the attacking transition a lot more (even if we still prefer to have them roll back). That's a feature of the games of players like Gaff, Smith, Hill x 2 and Phillips.

I think there is a clear need for these types of players I just don't see them fitting in to a best 22.

 

[Towno78]

Looks unlikely that Bellchambers, Daniher, Stewart, Heppell, Hooker (maybe), Ambrose, Hibberd and Walla (maybe) will play round 1. We usually go 7/8/6/1 as our structure so something like:

Francis - Zerk-Thatcher - Saad
Redman - Hurley - Gleeson
(Ridley)

Cutler - Shiel - McGrath
Phillips - Parish - Merrett
(Clarke, Smith)

Zaharakis - Laverde - McKenna
Fantasia - McKernan - Stringer
(Snelling/Townsend/Langford/Guelfi)

The really interesting bit will be what happens when Smack chops out Phillips. Do we go completely small and have Laverde or Stringer as the sole target down there or do we try to give Phillips a rest inside 50?

Walla is not in doubt for R1. Nor is Hibberd really, other than he is unlikely to make the 22 coming back from injury.

 

[Towno78]

Here's a stab at a R1 side:
B: Saad Zerk-Thatcher Francis
HB: Redman Hurley Gleeson
C: Merrett Parish Zaharakis
HF: Fantasia Mckernan Smith
F: Laverde Stringer McDonald-Tipungwuti
R: Phillips Shiel Clarke

I: Cutler McGrath Ridley McKenna
E: Ham Townsend Guelfi Langford

Injured: Heppell, Daniher, Hooker, Ambrose, Bellchambers, Stewart, Draper, Gown, Johnson

The rest: Snelling, Hibberd, Begley, Mutch, Mosquito, Jones, Bryan, Cahill, McQuillan, McBride

We have 7 talls unlikely to be ready for R1, though I'm certain they'll push Hooker in underdone. Definitely need to grab one of the SSP potentials.

 

[Red Black and Blue]

I'd say higher chance than what Schnitz said. He'd be in that 25-30 bracket of the list for me.

I do think Mozzie will be a good chance. With Ratten and Cara coming from that Richmond model there is a fair chance we play more than two small forwards especially pressure types.

 

[eth-dog]

Walla is not in doubt for R1. Nor is Hibberd really, other than he is unlikely to make the 22 coming back from injury.

Fair enough. Yeah, I was referencing Hibberd as he was unlikely to play Marsh Series games, which would make it difficult for him to get in the round 1 side.

 

[justlookingaround]

what's going on with McKenna? is he back in AU yet?

 

[Lore]

what's going on with McKenna? is he back in AU yet?

Not that anyone knows of. They seem to expect him back sometime next week or something, but that's from random journalists, not anyone representing the club.

#45: Conor McKenna - In Ireland - 11/2

 

[Maxabillions]

Not that anyone knows of. They seem to expect him back sometime next week or something, but that's from random journalists, not anyone representing the club.

#45: Conor McKenna - In Ireland - 11/2

Harvey said he expects early next week

 

[Old Stuckup]

B: Gleeson - Zerk-Thatcher - Francis
HB: Saad - Hurley - Redman
C: Merrett - Parish - Heppell
HF: Smith - Laverde - Stringer
F: Fantasia - McKernan - McDonald-Tipungwuti
R: Phillips - Shiel - McGrath
I/C: McKenna - Langford - Ham

Snelling/Ridley for the last spot depending on what position McKenna plays.

 

[MAAAATTDAAAAMON]

My attempt:

B: Saad Zerk-Thatcher Francis
HB: Redman Hurley Ridley
C: Merrett Parish Ham
HF: Fantasia McKernan Smith
F: Laverde Stringer McDonald-Tipungwuti
R: Phillips Shiel McGrath
I: Langford, Zaharakis, Cutler, McKenna
E: Gleeson (one of him, Ridley or Francis to miss- likely one of first 2), Snelling, Clarke, Guelfi

The rest: Townsend, Mosquito, Hibberd, Begley, Mutch, Jones, McBride, Cahill, Bryan, McQuillan

Injured: Heppell, Daniher, Hooker, Ambrose, Bellchambers, Stewart, Draper, Gown, Johnson

 

[eth-dog]

Does anybody seriously think Gleeson isn't best 22 at this stage? FMD...

 

[MAAAATTDAAAAMON]

Does anybody seriously think Gleeson isn't best 22 at this stage? FMD...

Definitely a best 22 player, but if Ridley keeps up his form, it’s bloody tough comp for a spot back there with him, Gleeson, Francis, Saad, Redman and possibly McKenna.

 

[Duckworth]

Does anybody seriously think Gleeson isn't best 22 at this stage? FMD...

Gleeson isn't a lock. Saad, Redman, McKenna and McGrath if they are playing back are all in front.

 

[quotemokc]

Gleeson isn't a lock. Saad, Redman, McKenna and McGrath if they are playing back are all in front.

Gleeson is ahead of Redman.