Team Selection R1 v Bulldogs

[stevoswan]

Buddy wants to play.....

'I'm ready to go': Buddy pushes 'Horse' to pick him - AFL.com.au

[ernie koala]

'I'm ready to go': Buddy pushes 'Horse' to pick him - AFL.com.au

Sounds like Buddy will play if he gets through training.

So my guess for Round 1 team is.....

B: Rampe, Grundy , McVeigh
HB: Mills, Aliir , Lloyd
C: Jones, Kennedy, Florent
HF: Papley, Reid, Dawson
F: Ronke, Franklin, Hayward

Foll:, Sinclair, Parker, Heeney

I/C: Hewett, Cunningham, Clarke, O'Riordan

EMERG: Blakey, Melican, Thurlow

Aliir and/or Reid to pinch hit in the ruck.
Rampe may play CHB depending on matchups and O'Riordan in the BP.

[mcs]

AA was a pleasant surprise in the ruck last weekend, and shows he might be a pinch hit ruckman if we need one. But he did get very badly beaten at hit-outs. His value came because a combination of his efforts and those of the midfielders managed to make it a ground level competition for first possession.

I think Witts is a reasonably talented footballer and he's clearly pretty tall, even by ruckman standards. I suspect he's not the smartest ruckman going around, though. Put Aliir up against someone like Gawn, who is very tall, highly talented AND pretty smart (at least in a football sense) and he'd get trounced. Gawn would find a way to feed midfielders standing a little further away and the Dees would have the ball in their forward 50 before you can blink.

What the AA ruck "experiment" did suggest, however, was that maybe AA could occasionally be used as a ruck rover in the Goodes mould. Not regularly, but just occasionally, to change things up. He showed surprising agility at ground level and some of his close-in handballing was very good too.

As always Liz, some reasoned and good comments. He can do a job for us on the occasion, but its not, as that article suggested, some longer term solution beyond that.

[Blood Fever]

'I'm ready to go': Buddy pushes 'Horse' to pick him - AFL.com.au

Sounds like Buddy will play if he gets through training.

So my guess for Round 1 team is.....

B: Rampe, Grundy , McVeigh
HB: Mills, Aliir , Lloyd
C: Jones, Kennedy, Florent
HF: Papley, Reid, Dawson
F: Ronke, Franklin, Hayward

Foll:, Sinclair, Parker, Heeney

I/C: Hewett, Cunningham, Clarke, O'Riordan

EMERG: Blakey, Melican, Thurlow

Aliir and/or Reid to pinch hit in the ruck.
Rampe may play CHB depending on matchups and O'Riordan in the BP.

Ronke no certainty

[ernie koala]

Ronke no certainty

Agree given his underwhelming form in the JLT.

But if forward pressure is what they want I suspect he'll be given a go.

Otherwise Blakey, as a third tall threat, against an undersized Dogs defence must be tempting for our selectors.

[stevoswan]

We'll have to play strong.....apparently we're playing 22 Thor's!

https://s.afl.com.au/staticfile/Samples/653437-tlslargeportrait.jpg

[liz]

I wonder if we’ll be selecting our away strip, given that the backs of the 22 Thors will be identical to our normal strip.

[Melbourne_Blood]

I wonder if we’ll be selecting our away strip, given that the backs of the 22 Thors will be identical to our normal strip.

I did read somewhere last week that we will be wearing the predominantly white strip for this match .


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[aguy]

I think Buddy will get up.

Very surprised if this isn't our round 1 team:

I’m always very surprised when the team that I think should be picked isn’t

[rickmat]

My thoughts on the first 22 against the Doggies are as follows. FB McVeigh, Grundy, Thurlow. HB Rampe, Alir Alir, Lloyd C Jones, Kennedy, Florent, HF Hayward, Franklin, Dawson. FF Papley, Reid, Blakey Foll Sinclair, Parker, Heeney I/C Hewitt, Cunningham, Clark, Mills Emergencies Melican, O'Riordan, Ronke If Buddy isn't included, then I would move Parker to the half forward line, very mobile on the fast Marvel Stadium track, and include Hewitt into center and surprisingly elevate McCartin onto bench for key forward support for Read in case he isn't firing.

[Ludwig]

Sounds like Melican expects to play round 1 based on his interview up on the Swans' website, and Buddy also seems ready to play if he wants. I've got 25 players legitimately in the mix to play on Saturday, and only have 13 as locks, so I shouldn't be surprised by those not selected, unless it comes from the 13. That comes down to 9 places for 12 players. Fox and McCartin not in the mix, IMO.

[Mel_C]

Longmire confirmed in his press conference that Sinclair didn't play in the second JLT game as a precaution due to our limited ruck stocks. This is what most of us suspected but it was good to know there was no injury issue.

I'm concerned if Buddy plays after a limited preseason.

[Nico]

Buddy is probably fitter than he was last season. I suspect with the new 6,6,6 set up he will play out the square. On the lead he will be lethal because players wont be able to drop back on him. That is if we win the pill out of the guts. This has never been more critical.

[Melbourne_Blood]

Buddy is probably fitter than he was last season. I suspect with the new 6,6,6 set up he will play out the square. On the lead he will be lethal because players wont be able to drop back on him. That is if we win the pill out of the guts. This has never been more critical.

A lot of experts have tipped us to struggle with the new 6-6-6 due to our habit of dropping an extra back. This is true but it certainly opens up space for our star forward who rarely gets a one on one or a lot of space to move in . This has been largely ignored by these experts. Again, it all depends on what happens in the middle at centre bounces first .


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[KSAS]

Tom Morris reported tonight On The Couch that the Bulldogs intel is that Buddy won't be playing this Saturday despite reports of him training well this past week.