Everyone,

I know this is an opinion with hindsight - but did we miss an opportunity to blood 2 more kids last Friday?

If we are looking to play Max Gawn and Tom McDonald this week, surely Friday was a great opportunity looking at Carlton's side.

Carlton were missing their 2 ruckmen (Kreuzer and R. Warnock) and they don't relyon big or particularly strong key forwards.

Gawn may have been competitive against a 3rd string ruckman and McDonald may have played on a taller but not particularly high quality forward.

At least we could have had a look at a couple of new players and been able to drop out Warnock and Newton - both of whom we know all about and neither are up to it nor are going to get any better.

If we had gone down by looking at someone knew other than Nicholson who I would have prefferred to have had a longer look at, I might have felt better waking up Saturday morning.

In hindsight yes, but Warnock hadn't been that bad the previous weeks so probably deserved his spot over McDonald.

Same goes for Newton who whilst full of his usual brain fades against the saints wasn't completely disastrous and Gawn only had one game of VFL seniors since been dropped. The VFL bye the week before hurt his chances.

Get them both in this week. Gawn to ruck with a short stint up forward and McDonald to take one of Ryder, Hille or Hurley. If one of them gets hold of him then Martin can rest out of the ruck to full back and McDonald can provide a contest up forward.

I haven't seen much of Gawn live, but he's still quite slight is he not? If that's the case i have no problems with the club letting him get used to getting hit by tougher blokes, I'm sure stepping up from VFL reserves is a jump and i believe he'd played the one good at senior level. Now that he's done it again i think the match committee will be much more comfortable giving him a crack. I hope so, no matter what the result debuting a player is a positive.

Expose them. They have been recruited for duties higher than the VFL and will have to cope with the AFL heat sooner or later. The cream will rise to the top. Most of the kids being referred to are high draft picks and have already earned this rating so why not let them have a crack at the next step. It seems a number are knocking on the door. The coach has asked his players to be brave and take the game on how about he does the same.

Necessity is the mother of invention or something like that.....

Honestly, I think the next couple of weeks are the best opportunity this season to blood some kids. They are games that are all but lost anyway, our injury list is almost as long as our list of available players, so why not admit that they are long shots, throw in some kiddies while we do a little mid-season rehab/patch up on some of the senior players, and let them take the game on. At worst we loose badly, and sorry to say we're already doing that. At best we uncover some serious talent and give a big scare to a couple of good sides.

I haven't seen much of Gawn live, but he's still quite slight is he not? If that's the case i have no problems with the club letting him get used to getting hit by tougher blokes, I'm sure stepping up from VFL reserves is a jump and i believe he'd played the one good at senior level. Now that he's done it again i think the match committee will be much more comfortable giving him a crack. I hope so, no matter what the result debuting a player is a positive.

If there is only one player that steps up from VFL this week it has to be Gawn. He is solid but good on his feet and hands down low and I like his second goes and his good hands in marking contests. We need another tall to combat Essendon's tall timber. Depending on matchups I would leave at least Evans in for another game.

Honestly, I think the next couple of weeks are the best opportunity this season to blood some kids. They are games that are all but lost anyway, our injury list is almost as long as our list of available players, so why not admit that they are long shots, throw in some kiddies while we do a little mid-season rehab/patch up on some of the senior players, and let them take the game on. At worst we loose badly, and sorry to say we're already doing that. At best we uncover some serious talent and give a big scare to a couple of good sides.

You mean the Club has not been doing this??

We already had two rookies in playing their first and second games respectively. We had 12 players playing who had less than 50 games experience. Once again we fielded the 2nd youngest team in the AFL. How many new kids can you play at one time?

The downside to that is the Club would get smashed far worse than what happened against Carlton. It would be a more unreasonable learning curve for the younger players than what going on now.

And if we going to play the kids we should play Todd Viney's son now in the guts for 4 quarters. He can show us what he is made of and will certainly shock the pants off Watson, Swan and Pendlebury.

Honestly, I think the next couple of weeks are the best opportunity this season to blood some kids. They are games that are all but lost anyway, our injury list is almost as long as our list of available players, so why not admit that they are long shots, throw in some kiddies while we do a little mid-season rehab/patch up on some of the senior players, and let them take the game on. At worst we loose badly, and sorry to say we're already doing that. At best we uncover some serious talent and give a big scare to a couple of good sides.

I think you may have got Rhino'd up there Ralphius!

But you never know. You might be on to something.

Maybe this is our Annus Horribilus. Lucifer has strange ways of doing things. He just might be saying to us... "time to Delve real DEEEP fellas!"

In the process we just might uncover the 1 or 2 future superstars from the Magoos who will lead us to premiership glory!!

B)

Awaiting the launch of 'The Hurricane'

Agreed, All for given the juniors a run, especially when we have given the likes of Newton a fair enough go! there is a reason he was rookie listed and it's not because he is a great footballer he ever will be. Time to move on from the duds and get a few games into the new boys and try unveil some new talent!

God Dees!