Teams are announced tomorrow - do we go in with a strong side again, or do we look to rest a few players in favour of giving others a run?

I'm hopeful of seeing Hibberd and Jetta back in the side this week to show they are over their injuries, but I also think we may rest some of our older players this week (Jones, Vince, Lewis) in favour of getting some further games into the younger legs.

Watts to return and kick 10 as well.

Continue the experimentation/ trialling of structures and game elements. 

We have this

I hope we rest our stars. We need to work out our best 22 for round 1, so our fringe players need to play to earn a position in the side.

There needs to be a balance between being ready to go for round 1 and fresh enough come finals time.

4 minutes ago, Fat Tony said:

I hope we rest our stars. We need to work out our best 22 for round 1, so our fringe players need to play to earn a position in the side.

There needs to be a balance between being ready to go for round 1 and fresh enough come finals time.

Absolutely, Tony.  We had a number of players who were fit last week who didn't play against the Dogs and they should be cherry ripe for a run this week.  I think we've seen that a close to full strength side is very good, so I see no harm in playing some of the fringe players and taking a potential loss.  Now that we know where we stand we can concentrate on getting the players right.

6-7 changes with certain players in mind. 

Who of the fringe is ready to step up?

trial players in a foriegn position, we may need it during the year. 

The structures between Melbourne and Casey should be identical now, it's just intensity and defensive pressure that changes hopefully

I hope the Gawn & Spencer experiment proceeds. Could be a valuable weapon come the season proper.

Apart from that i dont really care to much 

Jack Watts to play or not, that is the real question...

25 man squad again?

Perhaps:

Hogan

Salem

Watts

Petracca

Viney

Trengove

Brayshaw

Gawn

Oliver

Hibberd

Stretch

Frost

Melksham

Garland

Vandenberg

JKH

Weideman

O McDonald 

Hunt

ANB

Bugg

Spencer

Garlett

Jetta

Smith

 

??

1 minute ago, Unleash Hell said:

I hope the Gawn & Spencer experiment proceeds. Could be a valuable weapon come the season proper.

Apart from that i dont really care to much 

Yep Spencer earnt another run for sure

Maybe give gawn a rest would be good to see how spencer goes doing it on his own with either watts or pederson as his backup, worth trying in case maxy goes down 

10 minutes ago, Sir Why You Little said:

Yep Spencer earnt another run for sure

I wont be surprised if they rest Gawn and Spencer gets the main gig.

 

1 minute ago, old dee said:

I wont be surprised if they rest Gawn and Spencer gets the main gig.

 

Fine by me. Spencer needs a good crack at it

Rest: Hogan, Chunk, Vince, tmac, Viney, Gawn (rich Spencil and Watts), 

Run: Frost, Watts (if fit), Hibbs, Jetta, DIonJ, TIm Smith.

Forward line of Wieds, Smith and resting (Watts/Pencil)

Jetta and Hiiberd to half back, rotating into the middle

Frost into backline.  Oscar to take Tommy's role (good learning), Frost to run and carry

 

Want to see:

HB to HF transitions.

Locking down our HF line 

Mean at the contest

better kick out options

Set play extractions

With six players on the bench and no rotation restrictions I don't see a need to rest players as much.

Melbourne have never won a game at Casey, we need to actually play well there for once to generate some interest in the area.

 

Given the break before the season proper starts and the extended interchage, i'd be honing the team over pre-season Rd 2 and 3 by bringing in likely top 22 players and leaving out the least likely

I.e. IN: Watts, Hibberd, Jetta, Pedo and Tyson (if fit).  OUT: Wiede, Nibbler, JKH, etc... based on Rd 1 performance (which I didn't see).

We need to hone and build momentum and cohesion coming into the season proper.

 

Just now, PaulRB said:

Given the break before the season proper starts and the extended interchage, i'd be honing the team over pre-season Rd 2 and 3 by bringing in likely top 22 players and leaving out the least likely

I.e. IN: Watts, Hibberd, Jetta, Pedo and Tyson (if fit).  OUT: Wiede, Nibbler, JKH, etc... based on Rd 1 performance (which I didn't see).

We need to hone and build momentum and cohesion coming into the season proper.

 

That's a pretty good point, Paul, although I still feel like the club might rest a few this week or next week when we make the trek over to WA.  I don't think we'll need to rest too many as we still have a lot of the younger players who make up our best 22, but it wouldn't hurt to manage the loads that Jones, Lewis, Vince etc have going in to the season proper.

3 minutes ago, Wiseblood said:

That's a pretty good point, Paul, although I still feel like the club might rest a few this week or next week when we make the trek over to WA.  I don't think we'll need to rest too many as we still have a lot of the younger players who make up our best 22, but it wouldn't hurt to manage the loads that Jones, Lewis, Vince etc have going in to the season proper.

I reckon rotating through the backline against Carlton this week will be rest enough for those three...

New coach, changed game plan, a couple of new personel and a bunch of kids gunning for spots... Only one I'd entertain resting would be Maxy, but I l;ike the way he's playing forward and he may need time to adjust to that role.?

 

I hope they rest Hogan, he seemed to do something to his knee late against the dogs, although he did stay out on the ground but there was only minutes to go in the game. He hurt his knee last year (Hawks game I think) and kept playing and wasn't the same, so rest him for a couple of weeks, even send him back to WA early cause our last JTL game is against Meth Coast over there. 

What's our record at Casey Fields? 0-4?

I know we lost to North (08), West Coast (10), St Kilda (13), Hawthorn (14) and possibly Bulldogs in 09??

Would love to see our outs last weekend in Trengove and Johnstone have a run before the season starts. I'd also like to see Gawn and Spencer play together again.

Jetta walked up the stairs next to me in the Whitten Oval Grandstand and I thought he was limping. I'll leave it to the regular training reporters to fill us in on the nature of his current injury

54 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

What's our record at Casey Fields? 0-4?

I know we lost to North (08), West Coast (10), St Kilda (13), Hawthorn (14) and possibly Bulldogs in 09??

We've never won there.

5 minutes ago, Clint Bizkit said:

We've never won there.

Casey win there...

Just now, Sir Why You Little said:

Casey win there...

Cool.

4 hours ago, brendan said:

Maybe give gawn a rest would be good to see how spencer goes doing it on his own with either watts or pederson as his backup, worth trying in case maxy goes down 

'In case Maxy goes down' should be banned! You're stressing me out, B!

MFCSS!

Prepare for 13 page thread of rumour on each player that isn't selected. Even then, it'll still be Jack Watts' fault