I initially scratched my head at this a bit from both a team selection POV and a balance/cohesion POV, given there are so many new names in this week.
Now that I've had a little bit of a chance to think on it, I don't mind them, as long as the team balance and cohesion isn't thrown out too much. I don't think it will be.
* Clearly Max replaces Preuss.
* Jones will likely play some midfield minutes this week in place of Sparrow, but I'd prefer Jones just stay forward as a pressure forward. Maybe the Sparrow role is for Vandenberg?
* It seems like Wagner for Harmes. I've been pretty vocal on Harmes playing forward, so this is the one that pisses me off a bit, but we'll likely play Jones, Vandenberg and Viney or Petracca forward, so it might work.
* It looks like Rivers for Lockhart and I reckon listening to Richo on The Talking Points, we want more run off our half back line. Rivers provides this. I'd have Lockhart in the team, but let's see how we go there. Lockhart certainly is a Nev clone in that he doesn't attack enough IMO, but I think that will come in time.
* Continuing the theme of run, we want to play Tomlinson on the wing and stretch their two way running here, so Oscar comes in and Tomlinson moves to the wing. This will probably push Vandenberg forward to play Jones' role, while Jones takes Sparrow's, or Vandenberg will take Sparrow's. Either way, you'll see Tomlinson and Langdon on the wings. We need to turn St Kilda slingshot weapon into a vulnerability and if our defensive mechanism is on, we'll be able to do that and ping back the other way. Tomlinson and Langdon will be needed for this. In effect, it becomes Oscar for Fritsch. I wonder if Tomlinson will play a defensive role on a Brad Hill, to free up Langdon to sweep and attack?
* Brown clearly comes in for Tom. Tom's hampered by his foot and can barely move. He'd be a liability on the counter, so playing Brown and keeping the two talls is probably a good move. Let's see if Brown can bring the pressure acts and get involved in scoring chains. I do have questions over the pressure side of his game and ideally we'd be playing Jackson in this role, but let's see.
Overall, lots of moves, and I think their success will depend on whether we can get strong rebound off half back from the likes of Wagner, Rivers, Langdon, Tomlinson, Salem and Hibberd, and add more offence to our game, which we severely lacked last week IMV.
I like the idea that Vandenberg and Jones will play forward. I hope Viney does too, but I fear he won't.
A forwardline of Weideman, Brown, Melksham, Kozzie, Jones, Vandenberg, Viney and a resting Petracca is potent enough and defensively (with the exception of the two talls and Melksham) far more defensive, which I think we need with St Kilda's sling shot game.
Let's see how we go!
Edited by A F
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