58 minutes ago, ArtificialWisdom said:

Mine finally came through literally 2 minutes ago. Try looking again now

Yeah mine appeared about the same time too, took them a while but all set now

On 2/26/2022 at 1:25 PM, Sir Why You Little said:

Why is it being played at “Soulless Stadium”?

is this so the caterers can charge full price?

Nailed it! 

May not named to play against Carlton??

Interesting selections 

What happened to S May ?
 

MELBOURNE

B: J.Bowey 17 J.Lever 8 J.Smith 44
HB: J.Harmes 4 A.Tomlinson 20 J.Hunt 29
C: A.Brayshaw 10 J.Viney 7 E.Langdon 15
HF: S.Weideman 26 T.McDonald 25 T.Sparrow 32
F: B.Fritsch 31 B.Brown 50 A.Neal-Bullen 30
Foll: M.Gawn - C 11 C.Petracca 5 C.Oliver 13
I/C: L.Jackson 6 C.Spargo 9 T.Bedford 12 J.Jordon 23 O.Baker 33 K.Pickett 36 K.Chandler 37 D.Turner 42  

Emerg: B.Laurie 16 B.Howes 22  M.Brown 38 J.McVee  41 

Notable absentees: Harrison Petty, Michael Hibberd, Trent Rivers, Christian Salem

Rivers PCL… ?May went off against Nth so maybe residual soreness. McKay & Curnow maybe doubtful …

3 minutes ago, Cyclops said:

May not named to play against Carlton??

I reckon he came off with hammy tightness last week. Absolutely not worth the risk. Same with Salem who copped a knee knock. 
Besides they’re obviously experimenting with the backline as it’s going to be the hardest part of the field to pick this season given the large amount of players we have pushing for selection. 
It’s a practice game. I hope Trac and Oliver play a half and get put on ice along with Gawn. All three hold our back to back fate in their hands. 

Where is Luke Dunstan at?

So Salem's injury may be more than has been reported.  Best to get him (and others) cherry ripe for March 16.

2 minutes ago, Lucifers Hero said:

So Salem's injury may be more than has been reported.  Best to get him (and others) cherry ripe for March 16.

I reckon if we play round 1 tomorrow he and May both play. But if he’s a bit sore why risk it right? 
 

4 minutes ago, Lucifers Hero said:

So Salem's injury may be more than has been reported.  Best to get him (and others) cherry ripe for March 16.

Injury List

Michael Hibberd
Soreness | Ready for Round 1

Steven May
Soreness | Ready for Round 1

Christian Salem
Knee Soreness | Ready for Round 1

Trent Rivers
Knee/PCL | 3-4 weeks

Harrison Petty
Calf | 3-4 weeks

4 minutes ago, The Swimming Dee said:

Where is Luke Dunstan at?

Good question. Interesting that he hasn’t played either practice game and no mention of any injury. 
Maybe the club wasn’t happy with his fitness base so they’re pushing him to complete a longer pre season? He did come from St Kilda and said our training standards were nothing he’s ever seen before. 

9 minutes ago, The Swimming Dee said:

Where is Luke Dunstan at?

Our first choice midfield is all fit and healthy. 
 

Maybe a surprise he’s not an emergency but hardly a surprise he isn’t in the team. 

2 minutes ago, Lord Nev said:

Injury List

Michael Hibberd
Soreness | Ready for Round 1

Steven May
Soreness | Ready for Round 1

Christian Salem
Knee Soreness | Ready for Round 1

Trent Rivers
Knee/PCL | 3-4 weeks

Harrison Petty
Calf | 3-4 weeks

Thanks, I hadn't seen that.

Its a shame for Rivers 3-4 weeks but it gives the likes of Hunt a chance to get his spot back.

Looks like we will have 3 tall fwds plus Jackson/Gawn resting forward.  We experimented with that a few years ago and iirc it didn't go well so it will be interesting to see how it goes this time.  I guess that is what practice matches are for.

5 of our premiership backline out!

Tomlinson, Hunt and Smith fill 3 spots. 

Harmes listed back, but it might be Brayshaw come game day.

Weideman, Turner or Baker perhaps the 7th defender.

As iterated in my Captains Run report May did not complete training and was running laps . Salem completed most training. Great to see Jayden Hunt back🤩

5 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

5 of our premiership backline out!

Tomlinson, Hunt and Smith fill 3 spots. 

Harmes listed back, but it might be Brayshaw come game day.

Weideman, Turner or Baker perhaps the 7th defender.

Pretty good depth backline still looks decent even with the outs 

I really like Harms but he was an utter failure at half back when tried there a season or two ago. My guess is, they will be starting Baker there.

As much as I’d like to beat blues at every chance, might not be the worst thing if we took a loss, just like last year vs dogs. It spurred the boys onto the run of wins we had 

11 minutes ago, Garbo said:

As much as I’d like to beat blues at every chance, might not be the worst thing if we took a loss, just like last year vs dogs. It spurred the boys onto the run of wins we had 

No benefits come from expecting a loss. If we play well and lose then so be it but saying a loss to Carlton would be a good thing is ludicrous 

Carlton would have to play out of their skins and we would be disinterested to lose based on the two sides presented….

As i suspected, a repeat of last years strategy in terms of selections for the practice match and community series. 

Barring injury i expect the round one team will mirror the lineup against the roos.

With one exception - Lever in and one of Tomlinson or Smith out (i think Smith will ply round one)

5 hours ago, Cards13 said:

Will be interesting to see how teams look to break the system ie lower the eyes when coming into the fwd 50.

Or break with as much speed as possible and put the ball into space?

 

Agree.

My feeling is the best way to break our system is playing on at every opportunity, playing fast and using the corridor. - the way the Crows played the first time we played them. 

With our scoring power, to beat us teams have to score at least 85 - 95 points and the only way they are gong to do that is being super attacking.

It's Catch 22 though because playing fast is high risk and we are so good at blocking the corridor, shifting our zone to stay ahead of the ball and punishing teams on turnovers with slingshot rebounds.

And teams that play fast struggle to set up their defensive structure when the ball is turned over.

But slowing the game down like the Cats tried to do in the last quarter in round 23 just plays into our hands 

11 minutes ago, binman said:

As i suspected, a repeat of last years strategy in terms of selections for the practice match and community series. 

Barring injury i expect the round one team will mirror the lineup against the roos.

With one exception - Lever in and one of Tomlinson or Smith out (i think Smith will ply round one)

You mean a repeat of last years strategy of picking our best possible 22 without risking injured/sore players? 
 

We’ve picked our first choice midfield and forward line, unfortunate a few defenders pulled up sore otherwise we would’ve picked them too. 

So we'll be missing three 'running' defenders, Salem, Riv and Hibberd. Obviously, Hunt can play one of these positions but it will be interesting to see if we lose any run from our backline in this game.

1 hour ago, Jaded No More said:

Good question. Interesting that he hasn’t played either practice game and no mention of any injury. 
Maybe the club wasn’t happy with his fitness base so they’re pushing him to complete a longer pre season? He did come from St Kilda and said our training standards were nothing he’s ever seen before. 

Agree with this. It’s strange that there is no mention of him