Hope to see Lever & Hibb come back cherry ripe.  Im sure the FD/Fitness crew wouldnt risk them if not ready as we have plenty of weeks ahead and fairly solid depth to cover.

Trusting the FD/medics on this one and that they'll also get the balance right down back.

On 3/16/2022 at 11:29 PM, Watson11 said:

Smith clearly is not competing with Lever, but with Hibberd, Hunt, Tomlinson etc.  I’m a doubter on Smith, but dropping him right now would be a bad call.  Other than the dodgy Weightman free kick he conceded, he was really good and needs 10 to 15 games of continuity to show what he is made of. He may become a really good versatile defender.

I also have been a doubter, but lately l can see he does give us added dimensions down back: quicker than the others except Hunt; better mark than any of them except Lever; and taller than all of them except Lever and May. What is there not to like…?

On 3/16/2022 at 11:31 PM, Clint Bizkit said:

I hope Bedford keeps his spot (as the substitute if nothing else), he was very composed and neat. 

Played his role perfectly.

And has speed we need to complement Hunt down back

14 hours ago, Chook said:

Absolutely wild that Langdon can play an entire game the way he does with no rest but what the quarter time breaks can give him.

I honestly reckon we might have 2 of the top, say, 10 most under-rated players in the comp in Langdon and Salem.

What Langdon does is freakish and I'm not sure there are many other wingmen in the game (Gaff maybe?) who can do what he does.

If you watch Dr. Laura's injury report video on the club website, she brackets Petty and Hibberd as rehabbing, whilst saying the Rivers will have a test. I'd rule out Hibberd based on that.

No mention of Lever, which I'm unsure is a good or bad thing.

1 hour ago, titan_uranus said:

I honestly reckon we might have 2 of the top, say, 10 most under-rated players in the comp in Langdon and Salem.

What Langdon does is freakish and I'm not sure there are many other wingmen in the game (Gaff maybe?) who can do what he does.

I agree, but not with the choice of players. I don't think Salem is under-rated any more. But I agree if it's Langdon and Neal-Bullen.

 

That makes it easy:  Rivers for Salem.

3 hours ago, Lucifers Hero said:

That makes it easy:  Rivers for Salem.

Yup. I think we have their talls covered with Tommo, May and Smith. Who takes Rankine Hunt or Rivers? 

3 hours ago, Demonland said:

 

Ta.

No surprise at all.

The silver lining with injury is that it provides opportunities for players banging on the door. 

And taking a super conservative approach with say a lever and/or hibbi means not having to consider dropping a player (at least for a week)  like tomlinson or hunt, who both played ok and were dead unlucky last year.

Another factor is being by being conservative and using a bigger pool of players, they mitigate a bit of the impact of a shorter off season (our shortest in 57 years!)

52 minutes ago, CYB said:

Yup. I think we have their talls covered with Tommo, May and Smith. Who takes Rankine Hunt or Rivers? 

I would have thought Hunt

1 hour ago, CYB said:

Yup. I think we have their talls covered with Tommo, May and Smith. Who takes Rankine Hunt or Rivers? 

Smith was the chosen match up for Charlie Cameron last September and yes, Charlie kicked 4 goals but not all of them were because of something Smith did wrong, so I'd say Smith goes to Rankine.

2 hours ago, CYB said:

Yup. I think we have their talls covered with Tommo, May and Smith. Who takes Rankine Hunt or Rivers? 

Good question.

Of those two, probably Rivers. 

From the little I've seen of Rankine he plays close to goal and we need Hunts run to clear the ball from defence and overlap through the midfield with Langdon. 

Edited March 23, 20224 yr by Lucifers Hero

17 minutes ago, Lucifers Hero said:

Good question.

Of those two, probably Rivers. 

From the little I've seen of Rankine he plays close to goal and we need Hunts run to clear the ball from defence and overlap through the midfield with Langdon. 

Hunt played deeper last week and was on Weightman for quite a bit of the game. 

Rivers is a better user of the footy coming out of defence which is something we need, having lost Salem. I know Hunt has the speed and dash, but Rivers is more reliable by foot. 

I would say Rivers plays higher up, which means he may not end up on Rankine who does play closer to goal.

 

28 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

Hunt played deeper last week and was on Weightman for quite a bit of the game. 

Rivers is a better user of the footy coming out of defence which is something we need, having lost Salem. I know Hunt has the speed and dash, but Rivers is more reliable by foot. 

I would say Rivers plays higher up, which means he may not end up on Rankine who does play closer to goal.

If it is Rivers, to get our usual overlap ball movement we would need one of the mids or small fwds to come up to the d50 which may upset our ball movement structures.  But doable.

I hear what you say about accurate kicking out of defence.  I thought Brayshaw was pretty good last week in the Salem role and Bowey is pretty good by foot so we could afford to keep Rivers back and let Hunt play his natural role.

Thankfully we have lots of options.

Edited March 23, 20224 yr by Lucifers Hero

Rivers in for Salem 

Weed in for Bedford (sub)

T Mac to play back again. 

9 hours ago, mo64 said:

If you watch Dr. Laura's injury report video on the club website, she brackets Petty and Hibberd as rehabbing, whilst saying the Rivers will have a test. I'd rule out Hibberd based on that.

No mention of Lever, which I'm unsure is a good or bad thing.

well it is one or other of those options

 

Anyone know what the players were celebrating today in their chanting circle?

 

https://www.afl.com.au/video/725202/cerra-s-blues-dee-ruled-out-rankine-s-revival?videoId=725202&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1648011569001

 

9 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

Anyone know what the players were celebrating today in their chanting circle?

 

https://www.afl.com.au/video/725202/cerra-s-blues-dee-ruled-out-rankine-s-revival?videoId=725202&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1648011569001

 

Stanners pumping them up.. big feature of the finals..

 

1 hour ago, Demons11 said:

Rivers in for Salem 

Weed in for Bedford (sub)

T Mac to play back again. 

TMac won't play back unless Bedford is sub and a defender goes down during the match again.

17 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

Anyone know what the players were celebrating today in their chanting circle?

Rehearsing "Freed From Desire" maybe?

Will also be some interesting matchups in the midfield.

Miller - Trac

Rowell - Oliver

Brayshaw - Anderson

Just to name a few. 
 

Should be a good game I think. 

Looking forward to it! 

Im heading up on Saturday to watch. 

So I suppose it's Rivers in for Salem, TMac going back to the forward line.