Deespicable

Well quite a surprise - who would have thought we'd be well on top. The Blues kicked with a slight breeze that term and made inroads early, but once Caleb Windsor burst forward and displayed his outside pace and kicked truly from 45m, we totally dominated. Windsor will play rd 1, but there was plenty of other things to like. Salem showed he can fill Gus's smarts role in the middle, Sparrow lockdown role on Cripps gives us the hard-edge we gave up when we stopped playing Harmes as a tagger, Kozzie mega dangerous in middle and up forward, JVR super up forward, spanking Kemp, although if Weitering was there it might be different, Fritter all class, except he's got the yips with his set shots, ANB lively cutting inboard, Viney diving on everything and everybody, Trac in vintage Dusty-class form and even helping up his opponents up again and Rivers and Bowey providing drive and precision off half-back. But there was one player who took his game into another universe - big Max. What a leadership game, given the chaos the club has been under. And unlike against Richmond, he's been getting to the front of every throw-in and as a result unstoppable. Admittedly Pittonet doesn't have the speed of Ryan, but Max must be about 125SC points in the first half.

Not a good night for Werridee. His two most hated players - Tomlinson and Schache - both prominent early. And on top of that Howes had an exceptional first term. Oh dear, I feel another team coming!

Assuming we are only allowed 23 for this game, then I reckon we have to name Verrall as the sub, because we need to rest Gawny and fellow older statesman May in these practice games and so we have to have a big player as back-up - I get that the pacey, small guy is the preferred option as sub in real matches, but in our case we have to think a little bit carefully with our senior members at this practice stage of season. I also think we need to pick a team that will cope with the short SCG ground the following week and that means we can't throw Schache out and go even smaller than we are at the moment - and I have said many times previously here, we are the smallest side in the comp already. And I am hoping that the loss of Petty, Fullarton, B.Brown and T-Mac through injury means we at least trial out the only potentially other damaging tall forward on our list to accompany JVR. If you think about it, which of our defenders could play the key forward role well - Lever (not quite quick enough), Tomlinson (lack necessary pace and mobility), Adams (getting better but needs to be trialled as defender first\, Hore (a tad too small to be a forward), Rivers (ditto). Ahh yes, who is that other bug guy - his name is Steven May and he's the only player on our list, outside of Petty, that ticks enough boxes. Happy if we just use him there for a quarter, but we need the variety and toughness and long-kicking goals from 55m out that he would bring to our forward mix. Realise that May is our best option for Charlie as well, but reckon we have to try something radical other than just sending Trac up forward. Selectors have a tricky option for Carlton also of deciding whether to bring back Olly into seniors or whether he has to tick a few more boxes in the magoos. I've named him, but realise there's probably more club factors that will determine his team situation. B: McVee Tomlinson Hore HB: Rivers Lever Bowey C: Langdon Oliver Windsor HF: ANB JVR Billings F: Pickett May Fritsch Ru: Gawn Petracca Viney Int: Salem, Schache, Sparrow, Laurie Sub: Verrall If Oliver not allowed yet, then K.Brown to play Changes from Tigers match; Out: Howes, Chandler, K.Brown (yes he played well) In: Salem, Hore, Oliver Both Schache and Tomlinson have been kept because we need height and especially when we play Sydney at SCG.

It's hard not to be critical of a loss to Richmond, who are widely tipped to be bottom six this season and were arguably missing more big guns than we were - Martin, Lynch, Taranto, Prestia and Nankervis are big omissions for them. What has worried me for a long time is that we have continually recruited ultra small players and aside from Viney, Petracca and Sparrow, we don't look ultra physical - which is a by-product of being so small. The decision not to get Caddy may yet come back to haunt us, just as the Weideman v Curnow debate was there some time back. Aside from JVR and when he's up there Gawn - we don't have any players who look remotely like taking a mark - once again that's something that comes with going small with a forward line that includes at least five of seven players under six feet each week. And to be honest most of our small players, with the exception of Kossie, aren't explosive speed type players. Even Windsor struggled to get away from opponents, although he was the pick of our youngsters. His kicking was at time abysmal today, but you can tell he will be better for the gallop and even better if he had some quick-moving big targets. My other major worry is that we have spent summer training with little pressure drills. Maybe that's the plan these days - not overdo it early to avoid injury and get stuck into more tackling drills when the season gets closer. I don't have stats, but I'm guessing we were majorly outtackled and I lost count of the number of pressurised kicks and handballs that were intercepted or missed targets. The big disappointments were in my view: McVee - he was so good last year and seemed to be a step behind this time. Surprisingly he wasn't given the job on Bolton, but perhaps that was a deliberate ploy to avoid it before the Anzac Eve clash. Howes played on Bolton quite a bit and enough said. Fritsch - he's been looking sharp at training, but really couldn't influence things - maybe as has been stated he was playing too close to goals and cut off easily. Gawn - gees, how many times did he lose front position at thrown-ins and have to push his opponent Ryan from behind - eventually the umps even spotted it and started paying free kicks against him. Schache and Tomlinson - yep both need to realise their time in the game ends in 2024 unless they lift. Yes it's only a practice game, but boy, we'd better show some signs against Carlton next week or the season will get away from us and Goody will have to utter Neeld's line - "we didn't see that coming".

agree, but at least this report had some words to go with the team.

I am not too sure how many will be out but the following is my stab at first 18 with what I think are players who have minor injuries or are a bit underdone to play yet left out (see list). B: McVee May Hore/Tomlinson HB: Rivers/Brayshaw Lever Bowey C: Langdon Petracca Billings HF: ANB Schache Chandler/Tholstrup F: Pickett* JVR Fritsch Ru: Gawn Sparrow Viney Int: Salem (should be managed back to just two quarters), Laurie, Windsor, Spargo Injured/unavailabe: Oliver, McAdam, Petty, T.Mac, Melky, Hunter, Fullarton, B.Brown, Turner * Pickett out Rd 1 (susp). To play final 2 quarters with VFL players - Howes, Jefferson, Adams, Verrall, Sestan, Woewodin, K.Brown, Farris-White, Moniz-Wakefield And in the absence of injured tall forwards, Schache has to be given first shot at the role of forward/back-up ruck. We cannot continue to risk JVR getting injured as the back-up ruck - yes I get that he is better qualified to do it, but Schache deserves first shot at it before we try more risky/reward options such as swap out a defender such as May to fix our forward woes. The other thing we all should remember is that the SCG favours talls - it is shorter than other grounds and you need more marklng options than normal. Hence Schache is required for the season opener and should only miss if he shows absolutely nothing in our two practice games.

Got there just in time for match sim and it was good viewing - I think it was 14 a side so as to increase space and minimise head knock potential and they even had two on bench which makes you wonder why the AFL insists on 18 a side - yes i know it's traditional but when that rule was created, players didn't run the whole field like wild banshees. In terms of match sim, here's my ovservations: Firstly I think a nasty head clash between T-Mac and McAdam early may have impacted McAdam's play in the match sim - the last time I came to training he was a highlight machine, this time I didn't feel he was involved much. But I'm still sure he'll play Rd 1. Also a lock for Rd 1 is Jack Billings. He hits targets and moves so well, although 14-a-side is bread and butter to him. But with Hunter out with a calf (that's what the club says, so let's stick with it), then you have to think Billings starts in his left-side wing. As with others, the highlight play (at least Goody's yelling approval made it clear he thought so) was Windsor's commitment in the air to spoil Chandler. Windsor also went for a few runs and you can sense he is looking for the goal-assist each time he goes forward - please don't train that out of him Goody. He may go close to Rd 1 after all, but I'd be disappointed if Langdon doesn't get first shot on the right wing. Spargo played down back and I don't mind this except that when he's in the same side as Bowey and McVee, then we are too small. Bowey saved his best work for the goalkicking drill straight after match sim, he was the only player to convert from 50m on the run three times in a row. He's an amazing kick for a little guy and is more accurate than Rivers, so here's the thing Goody, figure out how you can get him into a position where he's likely to get that sort of long-bomb on the run opportunity a few times each game. While we are on that, yes I know defenders train with defenders, forwards train with forwards and never the twain shall meet, but can someone please explain to me why we can't use a bit of a modern-day Barassi move and swap players around from time to time. They aren't all numbskulls - some get the pre-requisites of both spots. For example, why not swap Spargo and Bowey from defence/forward spots at halftime - that won't bugger up rotations and they are both smart players. A few others that stood out to me in match sim. Firstly Jed Adams is getting closer to being ready for AFL level. It may not be until Rd 15, but I reckon he's starting to look the part. I still worry about the reliability of his kicking but Harry Petty began his career with a couple of howlers - errors do happen, but he has now got the body to cope. He's behind Disco, Tommo and Hore in the queue, but he's getting close. Secondly, and I suggest some of you go straight to the next paragraph because this isn't what you want to read, the most impactful player in the first half of match sim wore the No.19. Cringe. Yep Josh Schache snagged a couple and led well - if we hadn't seen last year he'd be in the side now. Maybe the 14-a-side suits him more, but he did look very good. And for those of you who are Bill Laurie fans, then I'm sorry to say it wasn't his game. He seemed to be playing like a defensive midfielder trying to cleverly come out of defence and twice was scragged beautifully from behind. A few minutes later he laid a dreadful over the top tackle and became virtually the only player not paid a free kick for a chase down. Bill is creative (we all know that) and he was in the group with the better runners at the end of the session. But he just does not seem to be able to explode away from a contest like Trac. Finally i was standing on the outer side in the shade and after a while I notice I was near Perty and Richo and a couple of other dudes. I did overhear them talking, out of the side of their mouths which is the Demon way of late, about culture. I almost piped up and told them to choose another topic because the only people that should have talked about culture - Goody and Roffy - are too scared to do so. And while I'm at it, drugs in youth is a societal problem, it's everyone's problem, not just the Dees problem. Start owning it and knowing it and you will go a long way to coping with it. Enough said. One more thing on the real topic, I didn't mention it earlier, but there were two players who were the clear standouts of match sim and provided the warmth and enthusiasm for this old fan to be looking forward to the coming season. One is a little fella called Kozzie and he played in the middle and bounced around like a guy in the front row of a Smashmouth concert. The club's told us he'd play midfield minutes before but with McAdam around now, maybe it will actually happen. And if he does he could win the Brownlow from there. And for the purists, you'd have to be a puffin muffin not to have noticed how good JVR looked as our full-forward. He's the closest thing to Charlie Curnow that we have on our list. God help us if he gets injured.

Not training with main gp today. But for the young Kolt to play, we have to lose a small forward and ANB and Spargs are ahead of him.

And to keep Werridee happy, here's our Rd 1 team based off today's session (and the one I saw last week as well). Overlooked because not training with main gp yet: Fritsch, Petty, Oliver, Pickett, Smith. Assumes Sydney will name three talls up front with Logan McDonald, Amartey and McLean - hence T.Mac is named to play on McLean. B: McVee May T.Mac (Turner or Hore if Swans go small) HB: Rivers Lever Bowey C: Billings Sparrow Langdon HF: Kolt Fullarton (or Ben Brown) ANB F: McAdam Van Rooyen Spargo RU: Gawn Petracca Viney Int: Brayshaw, Salem, Hunter, Woewodin sub: Laurie

Was nowhere near as prominent but during the mid-forward transition game was involved in possibly the best play of the morning - got the ball near centre, changed direction and then went long with a 55m kick that just got over May's head and into the arms of the intendee McAdam who had to dive backwards to reach it, such was the depth of the kick. He doesn't have Kolt's swagger, but he looks classy - but he may have to wait a while to grab a spot on the wing in place of Ed. I suspect he will also have to work hard on his defensive game - the stars at junior level often don't have that area covered initially.

No sign of Saty - I think he went back to England. But I watched for about 90mins and while it was all light drills, it was good to see the new faces and there were quite a few of the old brigade - gees Gawny's a good leader and he had his understudies Trac and Lever there as well. Sallo was also there which is good after last year was a bit of a wipeout for him. Maysie on a boys golfing trip to SA I believe. Petty may have been there, but I didn't see him. The three teenage newbies all looked switched on and I was interested to see that Koltyn could match renowned runner Kynan Brown and speedster Caleb Windsor in their handful of repeat run-through sprints. The two standouts, in my view, were McAdam and Roo, who both led and finished well in the wet conditions - but don't get too excited, these early training drills suit the finishers and with Fritta on light duties they will get plenty of chances. I was initially impressed with how much more balanced Adams was - gone is the gangly kid - but then he went and did another horrific spray left footer in the rain that made me think he still may be another year away. It is way too early to be confident that positional moves will stick, but T-Mac was doing defensive work - maybe they've decided that with Petty forward, they need another tall defensive back-up.

While I agree with you that any suggestion the Pies were worthy of an A when they picked up two later order players who are both regarded as quick movers is a massive suck up to Pies job. They were probably a B, given they gave away their first pick for Schultz who if you have seen him, is a very classy player and will play round 1, unlike many other draft picks. But as to what we did, it is hard to get excited. Windsor and Tholstrup are both quick players and so is Kynan Brown, so we made sure our ageing side is replenished with youthful speed - that's a big tick. But we completely blundered the trade swapping game - clearly we are missing Josh Mahoney's input here and we all should be querying the role Tim Lamb had in those pick swaps and overall list management. The first decision to offload picks 14, 22 and 33 to advance up the order and get pick 11 should go down as one of our worst efforts in history. Clearly we thought by having pick 5 and 11 we could get Harley Reid, but it proved a flawed philosophy. Whilst i am quite happy with Tholstrup, we almost certainly could have got him for pick 14 anyway as only Collingwood seemed aware of his talents and their picks was much later. And even if we'd lost out and some club snaffled him at pick 12 and 13, we could have got Leake from Tas and the jury is still out as to which of him and Tholstrup is better. Then our list manager mucked up how many players we needed on our list (kept Schache, T-Mac and Brown) and that meant we had to offload pick 42 just before the draft for a bag of peanuts. Stupid is as stupid does.

I'm actually also tipping a switcheraoo on draft night - but not in the Harley Reid way. With Curtin still available at pick 6, Eagles agree to trade their No.1 pick for next year and pick 23 this year and in return we give them our No.1 pick for next year. The outcome of that is we take: Pick 11 - James Leake Pick 23 - Aidan O'Driscoll Pick 42 - Vigo Visentini Plus Kynan Brown either via being forced to give up 78 or as a rookie. And next year we will most likely have a pick in the top four, depending on where the Eagles finish up.

And thank christ for that. I have no idea why it has taken so long for the club and the Brown family to be united on the wisdom of this. But I did have a chat to dad Nathan at training during the school holidays when Kynan joined in with most of our sessions and he was your typically proud father sitting well back observing from under a tree on the Punt Rd side of Gosch's, but one well aware of the difficult road ahead. For those of you too young to remember, Nathan was one of the fittest blokes going around in the early naughties and provided great run off half-back and had some memorably duels with Stephen Milne and other small forwards. He wasn't a thumping kick but he was mega courageous and my guess is that his son is imbued with the same qualities which were pretty much on display all year for Oakleigh and Vic Metro. His dad told me Kynan's much faster than him and a better kick and can play inside as well which basically means he's well worth drafting. Given the lack of hype around him, it does sound like he will go just after our pick 42, which is a bonus. Delisting Kye Turner gave us four picks and hence three draftees plus Kynan would be a good result.

At a time when we as a club are clearly on the nose, Brodie's comments, especially his lack of ill-will, were almost life-saving. They show that the club communicated the situation to him clearly throughout, even if they can't clearly communicate what's going on internally to their fans. I still think we missed a golden opportunity this year by the late-in-season decision not to play him and to go smaller than any side in the history of the modern game up forward, but that's a knock that the match committee will have to take into next year. But Brodie's comments also show that no matter what rumours and innuendo surround Goody, the facts are that the majority of players like him or at very least respect him to want to keep playing for him. All our big name players have signed extensions under him and only our peripheral players have wanted to move on. That's way different to Bevo. Thank you Brodie for restoring the faith with your words.

Yes, if this was the first and only video of Caddy then he'd be lucky to make Bell Park's list. But have a look at his VFL game for the Blues or one of the other games they have on video. There's a reason why others have suggested he's a likely top 10 pick and with Sanders earmarked for the Dogs at No.5. we have to look closely at him.

Curtin is sliding and I reckon Geelong and Essendon will have tricky times deciding whether to take him if the more versatile Caddy ain't available - so he could yet slip to our pick 11. O'Sullivan looks good - is he good enough for our pick 6? I reckon Adelaide may take him at 10. If not he'd be a great project get for us at 11.

How about the universe where we need a potential key forward more than anything else. Having watched his highlights, we will take Caddy at No.6 because we can't risk him being taken at 7, 8, 9 or 10. The only reason we won't is that he may yet go to North at pick 3 - his agility makes him impossible to overlook.

Unlike other posters, I actually think Billings would be a good get, provided his manager is realistic with his asking pric e and St Kilda don't want anything more than a future third rounder or this year's pick 42. Being a left-footer he holds some value and he is back-up wingman should Hunter get injured or is forced to take a few weeks away. He also could be given a chance in our rejigged midfield - something he has always craved and never been given an opportunity to play at St Kilda. And with Oliver potentially out, we may need another clever body in there. Billings has great endurance and is hardly slow and we all know he's clever. The question is whether his body can cope with the buffeting that come with AFL. As I said, if we could get him on a two-year deal at around $400K a season, at worst he's a very handy depth replacement for Jordon and Harmes and at best, he's still got the smarts to be a topliner. One last thing on him, I think his character is fine - he ain't a [censored] and he will help redress the balance of good, healthy and smart guys on our list.

Did I just dream this or was this in the rumour file? Dees given up on trying to snare No.1 pick and Harley Reid. Now all into luring Nick Larkey from Kangas. With cap space created by Grundy/Harmes/Brown, will sign him on mega four-year deal worth $4M. North to receive picks 5 and 13 plus Paul Spargo. Dees to solve forward issues for next few years with van Rooyen and Petty further up field and Larkey and Fritter near goals.

I think we will look back on this year as the one flag we should have won - a bit like 1990 when there was no clear standout and we were arguably a better side than the Pies and got knocked out after having to wait an extra week because the Pies drew with the Eagles - back then the draw meant a replay. But there were certainly some major positives. 1) Rivers, who had an ordinary finals series, stepped up to become a genuinely good player who now needs a spot in the midfield. My season highlight was his two accurate inboard passes in our freakish come from behind win over the Lions. 2) Sparrow showed he is now physically capable of matching it with anyone and is a wonderful tagger in the Harmes 2018 mould. 3) Smith showed he can play at AFL level ... and can play pretty much anywhere. With McAdam coming in, he is the obvious replacement for Rivers down back because of his versatility. 4) JVR got plenty of experience, as did young McVee. And for those trying to blame him for that final goal, remember this - Tom Stewart was badly beaten by Dustin Martin in a crucial late play on the wing in 2017 QF. The Tigers went on to win that game and the flag, but Stewart has ended up a pretty damn good player. 5) Our trade value as a club has gone up. Jayden Hunt was fourth in the B&F at Eagles, Toby Bedford could end up playing in a GF, Oskar Baker got games at the Bulldogs (unlike at Melbourne) and Sam Weideman showed in his three VFL games at Essendon as a backman that he could be a regular after all. Not to mention his five-goal AFL game against the Cats. 6) And after picking the smallest forward side in the history of AFL finals, we showed that such a strange selection could still end up producing scoring shots and was one way to force players to look at the short option. So our loss to the Blues may end up shaping our game style for 2024 and could also force Goody to drop his attack up the wings mentality. Sadly we say goodbye to Hibberd and it sounds like Grundy, Harmes, JJ and Tommo will join them. And in my opinion, the rise of Moniz-Wakefield and McAdam's signing means that at least one or possibly two of our small forwards has to go to get gametime - and yes I know they are all contracted. But so is Grundy.

6 May - Had Curnow's measure on all but one play. It was almost like watching him blitz Buddy last year. This time he almost got us over the line. 5 Kozzie - A couple of moments of madness but just a spark all night. 4 Hunter - From the word go realised his role was to negate Acres and just was so smart. Voss had to switch Acres wing late. 3 Viney - Always working his butt off, although not quite as damaging as previous weeks. 2 Petracca - A couple of errant shots at goal, but gave our forward line some real spunk and won a few clearances in the second half when moved back into the middle after halftime to try and curb Carlton's centre square dominance. 1 Salem - Hard to believe after his insipid form of late, but Sallo was back to being clever with his chip kicks and went back to providing us with run out of defence.

Simon Goodwin has always made a clear distinction between the roles of big and smalls. Bigs fly for marks and are responsible for bringing the ball to ground. Smalls are there to crumb and tackle and link and never fly for marks (yes, Kossie does break the rules) unless they are the only option. Even down back the distinction is clear - May, Lever and Tomlinson (when playing) are to deny opponents in the air, while Bowey, Salem, McVee are to protect the ground and provide the smarts when coming out of the backline. Rivers, being a swingman height, is allowed to fly on occasions. In 2021 when everything fell into place. the Dees played three bigs down back (May, Lever and Petty) and went with three bigs up forward (Brown, T-Mac and Jackson). In 2021, Fritsch was the dangerous swingman and Sparrow’s tackling ability pipped Melky for the last spot in the 22, and it was balanced with three small forwards - ANB, Spargo and Kossie. Since 2021, Goody has altered his preferred forward model, partly because both Ben Brown and T-Mac have often been injured and are now the wrong side of 30. The result was that last year we often toyed with four genuine smalls. For example in our Rd 11 first loss of 2022 to Fremantle, Goody decided to try Toby Bedford with our three premiership smalls. His desire to reward Bedford, one of the fittest blokes at the club, with game time meant that Toby often played as the medical sub and occasionally played from the outset. But this year Goody took his 'small world’ to another level. Kade Chandler, after four years of VFL learnings, was finally given a go and there’s no doubt that he’s a clever finisher and hard worker. Bailey Lawrie, another who had done his time in VFL, was given a go and he definitely has AFL level smarts. Injuries to Petty, our most clever small tall Melksham, and suspension to our most mobile tall JVR has caused him to rejig even more. The result? Tonight Melbourne is fielding the smallest finals side possibly since pre-war days. But what about the Tigers of 2017 I hear you say when Riewoldt played as a lone hand and Grigg had to ruck when Nankervis had a rest. The difference is that most of the Tigers small forwards had a degree of height. Rioli is 179cm, Castagna 181cm, Lambert 178cm, Butler 182cm, Martin 187cm, Townsend 187cm, Caddy 186cm with Edwards 182cm sometimes up forward. Compare that to: Chandler 175cm, Pickett 171cm, Spargo 172cm, ANB 182cm, Petracca 187cm, Fritsch 188cm and Smith 191cm with Lawrie 179cm still a chance to be sub. Or what about the Pies of 2010. Blair 174cm, Davis 177cm, Didak 184cm, Beams 187cm backed by bigs Dawes, Cloke and Brown - hardly small by our standards. Let’s go back further - Carlton's mosquito fleet of 1981 is generally regarded as the smallest of the modern era and yet was still slightly taller than our combination and that is 42 years ago? They had Marcou 178cm, Sheldon 178cm and Wayne Johnston 180cm but they also had David McKay (191cm), Maclure (188cm), McConville (185cm) and Bosustow (185cm). Rover Buckley 175cm had the occasional rest forward as well. What we are seeing by Goodwin is revolutionary by any standards. All our smalls are hard workers who don’t mind tackling even though their size makes it harder to stick them and individually they are all players who any side would want on their list, yet the question that every Demon fan should be asking is whether this is the right balance. Some will try and argue that what option does Goodwin have given who’s out. But that view is tempered by the fact that a two-time All- Australian is sitting watching in the stands and is wanted by a host of clubs with Sydney apparently winning the battle. And it leads to two bigger questions: If Melbourne wins tonight, is Goodwin tactically more savvy with the game trends than any other coach, placing a higher priority on ground-level wins than aerial strength? Or if Melbourne loses tonight, is Goody in danger of becoming the new Bevo - the coach with the best list, yet the worst return. Genius or insane? What’s your view?

A couple of amendments to my earlier team, which was based on Harmes playing and he's now out. There are two big changes required this week. The first is to drop the red mist - a term Garry Lyon dubbed on our dump long kicks three years ago before we turned it all around in 2021 and used the short low pass to pry open defences. Moore et al had a field day with the long bombs on Thursday night and Weitering, who loves to sag back, will be salivating at the prospect of such an assault. Unfortunately our best lateral thinker - Brayshaw - will be out and our best lead-up player Melky is out. Our best two clever chip kicks from 2021 weren't around either on Thursday - Spargo (overlooked) and the Christian Salem we used to know. So the first thing to do is for Goody to have a long confidence-building chat with Salem and ask him to take the game on and take risks like the old Sallo did. And the other thing is to bring Spargo in and that means Chandler has to go - we can't have four vertically challenged guys in our forward line - it's the wrong balance. A chat with our biggest distributor Olly about looking inboard or for the lead-up option wouldn't hurt either. The second change is to the forward make-up. Three players kicked 14 goals against Richmond six weeks ago, but none of them will be playing on Friday, so it's a tricky reconfigure. But here's my fifty cents worth. We are all hoping that Grundy plays like a forward for once, but why are we doing that when we know it won't work because he's not quick enough to lead-up and he's not a great leaping aerialist. But he is a genuinely good ruckman - we saw that first hand when Gawny was injured. So, it's time to go back and playing him there and putting the pressure on the skipper to take a hit for the team. Gawn has to play a forward for almost the entire game. For once Goody has to make Grundy the main man and Gawn the key man. We all know Gawny will mark it if not held down, so Carlton will have to deploy Gov and Weitering close to him to stop him. The second change to our forward mix has already been alluded to by Goody who made it clear that Angus going down, forced him to play Trac in the middle. It didn't actually because Rivers was an option but we chose to go small with the sub, when we knew the Pies were much taller than us. The advantage with Trac is that he demands the ball and means that players will be more willing to try the chip kick when he's around up there. Ultimately the rest of the magnets don't matter so much as once you have your best two players down there, along with your two other livewire goalkickers - Pickett and Fritsch - you have a combo that will kick a winning total. But for arguments sake - Jordon has to play and in the guts. And Rivers has to be given a run in there early as well. Sparrow plays hard on Walsh, Rivers tags Cripps and follows him when he goes forward. A decision on whether to play Turner in our back mix is needed as well, although that depends on whether Durdin comes in for McKay. Carlton has bunch of quick tackling forwards who aren't much chop but because they all work their butts off, they are dangerous - Cunningham, Fogarty, Motlop, Owies and Cottrell. May takes Curnow, Hibberd takes Motlop and McVee takes the quickest who I think is Owies and if Durdin plays then Lever has a good match-up. With McKay out, TDK will play more as a forward so either Turner or Smith are required top counter his height a bit. And the choice of the sub has to be debated long and hard at the selection table. There are a few choices - we can make Chandler the sub and hope that we don't lose a big to injury early. Or if we drop T-Mac as I suspect we will, then both he or Schache may be required as sub, because that means we gone mega small and having another small on the bench is as stupid as it was the other night. The thing with T-Mac is that he's still smart, he's just way too slow. But coming on late his lack of pace is negated a bit because everyone is tired. Out: Brayshaw, van Rooyen, T-Mac, Chandler. In: Jordon, Grundy, Turner, Spargo B: McVee May Hibberd HB: Bowey Turner Lever C: Langdon Rivers Hunter HF: Smith Gawn Spargo F: Pickett Petracca Fritsch Ru: Grundy Oliver Viney Int: Sparrow (mid), Jordon (mid), ANB (fwd), Salem (def) Sub: Chandler or T-Mac/Schache - decision based on whether Carlton goes big or small - Durdin or Hollands for McKay.

The whole week will now be spent talking about our dysfunctional forward line and it's up to the boss to figure out how to reconfigure. and with van Rooyen a monte to be out, we have to do so. But to me, Grundy has to play - yes we all know he's not a forward but he allows us to use Gawny up there for a little bit and he is a big body to try and spoil. With Brown unfit, he's just got to play. He's also a tackler and we will need that with Brayshaw out. The other change is that we have to go back to playing Trac up there for more minutes - yes I know he is a clearance beast, but we have cover in that department with Sparrow and Viney and Rivers if we want, but we don't have an option now - we need someone to kick goals and Trac and Fritter and Kozzy are our three most likely. To me our seven forwards are: Fritsch, Kozzy, Trac, Grundy, ANB and then a decision on whether we play Spargo or go radical with the pace of Moniz-Wakefield instead of Chandler. And as much as people will hate it - Harmes has to play as well - unfortunately at finals time you need a mix of grunt and Chandler is classy, but just not physical enough for night games. Harmes is. The sub can be T-Mac - yes he's too slow, but at least with the pace off the game, he may be able to make an impact after half time and he at least can also play defence if we get an injury. I also left out Smith, but we just have to add him to our defence - we need his pace to help counter the over the back play that Papley (if Swans win) or Motlop (if Blues win) that the Pies exploited and the good thing is we can still send him forward if things aren't working - just as he should have been sent back in the first term against the Pies. You are allowed to swap players mid-game Goody! And by sending Rivers into the midfield rotation, we make room for Smith who can play on bigs or smalls. The only other player in doubt is Salem - he really has just not been able to get back to his 2021 form, but it's now probably too late to make the hard call on him. Out: Brayshaw, Van Rooyen (susp), Chandler, T-Mac, Lawrie (sub) In: Jordon, Grundy, Spargo, Harmes Sub: T-Mac B: McVee May Smith HB: Bowey Lever Hibberd C: Langon Sparrow Hunter HF: ANB Grundy Harmes F: Kozzie Fritsch Petracca Ru: Gawn Oliver Viney Int: Spargo (fwd), Rivers (mid), Jordon (mid) Salem (def) Sub: T-Mac