Sorry I haven't finished this up: I've just had a knee replacement and half my brains are still missing. I hope to finish this up in the next day or two.
wish i had more than one brain, then i could afford to lose half my brains too. biggest problem i think i only have half a brain to start with...
My daughter was talking about the footy on Friday and kept hinting she barracks for the blues now even though she was a cat i think because we lived in Geelong for a few years. Maybe we should go to a game one day dad she said. I upgraded my ticket and bought her one on the ground level behind the goals and just behind the cheer squad. Got her a Carlton puffer jacket on the way in to the ground and I'm pretty confident she'll still be wearing it in the middle of summer. Last night was her first ever live footy experience. Boy oh boy does she love the footy now. And very much does she love Charlie. What an introduction! That was epic. The best thing of all she could not get over the atmosphere and how amazing the blues supporters are, she already feels part of the baggers family. Wowee.
Take our best fit team in and have a real crack. Otherwise if we go in half arsed we'll get smashed by 100 points, which won't do our percentage or momentum any good. Cripps should be back, and maybe a couple of others if we're lucky. Cerra was a test this week and probably rested for next week. The one that really disappoints me is Walsh, he has been in really good form lately, and we lost him in the last game last year too. If we had Walsh, Cripps & Cerra I'd say we are in with a shot, if we have 2 of them and they aren't labouring too much i'll give us a slim chance to upset the pies.
Cowan obviously to half back, Ollie to the wing, so I assume Doc into the middle, Dow to play a full game in the middle, and Ed to rotate between midfield and small fwd. Our fwd line will be quite small again, which seemed to work pretty well last week after H went off.
Pretty big outs in the middle with Crippa, Cerra, and Kennedy out. As someone else mentioned Acres is listed in the middle though, so there's still a bit of size and experience in there.
Attitude will be everything, as it usually is. Turn up and we should still beat them pretty easily.
Does the injury to Williams open a doors for Kemp??
Kemp has a bit of toe, a nice step, and good user. And not being that tall might be a very good replacement for Zac. Has intercepting as an extra string to the bow too. Just might not get as many possies as Zac who is pretty good in tight.
My thoughts are pretty much the same as the comments posted so far. Weiters needs some time to get back to where he was. The cats are in very good form. That was a proper finals like game and really the first taste for our boys. We will be better when Pitto and a few others are back. Not disgraced but they are currently a step above us.
The boys love playing to their home crowd. We haven't won away. Something they need to work on. A win this week would be very nice, even nicer than if we beat them in Melbourne.
I understand the odd bit of negativity and dread. We've been conditioned over a couple of decades. Imagine how the players must feel. I'm hoping our change in fortunes gives them some real motivation to not go back to the dark old days. You can see how much it means to Crippa. That bloke is hungry as hell. And rightly so. What a gun.
