Silvagni/Motlop in for Martin/Harry.......Dow or Kennedy as the sub. Personally, I'd opt for Dow just because of a bit of extra leg speed later in the game. Only other possibility might be an extra smaller defender given Melbourne won't be playing too tall unless they bring Brown or Schache in.....likely it'll be McDonald and Joel Smith up forward.
Love the confidence LP but not sure Martin could get off that one.....it looked pretty ordinary and while Blakey returned to the field, it's gotta be one week IMO. It was pretty clumsy.
Martin is a big loss for us. His form since coming back into the team has been excellent and pretty sure he's hit the scoreboard nearly every week in that run. Was at the game on Friday night, and seeing it live you get to see the work he does off the ball....he's very tough and hard at it. Hopefully we can get up this week, and get his suspension down to one week so both him and Harry would be available the week after.
If JSOS is fit, straight in this week, and still play both ruckmen.
I'd like to see Motlop into the 22 and maybe Dow as the sub.
Marchbank was pretty shaky early on Friday night but steadied and I thought he was okay. Playing him would also give us the option of swinging McGovern forward at stages if needed.
Charlie, Doc and Cripps were all a bit below their best for big parts of the game last week, so plenty of upside there too.
Goal at the beginning of the year was to make finals....we've done it. And to bounce back from being 15th on the ladder and finish 5th was a fair effort given we were missing blokes like McGovern, Cerra, Walsh, Silvagni, Kennedy, McKay and a few others for a lot of that winning sequence. And in that run, beat 3 of the top 4 teams as well as St Kilda who were 5th at the time.
Shawny....I guess the fact that Sydney are perennial finalists, and we're playing our first finals match in a decade, was always going to mean the focus was on us. I'd like to think that someone like Voss, who's been there and done it on the biggest stage as a player, would be the perfect bloke to keep them focused this week.
Assuming all of Cripps, Doc, Pittonet and Motlop come back in.....that's 4 reasonably unlucky ones to miss out this week....and possibly one more if Kennedy was to be selected too?
IMHO....Fogarty, Durdin or Fisher, Marchbank (with Dow the sub)....and one other....wouldn't want to be sitting on the MC this week.
Thought the same EB.....from all reports JSOS probably needs another week with that knee but if we were able to win on Friday night, I reckon he'd be in the frame for the following week.
We've shown our game can match it with the best....the win over the Pies with players missing showed that. From memory they were only missing Bobby Hill from their best team. This time we're likely to field our strongest possible team in maybe two years.
Would've been awhile since our selection committee have had such a tough job.
About $73 plus a few extra dollars booking fee/refund option etc. Over here at Perth Stadium, for non-members it's well over $100 for a ticket just to a standard game during the season...up to $150 depending on where you sit.
$900 return for the airfares!!! Luckily my daughter lives in Brunswick so free accommodation.
Got my ticket Mickey 0.....Punt Road end, 2nd tier in the pocket. Ticket prices for games over there are so good.....just the airfare was the killer...you'd think I was sitting up the pointy end with the prices! But worth every cent to be there....my last live winning Blues final was a certain day in 1995!
Phantom....Kennedy would replace Dow but probably nobody else. But he will have missed a lot of footy by the time the first final comes around so might not be worth the risk. I thought Dow showed some glimpses yesterday with breakaway pace and centre clearances but let himself down a couple of times with brain fades....ducked into a tackle looking for high contact and then giving away that 50m which cost a goal.
Will laugh if Weiters gets a fine and Toby cops a week for a dangerous tackle. It certainly looked dangerous, hence the remonstration from the Carlton players.
Acres would be a huge loss. If that happens, I can see us playing Doc up the ground and possibly on the wing.
I think Motlop comes back in as his form in the last few weeks was very good. Can't see us going with all 4 of him, Durdin, Owies and Fogarty so at least one misses out.
The one ruckman ploy should be dead and buried now. JSOS is unlikely so Pittonet simply has to play. Harry is not, and never has been, a ruckman. Easily pushed out of the contest and coming back off a knee injury that was a risk IMO. If nothing else, Harry can play as a high forward and push up the ground...early in the season when he wasn't kicking goals, he was taking a lot of contested marks up the ground.
Fisher's run as a defender should also be over. If we want to play another small defender, I'd have Boyd in there ahead of Fisher...uses the ball much better. Fisher is very one sided and he got caught out a few times.
Hopefully Acres and Weitering are both good to go. On the assumption that they both are, I'd have Cripps, Doc, Pittonet and Motlop back in. Fisher, Fogarty, Durdin and one other out.....maybe Dow gets pushed to sub and Marchbank goes out? Although Sydney can load up with McDonald, Amartey and McLean so Marchbank might be an option.
I thought Dow was good early yesterday and showed some good breakaway pace but was caught out after half time.
