Fox Sports' Ben Waterworth and Riley Beveridge provide a more considered opinion:
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B: Lachie Plowman, Liam Jones, Ciaran Byrne
HB: Caleb Marchbank, Jacob Weitering, Kade Simpson
C: Ed Curnow, Patrick Cripps, Sam Petrevski-Seton
HF: Darcy Lang, Charlie Curnow, Dale Thomas
F: Matthew Wright, Levi Casboult, Harry McKay
FOLL: Matthew Kreuzer, Marc Murphy, Matthew Kennedy
I/C: Tom Williamson, Paddy Dow, Jack Silvagni, Zac Fisher
EMG: Jarrod Pickett, Sam Rowe, Jed Lamb
OTHERS: David Cuningham, Tom De Koning, Jarrod Garlett, Nick Graham, Patrick Kerr, Sam Kerridge, Matthew Lobbe, Harrison Macreadie, Aaron Mullett, Lochie O’Brien, Cam O’Shea, Andrew Phillips, Cam Polson, Angus Schumacher
ROOKIES: Jesse Glass-McCasker, Kym LeBois, Cillian McDaid, Matt Shaw, Alex Silvagni
LONG-TERM INJURIES: Sam Docherty
INITIALLY, it seemed tough for the Blues to find a replacement for Sam Docherty, who suffered an ACL injury in his first pre-season training session that will sideline him for the rest of 2018. However Carlton will have several ways in which it can fill Docherty’s void, following the acquisitions of Aaron Mullett (trade), Cameron O’Shea (pre-season draft), Angus Schumacher (national draft) and Jarrod Garlett (national draft). Then you’ve got second-year players Tom Williamson and Harrison Macreadie, while Ciaran Byrne is also capable of linking up with Lachie Plowman and Caleb Marchbank. Also, Carlton will be hoping recruits Matthew Kennedy and Darcy Lang can play Round 1, while Paddy Dow will also push for an early debut.
The Blues have several candidates to replace the influential and respected Docherty, who was best and fairest in 2016 and finished second in 2017 with Ciaran Byrne, Tom Williamson and Jed Lamb as well as O'Shea among the candidates to fill Docherty's void.
I should add that Ryan states that O'Shea is a rookie
Richmond recruited well with Nankervis, Prestia and Caddy.....increased their depth, they also reconstructed their game plan and went the small forward/pressure lineup....it was canny recruiting and a brave game plan which they executed week after week. Grimes and Astbury stayed on the park after being injury prone croc's and Rance was freed up to dominate as a intercept marking player.... Houli became a top quality rebounder with his excellent disposal......Lambert was freed up with Prestia and Caddy arriving to be a real nuisance player for opposing teams....they introduced ready made mid size forwards in Townsend and Graham who were both strong bodied types who kicked straight, they were the Tory Dickson types who didnt need many possies to hurt you as they kicked so straight. Momentum built and Martin was just too much for any individual player to handle for 100 mins and they always had the Martin to Full Forward move up their sleeve to win the close ones or finish teams off...
It was impressive from Hardwick and crew given the clubs recent decade of failure and lacking a team of genuine superstars, he got everything he could out of that list and surprised with his game plan which everyone including me thought would fail in finals...
Good analysis EB.
It's been fun talking about Ninthmond but it would be a mistake to think that they fluked a premiership. It was a well thought out and well executed campaign.
I doubt whether they can repeat the effort but they will be in the mix and I think NM's 2315 is a good call.
If Maxwell needs to "work on his game" then Mitch Marsh can work on his inconsistent fielding abd lacklustre bowling.
Maxwell is a proven top line ODI player. His omission is, in simple terms, bullish1t
I stick by "inexplicable" but "bullsh1t" would be an acceptable alternative
Imagine how much better our Australian cricket teams would perform if they were picked on merit rather than the arcane formula that our selectors have used for decades (I remember my father, who played cricket for Carlton) complaining that it was harder to get out of the Test team than to get in (and the same was true for Carlton's district team). Selection was based on relationships rather than merit and it seems that nothing has changed.
Far from inexplicable clearly. That we don't know the reason (exactly) doesn't make it inexplicable!
Inexplicable = unable to be explained or accounted for. I'd like to hear the selectors account for Maxwell's omission. They may be able make something up but I don't believe they could provide a logical, defensible argument.
I wonder if they could do better than Smith's lame attempt at 'training smarter'. I don't think 'because he's a Victorian' will work.
He's a Marsh though. Seriously though, I think Justin Langer is having a big influence on selection lately, hence Agar into the squad for sydney
As Gerard Whately pointed out, Agar is the incumbent second spinner having had the role the last time we played two spinners. There's not a huge difference between the performances of all of the contending spinners and probably not enough to displace Agar.
It's good to see the NBs being proactive and building on Cam O'Shea's success.
Another sign that the club is more united and cohesive than it has been for far too long. I suspect that Josh Fraser has had more than a bit to do with both the NBs becoming a destination club and aligning more closely with Bolton's direction.
His technique is ok for Aus conditions where he can hit through the line but his hard hands and heavy feet... Dunno on other surfaces. Bowling also needs work.
His older brother has a classical technique which the side needs but his penchant for soft dismissals is of concern.
Cant see this side winning in England for the above reasons. Batsmen have clumsy, power oriented techniques perfect for our tracks but nowhere else.
Is that a product of T20? Does the IPL, etc mean that our blokes no longer get experience of English conditions via County cricket, Lancashire League, etc?
yes great innings...... but he was brought in to give the bowlers a chop out. I left Cummins out... doh.
Exactly! You can't fault his batting in this test, but he was specifically brought into the team to provide a 5th bowler who would be threatening at over 140kph.
I have a feeling that he is welded on to the test team for the next 6-8 tests and will do nothing.
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