Well, we might get Pitto back. That would stop much of haemorrhaging in the middle.
We might get Weitering back. That would also provide stability to order to a defence that was done reasonably well without him.
H probably won't play. Depending on what he's done, he may not play again this year.
That leaves us with serious holes in the forward line. And I don't know who is going to fill them.
I don't think we can afford Kemp as our key forward. His kicking loses us games. Mitch McGovern does some nice things, but not enough.
But who is there to come in? Moir? He probably doesn't deserve a spot, but he will kick goals if he gets it.
O'Keefe? Maybe, even with his poor form, at least he has some height and strength. (His kicking won't improve us.)
Do we play Reidy as a part time forward? He is slightly more reliable that Kemp.
Who comes in for Cerra? He won't play next week, maybe not for the year.
Do we try Ben Camporeale? He is worth a look.
Cooper Lord would be the obvious one, except he clearly hasn't got his fitness back yet. he had 18 possessions against Collingwood, but didn't hurt with any of them.
For that matter Blake Acres was ordinary. 17 possessions for almost as much impact as Lord did.
I'd like to give Jack Ison a few games in the twos to discover his mojo again. He has lost that confidence that was so important when he came in.
Flynn Young? Maybe. he also usually kicks goals if he has a shot.
Our structure was seriously compromised when Charlie Curnow, Jack Silvagni and Tom de Koning left. It left seriously lack key position players and the sort of ruck designed to take advantage of the new rules. The guys who have come in have been contributors, but none of them is a match winner. They don't have the height to do the jobs of the guys who have left.
Our mids have done their best, but they don't take pack marks or kick many goals.
Can we overcome our major structural weaknesses to overcome the biggest failures of 2026? I'm not feeling confident.
Weitering is still weeks away.
Pitto desperately needs to play.
Do we bring back lewis young??
With cerra out, it's time for a camporeale. Do we want ben in the guts or lucas on the wing?
Up forward the cupboard. I've earned about this, now reality all hit us.
Id bring in moir and tell him to play deep forward.
Interesting selection week.
Cerra is playing, just tightness. Harry very doubtful. Lewis young might be coming in, playing forward as 2nd ruck. It's he or HOK. I actually prefer Young.
Thanks to Essendon we still live!!!! This is one game we should win. Hopefully if we do, it kicks us out of our little slump, which was invariably going to happen after being up for so long. Then the game against St.Kilda becomes super important, as they are our direct challenger for a wildcard, as do the Dogs the week after. Reckon we can win more than GWS.
To be honest, with a torn meniscus H shouldn't be playing this weekend. But I can understand the need among some of our people to play him: we just don't have any other tall options. Lewis Young ... I can't see us winning with him as our key forward.
Good questions, K. Here's some more.
Do we really want to risk H and Cez?
Do we reward ordinary Magoos form? Specifically, do we reward Moir's ordinary form with a senior gig? Likewise the Campos. HOK has been ordinary but his last appearance was better. In for H? Lewis Y in to take on King? Harry Charleson has been reasonable in the Magoos... give him a lash at senior level? Likewise Flynn Y.
Do we give Kemp a run in the midfield, changing with Crippa?
Boyd's form has been okay... replace Cez?
Try Ollie H again?
Thursday evening's team selection will be fascinating.
Pity the seconds had yet another I'll timed bye. We need more outside runners so that means specialist wingers so I'd be looking at Hollands and a Campo. I don't trust Moir but he does have something. He needs to be told in no uncertain terms - get serious or F off.
For mind H, Cerra, Acres and Cottrell go out.
Hollands, L Campo or Charleson, Moir and I'd go with Flynn Riley as a ruck/forward.
Kemp either plays in defence or he should be traded at years end.
Cant have a key forward who cant make the distance from 40 and when he does make the distance sprays them everywhere.
hes a momentum killer.
There are people playing a career with a tear or even with a meniscus removed, they usually wear a brace?
But it's not ideal for a jumping / marking target, usually it's rucks who play with a damaged meniscus and they don't jump. I thought as much about Reidy at the weekend who wasn't jumping.
We are playing the GC so I think we win if be pull out of our slump.
I'd see Young there as our 2nd ruck. It he or HOK. They'll use Kemp and Gov in the key roles. Kemp is doing well in most aspects BUT the important part, kicking for goal. They may put Derksen there.
The great deflator.
Depending on who retires next year, ie possibly Haynes or Newman, or both, he may take one of their roles back in defence. He plays good footy but..........
I'd look at Jake Riccardi from GWS.
We need to look at Ben Campo at some point.
Fraser has done well keeping the young blokes in the side while working towards a wildcard. His goal is to leave Carlton a better side at the end of the year and may just do that. Ben C would be next up. He's done well in the twos but has quite a few similar players in front of him, including the captain, the reigning B & F winner and Cerra.
No point risking either Harry or Cerra IMO.
I just got through showing Moir's stats in another thread. He kicks over a goal a game and kicks accurately in front of goal. 2 things our forwards don't do.
I wouldn't play Kemp in the middle, but i wouldn't mind seeing him on a wing as a connector between defense and attack. Resting deep forward.
HOK vs Young....are you playing to win, are you playing for the future?
I had this down as a game we should win.....i'm not so sure now......but i reckon we could 100% lose it at the selection table.
play hok ,young ruck from sth morang, charleson,campo /replace cerra harry,reidy not dropped delist
Thought about Kemp on the wing. He'd be a nice link coming out of defence. The issue i have with Moir is his workrate. No doubt a real touch of class as he has shown at times but I wonder if he will become another Troy Menzel. It's why he hasn't played more often. He looks like the type that will frustrate the life out of us all. Be so good if he was able to improve all that as he has some class.
I get the work rate thing....you know what, i don't care.
Fogarty was always picked for his work rate. Would chase tackle and harass....did it help us? Did it result in more goals being kicked?
The way the ball is bombed into our forward line currently, it goes straight to the opposition, so you even need to worry about chasing/harrassing. Its kicked straight back out.
What you need is more bang for your buck.
Whats the point of targetting kemp and Harry 40 times a game and maybe getting 2, maybe 3 goals out of it.
Target Moir 10 times and he'll give you a goal or 2.
Yes he is lazy. Yes he is laconic. But thats a problem with forwards these days, they do so much bloody running that it effects their shots at goal. Maybe we need more of a stay at home, make the most of your opportunities. Worked for Fev. He only chased when he got angry and wanted to hurt someone and make a point.
My concern with Moir is more around the 'selection integrity'.
Is the one or two goals a game worth as much as someone running, chasing providing pressure and turnovers.
How do you justify giving him a game ahead of someone who might be busting a gut to get an opportunity and performing much better in the VFL.
Blokes like Ben C and Charleson would have to wonder.
I go back tp fogarty. Bustjng a gut did not help us win.
Winning justifies selection.
I've got a problem with Campo's lads, when they arrived they looked pacey relative to our existing jar of treacle, but it's only taken a coule of newbies to show some leg and now they look a bit off the pace.
With their run of injuries I'd be giving them more VFL time, they don't look ready to me, they look VFL dominant but not AFL competitve as silly as that sounds.
Brave footbllers, smart footballers, but what is their AFL trick, can they survive on brains alone? Will they displace Smith or Wilson?
Excluding the big names this season so far Wilson is a win, Byrne a future, Evans gets everything he can out of himself.
Fogarty played a role as a defensive forward and while he may not have hit the scoreboard he was deemed worthy of a place in the side for a long time.
He played in 12 games for 10 wins in 2023
He played in 15 games for 10 wins in 2024
Not so great last year with 20 games for 7 wins
This year he's only played 2 games for a win and a loss.
So you could probably argue for a long time that Fogarty's efforts did help us 'win'.
Is that worth more than a player who gives you a goal a game and precious little else.
In fact if it came down to a choice between who would give you better value between Fogarty and Moir based on 'current' VFL form it's Fogarty first and daylight second.
But...and it's a big but.
Like you I can see the 'potential' in Moir and playing Fogarty ahead of him probably doesn't make a lot of sense in terms of the future.
But Moir needs to show us something more than a cameo.
If given a chance we need to see a bit more than a goal and half a dozen possessions.
Now that's just a peculiar logic and rationale, K.
I don't believe we can summarize Fog as just a gut-buster and non-contributor to wins. He played his role, often times, pretty well but the game has moved on with leg speed being, probably, his real issue now.
Selection integrity is fundamental to strengthening club values. Moir presents selection with a quandary. He seems to only want to take 'speccies' and kick miracle goals. His defensive work rate is ordinary, lacking intensity and intention. Sure, he may kick 2 or3 but if I was an opposition coach I'd be instructing the bloke on Moir to run off him creating links and opportunities up the ground. So, Moir kicks his couple but his opponent launches and links to create even more! The Lizard would have a day out on someone like Moir.
Yep, if Moir let his opponent run off, set up and participate in possession chains it would render the goal or two he kicked a moot point. You just can't be a one way player in today's game.
So lets be honest, H isnt going to play this week, whats our fwd line going to look like?
"Talls"
Gov 190
Kemp 192
Mediums
Hayward 186
Evans 182
Cottrell 184
Smalls
Byrne 174
Ainsworth 178
One things for sure, we are going to be short.
Do we:
- Play Riley or HOK to play 2nd ruck and tall fwd?
- Play Young as the 2nd ruck and tall fwd?
- Play Crippa or Acres Fwd and bring in an extra Mid (Campo)?
I think how our F50 setups really depends on what happens with Hewett, if Hewett gets up Cripps will spend more time floating forward, if not we'll probably go the opposite and setup smaller.
Hayward plays quite tall, he's a bonus as a forward because he's out marking most opponents yet is ground level agile.
I would bring L Young in and play Derksen forward. The latter has shown that he has good forward craft at VFL level with 5.2 against Casey, and he can pinch hit in the ruck.
Derksen has kicked 8.3 for us in the Magoos despite playing mostly in defence. He kicked 55.25 playing for the Giants reserves and, unless he kicked a lot out of bounds, he would be a more reliable kick for goal than most of our forwards.
Didnt think about WD fwd, good finking. I was thinking the Crippa fwd option might be a way to give Ben Campo a run.
Fraser threw Derksen forward on Saturday night but it was a bit late and left us more undersized in defence.
I would like to see Crippa spend around 20% of his game time forward ... provided he puts the left foot around the corner shot for goal away ::)
He has cleaned up his set shot drop punt routine and I think that it is paying dividends.
Ben Campo should definitely get a run!
I've been wanting to see Derksen forward since he joined us, and I also noticed that he had a run up there at the end of the Collingwood game.
It needs to be an extended run though if we're really to see if it has merit.
The absence of Weitering complicates things a bit though, and we may not have the luxury,
I havent watched a second of the Coll game.
I think we trialled Derkson forward at some stage, may have been in a practice match? Might've only been briefly. It didn't seem to go well from what i can recall.
That being said, his time down back early on didn't go well either. Maybe now will be different?
I don't think we've ever tried him there for any extended period.
He's probably been shifted there on occasions.
I've been wanting to see him up front for a bit just based on his GWS reserve games.
It needs a block of at least three games to start to make a proper assessment of him at senior level....but time is running out
Unless you are as good as Cripps and even then he can be a liability going the other way
It will be Nic Newman's 150th game on Saturday, and his 119th in navy blue. Not a bad effort after only 31 games in his four years at the Swans. Well done Newey 👏
Good trade by SOS too!
I like what Moir brings, has the talent.to be a superstar but he kind of lost me in the first quarter of opening rd when he gave up a chase way too easily.
I would like to see him get a few games later in the season once we are officially done. Saturday is still a live game and he can't be trusted yet.
Ison is my preffered option at the moment.
Ison had 0 tackles in his last outing vs Hawks and averages 1.6 tackles /game and 0.4 goals/game
Moir averages 1.4 tackles/game and 1.15 goals/game over his career.
That must be one hell of a 'half tackle' Ison brings every game by comparison.
Moir is becoming a caricature of himself.
His output exceeds perception.
Impressive stats all round. :D
Moir's only kicked multiple goals on three occasions in his 13 games...including one where he kicked 4
That's what we need to see 3-4 goals a game to make up for the missing moments.
He doesn't have to do it every game but at least on a regular basis.
Ison hasn't kicked 2 in a game yet.
Worse than that, Ison has kicked 3.10. We have enough poor kicks in the team already.
Moir....15.7 over his career.
For a bloke who is no good and goes missing far too often, his numbers still stack up against some other 'favourites' who get more of a gig.
Without Harry.....who is going to cause more damage up forward? Moir or Ison??
If that who we are choosing between.....is it a choice?
Answer: None of the above.
No
Ison should have been rested weeks ago.
We have enough players who can play mid-sized forward.
Ben C deserves a chance.
He can take Ison's spot (not as a forward)
And in place of Harry send another tall -Derksen or Young to the forward line.
If you're looking to win the game and not looking at the future of either player we'd probably be best served by giving Fogarty a last run before Moir.
But he's not the future
So there's every chance they will give Moir another go.
My issue is even though we are short up forward there is no point playing a taller player just to field a more balanced forward group if that player is not ready or capable.
Prefer to just go smaller if Harry is not available and be smarter with how we use the ball going in
No good being a good height but your not up to it.
Agree - Moir reminds me a little of Troy Menzel - glides along looks at times like he could be a special talent but is laconic and is not yet willing to put in the real hard yards on a tackle or chase, so even though he is still young unless he can back it up by kicking 3-4 goals a match we can't accept that standard from any young player imo if we want to build a strong list culture
Ison provides pressure and gives decent effort when he doesnt have the ball so i would prefer him on that basis atm.
I reckon you have won me on that.
That will mean Lewis Young back in defence. Our choices are a bit bare.
Derksen has had good results up forward at the lower level both at GWS and the couple of times with us, where he has 8 goals apparently, 5.2 in one game.
As long as we win Saturday, then game two weeks after becomes huge. Could be the wildcard before the wildcard against the Saints as I'm not tipping us to beat Brisbane. I do see an opening against Freo last game, who might put the cue in the rack a little given they'd have top sewn up. Not tipping us though, so best be beating GC, St.Kilda and the Dogs.
Or Williams, who always hits the scoreboard up forward. If it is about wins purely then probably him short term. Depends what the goal is. So far we have have kept the youngsters going despite being in wildcard contention. So we might stay with the younger ones. I'd be happy with that.
Play lewis young as a key forward.
Can swap ends with derkson if needed.
Not laughing at you Thry, but autocorrect does at times throw up some beauties.
Couldn’t have written it better.
We can see you posted that from your phone...lol.
Fixed.
We ended up in Dubai for no reason delayed coming home, so im a bit weary.
No need to explain, it was very entertaining😁
Safe travels, 3 Leos. Arrive home to an 88 pt win by the Bluebaggers!
So we want us, the Swannies and North to win this weekend.
I think we dont.
I reckon we want the Swans to lose for the rest of the year, and we will want our competitors around us to keep winning, so we can aim to win, and still not climb the ladder.
Personally, the finals experience isnt worth chasing this season. It didnt hurt Sydney last year to fall lower. It will be another transformative off season for us.
Gnome taipan is tonely wag to fry!
Pittonet in for Reidy
L. Young in for McKay
Thats our changes
Reidy, F. Young, Williams our emergencies.
Not a camporeale in sight.
Cerra would want to be fit.
That suggests they're telling us...
We're still a chance ;) :D
Young to King
Derksen forward is one option.
Or has Young been bought in as a Forward/Ruck.
That's a really small forward line listed.
They won't line up that way.
Ainsworth, Hayward, Evans
Byrne, Kemp, Lord
So expect one of Derksen or Young to go forward.
McGovern (CHB) will probably also spend time forward.
I worry we're getting back to being a bit one paced across the ground especially at Marvel. The Suns have pace and we don't.
Our line-up:
B: 2 Lachlan Cowan 35 Harry Dean 14 Oliver Florent
HB: 24 Nic Newman 11 Mitch McGovern 15 Billy Wilson
C: 46 Matthew Cottrell 9 Patrick Cripps 5 Adam Cerra
HF: 12 Ben Ainsworth 19 Will Hayward 44 Francis Evans
F: 39 Talor Byrne 17 Brodie Kemp 36 Cooper Lord
R: 27 Marc Pittonet 7 Jagga Smith 18 Sam Walsh
Int: 47 Wade Derksen 29 George Hewett 33 Lewis Young 26 Nick Haynes 13 Blake Acres
Em: 25 Liam Reidy 45 Flynn Young 6 Zac Williams
[1] I hope Pitto is really fit, as dropping Reidy leaves us very short.
If Pitto was 100% and playing well, I wouldn't be worrying so much, but with his coming in as he has, it is a huge risk to have only 1 ruck option.
Having 1 ruck hasn't worked the last 2 weeks; in fact has been a large factor in our losing. I didn't think we needed to take the risk of repeating it again.
[2] Mattie Cottrell had better but a tattslotto ticket, as he was pretty ineffective last week. For that matter, so was Blake Acres, who was also retained.
[3] Speaking of taking a risk, Adam Cerra had better be good to go this week. Considering how one-paced we are, he needs to be getting the pill.
[4] Who is going to play forward?
Kemp has been awful lately, one week being unable to get the ball at all, the other week being unable to score from any distance. We really need goals.
McGovern has been our best key forward, but that isn't saying much. His kicking has also been dubious.
Derksen? Maybe. Lewis Young: another big question.
Alas, with the injuries we've had in recent weeks and our inbuilt structural issues, we've really struggled lately. I hope we can change that around, but I'm not confident. Not even against a team that has no idea how to win.
So we're going small, the lesser of two obvious options.
100% crash...Cerra, Cottrell and Acres must be squarely in the gun. A loss here and I reckon two of those three might not be seen for the rest of the year because we must start exposing others in the list. No passengers.
I want to see our team defence back to what it was.Not as good the last 2 weeks. Want it back to the previous 7 weeks where we simply refused to give Geelong an easy intercept mark.
Nine losses in row for GC is it? Carlton? Come one down.
I don’t see how we kick a winning score.