IMO
Grigg
Newman
Vickery
Houli
Astbury
King
Jackson (pre B&F)
Ellis
Morris
Petterd
Edward S
Agree with Morris too but Astbury? Hardly.
Think King may have lost his favoured son status too after all the off-season "drama" and the 12 game clause in his contract. Not upgrading Banfield is keeping him in the side atm IMO.
Included Astbury because of the way Dimma has spoken about him at functions I've been at. Pretty clear listening to it that if Astbury had been fit over he last couple of years he would be played no matter what. Last year although he only played a few games but got selected ahead of others who had better form at VFL level - again just my opinion.
Can I add that over the last couple of years people have heaped praise on Blair Hartley and his list management, targeting certain players. But we need to acknowledge he is the main person behind the targeting of Grigg, Houli and Chaplin.
Perhaps Hartley is another one who's position needs to be seriously looked at? Just putting it out there for discussion.
Finally someone else who reckons that Hartley has got off lightly. Anyone can go and recruit players like Grigg and Houli, Hartley gets praised but for what ... where are the big names or the big stars who can impact matches and win games for us. Nowhere ....
cmon ramps reckon im the only one who has regularly questioned both hartley overall and jackson.
on astbury and griffiths. long way to go still but for me they are two of the few positives out of the season so far.
im going to ask again do we go allout to win games or take a step backwards play more kids and probably have to endure some thrashings in the short term.
i think we have to at least remain competetive.
i think its been very clear what we need to do as far as list management goes but lets not do a melbourne and throw all of the experince out in one go.
if i was to name a very competetive side for the rest of the yr and hope for finals with one eye on development id want to see us go something like this.
FB: Morris - Chaplin - Grimes, the sad truth is chaplin is our best bet atm up against the bigger forwards.For sure we need to look at phasing him out but there is no replacement atm imo.
HB: Vlastuin - Astbury - Rance. if dea mcintosh and even helbig can show enough id really like us to give em some blocks of games.imo rance and grimes are competing for a spot.
FOLL: Maric - Thomas - Cotchin. thomas as long as he can maintain the current level is almost irreplacable. he has tucks job and hes doing it well.
MID: Deledio - Martin - Ellis. sort of speaks for itself.
HF: Knights - Griffiths - Gordon. think knights a good player and its only injury that is an issue, gordon looks likely and needs to be played. griffiths is the improver.
FF: Hampson - Riewoldt - Lloyd. No vickery, hampson as a second ruck is logical, we have to find a sml goalkicking fwd we have to see what lloyd has to offer.
INT: Lennon -Miles - Conca - Jackson
EMG: Arnot - Mcbean - Elton - Mcdonough
i reckon the above side would keep us competetive because we maintain maturity and experience along with good structure and size. it also allows us to phase out very quickly the likes of.
king,newman, s edwards, foley, grigg, houli, petterd and reluctantly vickery..all are regulars. it allows us to play and have a good look at younger fringe players and lastly it would allow us to get games and experience into some of the juniors.
i ask myself what are we really losing by dropping those 8 players imo it isnt a hell of a lot lost and its quite possible we could make gains in a very short space of time.
imo we
