Kieren Jack comes back in (we hope). Who goes out? I've only watched the North game at the pub while I was out of town but I thought Benny had a decent game. I note he laid a team high 8 tackles. Conversely, Heeney, who I thought did a lot of good stuff and is sometimes a prolific tackler, didn't lay a single tackle. This makes me a little reluctant to drop Benny. The only other candidate that I can see us dropping is Harry. The problem there is we would need to re-jig the whole set up for someone to switch into the defensive role Harry has been playing and who would it be? - Lloyd? I can't see Kizza being moved back, nor Benny or even Gazza. Is this a good idea or is it better to stick with the simple switch of Kizza for Benny?
Beyond this week, I can't see any of our injured players (nor Talia) returning to the team this year. Reid, Jones and Sinclair et. al. will not return to the team for finals regardless of whether they become fit (except, perhaps, in the case of injuries/suspensions). We are more likely to rely on the likes of Foote, Laidler, Teddy, Marsh (?), Rose and BJ for depth. Would love to see them give Newman a go but I guess they would have done it by now if they were going to.
I am curious why Laidler has dropped so far down the selection committee's priorities. Did his game deteriorate or did Marsh, Aliir and now Harry just overtake him? I suppose it must be his ball use and rebound that is hurting him as he has always seemed like a pretty dependable defender? Do others have thoughts about this?
Overall I am only slightly nervous about playing the Tiges despite our dire recent record against them. Instead I have faith we can pound them and secure the win and percentage we need to finish top!
Bookmarks