Rnd 21, vs Giants at Giants Stadium, on Saturday 5 August 7:30 PM

[The Big Cat]

Hickey to play ruck to allow McLean to go forward. Dyl replaces McInerney and Melican replaces Rampe.

[Blood Fever]

Is Melican available?

[liz]

No. Unless he’s made a miraculous recovery.

[Mel_C]

Rampe is out, possibly very short term.

McInerney is out - for at least three weeks.

Both with calf strains.

It really was the night of the calf strain. I wonder whether there was any effect from playing on that carpet covered concrete out west the week before. Or just plain bad luck.


Injury Update: Rampe to miss Round 21

Hmm I have the same suspicions about the Perth surface after reading the injury report.

[Mel_C]

Is Melican available?

Not based on the injury report. It says he is progressing well and will complete full training this week.

[Thunder Shaker]

We need to overtake two of Geelong, Bulldogs and Carlton to make the eight.

St Kilda have Carlton, Richmond, Geelong and Brisbane to come. That's not easy, and they could easily lose them all. So it's possible to overtake St Kilda.

Don't exclude GWS either. If we beat GWS, it's possible to overtake them as well - an eight-point game.

[MattW]

If Stephens doesn't replace McInerney this week, it would suggest they've made a call to let him go after this year.

I think they'll pick him. Corey has looked well out of his depth to date and it would be big call to debut Hall-Kahan in the is one.

I'm very interested to see whether they go with Hickey or Buller to replace Franklin. Again, I suspect Hickey, but Buller would be a revealing selection.

Francis for Rampe.

Cunningham to play on Greene.

[Captain]

Surely Fox plays on Greene. Seems very obvious to me.

Francis, Stephens and Hickey would be my ins.

[MattW]

Hmm, photo 4/5: https://www.instagram.com/p/CvZKFrCr...IwNzIyMDk2Mg==

I.e this image:

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[Ludwig]

If Stephens doesn't replace McInerney this week, it would suggest they've made a call to let him go after this year.


Cunningham to play on Greene.

I would think that the regular non-selection of Stephens indicates that we will likely trade him. The fact is, that besides the high possession count, he hasn't played very well. Win the ball only to turn it over is not the kind of player we need. It's sad. I was once very hopeful about his draft selection.

Cunningham on Daniels is the most likely matchup of the game. I would be really surprised if it didn't happen.

[Ruck'n'Roll]

We've basically lost the centre clearance counts in most games this year, so playing McLean as first ruck could be seen as simply conceding that fact.
And although Ludwig does make a point regarding the capability of the Giants tall defence.
I hope we do actually play a ruckman this week, and ask McLean to focus on playing a completely negative game against Taylor, as he once did against Brisbane's Harris Andrews.

[MattW]

I would think that the regular non-selection of Stephens indicates that we will likely trade him. The fact is, that besides the high possession count, he hasn't played very well. Win the ball only to turn it over is not the kind of player we need. It's sad. I was once very hopeful about his draft selection.

Cunningham on Daniels is the most likely matchup of the game. I would be really surprised if it didn't happen.

I can see Fox conceding frees to Greene. Since round 11, Fox's personal free kick count is 0-8: https://afltables.com/afl/stats/play...Fox.html#20230.

Cunningham seems more likely to stay disciplined.