Rnd 11 Pre-Match Thread, vs Western Bulldogs at Marvel, 7:30 PM Thursday 23 May 2024

[Maltopia]

We kick off the round on Thursday night, and have the luxury of being on top of the ladder throughout the weekend no matter what happens. Even better if we win and keep our lead on the rest of the teams!

Hard to change a winning team, but Fox may be out for a few weeks. I read AC joint which can be up to 6 weeks depending on severity.

Normally, another week off for McCartin to recover from concussion would be great as there is a bye for us in Rnd 12, which would give McCartin a whole month off.

The Bulldogs are very tall with JUH, Naugton, Lobb and sometimes Darcy going forward, so we need to bring someone tall in for Fox I think.

Out: Fox (injured)
In: McCartin or Edwards debut

[liz]

We kick off the round on Thursday night, and have the luxury of being on top of the ladder throughout the weekend no matter what happens. Even better if we win and keep our lead on the rest of the teams!

Hard to change a winning team, but Fox may be out for a few weeks. I read AC joint which can be up to 6 weeks depending on severity.

Normally, another week off for McCartin to recover from concussion would be great as there is a bye for us in Rnd 12, which would give McCartin a whole month off.

The Bulldogs are very tall with JUH, Naugton, Lobb and sometimes Darcy going forward, so we need to bring someone tall in for Fox I think.

Out: Fox (injured)
In: McCartin or Edwards debut

The Dogs won't play all four of those talls. Lobb has been playing VFL for the last few weeks and will almost certainly stay there. So they'll have Ugle-Hagan, Naughton and Darcy as their tall forwards, with Darcy also relieving English in the ruck.

We have no one remotely tall enough to spoil or outmark Darcy overhead. No team does. He's 208 cm but with the agility and kicking skill of someone considerably shorter. He'll likely take a few marks forward and could well kick a few goals. We just have to live with that. It's scary to think about how potent a forward he might become in a few years time.

[lwjoyner]

maybe we play hamling. or why did we recruit him

[i'm-uninformed2]

The Dogs won't play all four of those talls. Lobb has been playing VFL for the last few weeks and will almost certainly stay there. So they'll have Ugle-Hagan, Naughton and Darcy as their tall forwards, with Darcy also relieving English in the ruck.

We have no one remotely tall enough to spoil or outmark Darcy overhead. No team does. He's 208 cm but with the agility and kicking skill of someone considerably shorter. He'll likely take a few marks forward and could well kick a few goals. We just have to live with that. It's scary to think about how potent a forward he might become in a few years time.

You give me one young player from another club, and it’s him - then daylight.

[707]

Dogs got Darcy at pick 2 in the draft for a bag of rubbish picks. The AFL really need to fix up the woefully inadequate points table and tighten bid matching rules.

Will hurt us as well but it needs to be fair and then some of the southern whinging about northern academies will disappear.

DANGER GAME - have I got that right?

Must keep winning these games against challengers to hopefully build a buffer for player management at the back end of the season, ala Geelong 2022. Some nice results at the weekend for us.

[neilfws]

Downside of playing the Dogs is of course, that you have to watch the Dogs.

McCartin and Fox both out is the big concern for me, but the team has covered one or both of those losses before so I'm sure they can again. Just have to stay busy in the middle so as not too many go the wrong way.

It'll be a good test I guess, and let's hope this amazing run of form continues.

[BRS328]

Edwards won’t be playing, he did not play in the reserves last week. Agree that he has talent, but is way off being ready for senior football. While he played well against North 2 weeks ago Dursma kicked 4 goals on him. He is still learning and well worth persevering with, but give him time to develop and build confidence

[liz]

Edwards won’t be playing, he did not play in the reserves last week. Agree that he has talent, but is way off being ready for senior football. While he played well against North 2 weeks ago Dursma kicked 4 goals on him. He is still learning and well worth persevering with, but give him time to develop and build confidence

To be fair to Edwards in that game, Duursma was a strange match-up to assign to him.

[longmile]

Downside of playing the Dogs is of course, that you have to watch the Dogs.

McCartin and Fox both out is the big concern for me, but the team has covered one or both of those losses before so I'm sure they can again. Just have to stay busy in the middle so as not too many go the wrong way.

It'll be a good test I guess, and let's hope this amazing run of form continues.

Is it already confirmed that McCartin will miss another week? My understanding is that the incident was minor and he should be back this week. Really concerning if he’s not back after something so minor given his history

[dejavoodoo44]

Is it already confirmed that McCartin will miss another week? My understanding is that the incident was minor and he should be back this week. Really concerning if he’s not back after something so minor given his history

After the last match, I think he said he was fine and that he'd back training this week. But don't quote me on that, as it was part of Roaming Brian and I wasn't paying a huge amount of attention.

[liz]

Is it already confirmed that McCartin will miss another week? My understanding is that the incident was minor and he should be back this week. Really concerning if he’s not back after something so minor given his history

I don't think it's been confirmed one way or the other. Someone in the media (I think it was Garry Lyon on OTC last Monday) suggested it would be good to give him the extra week off because, with the Swans having a bye the week after, it means he'd have had a full month to recover before playing again. Lyon is close to the McCartin family and shows extra concern for both Tom and Paddy.

Longmire may not think the same way once he starts matching magnets up against those of Darcy, Ugle-Hagan and Naughton. But he won't be tempted to play Tom if he's not 100% right to go.

[Maltopia]

Longmire said before last week’s game, that McCartin was ready to play, but they were just giving him extra time off to look after him.

Last year he had a concussion, was back and then had to take another longer period off (4-5 weeks?) due to headaches etc, so I think the Swans were just being cautious.

So McCartin should be ready for selection this week, just a case of whether they want to be cautious with his concussion history and what happened with his brother, and give him a longer break.