Best 23 in 2025

[adammania9]

And the fact that all are aging players are two years older

Technically yes, in the sense that everyone is aging always.

I don’t think many of our veterans were worse in 2024 than 2023. They held up their end of the bargain. I think we can reasonably expect the likes of Pendlebury, Howe, Cox, Elliott, Crisp, WHE etc to deliver similar levels of footy to what they did in the past two years

 

[Rusty Beam]

There are always injuries so there'll be opportunities for guys like Allen.

Allan needs to be given games IMO. Even if he’s performances are below the guy he’s replacing ie Sidebottom, Lipinski, WHE.

He’s not going to develop properly simply playing VFL and not being able to string games together at AFL level. That’s before even worrying about him getting itchy feet.

 

[Fat Jesus]

Allan needs to be given games IMO. Even if he’s performances are below the guy he’s replacing ie Sidebottom, Lipinski, WHE.

He’s not going to develop properly simply playing VFL and not being able to string games together at AFL level. That’s before even worrying about him getting itchy feet.

He will be because he's way better than some here think.

 

[Vankri]

Not going to have a crack at it yet but with our new acquisitions and with so many coming back from injury riddled seasons we have some really interesting calls to make.

Who plays on the HBFs: obviously Houston is a given at high half back but last year towards the end we sent IQ on a wing and Jaicos back and we’ve lost Noble and it’s unlikely Markov is best 23 anymore so who brings the leg speed? Plus we’ve got Perryman who seemingly may start behind the ball going by Leppa’s comments. Fly also rotates players a lot across HB and mid. What I’d like to see is actually sending Crisp back for that combo of run from half back and excellent intercept mark skills which plays into our game style and is something we sorely missed from someone like IQ this year compared to 23. Also allows Perryman to focus on defensive midfield position which I can see him improving (sorry Titch and Pendles).

Our tall defence dilemma: we’re building a great strength in rebounding defenders with now probably league best talent there (Houston, Maynard, IQ, Crisp, Perryman, Jaicos all very strong options) but it leaves us with a challenge with our tall backs. Do we go with Moore and Howe like a few are suggesting knowing it forces Howe to play too tall or are we playing Frampton (or Tomlinson) out of necessity? I think there are teams we can’t do without a second 195cm+ defender like the Dogs or Carlton or teams with two ruck setups so I’d go with the two tall + Howe formula meaning a great HB misses or spends more time in the middle, but maybe it’s a case by case during the season and we try without it against smaller forward lines to really aim to dominate teams through intercept and rebound like we did in 23.

Inside mid rotations: Nick is a given but after that it’s an open question. Who lines up in the equivalent centre bounce from the 23 GF before the Jordy goal? Does Pendles still have it in him to be part of core inside mid work and play sweeper or does he actually play further back? Does Sidey continue with a tagging role and if so against which teams? Can Titch recover his 2023 form? Does Jordy split his time with the forward line? Do we actually need another big body rotation there we haven’t seen much of before like Bruz or Beau? What’s I’d love to see here is Allan coming on and imposing himself to get us frothing about him and Nick as a duo for ten years. Long odds but not impossible as I think the natural talent and physical attributes are there. Would reshuffle the deck considerably if so.

The ruck dilemma: Cameron has come on incredibly well but we still looked structurally more sound when Cox came back in. Does Cameron have it in him to play 80% game time in the ruck? My hope is that with McStay now fully recovered from his ACL I’d love to at least give it a go with Cameron first and Mcstay ruck forward, allowing us to bring an extra runner in or even something like Membrey especially if the sub goes.

Tell you what though, Fly wanted a team with versatility and he got one. Many multi-position players I haven’t even touched on like WHE or Bobby and Jaime on a wing. Exciting times and some cool stuff to look for in the pre season training.

 

[Jelly Bean]

Not going to have a crack at it yet but with our new acquisitions and with so many coming back from injury riddled seasons we have some really interesting calls to make.

Who plays on the HBFs: obviously Houston is a given at high half back but last year towards the end we sent IQ on a wing and Jaicos back and we’ve lost Noble and it’s unlikely Markov is best 23 anymore so who brings the leg speed? Plus we’ve got Perryman who seemingly may start behind the ball going by Leppa’s comments. Fly also rotates players a lot across HB and mid. What I’d like to see is actually sending Crisp back for that combo of run from half back and excellent intercept mark skills which plays into our game style and is something we sorely missed from someone like IQ this year compared to 23. Also allows Perryman to focus on defensive midfield position which I can see him improving (sorry Titch and Pendles).

Great post except where you are suggesting Crisp has excellent (or any) intercept (or otherwise) marking skills...

One of the poorer overhead in our team.

 

[Vankri]

Great post except where you are suggesting Crisp has excellent (or any) intercept (or otherwise) marking skills...

One of the poorer overhead in our team.

He did it in 2018 and can do it again!

 

[Matt_352]

B: Maynard ~ Tomlinson ~ Howe
HB: Crisp ~ Moore ~ Houston
C: J.Daicos ~ N.Daicos ~ Sidebottom
R: Cameron ~ Mitchell ~ Perryman
HF: Elliott ~ Mihocek ~ DeGoey
F: Schultz ~ McStay ~ Hill

Int: WHE ~ Membrey ~ McCreery ~ Quaynor Pendlebury