Preview Round 1: Hawthorne vs Essendon, Melbourne Cricket Ground, Sunday 19th March @ 3.20pm

[Petrify]

Hind on the field and Kelly not in the 25 is the first noodlescratcher of the season.

You would expect Caldwell, Martin, AMT and Jones or Phillips would make the bench and Menzie to be the sub, going on that.

AFL.com.au has it the opposite. No hind and kelly on the field? Wtf

 

[VelvetSledge]

The club screwed up the graphic.

Kelly is in, Hind is not.

This ****ing club…

 

[Lore]

The club screwed up the graphic.

Kelly is in, Hind is not.

This ******* club…

Well it looks like it was made in paint by a 12 year old so not surprising mistakes are being made

 

[andleanback]

Yep so Kelly has played in the 'firsts' for each of the intra club and practice games, now out of the team for Hind. Perhaps an unreported injury... D'Ambrosio is the only defender on the bench so probably playing, otherwise we only have 6 defenders.

Midfield actually looks like a midfield :O Caldwell and Martin fighting for a bench spot? Shiel on a wing and Durham, Langford and Perkins being named in the forward line says we already have a lot of available rotations in the midfield, so will be interesting if Martin gets in the team. Surely you can't leave him out though...

Ruck is Draper of course, no surprises there. Phillips is on the extended bench but you'd think he'd be the emergency unless he takes Jones' spot on the bench and they for some reason decide to play a two ruck set up (unlikely imo).

Forward line is the most flexible. We have two genuine tall forwards and one genuine small forward named on the field, with the rest of the named forward line being wing/fwd at best. Menzie, Snelling, Walla and Jones all looking for bench spots, of which there are probably two available. Martin may also be competing for one in the forward line if Caldwell has the midfield bench spot. Given Voss isn't on the bench, Jones has no competition. The only way he doesn't get on the bench is if we're going with two talls and no third/medium talls except for rotating wingers. Which leaves Menzie, Snelling, Walla and Martin in contention for the last bench spot and a sub-vest.

The afl website has Kelly in the backline and not hind?
Nevertheless how has he skipped massimo in the process who was one of our best against Saints and hind left out.

 

[VelvetSledge]

The official Essendon app is showing two teams, and each one has either Hind or Kelly.

Geez we’ve started well…

(Kelly is the starting HBF)

 

[VelvetSledge]

Jeez. These graphics are horrible.

 

[MightyDon]

Heppell smh. Can just tell Scott will keep him in the side for most of the year.

Something to do the learnings and that after the last two years the club still hasn’t learnt he’s not AFL standard, needs to do the nick Maxwell waterboy thing

 

[ant555]

Go Essington

 

[eth-dog]

From the FootyLive app

 

[andleanback]

I’d say the bench will be massimo caldwell Martin and menzie - tippa/Snelling sub

 

[Ati Tude]

I’d say the bench will be massimo caldwell Martin and menzie - tippa/Snelling sub

Surely Jones has to be in the 22. We'd be very short up forward if he isn't, especially when Weid has to do some ruck.

 

[andleanback]

Surely Jones has to be in the 22. We'd be very short up forward if he isn't, especially when Weid has to do some ruck.

Wright will be full time forward, langford has some height. Better then when wright was 2nd rucking last year. Jones hasnt done enough to deserve a round 1 berth imo. If we play Jones, we are only playing 1 small forward then? Goes against the forward pressure strategy. Asking a lot of Davey to be the solo small forward, be a lot easier with menzie in the side aswell.
Heppell playing really stuffs it for us, takes away a spot from someone who should be playing and makes our forward line slower

 

[jdstorm]

Feels like they had to include Heppell and Sheil for “reasons”. Hiding both on wings

 

[bombreys]

We are debuting less players than Melbourne. And Carlton.

How does this keep happening?

 

[Mr Sasquatch]

Match Committee 2023 team photo

 

[andleanback]

We are debuting less players than Melbourne. And Carlton.

How does this keep happening?

Tsatas injuring his knee…

 

[Lore]

We are debuting less players than Melbourne. And Carlton.

How does this keep happening?

Who else would you like to debut?

Most of them debuted last year or previously, those that haven't are currently injured (Jayden, Tsatas) or extremely raw.

Montgomerie, Hayes and McBride have work to do.

The only reasonable argument is for Voss, but you're not leaving Wright or Weideman out. And dropping one kid for another is a bit irrational.

The only way I really see it working is if you play four tall forwards.

 

[BrunoV]

We are debuting less players than Melbourne. And Carlton.

How does this keep happening?

We haven't started developing yet.

 

[kelvin_sheedy]

Looking forward to watching all our top end draft picks over the past 5 years start well, breakout season

 

[Zach Package]

Well it looks like it was made in paint by a 12 year old so not surprising mistakes are being made

Now they’ve taken the graphic off the website and replaced it with a table with Kelly in the side.

Donate to the poor, dumb intern plan.

 

[Lore]

Looking forward to watching all our top end draft picks over the past 5 years start well, breakout season

5 years eh:

2018 - no top picks
2019 - no top picks... Jones (bench/emg) was pick 30 - does that count?
2020 - Cox (inj), Perkins, Reid (inj) - also Caldwell (bench/emg) via trade?
2021 - Hobbs (inj)
2022 - Tsatas (inj), Hayes (if Jones counts... Hayes counts)

Off to a great start

So... Perkins?

 

[TheWeapon]

Would have preferred Voss over Jones based on what I've seen recently but looks like Brad is going to stick with the old players for now

 

[MightyDon]

I don‘t think anymore than two of Hind, Kelly, Heppell, Snelling and Phillips would be in a team of ours to break our finals drought, I don’t think any would be in ours or any other team’s premiership winning side. For the development of the side baring injuries I wouldn’t play anymore than two of these players in the senior side from here out

 

[faible]

Would have preferred Voss over Jones based on what I've seen recently but looks like Brad is going to stick with the old players for now

Jones is a 22yo tall, he’s also young, same age as Caldwell and Hawks KPF in Kosichitzcke.

 

[faible]

I don‘t think anymore than two of Hind, Kelly, Heppell, Snelling and Phillips would be in a team of ours to break our finals drought, I don’t think any would be in ours or any other team’s premiership winning side. For the development of the side baring injuries I wouldn’t play anymore than two of these players in the senior side from here out

We currently have injuries to Hobbs, Tsatas, Cox and Reid all of whom are top-10 selections.

The only club with more injuries on the AFL injury list then us is St Kilda.