Preview Round 3 - Essendon Bombers vs Port Adelaide Power - Thursday March 27th - 7:30pm at Marvel Stadium

[silk]

Round 3 sees us face another South Australian team, with Essendon hosting Port Adelaide at Marvel on Thursday night. This is going to be interesting.. There is one burning question.. Are we finally proper shit enough to get good enough picks to not be kinda shit, but almost ok… We played one of the youngest teams both this week and last, and most of us are hoping this trend continues… seriously if we get much younger, we’ll have Anthony Kledis wanting to date us… Even Leo is ok with us at the moment.

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The round that was

Adelaide vs Essendon

Our backline sucks.. But so do our turnovers.. And we are the worst marking team in the comp still. Our forward line is also bloody raw as.. Even so if you told me Merret would have a 36 Disposal, 4-goal game and we’d still lose by over 10 goals.. I’d think you were ****en full of it.. I know AFL Fantasy rating isn’t the most meaningful stat, but after Merret, 17 of the next 18 were Crows players…

129 Marks to 59 - 20 Marks inside 50 to 7, 14 Contested marks to 7.. And we still lost the tackle count.

Congrats to Edwards on his Debut - not the best game to debut in, but looked ok out there at times.

ESSENDON 3.2 5.4 9.7 15.10 (100)
ADELAIDE 5.5 11.8 18.10 25.11 (161)

GOALS
Essendon: Merrett 4, Edwards 3, Draper 3, Kako 2, Martin, Caldwell, Gresham
Adelaide: Keays 4, Rachele 4, Fogarty 3, Thilthorpe 3, Neal-Bullen 2, Rankine 2, Soligo 2, Milera, Hinge, Walker, Curtin, Sholl

BEST
Essendon: Merrett, Caldwell, Redman, Tsatas, Durham
Adelaide: Dawson, Rankine, Keays, Rachele, Thilthorpe, Murray

INJURIES
Essendon: Nil
Adelaide: Nil

SUBSTITUTES
Essendon: Jye Menzie (replaced Nate Caddy in the fourth quarter)
Adelaide: Sid Draper (replaced Izak Rankine in the third quarter)

Crowd: 46,688 at the MCG

Port Adelaide vs Richmond Tigers

In a result that should have come as no surprise, given Port’s long-held reputation of being downhill skiers, Port rightly thumped the Tigers by 72 Points; a margin that flatters the Tigers given they are already down by 65 points at halftime before Port relaxed a little. Still, this is an ominous result for us, given we probably aren’t much better than the Tiges.

PORT ADELAIDE 6.6 13.11 19.13 21.14 (140)
RICHMOND 1.3 3.6 6.10 9.14 (68)

GOALS
Port Adelaide: Georgiades 4, Powell-Pepper 3, Rioli 3, Rozee 2, Burgoyne 2, Wines, Richards, Horne-Francis, Farrell, Evans, Byrne-Jones, Berry
Richmond: Armstrong 2, Campbell 2, McIntosh, Lalor, Fawcett, Blight, Bauer

BEST
Port Adelaide: Rozee, Powell-Pepper, Burgoyne, Farrell, Drew, Georgiades
Richmond: Mansell, Miller, Hopper, Armstrong, Campbell, Blight

INJURIES
Port Adelaide: Lukosius (knee)
Richmond: Banks (concussion)

SUBSTITUTES
Port Adelaide: Christian Moraes, replaced Jack Lukosius in the first quarter
Richmond: Kaleb Smith, replaced Sam Banks in the second quarter

Crowd: TBC at Adelaide Oval

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The Last Time We Met

We got spanked! Merrett was great.. The team sucked.. A tale as old as time now.

PORT ADELAIDE 4.0 10.3 13.7 17.9 (111)
ESSENDON 3.3 4.4 6.5 6.6 (42)

GOALS
Port Adelaide: Rozee 3, Rioli 3, Finlayson 3, Byrne-Jones 3, Georgiades 2, Soldo, McEntee, Marshall
Essendon: Gresham 3, Stringer, Perkins, Jones

BEST
Port Adelaide: Rozee, Horne-Francis, Butters, Finlayson, Rioli
Essendon: Gresham, Merrett, McKay, Duursma, Caldwell

INJURIES
Port Adelaide: Boak (back)
Essendon: Perkins (hamstring)

SUBSTITUTES
Port Adelaide: Jase Burgoyne (replaced Travis Boak in the third quarter)
Essendon: Nick Hind (replaced Jye Menzie in the third quarter)

Crowd: 47,641 at Adelaide Oval

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The Selection Table

Possible Outs
Menzie
Hobbs - Dunno what to do with this guy, don’t want him, but he needs to do more somehow
Jones - just doesn’t provide enough forward or on the wing - 2 marks for the game when we were desperate for marking power.
Redman, Shiel, Prior, McKay - Take your pick, the backline sucks rights now.


Possible Ins
Ridley - Thankfully back from Concussion
Hayes - Please - BOG in the VFL teams win over Williamstown - 16 Marks!
Hayes - Seriously - Get him ****en in
Unwin - Solid game in the VFL and we need small forwards - Will have more impact than Menzie imo

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My Prediction -

Port by 45

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Demons watch -

Go North!!! Current Pick - 4

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Housekeeping

Sorry everyone, but this will be my last preview until May; after the North Melbourne Game - I’ll be back, unless someone takes over for the rest of the season (unlikely) and is better than me at this (very likely)

 

[MightyDon]

Out: McGrath Shiel Menzie Prior
In: Ridley Hayes and don’t care maybe draw names out of a hat

 

[JayJ20]

OUT: Shiel, McGrath, Prior, Hobbs
IN: SEH, Lual, Johnson, Setterfield

Drop McGrath. A statement needs to be made. I also would have no complaints if Hayes is in for McKay.

If we're going to get smashed and finish bottom 4, at least let's do it by seeing what else we have on our list instead of watching the same senior players do the same thing over and over again.

 

[thebigboy]

I’d love to believe an axe is coming, but that just doesn’t feel like the way we’ll go. They’ll want to stay the course for another week and reasses at the bye week. It’ll likely be something along the lines of:

In: Ridley & Davey
Out: Menzie & Prior.

As much as I’m hoping to see Shiel & McGrath out of the team, it’s a complete restructure that’s needed. I don’t see them doing that in a short week

 

[ydc55]

I don’t think Dylan will see out the year.
I think he knows the career is over.
Shiel, Prior, Reid and Hobbs out
Ridley, Clarke, Johnson and Davey in.
Happy to keep Reid in and play him forward and drop jones.
Throw Clarke on a wing. He can run and kick. Physically immature.
Johnson will have a crack. Prior looks uncompetitive to me.

 

[naraku]

In: Hayes, Setterfield, Johnson.
Out: Menzie, Jones, Hobbs.

The dream omission is of course McGrath but that's as likely as us winning the flag.

 

[Thesharks]

Looking at the stats, El Hawli seemed like he had a good first half in the VFL and then nothing. Would he have only played 50% TOG?

 

[BratPack]

See what Port did against Richmond

Realise that Richmond still have senior players who actually try.

What the **** do you think is going to happen?

 

[cAsEy_18]

Need to win this to really maintain our top 4 chances.

 

[andleanback]

I don’t think Dylan will see out the year.
I think he knows the career is over.
Shiel, Prior, Reid and Hobbs out
Ridley, Clarke, Johnson and Davey in.
Happy to keep Reid in and play him forward and drop jones.
Throw Clarke on a wing. He can run and kick. Physically immature.
Johnson will have a crack. Prior looks uncompetitive to me.

Shiel is just getting a few extra games in and collecting a pay check at this point. A few of the younger kids we drafted believe he’s arrogant and doesn’t give them the time of day. I’d pay him out early and let him sit at home for the year

 

[cobra land]

Shiel is just getting a few extra games in and collecting a pay check at this point. A few of the younger kids we drafted believe he’s arrogant and doesn’t give them the time of day. I’d pay him out early and let him sit at home for the year

Package him up with McKay, free to a good home..

 

[Duckworth]

I would put Perkins to the sub. Was unsighted in the first half anyway.

 

[Megabattimus]

Lol, we're either gonna get smashed or smash them. There is no in between.

On SM-G991B using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[MiguelM]

We will be smashed in the media all week so will probably have a good game as players will be "on".

Need to build the mentality to be "on" every game.

 

[MiguelM]

Time to experiment IMO.

I would try Gresham beck in McGrath spot. He is one of the few that is defensively minded and does not kick that many goals anyway.

McGrath won't be dropped so try him in Gresham's spot. Maybe without the pressure he might be better.

 

[windyhill]

Powell-Pepper, to have a night out, he is THE type of player we crave. When he was re-signing for Port (it took some time) I was crying out for him.

 

[daffo]

Will be a very interesting selection.
Let's see if BDB actually has the guts to make a statement.

 

[Vindicater]

Out: Prior, Shiel and Hobbs

In: Ridley, Hayes and Johnson

 

[Duckworth]

Out: Prior, Shiel and Hobbs

In: Ridley, Hayes and Johnson

Ridley replaces Prior? This would keep Redman back as another small. Ridley also would make Reid look better on those times he get's across to cover. That's a better back 6.

Shiel and Hobbs I don't think get dropped. Although, I've seen enough to call the Shiel experiment a fail. I would have liked El Hawli to have a good game - as he would be better in the Shiel role (maybe) or maybe Redman (again) playing the Shiel role. What I do know, is that the worst person in the Shiel role, is Shiel.

Hayes looked to have a good day in the VFL (27 touches). Must also be considered to reward good VFL form. Hayes, McKay and Reid all back would be too tall.... send one forward?

Menzie, Perkins, Jones and Gresham would want to turn it around for next week. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of players to replace them.

 

[mike14]

Time to experiment IMO.

I would try Gresham beck in McGrath spot. He is one of the few that is defensively minded and does not kick that many goals anyway.

McGrath won't be dropped so try him in Gresham's spot. Maybe without the pressure he might be better.

Gresham is a forward. He's 27, with 160 games under his belt playing as a forward. Just leave him there and let's see if any of the guys we've drafted to play defence can do it

 

[ant555]

Out: Prior, Shiel and Hobbs

In: Ridley, Hayes and Johnson

Out of interest who is playing forward?

 

[ghostdog]

Shiel is just getting a few extra games in and collecting a pay check at this point. A few of the younger kids we drafted believe he’s arrogant and doesn’t give them the time of day. I’d pay him out early and let him sit at home for the year

Aren't we getting to 100 or something? When's that?

 

[Vindicater]

Out of interest who is playing forward?

I think we have very little options unfortunately.

Might need to persist with Caddy/Kako and a rotating cast of smalls. I would bring Menzie into the starting 22 and run Johnson perhaps as a sub.

Draper/Caddy/Edwards/Kako/Menzie/Gresham

It is dire times.

 

[Lore]

I think we have very little options unfortunately.

Might need to persist with Caddy/Kako and a rotating cast of smalls. I would bring Menzie into the starting 22 and run Johnson perhaps as a sub.

Draper/Caddy/Edwards/Kako/Menzie/Gresham

It is dire times.

Should’ve said Martin

 

[Snake Charmer]

Never play Menzie, Prior or Sheil again pls. Perkins needs to actually earn a spot. Been gifted games since when ever we drafted him.