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- Sep 17, 2006
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- #1
This week we front up against a red hot Sydney side who are sitting top 2 on the ladder with a 3-0 record and have looked mighty impressive this year in all their games. They come into the game with a midfield brigade that is firing on all cylinders, their back line is playing well conceding less than 80 points a game, while they score over 100 a game on average. Of all our games so far this will be our toughest test.
On Sunday against Port, we played well enough to hang with Port for about 2.5 quarters, where they had a surge at the start of the 3rd and then again in the last to firstly rundown a 2 goal lead and to then open up a 5 goal lead that they comfortably held until the final siren.
This week we should be strengthened by the returns of Broad & Young to the back line, however Hopper will be missing again, so it will be interesting to see just how we go with team selection for this week. Last week we gave opportunities to a few more kids and for the most part they all played well. The exceptions being Banks who was subbed out again and Dow who has struggled to deliver on preseason promise so far. Both could make way for the returns of Broad and Young with some shuffling of the team to perhaps move say Daniel and Short up the ground to get them more involved around the play.
However, what I'd prefer is we drop a couple of under performing senior players in Grimes and McIntosh with Broad and Young coming in to replace them. I'd also like to see McAuliffe and Sonsie brought in to reward their good form through the summer and keep putting development into the next generation of talent.
Out: Grimes McIntosh Banks Lefau(all omit) Trezise (ankle)
In: Broad Young Sonsie McAuliffe M.Rioli
B: Broad Miller Young
HB: Short Vlastuin Brown
C: D.Rioli Taranto Sonsie
HF: Campbell Bolton Mansell
F: Balta Martin Lynch
R: Nankervis Ross Baker
INT: Pickett M.Rioli McAuliffe Dow Clarke
With this side I feel we address some areas of concern. Firstly the move of Short and Daniel to the wings, gives us outside options with pace and skill to aid in our desire to play with quick ball movement through the middle of the ground. We've been winning or at least breaking even at clearances, but we seem to be missing that outside speed away from the contest to really open the game up. Getting that up and going, will only aid our forward line to function better as we'd be getting the ball into Lynch & Balta quicker allowing them to compete more 1-1 than in pack situations.
Down back we're quite sound with Miller and Young to take on the Swans key forwards in McDonald and Amartey, while Broad Vlastuin Brown and Trezise are all quite good intercept players who can work together to help Miller and Young in the air, while also being good enough at ground level to use the footy well coming out of D50. Short and Rioli being on the wings, can also push back to give us that run and carry rebound from D50 as well.
Up forward we look dangerous with Lynch and Balta as the marking options, while Martin and Bolton can do damage at ground level or in the air. Campbell is playing solid footy so far this year and gets himself in position to hit the scoreboard, while Mansell & Maurice both provide pressure defensively, while also being threats when the ball hits the ground. As I said above if we can get the ball in their quickly before the Swans back line get set up defensively we could certainly cause them some problems.
In the midfield we're going to have Nankervis going up against Grundy whose form has been a bit up and down, he's played well at the SCG, but struggled a bit in his game at the MCG albeit against his former team in Collingwood, who'd have known how to best combat him. Where we really need to step up is against the Swans midfielders in Heeney Warner & Gulden who have been great to start the season. With a relatively young and inexperienced group of Taranto Ross Baker starting we're going to need to be right on our game to stop them from getting off to a fast start. It may even be worth starting Taranto Martin & Bolton in the middle to try and set the time and then rotate the kids through later in the quarter when a bit of the sting has gone out. Last thing we want to see happen is another first half like the Suns game where our midfield could do a thing to stop the Suns
As far as the game goes I don't see us winning this one, in fact even the most one eyed supporter would concede we're up against it this week. What we should be focusing on is ensuring that we're bringing the same effort and intensity that we did against Carlton and in the first half last week, but hopefully we can do so for a bit longer than a half. It's all about the long term goals rather than short term success and while a win would be a great reward for the last couple of weeks, it would seem unlikely.
Verdict: Swans to cruise a 4-6 goal win
Possible Line Up edited due to Trezise missing with injury
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