What a selection headache

[d roit]

So according to Ross, Gardiner and Zac are definate in's, but what are the outs? I've spent a good 15 minutes looking at last weeks team and am struggling to figure out who are the unlucky ones.

The first one is a little bit simpler...
In: M.Gardiner
Out: King (if injured) or McEvoy (purely because MG is a better ruckman)

The second one, well....
In: Z.Dawson
Out: Eddy? R.Clarke? Gwilt? Dempster?

I cant see Dempster coming out of the team, he's gaining match fitness to resume his all important role of negating backmen or even defensive forward.

Same said for Clarke, it seems as though Ross is trying to build confidence in Raph to play that quaterback role, streaming out of defence to set up forward plays and alleviate some pressure from Fisher and Gilbert (when he returns).

And Gwilt, well, he's playing up the ground and Ross more often than not this year has gone like for like. Also, he seems to me a confidence player, and this is building each week. Dropping him now would ruin weeks of work.

That leaves Eddy, the man whose role no one knows (or at least i don't). But again, like for like, and Eddy is not a full back.

So, as you can see, i have no f**king clue.

This will only prove more difficult if Gilbert is fit to play.

Your thoughts anyone???

[Moods]

Not to mention Lyon has been talking up Ball's chances of resuming again this week.....

[matrix]

they said kingy was right to play
and that gards was as well last week and they said "what are we doing!?!", and put him back on ice.
gonna be interesting
do they play kingy and BB and rest gards again
or rest kingy and play gards with BB

if zac comes in and max is ok (no niggles) then i reckon it will be either raph or gwilt that will miss (sadly)
but if max rests then gods knows....glad its not my decisions to have to make

i dont reckon ball will come back in this week

[saintly]

leigh montagna, might be missing this week thru injury

[perfectionist]

...perhaps a couple out this week thru injury.

[35...LEGEND]

Not to mention Lyon has been talking up Ball's chances of resuming again this week.....

Bally might be handy for the tough in and under stuff this week at a wet and wild Aurora Stadium.

[matrix]

gee i hope joey does play
im going to put money on him for Chas today

[Bernard Shakey]

leigh montagna, might be missing this week thru injury

Montagna was fine at training yesterday, no strapping or anything.

He will play.

[d roit]

...perhaps a couple out this week thru injury.

Do you mean injury or "injury"?

Also i dont think King will play, as eager as he sounds to want to play this week and his resolve to get back on the ground on saturday night, i doubt a player of his age and importance will be risked unnecesserily. I mean, look at how long Gardiner was given on the sidelines to get 100%.

And whats the word on Gilbert? Is he going to play? How bad was his injury? i've heard what ross says but to be honest he is often quite vague about injuries and selection.

[meher baba]

Gardi for McEvoy, or King if the latter is injured.

It seems to be almost certain that Ball will come in for Eddy sooner or later.

Assuming these two things, the logical options for what we do with Dawson are

(a) Select him in place of Gwilt and use one of Dempster, Gilbert, Blake or Dawson himself in the role of third forward (remembering that, while Gwilt has not been good enough in that role to cement a place for himself, Dempster hasn't delivered even as much as Gwilt up front IMO and the other three haven't been tried there this season).

(b) Select him ahead of Blake or Max, which would be extremely harsh to either or them and might turn out to be a risky decision

(c) Select him ahead of Raph (but Raph was one of our ten best, and arguably one of our five best, on Saturday night)

(d) Select him ahead of one of Baker, Fisher, Gilbert or Ray (surely isn't going to happen)

(e) Move Dempster to the midfield, and leave out one of the other midfielders (Ball, Gram or Jones being the only conceivable possibilities) and bring Dawson in at the back: but is Dempster really capable of playing as a midfielder?

(f) Select him ahead of Dempster: which is probably what the majority of the football world would expect to happen, but which will not be possible if the club considers Dempster to be a required player.

(g) Leave Dawson out altogether

For mine, the obvious answer is (g), on team balance grounds. Dempster has more mobility than Dawson and can play on smalls: which will be an issue in finals games against the Pies, Cats and (if they make it) Hawks, all of whom have more than one highly dangerous small who can play forward.

If not (g), then surely (f), with Max taking care of any second dangerous small forward that might come our way.

If neither of these, then I reckon (a) is the only other option that isn't totally nonsensical. But even it is pretty nonsensical. If one can get over the idea that Dempster is a required player or else some sort of lucky charm because he played in a winning GF team, it is easy to see that Gwilt, Geary or perhaps even Eddy can offer more inside the forward 50 than Sean.

And I reckon that other untested ideas like playing Gilbert, Blake or Dawson as a permanent third forward should not be considered at this late stage.

[bigcarl]

i suspect this week that a lot will depend on match-ups. who gets buddy, who gets roughhead etc.

ross and co will sort it out.

[Bernard Shakey]

Ross said yesterday that Zac will play.

[On the Bench]

I heard that Sam Gilbert should be right this week as well.

It is a great problem to have