Good morning, everyone. This week, our Game Day thread sees our Magpies travel across the border to the City of Churches, to take on the eponymous Adelaide, in a match with everything to play for. We need to win if we are to remain a chance to make the Top 4 and secure that elusive double chance. They need to win if they are to make the Top 8 and play finals, period.
The stakes, in short, are high.
The teams:
Tip: Collingwood by 5 points.
Over to you…
Jesus, they’re still going on about Stephenson on the radio now.
Rosco just had a look at the Collingwood VFL side on the Magpies homepage and Scharenberg has not been named in the team. We have a good forward line with Stephenson and Wells lining up in the forward pockets. If they are serious about Wells playing in the senior team this year he is going to have to play a full match in the twos to show that his body is capable of getting through a match.
Rosco
They have been naming players in the VFL who have been selected for the AFL side for weeks so I doubt whether Scharenberg will be lining up in the twos. They might be going to play Moore up forward which is one reason they may have picked Magden again. He actually played his best game to date against the Crows which is not necessarily saying a lot. Also they may have just run out of options given that Goldsack is not going to play again unless the team bus falls off the Westgate Bridge on the way to the game with no survivors.
As to whether or not we are just making up the numbers only time will tell. Given the number of players Essendon is resting tonight we should have a comfortable win against them if we play anywhere near out best even with the team we are lining up. A loss or a narrow win could well mean that we are just making up the numbers even with additions to our team for the finals. Assuming that DeGoey and Sidebottom return with Stephenson for the first final the team would include 17 of last years GF team. Out would be Aish, Goldsack, Sier Landgon and Cox and in would be Moore, Roughhead, Elliott, Scharenberg and Callum Brown. There could be a few other changes if Aish is fit or Noble plays a blinder against the Dons tonight. On paper this years team stacks up very well against last years so there is definitely some reasons to believe that we could do some damage in the finals after week 1.
The media coverage of the Stephenson saga has been interesting. The AFL obviously made a mistake with the wording of the penalty in the first place and we have made just walked on through to take advantage. They wont make that mistake again that is for sure. Ralph in one of the papers said that it was possibly the difference between winning the Grand Final or not which appears completely over the top. My guess is that he will only play about half the game time to just get a bit of a feel for handling the ball in an actual match. How much different that is when compared to doing match simulations at practice is hard to say. I definitely dont think that they will be taking any risks with him.
Does anyone know why Scharenberg has been named – on the field – in the VFL?
Is it likely that we will look to debut Brown? HBF with Crisp to push up on the wing?
I was surprised Magden was retained with Moore returning and Sidey out. Moore is clearly not a like for like with Sidey.
Our wings gave been an important given the way we play and it would very difficult to replace Sidey, not only for his defensive work but his overall work rate and endurance to get to contests and stoppages. We have to plug a 26 possession, 5 mark, 3 clearance, 4 inside 50 and 3 rebound 50’s hole in his absence.
Not sure there is an obvious replacement – WHE doesn’t work hard enough both ways. Crisp seems the most logical but there is a question mark on his endurance for that sort of role.