We just didn't get enough of a chance to make that hard call. I think a full preseason with us will do him wonders.
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Let's not go all St Kilda fan like and read too much into the first pre-season game. They're certain top 4 finishers after last night, and after the first quarter, Max King was the second coming of Nick Riewoldt.
The Marsh series games will be played at half the normal defensive pressure of a H&A game judging by last night.
It's still interesting to watch to see how teams move the ball. St Kilda will be 'braver' this year and use the corridor (I suspect this plan falls apart quickly if you can contain Brad Hill).
Hawks will go tall ahead of the ball and kick higher as they have the crumbers to make it work.
Just to confirm will the game tonight be on Fox Footy?
Gardner in could be for a number of reasons that don't necessarily see him in our best 30.
-A reward for a genuinely good pre-season
-A show of faith by a coach that loves that shit. Beveridge might be thinking that if he shows Gardner that he believes in him then that might help boost him along.
-An opportunity to see if he can be a more athletic version of Trengove and fill holes wherever we need him.
Most likely however i would imagine it is because while we usually play with a big squad we tend to try to treat it as a dress rehearsal as much as possible. That means playing 22-24 players for most of the match with the rest getting a half of footy at best. I would imagine having a 200cm athletic versatile promising tall on the bench means if we get any injuries anywhere we are well covered, and if there are no injuries we just might not play him at all. We've done it before in the pre-season.
Gardner's been on the list for 6 months. We need to give him a chance.
I would have preferred to see Young as well but I don't think slinging mud at Gardner helps anyone. Talk about WHAT you want to see from him rather than just running him down.
I don't mean to be the thought police and tell people how to suck eggs but the kid is coming off the mid-season draft/rookie list and it wasn't exactly his fault that he was thrown to the lions after being on the list for less than a week.
I am just not as serious as some posters. This is a training run as a practise match to get players use to playing together as a team and following the game plan. Players could be played anywhere depending on what the coach is experimenting with.
Naughton out of tonight's game.
https://www.westernbulldogs.com.au/n...th-knee-injury
Will need arthroscopic surgery on his knee.
No Naughton. No Bruce. No English.
Sigh. At least we can work on some alternate contingencies.
Keen points of interest will be how Keath, Schache, Dale and McLean fare.