Mine, on today’s expectation of availability:

B: Duryea Gardner Schache
HB: Dale Keath Williams
C: Hunter Dunkley Macrae
HF: Weightman Bruce Garcia
F: Jamarra Naughton B. Smith
R: English Bontempelli Liberatore
Int: Richards Wood Daniel Treloar
Sub: JJ or VDM (on form)
Emerg: Hannan R. Smith Scott JJ/VDM
Depth: McNeil Lipinski Cordy West


Mids: Tons of guns. Will need to rotate them through. I’d like to see B. Smith play a Clay Smith hard, pressuring forward that can kick goals. He has the tools to be offensive and defensive, speed and tackling. We are blessed with too many good one. The speed of Smith, Jamarra, Weightman & Naughton gives us elite speed and elite pressure. While having three KPFs too. English could float down there too.

Ruck: I have no faith in Martin’s body and risking another mid game injury. I rule him out and Sweet isn’t ready for a big final. Against Melbourne Schache took 18 ruck contests in support of English. This could be a good model, with the occasional Bruce run in there. Schache playing could nearly eliminate Bruce needing to ruck which means Jamarra always has the third string KPD. Overall, this is a more nimble, flexible approach to the ruck which has benefits overall. If Wood can cover Schache’s defensive opponent for those minutes we have good coverage. Schache’s ability to play 95-100% game time gives our mids a few extra rotations.

Defence: three talls, Keath, Gardner & Schache. Different sorts of talls, with Schache’s extra height he can stand against a second ruck. Wood as the medium, Duryea as the smaller general and elite ball users like Dale, Williams, Richards & Daniel. There’s also rotations of mids back to assist if needed. With Richards & Wood on the bench adding to the defensive rotations, Caleb Daniel has the freedom to be played further up the ground and hopefully be a key distributor with Inside 50’s. Another benefit.

Forwards: Naughton, Bruce & Jamarra. Plus Weightman, Garcia, B. Smith. I’m not convinced about JJ as a forward for a final just yet. But he and VDM should be in a battle to jump from Sub into 22. I’d love to have another genuine forward, quick like VDM but it needs to go on form.

Summary:

Defence has three different talls will having support in Wood and several good small/medium defenders who use it well. With team defence, I’m comfortable the mix is right

Midfielder has elite depth. If English & Schache can cover the ruck as they did against Gawn & Jackson that’s looking ok.

Forwards are packed full off tall goal kickers with Weightman who can play tall or small. Garcia has shown he’s a great source for I50’s and goal assists. We have to rotate mids through and I’d like to see B. Smith for a Clay Smith type role. I’d like a natural quick small forward, but I can’t find a spot right now.

I think we have cattle to get it done. We just need to perform 100% of every minute, of every finals game we play.