2025 Starting Line-Up

[Brody23]

Ground* not groin lol

[Grantysghost]

I hope McNeil continues to improve as many hope and helps to push the team towards a top 4 finish or preliminary final. Looking at his player ratings, he was a lot better than I was giving him credit for, and around a 20% gain would do the trick, as someone mentioned above. Happy to concede on him, and he has VDM covered.



In regards to Marra, 43 goals, playing deep forward in a team with as much ball as the Doggies win or inside 50s they generate with a player rating of 6, is very MID. Toby Greene had a "off year" and had 44 goals with a player rating of 10, Jake Stringer 42 goals, with a player rating of 10, and the Dons were giving him away. His performance sits similar to Oli Henry at Geelong or Joel Amartey at the Swans, a solid player, nothing more. I hope he takes a bit step forward and is a walk-up start, but my stock is in Darcy

I had a good chat with Lachie at a function recently and he really comes across as a guy who will leave nothing to chance. He's going to work and work to get the best out of himself. He's an impressive guy.

Bit harsh on Marra i think 40 goals from a 4th year forward is a fair return. We may need to lower our expectations a bit with him. Inside stats aren't everything either, some of our balls in are pretty dirty plus he's fighting with a few other talls so not the main target often.

[Uninformed]

Great post haha love the passion. I pretty much agree with 90% of this… the only exception being the Richards role, he often started on the groin in a HF position moving up to support stoppage allowing Treloar and Bont to push hard forward. You can see this on the behind the goals vision.

I would hazard an edit may be needed?

[Stevo]

Great post haha love the passion. I pretty much agree with 90% of this… the only exception being the Richards role, he often started on the groin in a HF position moving up to support stoppage allowing Treloar and Bont to push hard forward. You can see this on the behind the goals vision.

Yes, good point. I must give the behind the goal vision a bit of a go next season. Good to have you on board B23

[Grantysghost]

Great post haha love the passion. I pretty much agree with 90% of this… the only exception being the Richards role, he often started on the groin in a HF position moving up to support stoppage allowing Treloar and Bont to push hard forward. You can see this on the behind the goals vision.

You challenged the mighty MJP. For your sins you will be required to duel !

Brody23 the Yarraville Nets are "Un lieu de combat" for the woof family of which you are now a part

[Stevo]

B: Bramble Jones, Busslinger
HB: Dale, Lobb, Freijah

C: Williams, Liberatore, JJ

HF: Treloar Naughton, West

F: Weightman, Jamarra Darcy

Foll: English Bontempelli, Richards

I/C: Sanders, M. Kennedy, Gallagher, Duryea, Sub Harmes

That's my starting 22

I don't see a spot for Harmes and surely we make Busslinger earn it? No Libba? Gags should be struggling to be best 22 at round 1.

[Bulldogs201616]

I don't see a spot for Harmes and surely we make Busslinger earn it? No Libba? Gags should be struggling to be best 22 at round 1.

I can't believe i left Libba out either. That's a big mistake there.

[Bulldogs201616]

I don't see a spot for Harmes and surely we make Busslinger earn it? No Libba? Gags should be struggling to be best 22 at round 1.

Wait he is in the center. Libba I didn't think I'd leave a player like him out. As for Busslinger I think his ready

[Thebont88]

Such a difficult year to predict best 23 at this stage.

Busslinger might suprise a few and could well get a round 1 spot.

he looks a lovely size now looking at latest club video

[GVGjr]

I can't believe i left Libba out either. That's a big mistake there.

We have all done things like that.

[Dogs 24/7]

Such a difficult year to predict best 23 at this stage.

Busslinger might suprise a few and could well get a round 1 spot.

he looks a lovely size now looking at latest club video

I will let you in a secret because Gaz mentioned it but Busslinger played nearly half of the practice game as the centre half forward. Wouldn't it be a surprise if he plays his first game as a forward?

[Bulldogs201616]

I will let you in a secret because Gaz mentioned it but Busslinger played nearly half of the practice game as the centre half forward. Wouldn't it be a surprise if he plays his first game as a forward?

That's a shock. I would of thought our forward line is pretty well stacked but let's see what happens.

[Grantysghost]

Such a difficult year to predict best 23 at this stage.

Busslinger might suprise a few and could well get a round 1 spot.

he looks a lovely size now looking at latest club video

Hope you're right Ive got Kieren Collins flash backs

[Rocco Jones]

My take at the moment fwiw

KPDs

L Jones and Lobb are the locks. I'd go with Buss as the 3rd tall.

Last year we went with JOD and Buku as the 3rd. I get that they look the part in the role but they weren't tall or mobile when needed. They took intercept marks when we were on top and it was predictable but I thought struggled when we really needed them. They aren't the worst options but if Buss has his confidence up, I think he can be value intercepting.

Small defenders

Dale, JJ, Doc, Bramble. Freijah can play HBF or wing.

CBA guys

mjp commented on inside mid players and I largely agree. Libba, Adz are gonna play there. I'll do the 300% TOG game with CBA guys.
Bont 70%? down a bit, slightly more time forward
Libba 75%. I think if he isn't playing vast majority of time as an inside mid, he is probably out of the side
Adz- 70% maybe a bit of time in outside role/s but again, vast majority inside mid unless things change drastically
Ed- 60%. Thought his move to inside mid was a major catalyst for our form improving. Can start out of the CBAs and offer a bit outside but if I'm the opp, I'd love Ed not getting to CBAs.

That leaves about 25% for the others. Unless things change dramatically with any of the four, it's going to be minimal true inside mid time for anyone else. Injuries and other things happen though too of course but we are going with the best 22 + 1.

So we are up to 12.

Wings

Mentioned Freijah playing HBF and/or wing. We have Truck too. Need another guy to help out here at times. Come back to it later.

Rucks

English and Darcy. I'd like to see a bit more of a ruck time share but let's see.

KPFs

Naughts and Marra, obviously with Darcy/English. Wary of us not robbing ourselves of the best version of Sam Darcy to do more than support English in the ruck.

Smaller Forwards

Already mentioned mids going through here but more permanent guys being Cody, West and McNeil.

That's 20.

2 spots + the sub.

Sanders is a tough one. He will get 40+ disposals in his sleep at VFL level but how does he fit into the roles we need him to play? We mainly need players to play wing/HFF with the spots free.

Garcia kind of the same but more mature. Think he gets a decent go next year.

Gags perhaps suits the flexible role and Bevo seems to like him.

Davidson apparently looked good in the match sim. Bevo and his 'new toys'. Perhaps suited to the roles we want most with the guys filling out the 22.

Scott, Harmes other role guys.

Vanders the small defensive fwd specialist. I feel he is far too maligned but also would love a player with a higher ceiling in his role.

[Rusty12]

Rusty, we probably should be looking at Marra's performance a bit differently than just comparing him to players that kicked similar number of goals
He's playing alongside of both Darcy and Naughton who kicked 38 and 35 goals themselves. In our forward set-up it more about the spread of goal kickers which will limit how many goals some players will kick
Each team has a different forward set-up. GWS get the majority of their goals from Hogan and Greene with a few from the emerging Cadman
Essendon with more mid sized forwards like Langford and Stringer and not much else from others.

We have loaded up in terms of our financial spend and contracts with forwards so we need to get them all functioning as a unit a bit better. Improve the goal kicking accuracy and we would win more games.

Of course, that's why I included player ratings for comparisons and impact on the game beyond goals, and it is still not great, just average. I really hope he takes a huge step and becomes great.