Are you going to try to avoid social media then get home to watch the replay kezza?

Martin, McGovern & Pittonet could all be available this week. I would bring Martin & McGovern back through the VFL. But I’d be tempted to throw Pittonet straight in, despite TDK having a very good game against WCE and exceeding expectations generally over the past couple of months.

Assuming Pittonet is ready to go (but Owies isn’t):

In - Pittonet, Stocker
Out - Honey, Newnes
Sub - Hayes

Playing Pittonet, TDK, SOJ, Charlie & Harry is obviously a structural change from what we’ve had most of the season but I would be inclined to go with it - unless SOJ is really sore, in which case SOJ comes out and Honey stays. The weather will be another factor considered before deciding to play the extra tall.

I would prefer Stocker as the 7th defender ahead of Newnes - I think we’ll need that extra bit of hardness in defence against the Cats. However, I have a feeling that the MC will stick with Newnes if he’s fit to play.

I’m happy to keep Hayes as sub, but would be equally fine if he came into the 22 and either LOB or Cottrell are made sub.

Stocker is in the same position as Dow - if he hasn’t been picked by now, he’s on the shelf until catastrophic injuries come along.

Agree that Pittonet should be straight back in if fit. If Kennedy can put in another big shift like he did against the WCE mids, then there should be rotations on the table. In that case, I think the structural change can work in our favour… rotate the ruck through the bench and bring Martin in as that high half forward to release Walsh back up into a full-time mid role.

IN: Pittonet, Martin, Owies
OUT: Newnes, O’Brien/Cottrell, Honey

We usually play 7 defenders: Weitering, Young, Docherty, Saad, Newman... and then two others.
We've used McGovern, Plowman, Kemp, Durdin, Marchbank, Williams, Boyd, Stocker and Newnes.
We typically play a medium-sized defender and a small, running defender as the extra two - but it depends on availability.

Assuming Newnes is injured this week, the fully fit defenders we have for the two remaining spots are Kemp, Plowman, Durdin & Stocker.

Plowman, for all his faults, has been pretty solid this year and has incumbency on his side.
Stocker is in okay form in the VFL, but seems to have fallen out of favour somewhat. He isn't currently a running defender - he's more of a lock-down small.
Durdin has almost zero exposed form, but seems... fine?
Kemp has been pretty good, and seems to play better at AFL level than VFL level.

I'd actually like to see us play Durdin and Stocker this week, in place of Newnes and Plowman.
Stocker to take Stengle, and just smash him all day. (Saad as the next choice.)
Durdin to Hawkins.
Young to Cameron.
Weitering to play the third tall - filling the holes and floating over the top.
That way, if one of Hawkins or Cameron get off the chain, you can always swing Weitering onto them.

I agree. Pittonet plays and I am assuming Newnes does not get up. I think anecdotally anyway that LOB plays his best games at Marvel probably because the smaller ground enables our slow midfield group to get to the contests where at the larger ground they don't and hence LOB is caught in more 1 on 1 contests. As this game is at the G I would drop LOB and have Walsh run on the wing. His place as HHF can be taken by Martin. I would bring in Owies to replace Motlop who has been good but with the bigger ground, his lack of fitness shows. I would leave Honey in with his speed. At the G it should be an advantage.

I fail to see why we're continually compromising other positions to fix the wing deficiencies. Walsh is playing AA footy as a half forward/mid. Why should we remove a strength in an attempt to fix an deficiency? We tried it with Cerra 2 weeks ago and that proved to be a disaster.
Hayes was recruited as a winger. He's been the best performed wing in the VFL previously (VFL team of the year at the Dogs) and he's played great footy there in our VFL side.
Let's give him a go and see how he performs. If it doesn't work, then we can consider how we butcher other lines to fix the problem.