I'd be happy to go watch and back the Blues vs Tigers with that team.

Re Carroll: I'm not convinced his foot skills are better than Dow's.

I'd pick Marchbank ahead of Cowan, but isn't it fantastic Cowan is in the conversation.

Same

I have been to 3 training sessions since New Year. Based on that and a few conversations I reckon Rd 1 will look a lot like this

B: Williams Young McGovern
HB: Cowan Weitering Saad
C: Acres Cripps O'Brien
HF: Martin McKay Fisher
F: Curnow TDK Motlop
Foll: Pittonet Hewett Docherty
Int: Cerra C.Durdin Newman Kennedy Silvagni

Hollands will be close but I think they will be patient
Interesting how they use Silvagni if they play two rucks
Boyd Walsh Cuningham Fogarty Honey Cottrell not considered
Marchbank & Carroll very unlucky

You cut off half my sentence. Makes a difference

"TDK can also go forward and it stretches a defence. He will get a lot better with more games. Still so young"

I didn't pick Marchbank because I struggle with Marchbank McGovern Young & Weitering all in defence. Looks to tall and slow to me. That's my take

That makes perfect sense FB… so, why put the extra ruck up front?

It’s just asking for another Brodie Smith to gain a kilometre against us from half back.

I didn't pick Marchbank because I struggle with Marchbank McGovern Young & Weitering all in defence. Looks to tall and slow to me. That's my take

Cowan is a runner and kicks it a mile. With Docherty in the middle and Boyd injured, I see a need for another running defnder down back and I reckon Cowan will be a natural at AFL level and he is physically ready although it's hard to leave Marchbank out

As for Carroll his kicking looks a bit awkward but it is effective. Big improver this pre season

He doesn’t stretch a defence though. If anything, he gets in the way and makes it harder for Harry. Plus he is a bad kick at goal. I have no doubt TDK will get better in the ruck but I’ve seen nothing to give me confidence he will become a forward threat. That’s the way it is with some ruckman and it’s why playing both Pittonet & TDK in the same side is unlikely to work IMO.

with a 5 man bench it has options. There will be times McKay or Curnow will be on the bench. There will be times TDK & Pittonet rotate through the bench. It's about how we use them

I didn't know about the change re: sub not having to be injury related. Feels good when one of my hare brained ideas (which many others obviously had, but which i arrived at independently, honest! ) come to fruition.

I'm glad Vossy shows a preference for playing the 2 rucks TDK and Pittonet. For those who don't like the idea of 2 genuine ruckmen, with a 4 man bench, do you not think that there will be games we have no alternative but to play TDK and Pittonet?

Gawn & Grundy rotating will mean the Demons ruck will be fresh for every ruck battle.

I wouldn't rely on SOS for the 2nd ruck against 2 superior ruckmen because he will be dominated by the Demons rucks. All that will happen is the Demons ruck will be tapping the ball to the advantage of Petracca, Oliver, Viney, Brayshaw and Lachie Hunter.

Going off recent training photos posted by the club Charlie and Harry look like they are close to entering their physical prime. Both looked noticeably stronger in the upper body. Harry looks enormous, he could tear opposition defenders apart this year IMO.

Our window is opening now people. Make no mistake. It's time.

M2C on some of this.

* Glad they didn’t make it 5 on the bench. Need to just remove the sub all together and just let it be 4 interchange players.
* Hopefully the team interchange numbers, also stays as is, or even 5 less. Hate to go back to MM years.
* TDK / Pittonet combination will be the hardest to manage this year. Pittonet doesn’t have a second position and TDK up forward with Harry, Charlie and JSoS is too top heavy. IMO - Our forward line works best and sets up well when we have the 3 fowards plus Martin deep.
* Have no idea why people keep leaving Young out of our best 22. Was a revelation last year and will only get better. Just can’t get my head around it or why we are even suggesting we play him elsewhere.