If Pebbles is on fire he will be a absolute nightmare for us. Reckon Karl will get Tarrent but to be honest it is Rocca I am really worried about.
The sooner Brett is back the happier I will be.

That said I think our mid field has more class and we are far more efficent in our forward line (when we kick straight) than Collingwood.

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A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty" -Winston Churchill

L.M 35-06

Forget to add Fev is due for a big game as is Nick.

_________________
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty" -Winston Churchill

L.M 35-06

Good to see Houla in the team and I wish him and Nick Steven's luck in their milestones!

Just stunned to not see Livo and Walkz in the side, but next week.

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Karma

Loyal & Proud

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“Every single element of the Club has to be the best in the league, meticulously and methodically, and only by doing this will we be elite and challenge for number 17.”
Greg Lee

Given Collingwood's failure to win a game for a while, and the huge media beat-up, we're obviously expecting this game to be a huge trench warfare kind of game. I'm assuming this is why Johnno is getting a game.

Unless they're trying to motivate our 2nds by rewarding good VFL form.

Hope Johnno does well. Because there's some good players waiting to get back into the side.

A little suprised Sporn and Diggers were kept in the team on their recent form. I'm guessing Livo isn't ready to return yet (and displace Diggers).

Long term I think Sporn should be an excellent player. But I'm wondering how many more weeks he'll get, if his form continues to struggle?

For those curious about Chambers, he'll be playing a half in the VFL this weekend.

If we put Kouta on Rocca i will walk the **** out!

Why no Walker or Chambers? Walker kicked two goals last week and had (i think) 20 off possesions.

Kouta needs to be getting at those centre clearances. Why throw him down back? God no................please dennis..............NO!

Good work, Johnno.
With him in, watch our midfield dominate.

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Writer for SuperCoach Paige www.scpaige.com.au
Twitter - @johnfeeney24

Settle down Ryan - Kouta will rotate through midfield, END OF STORY!

Norman on Tarrant & Diggers on Rocca.

Our midfiled to dominate, & Fevola to turn it on.

Yeah i saw the same article and it also said he left the track early.
Also Rocca has a shoulder problem and Burns has a cloud over him aswell.

Like I said last week, the only time Kouta will spend in the backline is helping out ala Whitnall. He's never playing at CHB again unless we're completely totallt and utterly desperate.

Norman on Tarrant is a certainty, Morell on Rocca and Teague to pick up the 3rd tall forward, whoever that is (Watch for Collingwood to play Walker or Cloke in a FP).

We've got to win the midfield well to help these guys out, hence Johnno coming back in to win some clearances.

Kouta Stevens Campo Lappin Scotland and French will fire and win the game for us.

_________________
"The ability to speak doesn't make you intelligent." Qui-Gon Jinn 15-05-2005

"there’s more chance of me becoming the full forward for the [Western Bulldogs] than there is of any change in the Labor Party." Julia Gillard 18-05-2010

I think I know what Pagan is doing...

He is trying to settle the team in place without making too many changes, so that they can work gel together quicker.

If he was quick with chopping guys like Sporn and Diggers plus others, the team would continually be trying to resettle themselves. This way, a team that plays together often works harder for each other. They begin to know where each other is going to be at any given point.

Having said that I am not 100% confident of a Carlton victory on Saturday, but if they hit their straps then watch out, Carlton could be very damaging.

Again, it will be either a Collingwood close victory or a Carlton smashing by 6 - 10 goals.

Im desperately hoping for the latter.

You're on Tyrant

I think with Sporn and Diggers the issue isn't performance, its skill level. They are both very good kicks and the club is probably trying to upskill the team. Diggers is playing out of position for the benefit of the team at the moment, give him a break guys...

I suspect Barney will be spending the majority of the day down back.
I'd expect him to contest the centre bounces then let Prender contest around the ground against Choke.
3rd man up at most contests knocking the ball forward to assist Prender.

I would hope Karl gets first crack at Tarrant. He has the speed and hopefully anticipation to contest well against him.
Rocca, I'm not sure. Teague struggles more against nimble opponents than tall opponents.
With Barney and our midfield getting back to assist, Teague or Morrell could do the job.
Hopefully they run off him at every opportunity.

If Rocca goes into the ruck, Prender may be in trouble.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

I watched the replay of rd 22 against the pies on Foxtel yesterday. Walker, Waite, Davies, and Bannister were all awesome that day, and interestingly enough, they're skill level looked a lot better than it has been to date this season. I suppose most players are in better touch at the end of a season. It's a shame they're not all out there again this week. There were mixed reports about Walker's form in the Bullants, but didn't think Bannister had done anything to deserve losing his spot.

I reckon Johnson came into the side so we have the option of playing Kouta on Rocca without losing any grunt at the stoppages. Although I'm sure plan A is to play Kouta onball and destroy them in the midfield, it's always nice to have a fall back plan in Rocca is dominating cause he's too strong for any of our backmen.

For what it's worth, here's my matchup's ....

Norman vs Tarrant
Morrell vs Rocca with what BV said, French dropping back across half back.
Teague vs Williams.
Carrazzo vs Davis.
Sporn vs Carracella
Kouta on ball with Stevens, Scotland & Camporeale/McGrath on wings. Don't know if I would even run a tag or not.
Fevola vs Clement
Wakelin vs Whitnall
Presti vs DeLuca
Waite vs Walker (Can't see any matchup)=BIG GAME SOV
Betts vs Johnson
Davies vs Cole/Shaw (other on bench).

Rocca will slaughter Morell...too big and strong and Digby struggles on the more physical players...ditto for Teague on Tarrant....Taz might be out of form but playing a smaller opponent on him will just play him back into form.
I would have Prendergast on Rocca, Norman on Tarrant and Morell in reserve for maybe Walker if he gets played forward. Kouta the clearance king has to stay in the middle to give us and edge around the packs.
We have to win the clearances and give our forward more supply than the pies...without Thornton we are exposed down back and if the pies break even in the middle then we might be in trouble as I expect Tarrant and Rocca to outmark our blokes most of the time.

We are probably lucky that Fraser, Richards and Didak are not playing as it might be an uphill battle.
Clearly we need another key defender with size.. i think Denis thinks its going to be hard yakka and has include Brett Johnson to give us another hard ball getter...Kade Simpson is a good young player and will get his chance..its probably more a horses for courses decision rather than a reflection on his performances..

Re: I would have played Walker ....

Why would you think Prenda will have any more luck the Morell on Rocca? Prenda has been tried at CHB previously and has failed, we've given up on that and he is now settled in to that tall ruck-rover, around the ground ruckman role.

_________________
"The ability to speak doesn't make you intelligent." Qui-Gon Jinn 15-05-2005

"there’s more chance of me becoming the full forward for the [Western Bulldogs] than there is of any change in the Labor Party." Julia Gillard 18-05-2010