Round 1 - Blues v Tigers (21 March) Pre-Game

[WASurfer]

Possible Kruddler but he might also play a swingman role too if they need an extra tall down back....and Balta will probably be backup ruckman to Nankervis. I can see them both playing.

[crashlander]

CARLTON

B Jarrod Garlett, Liam Jones, Lachie Plowman
HB Kade Simpson, Jacob Weitering, Nic Newman
C Marc Murphy, Patrick Cripps, Zac Fisher
HF Michael Gibbons, Charlie Curnow, Sam Walsh
F Ed Curnow, Mitch McGovern, Harry McKay
FOL Andrew Phillips, Paddy Dow, Sam Petrevski-Seton
I/C Dale Thomas, David Cuningham, Alex Fasolo, Will Setterfield

EMG Cameron Polson, Lochie O'Brien, Levi Casboult, Matthew Lobbe

NEW Nic Newman, Michael Gibbons, Sam Walsh, Mitch McGovern, Alex Fasolo, Will Setterfield

RICHMOND

B Alex Rance, David Astbury, Dylan Grimes
HB Nick Vlastuin, Bachar Houli, Jayden Short
C Shane Edwards, Trent Cotchin, Kamdyn McIntosh
HF Daniel Rioli, Dan Butler, Maverick Weller
F Jack Riewoldt, Dustin Martin, Tom J. Lynch
FOL Toby Nankervis, Dion Prestia, Kane Lambert
I/C Noah Balta, Jack Higgins, Jack Graham, Nathan Broad

EMG Ivan Soldo, Brandon Ellis, Oleg Markov, Connor Menadue

NEW Maverick Weller, Tom J. Lynch, Noah Balta

I don't like that we have only 1 ruck option, although I guess Richmond is the same.

[Jack Burton]

I agree......

Me too, very surprised

[Jack Burton]

Just thinking more about this, I am really surprised that Fasolo was selected ahead of the likes of Silvagni and Polson (and others). I thought one of the mantras of the club over the past few years was to clean out the dheads and build a list of quality people who play for each other. Guys like Polson and Silvagni have worked their butts off for the past 3 years, and at times played some decent footy. They are both still young and could become good players with sufficient game time. Then we pick up Fasolo as a free agent. I didn't know much about him except he has battled with depression, which of course I would never hold against him. But he comes to the club and at the first opportunity goes out and gets hammered, falls over and breaks his arm. It was only after that that some Filth mates told me he had a reputation as a party boy, and they were not surprised. Then they tell me the reason he hasn't got a game at the Filth in the past couple of years is because he has zero defensive intensity. They laughed at us for picking him up. The scenes I saw at the camp a couple of months ago were a united team, all mates, and that bodes very well for improving as a football team. But this is the kind of thing that could create division, and get some guys wondering if the selectors have favourites, and it doesn't matter how hard they work. Because there is no valid reason, based on the last two years of AFL, that Fasolo would be selected before either Polson or Silvagni, they both have him clearly covered. He hasn't played a practice game or JLT game with our other forwards, so I guess there's a chance they'll just get in each others way. I hope Fasolo kicks 5 tomorrow night, I hope he has his best year of footy ever and kicks 50, I really do, but I also hope this doesn't send a signal to our fringe players that there are favourites based on dubious reputation, because we will get injuries, and we need our fringe players to be cherry ripe mentally and ready to give it everything they've got when we need them. I think the right decision would have been to play Fasolo in the NBs. It's likely we'll lose a few games early in the season so it would be easy to bring him in once he has a couple of games under his belt. And that would send all the right messages

[Thryleon]

Maverick Weller getting a game....

Scraping the bottom of the depth barrel already.

[flyboy77]

Yes, re Weller.

Re Fas, who knows, maybe the incident was truly innocuous?

The bloke is a star at his best....hold fire, ok?

[bmaurizio]

Fasolo is a G specialist , loves a big occasion game, experienced goal kicker, he’s ready to redress is boo -boo and
show the Pies they were wrong to let him go.

[townsendcalling]

show the Pies they were wrong to let him go.

Revenge and ‘stick it up ‘em’ are great motivators!!

[flyboy77]

I don't like that we have only 1 ruck option, although I guess Richmond is the same.

Our ruck back ups far exceed theirs i.e. Jones and Harry?

[flyboy77]

Because there is no valid reason, based on the last two years of AFL, that Fasolo would be selected before either Polson or Silvagni, they both have him clearly covered.

Now that's a rather silly statement Jack Burton....