AFL Rd 23 2023 Pre Game Prognostications Carlton vs Gold Coast at Gold Coast

[townsendcalling]

For all the permutations and combinations of our best team, there are a set of names that are constant.... Newman Weitering  Kemp  Saad  McGovern, Docherty, Cincotta.  How good (and advantageous) is it to have a settled, cohesive back 7, with a couple of soldiers in reserve if required!!

[LP]

Does every thread have to be infected with this f-en ruck debate? Just sayin.

It'll end at the trade period.

[LP]

Good question, so why are you like you are ?

Because I can see the negativity towards TDK is baseless, and that I agree with Voss about the complimentary nature of our ruck duo, it's fairly obvious.

I'm not anti Pitto or SoJ, that spurious claim was made by a 3rd party and seems to ramp up whenever TDK or the team has a notable result with both rucks playing.

[Lods]

I've moved most of the ruck talk...
Keep this one for the pre-game
Continue the TDK discussion here

https://www.carltonsc.com/index.php?topic=6329.0

[pinot]

For all the permutations and combinations of our best team, there are a set of names that are constant.... Newman Weitering  Kemp  Saad  McGovern, Docherty, Cincotta.  How good (and advantageous) is it to have a settled, cohesive back 7, with a couple of soldiers in reserve if required!!

Our defence is unbelievably good Sammy and Vossy have done such a great job.

[Gointocarlton]

For all the permutations and combinations of our best team, there are a set of names that are constant.... Newman Weitering  Kemp  Saad  McGovern, Docherty, Cincotta.  How good (and advantageous) is it to have a settled, cohesive back 7, with a couple of soldiers in reserve if required!!

Defences win you premierships.

[DJC]

For all the permutations and combinations of our best team, there are a set of names that are constant.... Newman Weitering  Kemp  Saad  McGovern, Docherty, Cincotta.  How good (and advantageous) is it to have a settled, cohesive back 7, with a couple of soldiers in reserve if required!!

Absolutely! Although Doc has mostly played as a midfielder.  Boyd and, most recently, Fisher, has been our seventh defender.  And Marchbank is a more than adequate replacement for Guv.

We shouldn’t underestimate the defensive work of our wingers too.  Acres, Hollands and Cottrell have all made regular critical defensive  efforts.  Then there’s Owies, Motlop, Cuningham, Martin, Silvagni and De Koning.

Team defence wins games.

[markncf]

Here is the question, do we need to risk Harry on a road trip recovery just a few weeks after surgery, or would we be better to give him an extra week to front up against GWS?

If we do not pick Harry, is it hurting / overloading Charlie?

Do we pick Harry and SoJ then give Charlie a week off, or does the Coleman really matter too much?

I doubt we'll go with one ruck against Witts just a couple of weeks out from finals the risk is too great that the overloaded solo ruck breaks down.

Coming off knee surgery I doubt our MC will risk Harry rucking anywhere even at boundary line throw ins.

I suspect if Harry comes in it will be for Ed, and perhaps Boyd in for Doc, that will be the only changes. It's possible that Harry comes in for Hollands or Cottrell simply because Harry covers so much ground and demands opposition attention, they'll run a tall and a crumber against him at contests as he gets up the ground, so the loss of a pure wing like Hollands or Cottrell is not so critical.

Bring H and SOJ back. SOJ as starting sub to replace H.
These guys need game time.

[WASurfer]

I think if Petracca's kick had been ruled a goal last week, and we'd lost, the discussion around H would be more about getting him back in because of Charlie getting double teamed in the last few weeks. I'd be playing him this week and next...then he's got a week off before finals, if we get there.

If JSOS plays and is in the 22, it's hard to see who goes out but Pitto might be unlucky....but IMO we need him up against Witts this week.

[LP]

Bring H and SOJ back. SOJ as starting sub to replace H.
These guys need game time.

Funny enough I thought the same thing.

We can only do it because both H and SoJ have sufficient aerobic capacity to cover lots of ground, some fans will say we lose too much run with H or SoJ as sub, but we can compare them to Ed who has been our regular sub and we lose very little in terms of run and coverage because Ed while also aerobic is not overly quick or agile.

SoJ could also be quite a useful Midfield rotation, as a chop out for Cripps, we don't need the chop out player to give us dominance, we just need to ensure we do not lose momentum when Cripps is resting.