Rd 17: pre Game Prognostications: Carlton vs Western Bulldogs

[crashlander]

If we go in hungry we will win this game, but I can see that the wheels are starting to fall off fitness wise and we are starting to have our run with injury now, so we will likely lose a few more than we will win from here.

Thats ok, so long as they are like Sunday we will be ok.

Obviously Cripps and White will be outs.


Crash on last week who can you see coming in?

I haven't seen much but ive heard Boekhorst was good, but cant see him coming in to replace the aforementioned.  i would have thought one of Palmer, Graham or Smedts for Cripps, and Byrne or Acos if ready for White.

That is a VERY good question. Cripps and White are certain to miss, so we need a mid and a defender. However, the Dogs do NOT have a large number of tall forwards. It makes the matchups interesting.
Graham was incredibly unlucky to miss out last weekend. He is a cert to come in as his senior form is about as good as it gets from him.
Byrne looks to be a decent chance, although he isn't back to his barnstorming best yet. He was noticeable on the weekend.
They would be the higher probability entries at the moment.

Behind them would be Boekhorst and Alex Silvagni. Boekhorst has played about as well as he can play over the last 2 weeks and can't do much more to press for inclusion. However, he has never been able to transfer that form to the seniors. Silvagni has missed quite a while and I thought would probably come back via the VFL. However, his inclusion would add some stability and experience to our taller defenders, even though Jones has done the job so far.
Smedts was good and is in the queue, but is not as well favoured as some others.
A possibility is playing Harry McKay, as the Dogs do not have a plethora of taller defenders. I don't think I would do it: Harry's form last week was ordinary and his kicking is just not reliable enough yet.

I can't see too many others in the mix to be honest. I am sure that Williamson will come back via the VFL. Sumner didn't do enough, nor did Pickett.