Northern Blues vs Essendon

[Thryleon]

And the Preston players do what exactly?

same thing they do at every other vfl team.  Each club has a list of 42.  At any given moment, five players are generally unavailable for selection be it injured,  suspended or simply ruckman number 3, 4 or 5 (being conservative).  add one listed emergency,  and you have a maximum 17 odd players for a vfl team give or take a couple.  That means 8 blokes come from nowhere to fill in the rest.

I'm OK with managing players with injury and trying players in different roles with an eye to the senior team but I believe that winning games is every bit as important for confidence and development as anything else, and that winning should always be a priority.

I don't disagree with any of that, but we are hardly picking our side most likely to win at AFL level and have one eye firmly on the future.