05-11-2022, 11:07 AM
McKays absence certainly tests the "like for like" replacement process, for as has been noticed we simply don't have a spare key forward. Kemp has the height but not the game style, the only other fit player with the physical attributes is Akeui who is miles off and a defender anyway. Yes the simplest replacement cog in the machine is Kemp, any other cog will require re-engineering if the machine is to function in the same manner as before. But the Kemp cog is a vastly inferior one to McKay. Perhaps a bigger cog in Mirkov though he is well off AFL ready. I like the idea of Kennedy and Cripps resting forward, with Hewett or if he is not fit Dow going into the mids. Fogarty (or even Motlop though I don't think him ready) in for Martin. Plowman if fit might come in Martin causing a further rejig, or in place of someone who would be unlucky to be dropped - Boyd Çottrell or Newnes perhaps. Carroll stays in for mine. All in all my preference would be Kennedy and Cripps to rotate Forward and centre and Dow into the midfield, but I suspect the match committee will go Kemp forward and keep the re-engineering of the machine to a minimum.