AFL Rd 17 2022 Pre Game Prognostications Carlton vs West Coast

[DJC]

Curious. What did they stuff up last round?

I'm not sure where your recent obsession with 7 defenders comes from.

There is probably only 4-5 defenders and 'mids' making up the last couple spots anyway.

Saad and Docherty can and have both played on the wing previously to great effect.
So swapping a Cottrel/Lob into that '7' is easy enough to do as well.

We have gone into every game this season with seven or eight defenders, until the Saints game.

Cottrell, O'Brien and Newnes are wingers who work from end to end and often help out in defence.  They are not defenders in the mould of Williams, Docherty, Saad, McGovern, Stocker, Plowman, Kemp, Parks, Boyd, Weitering, Marchbank, Young and McDonald.  With the exception of Young and Weitering, our defenders spend time on the interchange bench.  If we don't have a seventh or eighth defender, one opposition forward will have an advantage.

We saw that against the Saints where players like Higgins and Butler were unmarked in their forward 50.  Our defensive cohesion, which has been a strength all season, broke down because we had wingers trying to play as defenders.  Ryan and Rioli will be relishing the prospect of being picked up by Cottrell, O'Brien or Newnes  :

I should add that playing seven or eight defenders makes it possible to move Docherty or Williams to the midfield, or Kemp to the forward line.