AFL 2023 Preliminary Final Carlton vs Brisbane Post Game Prognostications

[Sub-Zero]

Imagine if we had gone with one ruckman.  It doesn't matter which one because McInerney would have given either one a touch up.  Playing two rucks curbed his influence.  Playing one ruckman is virtually conceding the ruck contests, allowing McInerney to do as he likes around the ground, and giving Brisbane's midfielders a boost.

Playing one ruckman would mean rucking McKay, a role he hates and is poor at.  It also means taking McKay, our only truly competitive tall forward on the day, away from the forward line.  That would leave Charlie being double-teamed by Andrews and Gardiner ... or we could have had a cooked ruckman "resting" in the forward lne.  That would work well - not, particularly if it was Pitto.  Meanwhile, Daniher would be enjoying little opposition when he gives McInerney a breather and comes up against Harry.

So, we concede an advantage in the ruck and weaken our forward line to bring in a player to add some zip.  Who would that be?  Cuningham finished the season as if he'd had no pre-season.  Fisher did OK when brought back as a loose man in defence but forgot about the defensive part of the role.  Paddy Dow gets a few clearances but doesn't do much else.  Binns is worth considering but it would be tough to debut in a prelim.  Then there's O'Brien and Honey ... wait!

Another option is to bring in Jack Silvagni, despite his lack of match fitness.  He'd provide more of a contest than Harry and maybe get the odd clearance but he certainly wouldn't have the Big O and Daniher quaking in their boots  ...  and the first ruck would still have to do the bulk of the work against a dominant opponent.  The Silvagni as a ruck option should be sealed and labelled "for emergency use only".

I would have played Kemp in place of Cincotta.  Yes, they have different roles but Kemp is quick and agile enough to perform Cincotta's role.  The latter's form dropped off as the season progressed. That's perfectly understandable, but doesn't help when the opposition is running away from him.  Marchbank was one of our better players on the day and I don't understand the criticism of his selection.  It's a bit like the "supporters" who continually criticised Plowman and who were called out by Weitering in his season review.

Jordan Boyd did his job on the day too and his inclusion was a logical response to Brisbane's forward structure.

We didn't lose the game at the selection table, we lost it in our slump when we gave up the chance of home finals.

A very hard post to fault, except for your point on people questioning Marchbank's spot in the team. He played well in any case and Kemp has some more to come, despite his promise. But Marchbank was very poor in the two finals prior. I like Cincotta too, appears to be playing a defensive role on smaller players, would be nice to release him more, but lots of options there with Saad, Newman, Doc and Boyd to name a few.