Sidefx wrote:
Good one Bondi.
There are so many variations this year which can only mean our depth is getting better.
This would be my variation (which was still tough to pick) for round 1:
B: Saad Weitering O.Hollands
HB: Newman McGovern Haynes
C: Smith Cripps Florent
HF: Hayward Kemp Ainsworth
F: Williams McKay Evans
R: Pittonet Hewett Walsh
IC: Lord Cerra Cottrell Reidy Cowan
E: Motlop Young Acres Moir Carroll Chesser
Another one could be:
B: Saad Weitering Haynes
HB: Newman McGovern Florent
C: Smith Cripps Walsh
HF: Hayward Kemp Ainsworth
F: Williams McKay Evans
R: Pittonet Hewett Cerra
IC: Lord Cottrell Reidy O.Hollands Motlop
E: Cowan Young Acres Moir Carroll Chesser
good stab at start8’g 22 to both of you, Bondi and FX.
FX, I think you’ve gone a bit “All Australian team” by putting Jagga and Walshie on the wings and omitting genuine wingers. it’s a tough role and takes more than endurance to play it well. but wings don’t rack up possessions due to the nature of the important role for the team they play. so Walsh and Smith would be wasted “holding their width” and getting ‘gassed’ sprinting back to play goal keeper (Acres in 2024) or forward to play loose man in the goal square (Cottrell ~2023).
As for genuine wings:
Surely Chesser takes Acres spot on this years if he impresses in during the pre-season match sims? Acres was putride except for a couple of games this year. seems like a MC “favorite” to me. what’s the point of picking players who are dependable if not game changes when they ceased to be th e slightest bit dependable?
come July 2026 i hope Lucas Campo is wracking up plenty of classy possessions and goal involvements in the twos and he forces his way into AFL on form alone, not due to injuries to our senior players as per 2025.
Jagga Smith starting on a wing? possibly regularly rotating inside the middle or even to a HF position on opposite side of ground to make him a difficult tactical matchup and just to confuse oppo coaching box with some ‘in game’. flexibility which i for one think we are lacking to date under Voss? possibly. i mean who really knows where Smith’s natural starting position is? if he really is that good, (like his hero Butters) he has to start as a follower with Cripps and Hewitt as true bruising Centres offering him some protection and. freedom to weave in and out of traffic. until we see him at the level who can say?
our coach talks about trying a “few little things” in post-game pressers but in terms of positional rotations and tactical stuff im not sure Carlton are the best exponent of that stuff. Voss and presumably Hanson seem to prefer predictability over everything else, even when that is not playing to our advantage. our “one wood” seems to be slicing ithe ball into the rough much of 2025, last few weeks in y contrast showed a bit more flair.
Ollie Hollands didn’t work out as a wing. great runner and influential desperate acts for a kid straight into the ones, average foot-skills at best. it’s interesting to me.he finds himself a back flanker and he went at pick #10 and Cowan went same year at what, pick #20 or lower and although they’re very different types of player, the two could be competing for a spot in the back 6/7 given a healthy list come next April with Florent inclusion and Newman returning.
Florent to me seems like a better Ollie Holand type with a bit of Cowan’s grit and toughness rather than an improvement on Cowan. obviously he’s a more mature player which makes it non like foot like comparison. but it could be Ollie giving up a spot in the back 6/7 over Cowan iin 2026 i reckon.
i don’t see Ollie playing as a true midfielder (his LT goal) next year given our lists of top quality mids and what i perceive as his lack of body strength. unless it’s in the twos to develop as a. true inside/ouside mid replacement when Crippa and Hewitt retire or a pre-retirement HF position, or if one of the other mids trades out as a DFA.
at this stage who would choose Ollie in our defence going forward over Cowan (other selections aside)?
given Ollie has seems to plateau a bit in his development and Cowan has been building his game nicely from a slower start, Cowan shown more linear improvement.
Ollie was clearly recruited at pick #10 with our ball carrying deficit front of mind, and he’s been of value already for us in that regard, exclupsing high R1 picks like Dow and O’Brien etc, but if he can’t lock down a Simmo type role in the back half during 2026 where’s he going to play for us wi ty no obvious back line impending retirements apart from Newman?
if he can incrementally improve his field kicking, decision-making, tackling, contested ball strength and improve on his already good athletic endurance/speed attributes over few years then he can be anything. but if he doesn’t, then what? i truely hope his improvement does happen incrementally or looks like a less than stellar pick #10. And Cowan at pick ~#20 the better lockdown/rebounding back type of player of the tewo. maybe the coaches are just moving him though the backline as party of his development as a future mid or two way winger rather than future Simmo?
the other position for Ollie which is Saad’s to lose is rebounding back pocket with licence too play well yo the ground when to advantage. Salad seemed to lack confidence this year, except for the game after i spotted him at Coles and gave him a pump up
i hope he “bounces” back in 26. with support from Florent and Newman oppositions would be able to focus solely on shutting Saad down as a way of killing our transtions game. saw way too much of that for my liking this year.
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