Gather Round Preview – Blooding the young ones

Hardwick has had a clear out, pretty much the weakest players on every line so far have been dropped. By my measure they were the lowest rated players after 3 games. And three new lads will make debuts in their stead. It seems Hardwick wanted to give his more experienced lineup a chance to prove they still belonged over the first three rounds, and the bye has given him a chance to make the adjustments he wants. He has sent a clear message to the likes of Ellis, Casboult, Long, Sexton and Atkins who haven’t impressed so far, that there are talented players waiting in the wings who could keep them out of the team for good.

Sexton and Budarick have struggled down back so they’re out. The experiment with Sexton might still be worth trying another time but there are youngsters snapping at his heels. Budarick has looked off the pace early, maybe he just needs to get his hands on the ball more in the 2s before coming back in. I see him as a long-term part of the Hardwick project, so we should see him again soon-ish.

In their place come Mac Andrew and some combination of Will Graham, Sam Clohesy, Flanders, Ethan Read and David Swallow. It seems pretty clear that we are adding a tall to the backline in place of a small. Doing this against GWS feels risky because they aren’t a team that wastes their inside 50s and give key defenders lots of intercept chances. But on last season’s form Andrew deserves to be playing and at least they have three talls for Ballard, Collins and Andrew to matchup up on.

I am not sure who fills the other halfback spot off the bench of the new boys, apparently Read has played down back a fair amount in preseason, Will Graham is a superb athlete and I could see him roaming off halfback but on SEN Wayne Campbell said he would play midfield. Clohesy is set to play wing but maybe he rotates back too. Defending the Giants requires the whole team to be well placed to slow transition so exact positions are less important for small players. Read is the big mystery they have been coy about him so I can’t wait to see where he ends up.

Clohesy has been praised a lot for his running so far and he proved it in the VFL last year. Hardwick will be hoping he can reinvigorate the Suns outside run which has rarely been dynamic with Ellis there.

In the forward line Rosas is back in from suspension and Humphrey is back from injury. Ben Long didn’t do much to claim a spot and Casboult has lost out to the emergence of Walter and to shrink the forward line a bit. Just King and Walter will start as key forwards with Lukosius potentially swinging back and forward like he did in Ballarat. The flexibility of Luko, Read and Andrew is a tool that Hardwick may be experimenting with which makes sense with so many young talls who haven’t locked down a spot.

This suggests their will be plenty of teething problems and to beat GWS on Sunday would involve winning some sort of tactical lottery. But I respect Hardwick for going all out with the changes. The only way to know if these guys can play is to give them minutes. We were never going to be favourites against GWS too so why not see if something interesting can happen. It’s also another debut game at a smaller interstate ground without the crowd pressure of a home game or a big away day.

Also shout out to the social teams for committing to the gravitas and importance of the Expansion Cup.

I can’t wait, every Jed Walter touch last week was tinged with excitement and we will get a triple dose of that this week regardless of the score line.