Well, it's been threatened all week and it would sound as if Merrett will play this Sunday against the little team that could, Hawthorn. It would sound that way, but as posted on BigFooty by semi-regular training attendee The Brown Dog, the big saucehead tweaked his ankle halfway through training which would all but rule him out of the match. Fugger, eh? In brighter news, Selwood returns afterhis well-publicised bout of concussion.
Here's the named team, from the Lions website, which would have been filled out prior to this catastrophe:
B: Ashley McGrath (9), Daniel Merrett (21), Jed Adcock (7)
HB: Sam Sheldon (3), Lachlan Henderson (14), Joel Macdonald (26)
C: Albert Proud (2), Simon Black (20), Daniel Rich (10)
HF: Michael Rischitelli (35), Jonathan Brown (16), James Polkinghorne (31)
F: Rhan Hooper (33), Daniel Bradshaw (36), Luke Power (6)
Foll: Mitch Clark (1), Cheynee Stiller (32), Justin Sherman (11)
Int (from): Jared Brennan (17), Scott Harding (5), Travis Johnstone (4), Tim Notting (8), Jack Redden (30), Tom Rockliff (38), Troy Selwood (28)
IN: Troy Selwood, Daniel Merrett, Jack Redden, Tom Rockliff
OUT: Josh Drummond (calf)
It's fitting that this match is being played in Tasmania as both teams have forward lines with two heads: Brisbane's Brownshaw and Hawthorn's Frankhead (yeah, I made that up - sounded better than "Roughlin"). Anyway, Merrett's untimely re-injury means that our two-headed beast will in all likelihood be partially decapitated as Bradshaw surely will move down to defence in light of neither Roe nor Cornelius being named on the extended interchange bench. I'm not really a fan of this tactic, as both Franklin and Roughhead are different beasts to Fevola, who in case you missed it towelled up everyone that crossed his path last week, even a few towels. No, Buddy is an agile beast, who is showing signs of getting back on track after a slow start to the year. Well slow by his standards anyway. And Roughhead takes a lot of his marks on the lead at full stretch which is very hard to combat. Probably Roughy is more up Big Guns' alley in terms of opponents. This leaves young Lachie Henderson to go with Franklin, which would be a good learning curve for the young bloke.
So, what happens up forward then? Will we then leave Brown to carry more blokes on his shoulders than at the Cirque de Soleil show? Well, there'll be two options I reckon: (a) Roe will be added to the extended bench in the next 24 hours; or (b) Tommy Rockliff will get his chance to impress after a very soild month or so for the reserves. The Lobster was recruited as a Medhurst-like forward, but seems to have thrown off doubts over his stamina and played a bit through the midfield in the QAFL. I suppose there's the third option of: (c) Strawb makes a miraculous recovery. But if they risk him now, I'll personally slap our medical staff with a wet snapper.
But, in all likelihood, we'll get spanked in this game. Why? First, well, see the above. Joel Mac can't surely be expected to mark either of those beasts. Second, it will be colder in Launy then Brad and Angelina's relationship at the moment (no, I don't really know about those things, I just saw it on the news this morning). Probably wetter too (I'll stop before I go down the Are You Being Served? route). Historically we've never really handled the really cold southern winter conditions well. I doubt Sportsbet takes bets on clothing, but I'd be betting good money Brennan wears long sleeves. And thirdly, this club has bit of a history of clocking off before the mid-season break. We can only hope Voss has them up. Hawthorn also have some pretty handy inclusions in ther side with Campbell Brown and Tom Murphy coming in, tempered by the loss of Cyril Rioli.
But how can we win? Pressure in the midfield and keeping the ball moving forward. Luckily we have a pretty good coach for these tactics. He's already raised the issue by telling his players to toughen up. One of the reasons the Hawks did so well last year, was the delivery from the midfield was nothing short of spectacular - by far the best in the league.
Yes, it can be done, but it would be flying in the face of history. Not to mention reality.
Hawthorn by 42.
Good get! J-Ro in!
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