Best 22 for '22: Andrew Weiss
Weissy has his crack at who he thinks should be in the team for round one of the 2022 season.
Who I grappled with:
I think it is the same conundrum that anyone putting their starting 22 together is having - who makes the starting team as part of the defensive unit. In my opinion Kyle Hartigan, James Sicily, and Blake Hardwick are the only defensive locks - outside of that you can make an argument for any combination of Day, Scrimshaw, Frost, Impey, Bramble, Impey and CJ to join them. So deciding who makes the defensive crew, who plays up the field, who rotates off the bench and who doesn’t make the team is the hardest part of round one selection right now.
Who should-be best 22 by seasons end:
DGB is the one who might struggle to start given the depth of our back six - which incredibly is more like a back 15 jostling for six spots. But he will no doubt be putting pressure on some of the key backs throughout the year and will hopefully be a lock by the end of the season.
Similarly, while I have started my round one team with Ned Reeves in the ruck, the Reeves / Lynch / McEvoy combination is still somewhat of an unknown. I’d love to see Reeves lay claim to the number one ruck spot come round 22.
Don’t sleep on:
Tyler Brockman is unlikely to make the round one team with Punky and Dylan Moore rightfully claiming the small forward slots in the team. But I expect to see a fair bit of him throughout the year - perhaps another 10-12 games under his belt, and in that time he will hopefully lay claim to challenge for Breust’s spot permanently for 2023 and beyond.
Who might be in trouble:
The three players at different stages of their careers but who I have fitting into this category are Liam Shiels, Harry Morrison and Finn Maginness. As much as I have enjoyed the consistency, unassuming nature of his play, and quality over a long period of time, I am just not sure that Shiels is a key part of this team in 2022. Perhaps from a depth point of view he will be important, but given the direction we are taking I just can’t see him getting a game and left him out of my round one team.
Morrison intrigues me and I am surprised he got given another year on the list. For someone who is supposed to have silky skills his clanger numbers are high and we can probably only afford to have a small number of outside players that can’t win their own ball. I’d rather have Phillips in the team.
For Maginness, I am just not sure he will be able to crack it into the senior side. The opportunities he has had at Box Hil level haven’t really provided much to be excited about, and for me he is in list purgatory - still too early to want to let him go (and become a Josh Kennedy elsewhere), but not yet convinced he will make it.
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Thanks. Strong effort. Who is the captain?