Tis the season for best
line-up suggestions that are, mostly, useless. How often does a team have
their best 22 on the field?
Depth is more important in the AFL that ever and for the first
time since the early 80's, Richmond has developed talent outside the ‘best 22’.
Without a healthy mix of talent across:
· Ruck
· Midfield
· Defence
· Forward
teams are going
nowhere in a hurry.
Splitting the 44 players on Richmond’s list you get:
Rucks
Hampson
Maric
Stephenson (Rookie)
Defenders
Astbury
Batchelor
Chaplin
Darrou
Dea
Grimes
Houli
Morris
Newman
Petterd
Rance
Midfield
Arnot
Conca
Cotchin
Deledio
S Edwards
Ellis
Foley
Grigg
Helbig
Jackson
Knights
Lennon
Martin
McDonough
McIntosh
Miles (Rookie)
O’Hanlon
Thomas (Rookie)
Vlastuin
Williams (Rookie)
Forwards
Banfield (Rookie)
A Edwards
Elton
Gordon
Griffiths
King
Lloyd
McBean
Riewoldt
Vickery
Now it’s possible to do what the Internet loves most, ranking.
Richmond’s depth chart gives an idea of what the team might look
like heading into the start of the season and, much importantly, who comes in
when someone goes out.
The green and red is based on playing a squad of:
· Two rucks
· Six defenders
· 10 midfielders
· Four forwards
Ranked
|
|||
Cotchin
|
Riewoldt
|
Rance
|
Maric
|
Martin
|
Vickery
|
Houli
|
Hampson
|
Deledio
|
Lloyd
|
Chaplin
|
Stephenson ®
|
Conca
|
Griffiths
|
Morris
|
|
Ellis
|
King
|
Grimes
|
|
Jackson
|
A Edwards
|
Petterd
|
|
S Edwards
|
Elton
|
Newman
|
|
Vlastuin
|
McBean
|
Astbury
|
|
Knights
|
Gordon
|
Batchelor
|
|
Grigg
|
Banfield ®
|
Dea
|
|
Foley
|
Darrou ®
|
||
Lennon
|
|||
McDonough
|
|||
Thomas ®
|
|||
Miles ®
|
|||
Arnot
|
|||
Helbig
|
|||
O'Hanlon
|
|||
McIntosh
|
|||
Williams ®
|
|||
It will be interesting to see how this list holds up throughout
the year, but I am hopeful of seeing:
· Conca threaten Deledio in the top
three
· Vlastuin climb
· Lennon force his way into the
starting squad
· Knights string some games
together and be one of our best
· Either Elton or McBean becoming a fall back option because we are screwed every which way if Jack gets
injured
· Astbury to climb
· Hampson to replace Maric as our
best ruck given it looks as Ivan is falling apart.
Key concerns are that:
· We are in strife if we lose
Hampson alongside Maric
· We are all in on Jack and Ty, the
cupboard is bare after that up forward.
It isn’t quite the depth of Hawthorn or Fremantle but the list cloggers that Hardwick inherited are
nearly all gone.
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