Rory Laird maintained the recent history of injury carnage, ruling him out of Round 19 with a shoulder injury, while there was good news with Josh Dunkley, Darcy Cameron and Hayden Young all returning.
TEAM NEWS
Key ins: B.Smith, O.Baker, Cowan, Dunkley, Serong, Young, Lloyd, Chad Warner, H-Francis, D.Cameron, S.Mitchell
Key outs: O’Donnell (inj), Cerra (inj), P.Cripps (inj), D.Robertson, Bailey (inj), Mullin, Darcy (inj), Corey Warner, Melican (inj), D.Williams, Lord, F.Greene (inj), Fiorini, Laird (inj), Peris, Wardlaw (inj)
Key holds: Fletcher, Fogarty, Cuningham, Chesser, E.Hewett, Long, J.Williams, Maric, Sturt, Banks, Atkins, van Rooyen, Woewodin, Ford, C.Harvey
Extended bench: Grundy, Chandler, Angwin, Fahey, Humhprey, Jordon, L.Nankervis, Windhager, Ziebell, W.Phillips, Hansen, Goldstein
Possible subs: Davey, Lohmann, Mullin, Binns, Corey Warner, Buller, D.Williams, Lord
Confirmed subs: Stanley, Coulthard
There’s a lot to take in above, but there were numerous key inclusions, led by Josh Dunkley, Caleb Serong, Bailey Smith, Jake Lloyd, Hayden Young, Chad Warner, Jason Horne-Francis, Seamus Mitchell and Darcy Cameron.
However, Rory Laird was the big out, with Adelaide confirming earlier in the day (see below for more info) that he’d miss with a shoulder issue. Oisin Mullin and Jack Peris were among the cheapies to lose their spots, with newcomers Taj Woewodin, Cooper Harvey and Sam Banks holding their positions in their 22s.
Patrick Cripps was a surprise out, with Carlton stating: “Cripps has been unable to train all week after sustaining a cork in last week’s game. Cripps will miss this week and, at this stage, is a test to play next week against Collingwood.”
DEBUTANT ALERTS
Matt Coulthard (AF $200k SC $102k FWD) will debut for Richmond as sub, having been pick 4 in the 2023 Mid-Season Draft. He’s a 178cm small forward, who had 11 disposals, 4 marks, 4 tackles and 1 goal in the VFL last weekend.
Ethan Stanley (AF $200k SC $102k M/F) will also debut as sub for Fremantle, having gone at pick 7 in the 2023 Mid-Season Draft. He’s a 188cm winger type, who had 16 disposals, 3 marks, 2 tackles and one goal in the WAFL last weekend.
UPDATES
Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks has confirmed Rory Laird (AF $933k SC $620k MID) will miss their Round 19 game against Melbourne on Sunday after a shoulder knock sustained last round.
Laird missed Crows’ training on Thursday, with Nicks confirming afterwards at the press conference that he won’t play. Laird had sustained the injury late but after assessment, played out the game and finished well. Nicks said: “Lairdy won’t play this weekend, he’s just a little bit banged up and his shoulder is a bit too sore, so we won’t take a risk there.”
On the extent of the injury, Nicks said: “We hope so (it’s only one week). There is swelling there at the moment, which is something he’s got to work through and the pain, so we’d hope by next week. Talking to the experts, we were hopeful he might get a game up this week but in the end it has been too much of a push.”
The Crows coach indicated Matt Crouch would likely come in for Laird, while Jake Soligo was in consideration too after being left out last week with Josh Rachele out suspended. Rookie Max Michalanney will be rested.
Collingwood coach Craig McRae offered an update on the likelihood of Darcy Cameron (AF $721k SC $463k F/R) returning from a back issue, along with Brody Mihocek. He said: “They trained really well. They’ll come back into selection. It’ll be hard to leave those two out.”
Jordan De Goey didn’t train with Collingwood on Thursday due to illness but McRae was hopeful on his availability. McRae said: “The latest is he’s viral, like all our players who are a bit sick, we just don’t want them in our rooms. He’ll train offsite somewhere today. He’s going to do some work away from the club. We’re anticipating he’ll be here tomorrow and train with us.”
Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin discussed Brodie Grundy’s (AF $607k SC $429k RUC) VFL stint, with implications on Max Gawn in the meantime, given his dominance last round as sole ruck. Goodwin said: “There’s no timeline on it at all. We’re trying to increase our ability to have impact in front of the ball. We want to make sure our forward half functions really well and this ruck combination is part of that.”
“If it all works out, we see Brodie and Max playing 10 minutes a quarter forward of the ball. How we get that extra exposure is at VFL level. He’ll play as a permanent forward again this week. We know what he can do in the ruck.”
On Max Gawn, Goodwin said: “It was a dominant performance by Max. It’s a performance we’ve seen in the past. AFL footy is a long season. We ask a lot of our key personnel. It’s one week though. We want to continue to assess things. We think we can still get growth in our game.”
Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge confirmed Bailey Smith (AF $676k SC $416k M/F) will return this round from illness. He said: “Yeah, Baz will come in. He’s ok. He’s got over his illness and he’ll play.”
On his role, Beveridge said: “He’s playing almost the exact same role he did in 2021 and the start of 2022, albeit he may have been in a few more centre bounces. The whole dialogue around that is meaningless. Bailey is playing as a midfielder, he might start as a forward at centre bounce.
“Bailey is finding his way back to his best form, in the role he’s playing in our team, he’s got the capacity to be our best player week-in week-out. We’re going to help him get there.”
West Coast coach Adam Simpson confirmed Andrew Gaff would “probably” come into the 22 after being sub last week, with Reuben Ginbey out “for a few weeks with a hamstring”.
Richmond interim coach Andrew McQualter hailed the performance of Ivan Soldo last round, stepping in for the suspended Toby Nankervis. He said: “I was really impressed with Soldo’s game. I thought he had a big impact on the game. He hasn’t played much AFL footy this year, and only 3-4 VFL games. He played like a big game. We were really pleased with his performance.”
McQualter flagged James Tresize was in the mix for an AFL debut after good VFL form.
Read Wednesday’s injury/selection news, with notes on Cameron, Darcy, Young and many more
Find out all the Round 18 role changes with our analysis. Read here
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