WXV 2014 Preview

[CrowsFan]

Interesting top 4 you have there ossie

[Nige]

Okay.

So basically, I'll just split this up into each line with general thoughts and hopes.

Defenders
I think our starting defenders (Hanley, Malceski, Pearce, Goodes) are great and pretty stable. The next three in line are all imports from other clubs. Brodie Smith is next in line and should do nicely this year, Troy Chaplin and Seb Tape will would probably be next in line both having previously been at rival clubs in the Cobras and Pumas. If all goes well, our depth in this line shouldn't be tested beyond these guys. Guys like Mackenzie and Laidler should have decent enough years and aren't the worst guys to be relying on should we ever need them. Clarke and Hartigan are key defenders, so they'll probably never be great scorers, but they'll eventually be permanent fixtures in their sides which is better than having players that don't play. Bews is the unknown and I'm not confident about his future.

Midfielders
Beams, Prestia, Douglas and Carrazzo should play every week with Beams being the obvious captain option. Hutchings is the next in line, and I reckon he'll be best 22 for the Eagles. JROO made note of Dunstan being a young gun, so much so that he may even get named in our XV at times throughout the year and definitely in the future. Guys like Rischitelli and Polkinghorne should hopefully get a spot in their 22s to provide some more depth, while mature-agers Dwyer and Gordon should make appearances as well. Crowley doesn't score great in his tagging role, but he plays every week and is perma-captain of our reserves (;D). Woodward and Amon are younger guys that should break into their lineups in time, while again Marsh, like Bews, really is a mystery.

Rucks
Mumford is the No.1 ruck at the Giants, and next in line is Giles, so to have them both is awesome. Giles likely to spend a bit of time up forward too you'd think, also helping his scoring output. Sam Rowe's getting games every now and then and has DPP is which is always handy. If Maric goes down, Orren might play to help out Hammer.

Forwards
No doubt about it, this is our weakest line. Starters and depth wise. Breust and Puopolo are locks every week, and I assume Tory Dickson will play every game unless injured as well. Chris Knights is best 22 for the Tigers if fit in my opinion, while Lewis Johnston should play a number of games after doing well at the end of last season. Cripps and Kerridge should be playing a bit this year and provide the back-up there, and I think we'll see a bit of Jarman Impey this year and for years to come. He can play all around the ground despite being named as a forward. Bourke showed good signs last night and I reckon he could be a good player and I think Jeremy McGovern might also make some appearances. The rest I don't have much hope for, but hopefully that turns around.



Overall, I think we're in with a decent shot. We'll make the 8, I'm certain of that. I don't think we'll make the top 4, but 5th or 6th is the aim. Anything less, and truthfully, I'll be disappointed. I think we have got enough depth to see us through and that having Beams as the captain option every week (hopefully) should help us out a lot. Also, not having the depth we did last year may be an asset as at times last year, picking the team wasn't the easiest thing to do with a number of players playing.

[Torpedo10]

Moscow gonna be da premiers.  8)

[Nige]

Moscow gonna be da premiers.  8)

Not with Lynden Dunn in your starting team.

[Jroo]

Cheers guys appreciate the feedback, I had a bit of spare time and thought it would be interesting to do and also allow me to find out more detail about each team and the comp.

@HB, looks good to me  :P.

@ Nigey, good stuff you were definitely one of the teams that I was looking at putting eight, but couldn't fit you in, sorry  :P

@ Memph, your forwards are very good, a lot of scoring potential and same with the mids. Rucks are weak though, Smith may not be back for a while and Vardy is injury prone. As you said, not much premium depth, down back and the starting 4 do have some potential, but aren't guns as yet.

@KB, yeah your team would be awsome with Maric, sorry we couldn't get anything done. I actually rate your team pretty highly.

@ Ringo, cheers, plenty of forward depth and I really like the look of Menzel and Daniher.

@Ossie, thanks fixed it now.

@Holz, I really like your team, guns everywhere. Markworth, I think will be beauty.

It would be interesting to see other people's predictions, too.

[SydneyRox]

cmon now, do BXV :)

[Jroo]

cmon now, do BXV :)

Haha, I don't have that much time  :P

[Torpedo10]

Moscow gonna be da premiers.  8)

Not with Lynden Dunn in your starting team.

He would take a forward spot, he averages 85.

[SydneyRox]

cmon now, do BXV :)

Haha, I don't have that much time  :P

esp with the brand new scoring system

[DazBurg]

fantastic stuff JROO let's hope we can do at least your prediction but would prefer better aswell ofc

[JBs-Hawks]

Brilliant Jroo!

[Justin Bieber]

Awesome stuff JRoo, no idea how you had the time for it, but great run down on your thoughts for each team! Similar to Nigey may disagree with some points, but everybody will have their own opinion on that.

Wow! What a great read... *goes back to read in more detail*

It was indeed, despite my tiredness. Will read back again on weekend when I catch up on sleep.

fantastic stuff JROO let's hope we can do at least your prediction but would prefer better aswell ofc

Hope we can make the 8, Oss has us at 6 :o. Lets just hope we don't get a horror run of bad luck again :P.

[Purple 77]

Fantastic work JROO, I do agree with your summation with Berlin :)

Did sacrifice a bit of depth for a bit more quality, we'll see how it goes

Berlin finishing 10th ossie, for shame  :P

[Boomz]

Great read. Pretty good summary for Tokyo. Good depth in defence & decent in the mids but flower all up forward and in the ruck...

[My Chumps]

Great read JRoo but looking at all these teams I've think you've got our position wrong.

Admittedly quite a bit of the performance of our team depends on players staying fit (Read Thomas, Hawkins, Higgins, Sam Reid, Tyson, Rohan)

The defence is interesting. We don't have a lot of 'premium depth' but we do have a host of good younger players/guys who could improve this season in O'Shea, Guthrie, Ben Reid, Everitt, Pittard, Haynes, Gwilt and Heath.

In midfield we have five guys who have previously shown they can be out-and-out stars in Cotchin, JPK, Thomas, Cooney and O'Keefe.

I'm not saying this will happen but if you take the best season average from each of these guys it reads like this: 116.3, 120.2, 109.4, 106.9, 108.5.

So that's a total of 561.5 at an average of 112.26 which shows there's great potential for some huge scores to come out of our midfield. We've then got one more spot to fill and have four solid options in Bird, Curnow, Tyson and B Hill. The first two are solid, consistent scorers whereas the second two have potential to substantially increase their output this year.

Ruck is a problem area with Smith out but we have got Vardy for cover here while he recovers so we won't be needing to play someone OOP.

Forwards are also interesting and like the mids there is a lot of scoring power with Hawkins, Cameron, Darling and Higgins the likely best 4 when fit. You'd expect Cameron and Darling to increase their scores this season due to natural improvement (and possibly some midfield time for Darling) while Hawkins and Higgins have shown they can be really good scorers when fit.

Depth wise we've got Bird, Sam Reid, Gary Rohan, Smedts, Bock and Karnezis. Again some injury worries but if fit all have the potential to improve on their 2013 averages.

In summary I think you've under-estimated the value we can get from having two super captain options (Cotchin and JPK) as well as the potential for our team. Yes it could all go pear-shaped and we could end up 12th but if we get even a little bit of luck then a top 8 spot should be pretty easily attainable.

Well said Memph. If we finish 12th/13th as predicted by JRoo and Oss, I would be incredibly disappointed.

Obviously we might be a little biased, but I can't see how we have a worse lineup than New York, Toronto, PNL or Wellington (Oss prediction).

My prediction:

#1 Dublin
#2 Buenos
#3 Sao Paulo
#4 Mexico City
#5 Tokyo
#6 Moscow
#7 Berlin
#8 Cape Town
#9 Cairo
#10 PNL
#11 Toronto
#12 New York
#13 London
#14 Pacific
#15 New Delhi
#16 Beijing

I think that's being pretty honest. I had Cairo pencilled in for 5/6 after last year, then I saw that forward line  :-\