SPILL THE TEA

[SPILL THE TEA] 🫖🍃

With under 3 weeks before the Cats at Dingley, what’ll we see? Tea leaves say:

❌ No Skywalker (aka, our man Will Day) - who is sadly out till mid May, which you know already unless you’ve been living in a rocky enclave on Taliban tribal lands.

✅ Thankfully future AA CHB, Noah Mraz, will be there - his aggression, improved positioning from his early days in VFL last year, courage in the air and bigger tank will not only cause headaches for Coach on how to fit him into a backline already stacked with JB, TB, Scrim and Sis, but also why the Dogs, North, Swans and other teams crying out for a key defender let the best one in the 2024 super draft slide to us at pick 35 (after being destined for top 10 before a foot injury wiped out his draft year - an injury he gave himself, no less, doing extras in order to improve the spring in his 198cm frame!)

Tea leaves also say look at 🫖🍃:

✅ Croc into The Bubble, where his quick feet, creativity, toughness and power running will help to not only cover Skywalker’s loss until mid season but also the Worpedo’s one-way off season trip to Shelbyville (spies say Croc played as inside mid exclusively in match sim)

✅ Butler also into The Bubble, where he’ll do what he did in VFL last year hopefully - winning more of the pill, both inside and out, as well as using his running power contest-to-contest, clean handling and execution, and his pressure, tackling and toughness

✅ Connor Ireland (aka, Connor Nash 🇮🇪) getting more outside pill, following on from his 23 and 24 possie finals against Cats & Giants and which’ll continue his rise as an offensive threat & link man (not just defensive beast who defends the blind side of The Bubble and shuts down the oppo’s best midfield gorilla)

✅ Bubble Boys of Connor Ireland, Butler, Croc, Nuke, Ward and Frenchie winning first possession AND not coughing up the pill like we have done all-too-often previously (with Frenchie, in particular, primed to add more cleanliness and class to stoppage work following his excellent preseason by all reports)

✅ Joe Wembley starting on the wing, so he can (a) still play behind the ball as defensive winger (despite no room for him in stacked backline now) and also (b) go centre fwd (ie, the Dusty/Bailey Humphrey/Cam Rayner role) to threaten oppo in the air and with his legs - as he did with some success in Giants and Crows finals

✅ Joe Wembley also starting in centre square at times, so someone other than Nuke can burst out the front of stoppage - providing a new offensive threat for Kingy to froth over

✅ 2 rucks in the same side, because Noodle wasn’t given his new 3 year deal last November to be the best ruckman in the VFL again. Fingers crossed his 210cm frame will not only hit to the outside (where Bubble Boys who excel at fast feet (not wrestling) like Ward, Frenchie and Croc can use their inside to outside jets and good decision making to give us ascendancy & Ws in the inside 50 column), but also start chains from D50, complete hard between the arcs, and threaten in front of the pill too (ie, that Noodle will do exactly what he did in season 2025, just against AFL opponents, not VFL)

✅ Bailey Mac as #1 speed man behind the ball, releasing Impey forward (which was Coach’s break glass in emergency move last season when team needed a shot of adrenaline - where CJ as sub more often than not was activated onto half back, with Impey going forward to add spark and kick cheeky snags)

✅ 4 forwards in the same side, with the little reported reasons why coach wants to play Chol, Lewis, Dear and Unc in same side together (which go way beyond offensive flex & scoreboard pressure) becoming clearer