A handful of injuries in round 15 makes a few selection changes necessary, but results being what they were there’s unlikely to be any big overhauls.
Richmond’s durability is often talked about but the premiers are going to have to make at least two changes this week with Reece Conca injured and Vick Vlastuin suspended – not a good week to be a redhead at Tigerland!
Nick Vlastuin will likely come under the scrutiny of the MRO after this incident with Luke Parker.#AFLTigersSwans pic.twitter.com/ccnf79aa8m
— AFL.com.au (@AFLcomau) June 28, 2018
High draft pick Corey Ellis never seems to quite rise to the challenge at the top level, but he’ll get another go after a few weeks of outstanding results in the twos.
A host of other options front the Tigers with a real curly possibility being first-year father-son recruit Patrick Naish, with his old man Chris named as Richmond’s ‘homecoming hero’ for Friday night’s match. It would be romantic, but they’re much more likely to bring in Sam Lloyd or Shai Bolton.
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The Crows will surely name Tom Lynch after saying a month ago he would be right to play, yet keeping him out under mysterious circumstances each week. Honestly, who knows what’s going on in Adelaide?
Melbourne would be wishing it had an axe to swing in an effort to get it’s players’ heads back in the game but, Jake Lever aside, there’s no one better in the grandstand than they’ve already got on the ground.
However, they can’t come out of three-straight losses and a less-than-acceptable performance against St Kilda without making some sort of change, so the underperforming Dom Tyson will feel the cold steel of the blade and make way for Billy Stretch amongst a couple of other moves of deckchairs.
The Demons’ opponent Fremantle will fancy its chances in Alice Springs and will name Bradley Hill to come in for brother Stephen’s 200th game, and big-baby Sean Darcy will get his first game of the year as Aaron Sandilands misses with a calf injury.
Essendon and Collingwood will be a cracker on Sunday but neither team is going to change much from round 15’s winning line-ups.
The Bombers will stay the same while the Pies will bring back Levi Greenwood to replace the inured Lynden Dunne – hardly like-for-like but a tagger could prove more valuable than a tall defender against Essendon.
In other selection news, the Western Bulldogs will name Caleb Daniel to replace the unluckiest man in football Lin Jong, the Saints lose Josh Battle and will try an old-fashioned two-ruck strategy against Port Adelaide, bringing in Tom Hickey to join Billy Longer, and West Coast will regain key defender Tom Barrass. And speaking of rucks, Matthew Kreuzer will be back from his host of ailments sustained two weeks ago along with fellow veteran Blue Dale Thomas, as Carlton gets its last chance for a win in 2018, facing the 17th-placed Brisbane Lions.
