Similar-ish to my effort for last season, a look at the 18 teams in Season 2 of CPL Australian Rules.
The Exclusives (Please_Reframe) B: Greg Broughton David Astbury Lachie Hansen HB: Curtly Hampton Alex Rance Ed Curnow C: Brendan Goddard Ryan Crowley Stephen Hill HF: Matthew Wright Josh Jenkins Jack Watts F: Jamie Cripps Jesse Hogan Mark LeCras Foll: Sam Jacobs Scott Thompson Jack Steven I/C: Lachie Neale Andy Otten Kristian Jaksch Sub: Nathan Foley One of the two 'expansion' teams to join the CPL Australian Rules competition for Season 2, and IMO the better one. This side has a few key strengths. The starting midfield looks pretty damn good, 4 very handy midfielders (Goddard, Hill, Thompson, Steven), one excellent role player (Crowley) and three others on other lines that should add something (Curnow, Neale, Wright). I like the key defenders, Rance is very capable for that #1 guy, and Hansen plays the ideal sort of role for a #3 key defender. In addition, Jacobs, 2013 notwithstanding is up there with the best ruckmen in the game. There are holes, however. And quite big ones. The whole forward line is pretty ordinary. Jenkins seems mediocre for a #1 guy, Watts is softer than a marshmallow, LeCras isn't really a volume goal-kicker anymore and Hogan is yet to play an AFL game. The midfield may be exposed in practice, due to the lack of a true A-grade midfielder, and the side lacks a strong SD (both attacking and defending). Prediction: Hard to call. Will probably struggle, but there is enough quality for them to pull upsets from time to time and avoid the spoon.
That midfield won't be exposed lol. They've got an elite tagger, perhaps the best outside run and carry player in the league and three second tier brilliant mids. top 3-4 mid in the comp imo
Bock Spiders (Benny) B-Waters-Bock-Hurn HB-Bugg-N.Brown-Litherland/M.Brown C-Bastinac-Kelly-Thomas HF-Tomlinson-Clark-Wells F-Russell-Dixon-White R-Jamar-Griffen-Deledio Int-Sinclair-Kerridge-Armitage SUB-Smedts Probably the weaker of the two expansion sides here, unfortunately there's little to recommend about the side apart from a strong outside mid brigade. The side will struggle in the clearances - out of their mids only Griffen, Armitage and sometimes Kelly are inside-oriented, there isn't a pure crumber in the line-up, and there isn't a real #1 forward here. Defensively they are better, but even there it's gonna be hard to produce their best line-up there as Waters and Bock have hardly been sighted in recent years due to injuries. Prediction: Spoon contenders, along with MASTERS. Sorry.
I did say it was a strength in fairness, but I do think the lack of a true A-grade mid may cost them at time.
How many true a-graders are there? Ablett, Selwood, Pendlebury, Fyfe, Dangerfield, Watson, JPK in the 'a' group with Beams, Cotchin, Goddard and Rockliff in the next group. If you've got an 'a' or 'a-' er I reckon you're fine. Goddard's criminally underrated. not sure if it's because people use sc averages to judge players and his is 106 because of a game where he was subbed out in q1 or because he doesn't get the media hype but he's elite in nearly every regard aside from ball winning and athleticism
I'm just discussing them lol. But let's be fair, a midfield of Crowley, Goddard, Hill, Steven and Thompson is top notch no matter how you look at it.
Tbh my forward line alone could get me a spoon. Apart from LeCras and Jenkins (Watts too to an extent) it's shit.
