Earlier this year, James Youil wrote a feature piece for The Bombers Blog with his post titled "A Comprehensive Guide to Selecting the Best 23."
In this detailed piece, James provided fans with an in-depth guide on choosing the optimal lineup for Essendon in 2024, covering player strengths and strategic considerations for different positions.
Excitingly, James will now expand his contributions to The Bombers Blog. Each week, following team announcements, he will preview the upcoming head-to-head matchups and share his thoughts on how they might unfold on the field.
Matchups
Round 18 - Melbourne
This preview focuses on our Round 18 clash with Melbourne, analysing how both teams stack up on paper. While matchups are fluid during games, this exercise should give a general idea of team selection, helping to anticipate key matchups and possible positional twists.
*To keep things simple, ONE Essendon player is matched to ONE opposition player. Thus, this is only meant as a guide and not to be taken as gospel.
DEFENCE
RIDLEY
Fritsch
McKAY
van Rooyen
KELLY
Melksham
MARTIN
Chandler
REDMAN
Turner
McGRATH
Pickett
HEPPELL
Tholstrup
We should be well-equipped to curtail Melbourne’s small ball setup given how well we handled Collingwood’s similar structure last week. Lots of mediums and smalls that will no doubt be looking to put pressure on and cause trouble, makingKelly and McGrath’s roles extremely important once again. I personally have McGrath on Picket given the outstanding job he did on a similar opponent in Hill last week. Pickett will get a handful of centre bounce opportunities, but like Stringer, will push forward once the ball has cleared the area. Kellywith his lack of pace probably isn’t best equipped to deal with the potential confusion caused from this defensive handover.Regarding Kelly, he thrives on those tricky matchups who play closer to goal, whether it’s a crumbing small forward or a powerful medium type. With McGrath on Pickett, I have Kelly instead taking Melksham. Ridley should get Fritsch who is in that Langford mould of playing as a pseudo full-forward; however, last week against West Coast he saw minutes higher up the ground due to the inclusion of Melksham. If this persists, I’d expect perhaps Redman to take him as Redman typically patrols that defensive-midfield region. The last tricky player will be Turner simply because we’ve only named one genuine key defender (McKay). Given I’ve assigned Ridley to Fritsch, I’d trust Redman to sacrifice his role and play above his height (187 vs 194cm) and limit Turner’s influence. Although it remains a possibility that Ridley gets the Turner matchup while Redman gets Fritsch.
MIDFIELD
JONES
Windsor
DURHAM
Oliver
DUURSMA
Langdon
DRAPER
Petty
CALDWELL
Viney
MERRETT
Neal-Bullen
SHIEL
Rivers
COX
Sparrow
Three things come to mind when facing the Melbourne midfield over the last few years: contest, wing, Gawn. Thankfully, the latter is no longer in the equation, but the other two concerns remain. Admittedly, Melbourne’s contest work isn’t the force it once was (17th in clearance differential over the past 5 matches), but having players like Oliver and Viney means they will continue to ask questions of our midfield all night. Last year we tagged Oliver with Setterfield; however, with Oliver’s well-documented form issues, I would be surprised to see this strategy employed again. Still think, however, that Durham will line up on Oliver given the height concerns he presents (189cm). This will leave the two bulls in Caldwell and Viney to battle it out all night. Regarding their wings, Langdon is an incredibly smart player who has mastered the art of playing wing. He will hold his width at all times, and if Duursma or Jones get sucked into the contest, he will exploit them on the outside. It will require tremendous discipline to curb his influence. Finally, we get to Neal-Bullen who is likely to tag Merrett. Looking at the job he did on Daicos on King’s Birthday, he didn’t start on him in centre bounces (registered 0 CBAs), but swapped with Pickett after the initial centre clearance to push up and run with Daicos.
FORWARDS
STRINGER
McVee
CADDY
Lever
GRESHAM
Salem
GUELFI
Bowey
WRIGHT
McDonald
LANGFORD
May
PERKINS
Moniz-Wakefield
Initially, I had May taking Wright while McDonald took Caddy and Lever took Langford. But after talking to a Melbourne supporter (@FootyIsMyJam on X), he told me that McDonald tends to take the 200cm+ monster matchups with May taking whoever is closest to goal. With Wright standing at 203cm and Langford typically playing as our deepest forward, I made the necessary adjustments. This leaves Lever to play on either Caddy or Stringer. I think it’s more likely he matches up on Caddy as the remaining defenders wouldn’t be able to cope with Caddy’s size. Lever will also back in his experience to zone off Caddy and assist McDonald and May in the air. It will important for Caddy to clunk a few early on and earn Lever’s respect. McVee typically plays the Kelly role in that he tends to the opposition goal sneak. In our case, we don’t possess a true crumbing small forward so I think the next most likely matchup would be Stringer. Despite what I’ve listed above, I’d also expect McVee to tend to Perkins when he plays forward. I doubt our forward 6 would ever be comprised of Stringer, Wright, Langford, Caddy, and Perkins all at the one time, meaning McVee should be able to rotate between Stringer, Perkins, and maybe even Langford at some stages. I expect Bowey to take Guelfi while Salem and Moniz-Wakefield lineup across half-back and look after Gresham and any resting midfielders. Melbourne’s lockdown back pockets are rock steady, but I definitely think we can exploit them across half-forward with the likes of Caddy, Stringer, and Perkins presenting as difficult matchups. Stringer, in particular, is due for a big game.
LIKELY SUBSTITUTES
HIND
Woewodin
Unlucky to be named sub again, but Hind’s incredible versatility and ability to make an instant impact make him almost the perfect sub. Additionally, his added run will be invaluable in the last quarter when the rest of the team is tiring.
VERDICT
Regarding overall balance, we look to have an even spread of size and speed. Our midfield mix looked great against Collingwood and that was largely due to Merrett dominating and Shiel finding form. In the likely event Merrett’s influence is quelled, let’s hope Shiel backs his performance up this week. Moreover, I would also like to see more of an offensive influence from Perkins. Lately, he has been given some run with roles against opposition bigger-bodied midfielders, but without an obvious matchup this week (no Petracca), he should be given the reigns to run freely. Hopefully he can find more of the ball and perhaps even hit the score sheet. Should be a game we win, but I’m still learning to trust this team.
TIP: Essendon by 11 points.
James Youil (13-year Essendon Member)
Comments