I've made the grandfinal but now I'm concerned about who will be rested? Apparently Pav is no certainty to return. (Should I trade him for Beams?) Will Scott Thompson be rested? What about the teams who just failed to make the final eight. Will they give their players an early holiday? What do people think?
After looking at the fixture earlier, I noticed that Collingwood and Freo will potentially know their fates before their respective games start. As such I am wary of late withdrawals from those teams
Kiss Kiss, pies need to win and have eagles lose for them to finish in the top four. Also I would imagine after getting belted by the eagles on the weekend they would be looking at getting some form back before finals. So while the top 8 is set, the order is far from certain, hopefully this means less resting of players. But yeah I can't see why freo would play pav if he is still struggling. They play melbourne at home and should smash them without him anyway.
But if the eagles do win on the Friday night(probably unlikely) then the pies are pretty much locked into 5th. If so then they could afford to rest players who haven't had a break in a while (Beams?). Though it is a good point you raise Owen about them needing to find form. Still wary of Heater being rested as he limped off on the weekend didn't he? A couple of weeks ago I thought the eagles might rest a couple and concede the game to the hawks to save on the travel, but the chance at 4th spot is probably worth more than resting. The big chances for the rest do seem to be Adelaide and Freo players. I would have thought that Thompson or Danger are a big chance of being "sore" this week
KK, I guess you've answered my question about replacing Pav with Beams by suggesting that Beams himself might be rested. Does he really need a rest? He still seems to be smashing out big scores?
I think the Hawks were really the only team that rested players last season in final round on Thur night: Max Bailey (rested), Grant Birchall (rested), Lance Franklin (rested), Luke Hodge (rested), Jordan Lewis (rested), Brad Sewell (rested), Cyril Rioli (rested), Shaun Burgoyne (rested) Playing for top spot Friday night though. Also I cannot remember if there was late withdrawals from other sides.
I dont think the general will be as bad this year as others years because the teams in the eight are playing for positions/home finals so too much at stake. sanderson said last week that they wouldnt be resting players prefering to manage his players during the week and hopefully with gold coasts big upset on the weekend he wont tempt fate by resting dangerfield or thompson. Chances are collingwood will be playing for top 4 and if they are it will effectively be a home final against the hawks so pretty sure they wouldnt rest anyone but KK makes a good point that if the eagles win then pulling out a big name or two might be on the cards given that there will be no chance of a week off during the finals from finishing 5th and yeah dont think beams has had a rest so he'd have to be a prime candidate. Ive got a handful of players from richmond and carlton who are out of contention but hoping they'll both want to finish the season on a high and not leave out the stars for the final game. You'd imagine freo will probably do with pav what they did on the weekend, name him and then see what happens but couldnt see them taking any risks given they play melbourne at home.
@Stevo I was probably playing a little bit of Devils Advocate there. I don't think that WCE will beat the Hawks so that Pies will have to keep their foot on the pedal to get top 4. Beams in my mind is a lot more likely to play than Pav. The reason I mentioned Beams was I couldn't think of another Pies mid who is due for a break.