We have all spoken about the 'three amigos' concept whereby Betts, Yarran & Garlett were left to run amok in our forward-line. The only problem with that tactic was that we never saw all three blitz at the same time, one of them, or possibly two of them did well but never all three.
I view Betts leaving as a blessing in disguise actually, and it's in no way a pot-shot at him either, quite the opposite. We plucked him from obscurity via the rookie draft and worked with him to become arguably the premier small forward of the competition. The downside though is that our forward delivery became rather skewed with players kicking high & long to Betts expecting him to outmark a tall defender who towered over him.
With him gone, we have to develop a new avenue to goal and other players have to pick up the slack both in goal-kicking as well as general hustle & defensive pressure.
Bett's departure opens up the conjecture about how effective our forward-line will be without him. More importantly, the question on everyone's lips is will Jeffy Garlett be able to match the goal output we got from Betts in his absence ??
If Garlett just stays at the same level of output, we could unintentionally go backwards overall in this area.
I would have thought that Garlett was a much better contributor than Betts last season.
Wood couldn't cement a spot at Brisbane or Collingwood, played a reasonable season in the VFL and kicked a goal in a NAB Cup game and he's challenging Kreuzer and Warnock for a spot in the 22?
Watson needs a session in our "whiz bang movement analysis gizmo" (aka motion lab) to sort out why he is so susceptible to injury.
Our team is much better balanced with Watson coming in anywhere between 1st and 4th drop and giving the quick bowlers a spell or two. However, I'm not sure he is worthy of a spot in the team if he is not fit enough to bowl a reasonable spell.
I reckon we'll win more games with Bell and Robinson in the 22 than we will if they're out.
Bell and Robinson may butcher the ball more often than our outside players but that goes with the territory. Their hardness and attack on the ball more than makes up for a few poor disposals.
As for who misses out on a spot in the 22 if we're at full strength, Scotland, Carrazzo and Menzel would have to be behind Bell and Robinson.
Of course, it's great that we now have genuine options and competition for spots in the 22.
If you need props like a bag of flour to get your team up, I reckon you need another career. Talking about on and off field personalities isn't going to cut it either.
I'm not saying that a coach can't change players' attitudes and behaviour but it won't happen in the week leading up to game. If I remember correctly, Hawthorn had adopted "unsociable football" early in Clarkson's tenure and being prepared to do whatever it takes was the way they went (and still go) about their football.
With the exception of de Villiers, the South Africans haven't shown too much backbone
I'll put my hand up to believing that Johnson should never play Test cricket again What a revelation he's been since getting a recall. It just shows that the most accomplished batsmen can be unsettled by accurate, very fast bowling, particularly if the other quicks can maintain the pressure.
