Re: Give Harry a go
Reply #128 –
I do agree with you. Our team selections have not been good enough. Going into a game against a top ruckman (my God, I am frightened to write that: had Witts stayed at Collingwood he would still be a dud!) with only Casoult as a rucking option is a terrible mistake. It set us up to fail. Then our team balance hasn't been there.
Much work required in this area.
You are also correct: Bolts was seriously out-coached today. Dew's plans succeeded, while ours struggled.
Mind you, some of the non-decisions didn't help from the Umps, but if we had wanted the ball as much as they did, the umpiring would have been much less of an influence.
The thing is that we didn’t have any other options; Lobbe is injured, Flip has played half a game, Harry may have been an option but only if there was no-one else and De Koning, while named as an emergency, is a long way off.
I thought that Casboult and Jones both gave good contests in the ruck, and we won the clearances, so Witts’ dominance in hitouts didn’t really amount to much.
I’d prefer to see Harry honing his key forward craft in the NBs rather than being thrown to the wolves as an underweight, inexperienced ruckman.