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.
Go back & watch every game Jeffy played when Eddie was injured/suspended last year.
Was arguably the best small forward in the league and most journos had him as AA at half way point of season. Coincidentally Jeffy's form plummeted when Eddie returned to the team vs Essendon.
I'm certain Eddie leaving will be the best thing for Jeffy's form. As well as Menzel's development. Our midfield rotations will be better.
x2 Brother Sheik...Eddie going will get us to re-focus on a more traditional forward setup and make us a better team....the amigo's was fun to watch when it worked but was never going to take us to a GF.
I would have thought that Garlett was a much better contributor than Betts last season.
Garlett
22 games, 43 goals & 29 points @ 59.7% accuracy
Betts
18 games, 27 goals & 15 points @ 64.3% accuracy
I guess you have to factor in that Betts was the player the opposition coaches always put their better small defender on as he was considered to be the focal point and most dangerous around goal.
I love them all, but Garlett does not yet demand the respect Eddie Betts does, by some margin.
Betts could play full forward, win the ball in the air on the lead and in pack marking. Win the ball at ground level and strip opponents of possession.
Garlett is some way yet to go, lets not get carried away!
If he can kick another 40 goals then I'm happy. Though his form dropped off pretty sharply towards the end of last season.
Garlett was not just our leading goal kicker last season. He contributed up the ground and his defensive pressure was an important factor. He also drove the ball inside 50 on many occasions and gave off plenty of scoring opportunities.
If his accuracy was a little better, he would have kicked over 50 goals and we wouldn't be having this discussion ;)