Re: Pre-Game Possibilities: AFL Rd 4: Carlton vs Gold Coast
Reply #26 –
IMHO, the organisations that do this are forced to.
We are simply a majority developing list of players. We cannot afford to have any of our top liners injured and they are often injured or playing under duress. It's partly what makes an injury to us so much worse. When Docherty broke down our chances of winning games were reduced by 50% immediately, simply because he is that important to our team. When it became apparent that Kreuzer was struggling to get on the park, they reduced again by another 50%. This isnt the case for a lot of teams but using Richmond as an example, look at how they have fared by simply having Martin playing much worse than he did over the last two years, Rance go down with a knee injury, and now Riewoldt with the wrist injury? They are compounding and Richmond have now been rendered uncompetitive missing Bachar Houli, and Josh Caddy too. They only beat us because we were similarly reduced. Any other side would have given them a working over in round 1. They wont win again this week either as the wheels are well and truly falling off now. We are possibly the only side in the competition with a similar number of under done players and I am willing to bet that they will finish bottom 4 if things dont start changing for them. They were playing on a lot of hard work and confidence, and are still a mentally fragile bunch.
We are stuck robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Our plight is exemplified by our ruck options. Our first choice Kreuzer is injured (again). Our Second choice Phillips is injured (again), our third choice (Lobbe) looks out of his depth, and is only on a list for that reason else he might have retired by now, our fourth choice a youngster (de Koning) is injured, and because Charlie Curnow is injured we are using our 5th choice (Casboult) as an alternative for both ruck and forward in case Lobbe is getting smashed and that means we are having to use our 6th choice (McKay) as another ruck rotation even though we need him in the forwardline, because Curnow is missing.
Thats before we even start talking about Docherty going missing. Have a look at how debilitating the injuries to Kreuzer and Curnow are to our options. They simply leave us undermannned. Lets not pretend that Kreuzer's ruck work is the reason why we choose him. He is good enough to break even in the ruck, its his presence after that makes him our first choice.