Re: R1 vs Port Adelaide @ Etihad - Pre-Match Postulating
Reply #92 –
Thats not it.
There are multiple reasons:
1. Setting an equality of treatment to eliminate resentment amongst the players.
2. Setting an example regarding what levels players are to achieve at "reserve" level before they get opportunities at senior level.
3. Making sure we are not carrying Judd for any period of the game. Sure, he might give you ten minutes of stirling stuff that will be the difference between winning and losing, but if we have to carry him and play with in effect a man down in order just to have him out on the park, thats a loss.
4. Keeping the pressure off Judd so when he does return he isnt "the man" and the players will hopefully help him come back.
Culture, it takes roughly 100 actions to build it, and it only takes one (such as giving a fading star preferential treatment) to really destroy it.
If it happens that Judd works his way back into full fitness just training then so be it, but there is no practise like match practise and we have not see the best of C. Judd for a couple of seasons now (or when we have, it has been sparingly).
I wouldnt force him to come back through the VFL, but I would at least contemplate doing it, and much of the decision will be made by how the senior team is travelling without him before we make that call IMHO.