I really felt for Erasmus on Saturday. It’s so hard for that type of player to come in after playing at Peel, then be expected to pick up the speed of a tough, fast game in the final quarter. He was a dead-set liability when the sub really should be a weapon, but he was on a hiding to nothing.
We saw Connelly use Pav as backman and midfielder to protect his body when we were rubbish. We saw Brashaw, Cerra and Serong get game time on the flanks as young kids, then game time in the middle at the expense of Mundy. Fyfe and Walters when we were rebuilding. Not every player gets the luxury of their development being at the front of the coach’s mind, and I get that winning now is the priority. That said, I feel that Erasmus’ development is starting to look a bit stunted. I’m not sure if that’s a him problem or a development problem.
Can someone make the case for how Freo are helped by having O’Meara out there instead of Erasmus? It doesn’t make sense to me. Could they do what both Harvey and Lyon used to do and give young players blocks of games before sending them back to Peel? Maybe you can't play both Erasmus and Johnson, but why not rotate them and give them a few games each in a row rather than pulling them and down and using them as the sub?
