Morgan.... I always like a lot of what you say, but I disagree with you that you can't see what's happening forward of the ball on TV. Maybe it's because I rarely get to live games and have no choice but to watch Ch Nic Nat.
If anything, I reckon our forward line deficiency ( i.e. The complete absence of one) is more identifiable via watching the TV games.
1) you notice our midfielders/back liners holding the ball up more, whilst they wait for a forward to get back to where they actually should be, (i.e. There can be absolutely no other explanation why the progress/ flow suddenly stops to the irate TV viewer.
and,
2) reguarly - and I mean several times a match for the last several years - any commentary team regularly comments on the blatantly obvious fact that there is simply no one in the Freo forward 50!! And on cue the director often cuts to a view that substantiates that fact.
If all you get to digest is TV footy - as I do - you get a fair idea where blokes are, and in our case, where blokes bloody well aren't!!!
And, well... I'm sorry...When I watch the other games of footy that Ch Nic Nat allow me to watch, I simply do not get the sense that vacant forward lines area common ploy throughout the competition...
It only happens in games that RoLy is involved with....
And you will probably counter with the fact that only live footy truly lets you see what goes on with structures / strategies and the like, but the couple of times a year I've got to a Freo match during the RoLy Reign, I've seen nothing that doesn't substantiate my TV derived view that RoLy's game plan is a joke, and he is unable - and most worryingly - unwilling to change.
