The problem isn’t Lobb, it’s that Freo’s forward line is worse than the sum of its parts, which is partially due to there being too much redundancy between Lobb and Tabs. Lobb offers more around the ground and as a back-up ruckman, but Tabs is probably a little better as a key forward. But given we want Darcy on the ball 80% of the time, it means you have two guys in the forward line whose only elite skill is being tall and taking contested marks, which is a valuable but very narrow skill-set. Which means we are paying Lobb a motza to basically get in Tabs’ way, our attacking strategy appears to be midfielders trying to loop it onto the heads of tall forwards (which is horribly inefficient), and defences exit the defensive 50 like it’s a Sunday stroll.
We look so much better when a guy like Treacy, who is still learning the caper, gets a chance to lead out and run at the ball. That’s tough to organise when you have Tabs and Lobb milling about in the forward line.
But if we lost Lobb we’re a key forward short, and we’re a long-term injury to Darcy away from our season being torpedoed. So it seems that rather than getting rid Lobb, JLo and J’me Graham need to figure out a better way to use Lobb and Tabs together.
