Mushroom, I didn’t see all of the game, but from what I saw NOD was involved in a few clangers in defence. There was a holding the ball – that happens. The kick out on the full that gifted Naughton a goal was real coach-killing stuff. He just hand to bend over and rush it through and instead he threw his boot at it for some inexplicable reason. Just awful.
Then there was the one where he gathered deep in defence, handballed to Pearce, then inexplicably looked away while Pearce proceeded to handball it past him and out of bounds.
We’ve got clever ball users in the back half so we don’t really need him to be there. Just leave that stuff to Ryan, Young and Chappy. Walker already provides enough chaos down there (too much for my taste and I’d prefer Wilson for now, but that’s just me).
I’m not sure he’s quite in the same class (at least not yet), but he shapes to be this Freo team’s version of Des Hedland. His job should be to cheat forward when we look like winning the ball, get on the end of it, assess whether he can take a ping and on occasion, reluctantly, hit someone lace-out instead.
I would basically ban him from entering the defensive 50.
