Bizkit, you’re right – workman-like is a probably an underestimation of our team. What I’m getting at it is that we aren’t very explosive or athletic.
Here’s a simple exercise – how many players on our list have above-average speed or explosiveness for their position?
Here’s my list:
Hill (definite)
Fyfe (quick off one step, and great leap)
McPharlin (probably)
Hendrix (maybe, against the low bar of other ruckmen)
Ballas and Walters (perhaps you could argue quickness, but most small forwards are quick).
Everyone else is pretty one-paced, albeit we have some good distance runners.
My point is, we have strengths, but they are size, smarts (including ball winning), and skill. If we played a shoot-out style of footy, we’d be playing away from our strengths.
In the first third of the season, we were killing teams out of the middle (size and ball winning), and killing teams on the rebound (skill, when we were the most efficient kicking team in the league). We’re still capably of both of those things, but our intensity has been a little off, and our skills have dropped a fair bit.
Given rebound is so important, we've really missed Johnno. He'll be better for the run. We also miss an extra link player to run, carry and deliver. That's a personnel issue, and there's no obvious solution (although the selection of Crozier and Weller over Clancee or Blakely is an indication that the coaches are looking).
As for Bond, I don't think I've ever said he was any good, just that it's not easy to find the types of players we are missing.
