I’ve also been a bit concerned about our ‘foot soldier’ types. In 2013 Clancee, Mzungu, MDB and Suban were very solid contributors (as was a young man named Neale). If anything, those four have gone backwards since then, which is a shame because they are admirable players, but they just don’t seem to have the same impact on a game. This is compounded by the fact that Sheridan, Suttcliffe and Crozier haven’t really gone up a level either.
I’m not sure if it is a development issue, coaching, niggling injuries or something to do with the players themselves, but we really need those guys to lift. Premierships can be decided by the bottom 5 players on a team as much as the top 5 players. To me, that was the difference between Roly’s Saints teams and those Geelong and Collingwood teams that beat them. For the last few years I’ve though our bottom 5 was at least the equal of other top 4 teams, but I’m not sure it is at the moment. But we know they have it in them, so perhaps with the lift in intensity come finals time they will stand up.