It's not panic stations, but the signs are troubling.
The one point out of this that makes sense is that our disposal has been poor - pretty much everything else is solid or better. When we were cruising we had Johnno, Duffman and Clancee as our outlet players with disposal efficiencies in the 83+% range. Our worst footy in terms of that disposal and link up has come with them out of the side.
Couldn't do anything about Johnno's injury, but I wonder how much we trade away for getting rid of a "slow" and a "soft" player (perceptions - not necessarily mine) when you see how badly we are getting killed by turnovers out of defence and through the middle of the ground. ie. in Duffield's case, I would happily concede the odd contested mark inside 50 and set shot if we got rid of 6-8 clangers which present open rebound scoring opportunities to the opposition.
For what he's worth, Dawson's disposal could be covered when he could handball off to one of 3-4 elite kicks running past him - but when they aren't there, his value in that unit drops as well.
