Judging Dawson on his disposal is like judging Sandilands on his forward pressure or Neale on his pack marking. For a hundred years there has been a place on the team for tall guys at one end to kick the ball high too, and tall guys from the other team trying to stop them marking. Dawson is pretty good at that role. He's also good at some other things, like shepherding, zoning off his player and looking awkward enough that frees that could be paid against him sometimes aren't. He's a team man through-and-through, never throws his teammates under the bus by blaming them for a his guy getting open, and will leave his bloke to cover for other guys. He knows his limitations and rarely attempts things he can't do. He practically never has had bags kicked on him at Freo.
He is a consistent, known quantity. An established backline will intuitively work together to use each other’s strengths and cover weaknesses. They'll know what ZeD is doing, and know not to give him in the ball. For years we had an established backline that was among the best in the league. The others thrived, in part, because ZeD let them play their own game (Luke being on the speedier players, Johnno being able to play the intercept role).
We no longer have an established backline, and the star players from it are gone. No-one in the backline can kick, but ZeD is the worst of the lot. In the same way that Chris Mayne would be a good player in a team for of goal scorers, ZeD would still be a good player in a team with a backline full of blokes capable of kicking a football. We just aren't that team.
He is now probably fourth in a pecking order that includes an All-Australian who missed all of last season (Johnno) a bloke who was a back-up at Footscray (Hamling), a talented quick tall bloke who keeps getting injured (A Pearce) and a young tall slow bloke who was regularly towelled up last season. Given he has a contract, and is a strong chance of actually playing games, I can’t see any reason to get rid of him.
He’s played more than half his career for Freo - he is a Freo player. Disagreement on his value is to be expected - after all legends of the club like Parker and McManus would also cop it because they were no good with ball in hand, so an average player is sure to cop it – but gleefully hoping for him to be sacked is a pretty ungracious way to treat a player who has been a good servant of the club.
