It amazes me how incensed people get about one selection out of 22. Last week everyone was pretty happy with the squad that was named, which appeared to everyone to be a pretty good mix of youth and experience. They played great, and without an injury we would have gone in with an unchanged line-up.
But we did get an injury, and so we replaced an injured 24 year old running machine who can't kick with another 24 year old running machine who can't kick, and suddenly the match committee are total spuds. Sure, on the body of work so far you'd say Brad was a much better player, but on the strength of his two games so far I'm not convinced it's much of a downgrade. Players like Sheridan, Sutcliffe and D Pearce are still on the list and there to be picked in case of injuries. Two out of three have had a crack, now Sheridan gets a chance to show if he's improved over another offseason. If he hasn't, he'll be gone next week.
I love that we named an almost unchanged team. I love the Crowden gets another change to learn the pace of the game despite showing last week he was a little off it. I love that we're giving Matera and Ballas another run together despite them not quite clicking.
