Bizkit,
(2nd attempt) I don't agree with your assessment. Leaving Roly out of it as my remarks never included him until I responded to other, but as a logical arrangement I think its a bad idea.
I. He is still in some rehab for his navicular stress fractures, which is fair enough as these are not a simple 'wait 2 weeks and all is better' kind of thing
II. I'm not advocating him as a stay at home forward. He's not suitable for that. If he was a big and solid as Pav or Hodor...or Buddy or Lockett, then yeah but he is mobile. That mobility should be used to run repeated leads from a forward position. ie He should be our deep forward and Tabs, who is a little more solid, should be at half forward, drifting deeper forward to provide a chop out for Hogan.
III. Hogan is a better kick on goal than pretty much anybody except Mikey maybe. He is however not a not long kicker of the ball and he should be shooting on goal from as deep in the 50 as we can get him.
IV. I disagree with your assessment on how much he would get bumped around. As a leading forward, there would be much less than he would experience in a congested midfield. Coaches like to get numbers around the ball, particularly defensive coaches and the midfield is very often a place where solid bumps will be experienced. Having blokes like Sandi, Hodor, Fyfe, Mundy to do the bumping , blokes like the Hills and Walters on the outside to deliver the ball forward to a leading forward is old fashioned but it works. Look at the slime (if you have a strong stomach) but Kennedy and Darling do just that. They run into spaces when their mids get the ball and it results in more goals than we kick. The slime are supposed to have a crap midfield but they get good value because they have 2 forwards leading into space when they clear the crowded midfield.
V. Running Hogan through the midfield does run the risk of repeating or aggravating his current condition and it risks wearing him out, where using him as a leading forward would be better for his longevity.