So he's being deliberately trained as defensive midfield cover?
Is that why he gets a bit of the ball in the 2's but isn't particularly noticeable?
The only game this year that he was noticeably tagging was against Northern Blues.
At the start of the year he was getting to a huge amount of contests basically just following the ball around.
He got a lot of possessions without really doing anything which is why he isn't noticeable. Lots of dinky kicks forward and handballs to a team mate next to him. He needed to get better value for his possessions but, to be honest, it hasn't come and now he isn't getting as much of the ball despite minimal apparent change to his role.
I think they're looking at him as another big body to develop as an inside midfidler. His endurance is a real strength and, unlike our other inside mids, should enable him to work both ways. It will come, he is just going to have to bide his time because his clearance work isn't yet good enough for him to displace anyone and he doesn't add the huge point of difference that could get him a few games by default, as happened with Colyer who was not going that well in the VFL, or a gig as a sub.