hmm, where to start..
been some ordinary prognostication on my behalf of late on a couple of fronts, time to put my hand up.
#1 I was pretty sure that Patrick Dangerfield's best was behind him, but he was brilliant last week and really good again this week. Some of his better football; really clean and composed.
#2 I've been a reasonably vocal supporter and advocate of Esava Ratugolea's for a while, but I am starting to think my enthusiasm has been misplaced. There's always been mitigating factors with Ratugolea; he's raw, he's only young, plays a tough position, less than 50 games, continuity and injuries have played a part in dampening his development. But I was with Tom Stewart in the last quarter; Stewart lobs up a solid-enough kick to Ratugolea's advantage, Esava has the 1v1 against a smaller opponent but he misjudges the flight of the ball and doesn't get his positioning right - ends up getting nowhere near it. He doesn't often get out-marked, but the early promise that his contested marking presented has largely diminished.
I thought he actually started ok this afternoon, but he just didn't have enough intensity to stay involved for 4 quarters of football. He will find his opportunities starting to dry up unless he is able to turn things around; his confidence looked rock-bottom by the end of today's match though.
I think Sav is just too reliant on his natural talent. His skils are things you have to work on and then there is the miasma of footy nous which I think is gained somewhere between the bottle and playing U18's. In a way he reminds me of David Clark Jr. I thought he was a prime example of why we sghould have a Father Son academy. With his raw talent he could have / should have been better than he was. Shame. The kicking thing is like having the yips in golf... after a while you start to want the ball so close to the hole cause you do not trust yourself. He is OOC.. would it surprise me if we sign him. No. .. but I can not put my faith in him being Hawks replacement or our next #1.
But as we are in the ..I was wrong thread. I think Henderson has been much better than I thought he could be for us this year. Sometimes lady luck just deals you aces. Without Henderson, we really would not be as good as we have been.