A. Admit our ruckman got thrashed, and the MC picked the wrong combination.
B. Admit our ruckman got thrashed, but the MC picked the right combination.
C. Ignore that our ruckman got thrashed, completely shut your eyes and ignore how putrid not just one but two favourites were, and instead blame the whipping boy. Who wasn't even playing.
as someone who disagreed with your assertions regarding West/Vardy/Blicavs, let me respond to the part of your post that I've snipped : none of those three players would be listed among my 'favourites' - all three have deficiencies.
I'm not convinced Vardy is a KF
at all - 2nd ruckman is probably his best position. Blicavs, too early to judge imo, he's played 30 games of footy in his life. The worry is that there may not actually be a permanent role for him in the team.
And yet imo, those two at least have scope for improvement, I've seen more than enough of Trent West to know that he has reached his very low ceiling.
There's no way Trent West would have provided a lick of difference. He's just not good enough.
I'm happy to concede Vardy and Blicavs were carved up against Freo, no question.
But I think the MC went with the right combination; West had been horribly out of form all year, and with the other two there was at least the suspicion/hope that either of them *might* pull out a big game and surprise. Didn't happen. Still, I know what West would have given; bugger-all, as he has throughout his career. 54 games in 8 seasons says it all.
But if you are going to slam ruckmen for only getting 7 touches you might want to ignore Vardy and Blicavs' stats from a few games this year.
yeah, but not if you wanna compare them to West, in which case they would come out quite favourably.
West had a crap game cuz he only got 6 touches in his last game ? He only
averaged 6 effective disposals per game for the season !
He did himself no favours, it was his spot to lose and lose it he did.
I think the bigger point though is that once Dawson Simpson went down, we were always gonna struggle to find any combination that would work with the three fit ruckmen we had to choose from; two very inexperienced, one a plodder.
All three are essentially 2nd-string ruckmen.
If I had to choose one of the three to perform that role on a regular basis, it would be Vardy.