Once he had fully recovered from injury last year, he was the same old Sandilands, who always gives us a touch up (though rarely to the extent that he did in the 2013 QF). He had a three game lead-in to the elimination final in 2012, during which he averaged 16 disposals, a goal and 35.3 hitouts. If he was 'on one leg', he was doing a decent job of concealing it. He absolutely cremated (in order): an AA squad member that year, an AA squad member from 2013 and the 2010 AA ruckman - all of whom averaged well over 30 hitouts per game in 2012 (West averaged a shade under 25). Then for an encore, he soundly beat another 2012 AA squad member (and league hitouts leader that year) in the semi final.
yup. so he beats pretty much everyone when in form - how was West going to make any difference in this year's QF ? As I pointed out, the previous couple of times he was smashed by Sandi.
And how did Geelong respond? Well, they dropped Stephenson, put West in on his own against Hale and McCauley for the Easter Monday game...and Geelong won the hitouts.
I don't get how this is relevant. We're not talking about Hale & McCauley, we're talking about facing Sandilands, biiiig difference.
Stephenson himself carved up Hawthorn's rucks late in 2012.
Fwiw West and Blicavs
lost the hit-outs against Hawthorn in round 1
this year, Blicavs matched West exactly (on debut) with both having 11 hit outs and 9 touches.
Geelong has actually won 42% of the hitouts and 51% of the clearances in games that West has played against Fremantle and Sandilands. It was 23% and 34% in the most recent encounter in the elimination final. As for his 'poor form', well his 25 hitouts the week he was dropped is five better than Blicavs or Vardy have ever managed in an AFL game. If Blicavs got 25 hitouts in a game, a petition would probably come out to rename the Ablett Terrace in Blicavs' honour. Plus, for a game where Sandilands' dominance at the ruck contests was always expected to be a factor, West's average of over 46.5 hitouts a game in the VFL (to that point) was probably worth considering.
Not sure about the renaming of the Ablett Terrace in Blicavs honour, but West certainly won't be having a wing named after him any time soon, unless it's on a dvd box set.
I don't know why, a mere page or two after dismissing the vagaries of raw hit-out stats, you're wielding them now as if they prove anything (other than West lost the battle both times he played against Freo) - I actually agreed with that other post, in which you rightly pointed out the uselessness of the 'hit-out' stat without any further evaluation of that hit-out - e.g. did it go to a team-mate ? opposition player ? fall at the ruckmens feet innocuously ? History shows Sandilands was awarded a Brownlow vote in one of the two games he played against West, and he was named in their best when they beat us in the finals last year.
Geelong vs Freo rd 1 2012 :
Freo hit-outs : 43 (Sandilands 32, Clarke 6, Bradley 4, Dawson 1)
Freo clearances : 39 (Sandilands
8)
Geelong hit-outs : 32 (West 14, Stephenson 10 - on debut - Bartel 3,
Selwood 2, Hawkins 2, Corey 1 talk about a team effort !)
Geelong clearances : 38 (Selwood, Kelly 8 - West 1)
And you wanna give West credit for Geelong winning the clearances that evening ?
He was part of a combination that lost the hit-outs (West played %73 game time though, Stephenson only %43 - yet just a 4 hit-out differential between them) and allowed Sandilands a equal game-high 8 clearances.
For mine Selwood and Kelly kept us in the game despite Sandilands slaughtering West & co.
I won't waste anymore time looking at the Geelong vs Freo EF 2012 stats, suffice to say I'm sure it would have told a similar tale - West was soundly beaten.
Anyway we could go on like this all night, except that I won't cuz I've made my point and don't have much more to say on the matter - my position, in summary of my comments on this thread :
West, whilst a premiership player and hard worker, is severely limited at the best of times, and his late-season form was not good. (it was bad enough to get him dropped).
In his two previous encounters against Freo he was smashed by Sandilands (I honestly don't hold that against him, he just wasn't up to it).
With this in mind, I was happy to back the MC's decision to go with the more unknown combination of Vardy & Blicavs.
I did not think either played well against Freo.
I wasn't holding out a whole lot of hope for Vardy and Blicavs to reverse the trend against Freo, but I understood that the MC were *hoping* these two relatively untapped talents might have an 'out-of-the-box' game; Blicavs with his running capacity and Vardy with his ability to take a grab up forward.
Didn't happen.
Still don't think West would have made a difference, and could very well have been worse.