Mackie is an habitual slow starter to seasons.
This. Looked a bit lost too this year in the absence of Scarlett, but since Scarlett's return Mackie is starting to settle (and improve).
Think he cops some unfair amounts of flak. Despite keeping Brad Johnson to respectable totals in last year's QF, everybody laid into him for one passage of play where he slipped over and Johnson goaled. Nobody wanted to acknowledge that he'd lost his boot in a contest and there hadn't been a break in the play to put it back on.
I can't pinpoint why, but I think Mackie's biggest issue is that - no matter how minor the error - when he makes a mistake it looks like the world's biggest clanger. I sort of attribute it to his laid-back on-field demeanour: if he tries something that doesn't come off, it looks like it was a half-hearted attempt in the first place and he wasn't concentrating.
However, I'll have a fit and focused Mackie in my backline whenever I can, and if that means taking awkward-clanger-Mackie every so often then I'll wear it.
