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Dannnnnnnnnn
Moderator
- Aug 24, 2012
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- T'Wolves/Patrick Beverley/Footscray
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- #176
The alternative argument is that each player is treated equally, with reasonable KPIs and expectations to hold their position that are only really obvious to coaches and people who know the ins and outs of what we're looking for. Things like holding structure, playing the role set out for them, ground coverage statistics, etc. Maybe these players weren't meeting them, but JOD is?The issue I have is players like Bedendo, Cleary, Khamis, West, Garcia come into the side for 1 or 2 games and are dropped, never to be seen or heard from again until the next one game opportunity. Make a mistake, don’t follow instructions, have a poor game - back to Footscray son.
We are crying out for another winger and developing inside mids and these guys are 21, 22, 23 years of age. If we can gift JOD a few games at the top level, we can do the same for others. I know Bedendo and Garcia have been injured, but I get the feeling that they would be playing VFL ala Cleary, Khamis, West even if they were fit.
Bev has his flaws, and it's possible we're seeing one of them in action. That said, very few of the players that the fans have felt were "unfairly treated" have gone on to be successful, even the ones that have moved to other clubs. In contrast, most of the players that Bev has shown the faith with against the weight of opinions here (e.g., A Jones, English, Baker, Scott, Gardner) have gone on to be at least serviceable contributors.
I actually think Bev's ability to judge who is ready to come in and who should be persisted with is one of his greatest strengths. There have been positional misses but very rarely does he invest in a player for no reward, and very rarely do we lose depth players that go on to be good players elsewhere.
I wouldn't have played JOD this week and I don't totally understand why he's in the team, but this is one area where I'm prepared to back Bev and see what happens. I think the bold part of your post in particular is really unfair speculation.