I never said that scneider was an out and out star but he probally would have still kicked around 30 goals and probally averaged just as many touches as most of our midfielders. Jolly is not a CLASS ruckman that can allegedly command money and 4 year contracts I would have shown him the door and had a crack at Cameron Wood and jus have him as a second ruckman to Everitt for next year.
whether it be this topic or any other, you cannot base an argument on "probably would have"
and as for averaging as many touches as most of our midfielders, i'd challenge that, i don't think schneider would get near the amount of touches per game as kirk, j bolton, goodes, buchanan, fosdike, even ROK or malceski, etc....and stats don't tell the whole story anyway
i have always been a fan of schneider, at his best he is an explosive, game-breaking small forward
i had always hoped he would develop into a classy, line-breaking midfield runner but he played what was it? five season with us (injuries curtailed seasons two and three) and has never given indications he could get fit enough to play that role, he certainly can't run out a game like the best of our midfielders, or even the likes of buchanan and jude bolton, who with schneider were the three small mid types put on the table in trade week
schneider was/is just too inconsistent, and when you list him as the main forward option of those three, a goal-kicker, his all too frequent misses in front of goal considerably reduce his value to our side
as for cam wood, he's 21 and was overtaken as No 2 or even No 3 in the ruck rankings at brisbane by a 19yo (leuenberger) and a crock (mcdonald), so it's hypothetical anyway whether he'll be any good at all....jolly, at 26, still has scope for development/improvement, wood is totally unproven and collingwood will hope to fast-track him if they are to confirm their status (in my opinion) as the obvious challenger to geelong in the immediate future
look, i'll admit part of my need to vent in these threads is a) the ridiculously over-the-top outpuring of grief and near-mourning for the loss of schneider (and subsequent link to darrn jolly's alleged pay demands), and b) the extremely harsh criticism levelled at paul roos for making decisions EVERY club and coach have to make every season
i'm hoping (and that's all it is) roos will be vindicated during 08