Fair enough, it's a massive risk though to do in a final on a player that's become one the better wingers going around.
To me, It would never make sense and would never work, In theory yes it can work as you said. But you have to ask the questions, what happens when the ball hits the deck? (not if...when) Also what will happen if the smaller player can run off of Blivcas in to space? To make that work he would have to mark it 10+ times a game I feel.
I mean Blitz can run all day and maybe once the game slows down he can find his own space. But that is the same the other way and then it become a game of who is more damaging with ball in hand? And how many times can they get into space per game to use it to advantage?
He isn't a fast runner either so Hill can play on Blitz, Hmac and Simpson and it will make no difference if Hill gets it first, they won't catch him.
This is also my questions to our tall 4 back-line, and I believe it's the reason small forwards kill us so bad. We are so slow there.
I'm no expert though. this is all of my own theory.
Massive risk? That’s one view. Another is that McIntosh was so stuffed by finals that we simply had no option but to have Blicavs follow him around trying to pick up the slack. So you can play him in the centre square as something of a ruck-rover (where he’s clearly not suited as he’s not a clearance player or a tagger) or you can play him on a wing where he perhaps can use his greatest attributes – running power and marking ability. To me, I can see the logic of it. If anything, they let it go on too long when it was clear Hill was hurting us too much. At the very least they needed to switch Blicavs to the other wing and put a negating player (e.g. Guthrie or even Kelly) on Hill. They didn’t and the rest is history.
However, this is not an issue of pace; it's about footy smarts. Hill has it in spades and Blicavs clearly lacks it.
Hill is a superior footballer who knows where to run and knows how to use his pace to advantage. He has been doing it all his life and he was able to get off the leash. He did it not with superior pace, but through finding space. Have a look at the replay and see how many of Hill's 18 possessions in the first half were simply through being in the right place to receive the ball.
That’s Blicavs’ biggest challenge now – learning the game, learning how to find space and hurt the opposition, learning where the ball is likely to go, learning where his opponent is likely to run to so he can be there with him or before him. It’s not a pace issue. If he is to succeed in this game he has to get smarter about it.
Anyway, I won't clog the Dangerfield thread any further on this topic...