I was getting ready to post that everything is as it should be.
Literally everything that should have happened did happen for the first 3 quarters. Not enough grunt on the inside. Badly found out for a second tall forward/marking target. Players who lack physical presence lacked physical presence. Witches hat was a witches hat (though that didn't really change - he got gifted some goals).
We did very well playing 17-18 effective players.
Then we took control as the game opened up. This is how Parish came into the game in the last quarter, it wasn't because he started dominating on the inside.
Now we're in this weird spot. I suppose the game is played over 4 quarters but if we want to base a game on taking control once a game opens up I suspect that we'll get found out more often than not. We could blame the umpires but then we'd also have to wonder how we were within 10 goals at half time.
Obviously the game says we're close. We desperately need some useful inside grunt to weather the storm when the heat is in the game. We can't assume that Pies wouldn't put us away next week.
It also clear that this was the first game Ridley and Redman had played with that sort of intensity. Both struggled early but I thought that both worked back into the game well.
I'm not advocating for Brown to be dropped because of his game, or at all, but we seriously need to think about playing Draper. Daniher can't ruck for shit and Bellchambers, well, I don't really know what he does most of the time. We need both another marking target inside forward 50 and a second ruck that is competitive (without robbing us of the guy who is probably the best forward in the game from playing forward).