I have been a member of BF for a few years now and have learnt a lot from this forum. And as I have posted on a few occasions, my background is rugby not football so my knowledge base is limited. But this has to be said…
For the past few seasons I have kept a close eye on Priddis trying to recognise the flaws in his game play that are so vigorously described in this forum. Well here's the thing.. Not only do I reckon that the exaggerated criticism of Priddis is shite and inaccurate but - it suggests to me that the knowledge base of a few BF members on this forum is not much more than mine.
I get his weaknesses, god only knows they've been detailed to the nth degree. But it seems to me that to have such a biased/unbalanced view on a bloke who contributes so much and can muster sufficient votes from the umps to earn a Brownlow medal, well… it seems a classic case of the simple truth getting in the way of a good story, one that the easily led masses have dined out on all too easily.
Priddis has a role to play based on his skill-set and he plays that role like the true champion he is. And furthermore, he will be there to pick up his winners medal when next we stand on the podium on grand final day.
Wow, did you get the taste of his shit off your tongue before or after this post?
THE criticism of Matt is that we can't win anything with him at the centre of our midfield. And we can't, we haven't and we won't.
His flaws are too many and he's too easily exposed by the genuinely good sides.
I think the weekends role as the extra mid starting more often outside the square and then following the ball is still flawed because he again will be exposed by other better sides when it counts.
As a very high half forward he dropped a few very easy marks; he took the wrong option on a few occasions that killed clear goal scoring opportunities, he can't kick from distance or run inside 50m and kick unless in acres of space and too often he doesn't block or clear space for others. The same defects he has on ball will hurt him forward.
He was ok on the weekend and nothing more than that.
He will not ever be a member of a premiership team at AFL level.