What's interesting to me is what his role is now becoming. He had 4 clearances and 30 of his disposals were uncontested... He's playing a fair bit of the Cousins loose extra mid forward of the ball as well as his work at stoppages - in more current terms he's Masten but forward of the ball as opposed to behind the ball ... On the weekend he got a lot of the ball in space and given the shitness of the opposition was rarely under any real pressure and, 2 or 3 inexplicable brain farts aside, his disposal was ok... He lacks any speed at all and, at best, he'll make a solid decision and a solid disposal ... And he works his arse of to get into space and be available ...
We are definitely transitioning him away from that "he's the man" role and he's being told to run and run and get into space... He's less damaging than others in that role, so he gets given space and, seriously, he could get 50 against some sides on the right day in that sort of role ... It is though a trade off against a guy who works slightly less hard (or works AFL standard hard but doesn't have Matts elite tank) and gets maybe 25 (think Harley Bennell in that same role) with much more damage. I mean yesterday was outside Matt getting 39 touches and he's being celebrated and I get that but I'm still unsure what happens when we play good sides when it matters ... and I'm kinda unsure what his game really means .. I mean Masten was rightly given Top 3 by most but that's on the back of 43 touches, almost half of which came in the entirely pointless and meaningless last quarter ...
I thought Yeo of the mids owned the game when we won it and Shuey was damaging when we had our highest quarter ever but I thought the weekends win was based on our half backs as a collective setting us up given our mids got killed at the contests ... Our mids then all became receivers ...
But Butler, Hurn, Shep, Wellingham pretty much played as our first line of ball getters and a lot of the rest fed off them ... Except in the 3rd where we dominated the midfield and oddly that was when Matt had his biggest rest ...
I'm not criticising his effort or game, just trying to figure out what exactly it is that he did and what it means moving forward
I guess we'll see ...
We are definitely transitioning him away from that "he's the man" role and he's being told to run and run and get into space... He's less damaging than others in that role, so he gets given space and, seriously, he could get 50 against some sides on the right day in that sort of role ... It is though a trade off against a guy who works slightly less hard (or works AFL standard hard but doesn't have Matts elite tank) and gets maybe 25 (think Harley Bennell in that same role) with much more damage. I mean yesterday was outside Matt getting 39 touches and he's being celebrated and I get that but I'm still unsure what happens when we play good sides when it matters ... and I'm kinda unsure what his game really means .. I mean Masten was rightly given Top 3 by most but that's on the back of 43 touches, almost half of which came in the entirely pointless and meaningless last quarter ...
I thought Yeo of the mids owned the game when we won it and Shuey was damaging when we had our highest quarter ever but I thought the weekends win was based on our half backs as a collective setting us up given our mids got killed at the contests ... Our mids then all became receivers ...
But Butler, Hurn, Shep, Wellingham pretty much played as our first line of ball getters and a lot of the rest fed off them ... Except in the 3rd where we dominated the midfield and oddly that was when Matt had his biggest rest ...
I'm not criticising his effort or game, just trying to figure out what exactly it is that he did and what it means moving forward
I guess we'll see ...
It sets up for a much less predictable future which I personally like the idea of. Matts an A grade player, plain and simple and knows where to be and what's required. His directions and positioning advice to the kids is exceptional and they respect him enough to follow.
Speaking of respect I'm reminded of a day watching Subiaco before Matt made the AFL with him tearing it up as usual.
Even then there was debate about whether his strengths outweighed his weaknesses. A certain member of the Matera family piped up and gave his clear opinion.
"He'll win a Brownlow one day" he said. People just don't realise how impossibly hard it is to do what he does, by himself against all-comers, often with two or 3 hanging off him or selling candy to really good players.
Bloody amazing, the guy hadn't even been picked up yet, in fact he was being over-looked.
Wish I'd made a super early Brownlow bet that day!

