In defence of Chris Hyde
Captain Blood, Richmond Tigers
Friday, June 20, 2008 at 01:23am
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/afl/fanforce/index.php/heraldsun/comments/in_defence_of_chris_hyde Richmond sprung a selection surprise tonight by not dropping Chris Hyde.
Terry Wallace and the match committee ignored the opinion of pretty much every Richmond supporter by leaving Hyde in the team; according to general supporter talk and any internet forum you care to visit, Hyde is G.A.W.N. But yet somehow he stays in the 22.
I have been among the clamouring hordes calling for Hyde to be dropped. In fact, I was at it again just a few days ago.
But since then I’ve had a rethink. Maybe Hyde isn’t so bad.
I didn’t come to this conclusion entirely on my own, it was prompted by a discussion at Big Footy – check out the whole thing here
http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/showthread.php?t=455465 - and I have to credit Top_4_Tiger for this little story that sheds some light on the guy in No.31:
“During the pre-season it was said that Chris Hyde gathered the group together and gave a great speech that improved team morale and work ethic on the track. Apparently after a few slack weeks by the group, it was Hyde who fired up the boys declaring he was sick and tired of being crap, he hated losing all the time and wanted everyone to give their ALL every session to give them every chance to be winners this year.”
Top_4_Tiger goes on to add: “And now he’s run 15kms for us tonight and everyone loudly celebrates his failure to make an impact. I’m suggesting that sometimes you don’t always know everything that happens inside a club and maybe we should all aim for a little more class in our posts, myself included.”
Of course, giving a little inspirational speech doesn’t automatically make you a good player, but it did warm my little Tiger heart a bit because that is exactly how I feel! It’s nice to know some of the players feel the same way.
Every week we say all we want is the players to try their guts out for the yellow and black, and this is a guy who does that (we should never have questioned that really after he managed to break his skull a couple of times putting his body on the line for the team).
Hyde is no superstar. He has fought to get the most out of himself and he deserves credit for that. Still, it doesn’t necessarily make him part of our best team. However, every team can’t contain 22 superstars – even Geelong (Max Rooke, Mark Blake). It all comes down to team balance (the right mix of youth and experience, talls and smalls, inside and outside players) and players having a role in the team, and Hyde has had a very clear one this year: stopping the opposition’s best midfielder.
It hasn’t always worked – he would probably prefer to forget his games against Gary Ablett and Adam Goodes. But he has done his job more often than not, effectively cutting Chance Bateman, Leigh Montagna, Brent Stanton and last week Brad Green out of games. He was clearly brought into the team to perform that job, and he did it. That’s why he’s still there.
Well, actually, he would probably be back at Coburg if there was no suitable match-up in the Port Adelaide line-up. But as it happens there is an ideal candidate: Shaun Burgoyne.
Burgoyne is the Power’s spark, last week Cameron Ling took him to the cleaners and Port was a rabble. Burgoyne is a running player which suits Hyde, although he will have to watch him at stoppages because he is very good there as well.
Hyde should watch tapes of Ling, not just to see how he shut down Burgoyne but to watch why Ling is such a good player – All-Australian as a tagger. His primary focus is beating his opponent, but he gets plenty of the ball and hurts the opposition when he has it. I don’t expect Hyde to start racking up 25 touches a week – and, let’s face it, he doesn’t play in the Geelong midfield – but there are similarities, apart from both being left-footers.
Hyde is one of the best users of the ball in the Richmond side – his disposal efficiency is 80% for the year; against the Kangaroos he had 16 touches and hit the target with all but one of them. He is also pretty handy in front of goal with 7.2 for the season. The past few weeks he has had only single-figure disposal tallies, if he can up those numbers and keep Burgoyne in check he might finally silence some of the critics.
In other news from the selection table, Dean Polo is back – I originally called for him to get a game at Hyde’s expense, but instead Daniel Jackson is out with a leg injury of some sort. A couple of years ago Polo really looked a player, but he treaded water last year before wrecking his shoulder. I hope he can find some of the form that saw him drafted at No.20 in 2004.
Also in is Cleve Hughes, in a logical swap with Jay Schulz. Schulz looked better up forward last week, but couldn’t kick to save himself. Cleve has kicked 11 goals in the past two weeks at Coburg and deserves a chance to show if he can cut it on the big stage.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Terry Wallace asks all the players to sign the ball before the bounce on Saturday. This is our crunch game.
It’s the difference between spending the next nine weeks trying to win every game and hope to sneak into September, or just blooding the kids and looking at who we can get with a draft pick midway through the first round.
Eat em alive!
