Shane Tuck, who came into the side for his first match since the round 10 loss to Port Adelaide, was among the Tigers' best, finishing with 32 possessions and five clearances in a display that pleased his coach.
Hardwick defended his decision to leave Tuck on the sidelines, citing team balance as the crucial factor as to why the 29-year old has managed just five games this season despite eye-catching performances in the VFL.
"It's more about trying to get the best fit for the side. Obviously with the amount of midfielders we have going through there, it's just a matter of you can't have too many inside midfielders," he said.
"At the end of the day 'Tucky' played his role today and did it very well. But with [Dustin] Martin, [Trent] Cotchin and [Nathan] Foley, which one do I leave out?"
"But 'Tucky' to his credit has been a star. The way he accepts things, he knows where he is at and he comes in and he performed a very good role today."
TRANSLATION
I hate Tuck and only played the rat today because i basically had to.
Now that he's shoved it up my accountant ars in front of everyone,i guess I'll be forced to play him for the rest of the year *looks at ground and shakes head*
I wanna let the members and fans know that I WILL play him out of position and hopefully i wont look like such a clueless,bias prick of a dog come seasons end and will have justified my faux reasoning for omitting him all year.
