Unlike a lot here I think Post can be a very good defensive player.
The problem is that he is a third tall in the mould of Gilbert, Maxwell etc who is being expected to play a key role.
The main worry is that we have no-one to play CHB.
Shows how the damage continues on for years when we did not take McKenzie over Edwards.
He was the tallest of the 3 key back last week
Post is 195cm
Grimes is 193cm
Rance is 194cm
So I think it is fair assume he should be taking the key forwards of the opposition
IMO deciding what position a player is most suited for based simply on their height (or any other physical attribute) is simplistic and could be a fatal mistake for a player’s career.
Looking at other teams at the moment in the league we can see examples of taller defenders playing the “third tall” (really the old back pocket) position rather than key defender (CHB or FB).
Geelong have Scarlet (192cm) at FB and Taylor (193) at CHB while Lonergan (197) plays the third tall. Adelaide have Rutten (190) and Otten (192) while Talia (195) is the other tall defender. St Kilda as mentioned have Fisher (191) and Blake (189) while Gilbert (194) is third choice. Essendon have shown in the past that, given Gumbleton’s fitness, they would prefer to have Pears (190) and Hurley (195) as the key backs and either Fletcher (198) or Hooker (196) as a third tall defender.
That’s not to say that it’s not very useful to have the taller player as the key defender like Collingwood have with Reid (195) and Brown (195) having help from Tarrant (193), Maxwell (193) and Goldsack (193).
With the interchange moving more and more towards the requirement that the resting ruckman becomes the third forward, we will see as a result that the old back pocket is required to have enough height to defend someone around 200cm and provide a “third man up” ability to help the key defenders, the mobility to rebound and set up attacks and the decision-making skills to decide the difference.
IMO we are unfairly expecting some of our taller players to do something they are not equipped for and for which they were not recruited. Putt, Gourdis, Post and Westhoff were not key position players or ruckmen, simply talls. In contrast the generally shorter players in Rance, Grimes and Astbury were and are key position players. Interestingly Griffiths is probably a blank slate to some degree, not really showing the presence to be a key position player and will need to develop a lot to fill the role, and may in the finish be very suited for the tall defender role that I’m talking about. I’d say that Polak fitted this description as well and never really showed enough to be considered a key position player, either forward or back.
I also think that people are deflecting blame for poor recruiting decisions onto expectations of players that should never have been put into that position. It’s fair enough to hope that Post can do more than be merely a tall defender but to criticise him because he has not covered for a list/recruiting mistake is one step too far. If Eric McKenzie had been recruited as the CHB in 2006 rather than Edwards we would not be having this debate and the pick used on Gourdis in 2007 could have been used on Bellchambers and thus two holes in our list could have been fixed long term.
