Robbo is on board......
IT'S a fine line between patience and self-defeating perseverance.
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The Tackle
Take Carlton's Paul Bower and Richmond's Daniel Jackson.
One has played 62 matches in six years (Bower).
The other has played 106 matches in eight years.
Both players have capacity to make fundamental skill errors, so bad that when the cameras switch to the coach's box, Carlton's Brett Ratten and Richmond's Damien Hardwick have been caught rocking and rolling in true Rodney Eade fashion.
Ratten's patience, however, has been rewarded. Hardwick's perseverance has to be questioned.
Bower was among Carlton's better players against Brisbane on Thursday night. The absence of Michael Jamison and Nick Duigan has meant Bower has got his opportunity - again - but this time he seems more comfortable in his surrounds.
He can still make howlers, as we saw in the first quarter against the Lions when he was galloping out of the back pocket and decided to handball, which flopped into the air and caused his team to lose the ball.
Ratten said at the weekend the football world was too harsh on his key defender. He may be right, but it does seem that when Bower makes a mistake in the back 50, it stands out because his mistakes can lead to a goal.
Still, with Lachie Henderson, Bower was superb in repelling the Lions on Easter Thursday and Ratten's patience with the West Australian is paying off.
Hardwick this week has a difficult decision to make with Jackson: Persevere or drop a player in the leadership group.
The problem is Richmond is striving to improve but is hamstrung when players like Jackson continually let the the team down by making basic errors.
There comes a time when the coach has to bite the bullet.
It is only Round 2, but if the Tigers want to get where they want to, then Hardwick has to find players who can consistently find a target and consistently make the correct decisions.
It wasn't Jackson's fault that Collingwood won the game with a blistering 10 minutes to open the third quarter, because no Richmond player was able to get their hands on the ball.
It is Jackson's fault, though, Richmond is robbed of goal-scoring opportunities when he is unable to move the ball from Point A to point B.
In the second quarter he tried to kick it to Brad Miller leading in the forward 50m and the ball dribbled out of bounds. In the third quarter, he linked up superbly down the Southern Stand wing, sized up the opportunities and kicked long to Robin Nahas at the top of the square with two Collingwood players on him. Result? Easy Magpies mark and a surge from the back half.
In the fourth quarter, with the Tigers challenging, his handball missed a target and the Pies swept it downfield.
Another time, he attempted a left-foot banana from the pocket while teammate Brett Deledio ran into the corridor.
He has good qualities, Jackson. He's physical, gets jobs his teammates don't want, and will die for the jumper.
Yet, there comes a time when negatives outweigh the positives, and on Saturday night Jackson was in the negatives.
