Dimma is surely praying for blokes like Post, Astbury, Griff etc to magically turn into gun KPPs. Your big blokes are the most important people in a footy side, IMO. We have Jack as our only KPP that can be considered anything more than reasonably good. Jack's a gun player on his day. Rance is reasonably good. Vickery was reasonable last year as was Grimes when he played. Other than that, what have got going with our talls? We (and especially Hardwick) need these young blokes to come good very soon otherwise we will continue to rely on blokes like Miller and Jackson.
It's ridiculous that the only bloke that is a suitable replacement for Jacko is a kid who has played 3 VFL games. The depth is poo. White and Webberley are good VFL players but they're not a long term options at AFL level. After these guys, who is knocking on the door? There's nothing there. and bugger me it doesn't help when you draft McDonald and Troy Taylor only for them both to stuff off 
What about Elton too? We have numbers there just not the quality or experience. Would like us to have a crack at Chaplin in Free Agency if someone hasn't made CHB there own yet. We still need a couple of drafts of midfielders to get the depth up. Would argue Helbig is the one groomed as Jacko's replacement. Hard as nails, looks like he will be a good size when he matures but quicker and a better kick. Doesn't mind hurting people either 
The hard reality is that it takes a lot longer for big, solid talls to develop into top AFL standard players (about as long as Jackson's contract?). I'm tipping that Jacko will start to get subbed off in later rounds for the new guys to have a crack. I've had a hard think about all this. I refuse to believe that Dimma and the RFC are totally oblivious to Jacko's shortcomings, nor will they let personal feelings get in the way of success. So barring "Dimma is soft, the RFC is a basketbase" routine, what are other plausible explanations. Let's think long-term.
They were hard up on Martin because we all know that he is better than that. Not so much on Jackson because they know that he will not improve in that capacity. Sometimes the older players teach things better than the coaching staff. Jacko has heart, fight and loyalty. He helps set the culture (certainly not the plays). If that rubs off on the new guys then mission accomplished.
And it is worth it. Culture is a massive factor. It's why during recruitment they screen the kids in terms of personality, family, values etc and not just seeing if he can get a job done on the field. Fevola anyone?
RFC only claimed top 8 in short-term. I guess they figured they could carry Jackson that far. They know, we know and I suspect Jackson knows that he will not be a part of the premier contending team that the Tiges are building towards. He's just laying some bricks to get there.
