Lloyd's thinking is 10-12 years out of date.
We didn't make the finals when Jack was our sole focus, we didn't make the 8 with Richo as our sole focus.
If Jack is only effective at FF, then perhaps we need to move Jack on..
Multiple scoring options is exactly what we require and Hardwick is right to follow this path.
It's not all about Jack.
But Jack wasn't the reason we didn't make finals and nor was Richo. Neither player in those times had the personnel around them to collectively play finals on any sort of regular basis - a fluke year every now and then was as good as it might ever have been. Now that we have a a tight defence and a strong and burgeoning midfield offering much better supply then there is no need to lose our forward line structure just to cover deficiencies upfield. Riewoldt in the square doing what he does best, Vickery/Elton/McBean at CHF, Edwards (A)/Knights/Lennon as the 3rd-up forward and our mids rotating through the forward line provides a strong structure that stops teams double and triple teaming our key forwards and makes us unpredictable enough to cause the opposition headaches. The thing that will bring us undone is the lack of commitment from the players on field to stick to the team rules and game plan. We need to get the small forward position sorted but there is enough structure and ability around those already there to make finals on a regular basis.
Disagree. With Jack as our spearhead that we go through predominantly, we become predictable no matter how many goals he kicks personally.
Besides he is NOT the same player of 3 years ago. He has lost his leap for a start.
When was the last time you saw him stand on a players head? Injuries have curtailed what was one of his greatest strengths in the key position role.
He has slimmed right down to try and get some of his leap back and mobility back but based on what we saw against Gold Coast he wasn't all that effective. Moving him back to a KPF role with his current body shape will not work.
I prefer him on the flanks with Vickery and Griffiths/Elton/McBean taking the arial impact, with Jack playing as a lead up forward who crumbs the heavy hitters and sets up goals.
This is one
signficant aspect that Lloyd has overlooked in his article, Jack's ability to set up goals.
Yes he only kicked 50 odd last year in a lesser role away from FF but he set up almost as many. His assist work is massively underrated by the media scribes who look for a headline.
I just hope jack is capable of playing the role Hardwick wants him to because if he's ineffective in that position, we might need others to have a crack at it.
