And people reckon (myself included) that Bellis is soft. Butler makes him look like the statue of David.
It's called The Butler Bounce Away.
Have always said if you merge Georgie and Butler, you get a gun. Though lately Butler's efforts with ball in hand are starting to make me doubt that... But I am sure he will come good once there is more pressure on his spot
Team high nine tackles says that he's not that soft.......
TBH Y+BBlood, I have never rated tackles as a good measure of whether a player is soft or not.
There are plenty of players who get high tackle numbers who simply sweat on the opposition player winning the ball, then nail him when he gets it. I'd rather see them win the ball in the first place in the contest, or at least be prepared to make the contest when the ball is in dispute.
I don't think Butler does make the contest. As Assange said, it is called the Butler bounce away. He looks like he shies away from contact when the ball needs to be won. Even worse, when he does get to the contest he often looks to me like he is more focussed on the impending possibility of contact rather than the ball itself. A hard player to me goes straight at the footy focussing on that and little else.
Look, I over analyse things. He is a skillful player and the evidence would suggest that the coaches rate him highly and that he does what they ask him to do because quite simply, he keeps getting games. So what I see may well be him playing to instructions. And if that is what the coaches want, I'll back that in. It is kind of hard to argue against a flag.