Still devastated about losing Rance for the season but as a club you have to move on pretty quickly.
IMO it gives us an opportunity to change things slightly.
Garthwaite is young and still learning but IMO he plays more like Astbury than Rance. I personally don’t think we can play 2 slower types like Astbury and Garthwaite in the same side.
Hawthorn for many years when they were the best side played a more “undersized” more athletic backline that worked together to beat the “big forwards” rather than trying to play bigger slower players on them.
Birchall, Gibson, Lake and Stratton are all undersized for KPD but did the job for many years as they were all athletic and able to cover the ground so they could help out teammates in the air.
The key is they just worked together and had a player drop off to jump over the top to spoil. (Third man up)
We have Astbury, Grimes, Broad and Vlastuin who IMO can do the same thing but the most important thing is other 2 small defenders need to be able to defend first and foremost as well as to be able to still provide drive from our defence.
So IMO Houli needs to be moved further up the ground or plays in the early game. I know he played good in a Grand Final 25 games ago but even the biggest of Houli fans would concede, his ability to defend dangerous small forwards is very limited at best.
Short stays for mine as I don’t think he defends nearly as bad as others say and his rebound running and long kicking is as good as any other player in the comp.
So to replace Rance I think we need to find a tough, lock down, super quick, smallish defender that can still contribute with moving the footy out of our backline as well as defend. (Hodge played that roll at times at Hawthorn in those Grand Final winning years)
Is Sydney Stack that man?....
