Yeah I probably have RROFO although the "you know what you're getting" bit could apply to both for and against Howat being re-rookied .
Personally I wouldn't have re-rookied Howat. I like the boy because of his endevour but emotion shouldn't be involved in decisions like this. I don't believe the selection of Howat would have been through emotion. We have proved we will make the tough decisions. I can only think that our horror run with injuries may have shaken the coaching staff a bit. Cartledge is another possible example. I also don't know what happened at training between the ND and PSD. Perhaps the other possibles were truly pathetic. (You'd be in a better position than me to answer that question). I wasn't there so I don't know. I was surprised Neville trained with Melbourne.
I never saw Cartledge at the training sessions I went too but I can understand the Club overlooking Richards, Fanning and Sullivan based on what I said. In fact Fanning was probably the best out of the ruckmen training with us but that's not saying much. I have a suspicion that age had a lot to do with it a far as a ready-made ruckman. Cartledge was 22 whereas Richards (24) and Fanning (23) were ineligible to be drafted as normal rookies.
The fact we took three 22 year olds as rookies makes me think you're right RROFO about the coaching staff being spooked by injuries. You can't blame them btw given all the broken bones key players have suffered over the past 3 years
. There's no guarantee Simmo or Cogs will play next year (fingers crossed they play all 22) and we're one Thursty injury away from being totally vunerable in defence. With Richmond it seems if there's one thing we hope doesn't happen then you can pretty much guarantee it will
. We're building depth with so many cubs coming through but that depth won't be evident until at least 2-3 years time.