I think that can work with Simmo (3 goals against the Bombers) but not yet with Patto. Once the ball hits the ground we're effectively one down as far as forward line pressure. Also what happens is the best defenders will go to Jack and Mitch before the ruckmen as they are more a threat. The bombers had Michael on Jack and Ryder on Cleve IIRC. That freed up Mitch in the first half, Simmo when he was resting forward and Browny in the last. I'd rather give Cleve one more go as I think what happened to Polly has understandably affected him the past couple of weeks, but if he is dropped then Schulz most likely will have to play forward as we won't need 4 tall defenders.
I think this point should be highlighted. We are looking more dangerous up forward because of our new structure and more specifically the unpredictability of the options. We don't want to ever get to stage where we are reliant upon any one forward to kick our score and even though Cleve has not kicked many goals over the last couple of weeks he has taken a strong defender which has freed up players like Morton, Jack, Browny and even Simmo.
What may happen this week is that Jack and/or Mitch are given the best defenders which will in tuen free up Cleve to kick a few goal for us. It is the good thing about having many viable options up forward and taking away one of them puts more pressure and focus the the the others.
Similiarly bringing Richo back into the mix will throw the dynamics and cause our midfielders to revert back to the 'Kick it to Richo' mentality once more. Richo is better now when he floats back into the forwardline, much like what Simmonds does, to stretch the defenders.
I think we should leave Cleve in there for structural reasons and just to give the young fellow enough opportunities to overcome the Polak incident and gain some much needed confidence. As tigerfan stated he is a great kick for goal and with the third or even fourth best defender this week he may be able to get his hands on the ball more.
Stripes
