GreatEx wrote:
@sidefx I agree with most of your post except this bit about McKay: "just lacks that presence in the forward line defenders are scarred of every time the ball comes in".
I think that's far from the truth, his size makes opponents panic and that's why they constantly infringe him - fortunately for them, umpires don't have the guts to pay the 7 or 8 frees he should probably get every week. But it is true that he would instil fear in the smalls as well as the talls if he put himself about more when ball hits ground. Ad others have noted, he is doing more work with chase down tackles so he is on the right path. I would absolutely not consider trading him. For whom?
I think that some defenders are fearful of him but not like they would be a Buddy, Tex or Fev who all have great football brains and are/were multi dimensional in their game. Opposition coaches would put two players on those guys in the hope of shutting them down vs they know if they put two on Harry he's cooked, a big difference especially for finals football.
And he has been pretty easy to shut down over the last couple of weeks, he was owned by De Koning in the Geelong game and has only kicked 3 goals in 2 weeks, pretty low output for a power forward.
Don't get me wrong, I like the potential of Harry but he hasn't really developed his game as much this season as you would've hoped.
But the concern is can he or does he want to.
If his only game plan is to attract frees and when he doesn't he gives up, that alone rings alarm bells.
Would you trust Harry 45m out to kick the winning goal or pull his socks up when we are down and like Crippa, take the game on and do some damage to turn it around?
As for trading, I wasn't thinking of a straight swap for a player to be honest, more the no #1 pick from North
But if we were to have a choice of players I really like Max King, when he puts on some more weight he will be damaging.
Those delivering the ball to the forwardline have been let off too easily in this discussion about Harry.
Why doesn't Harry lead up to meet the ball, like Fev did, like Buddy does, like Tex does, where his advantage is unsurmountable?
I don't think its all on Harry, but he doesn't attack everything with gusto, and does give up the fight at times too easily. ie he picks and chooses a bit much for me...and I think his kicking to goal have become the headline and focus when it should be other things too.