cecil89 wrote:
Sin City wrote:
cecil89 wrote:
Megaman wrote:
Bell on preseason form, probably is going better than almost any of the mids, but he's got to force his way past AJ, Robbo and co?
Bell had some good patches in the pre-season, but I wouldn't say he was unstoppable by any means. Bell still has a lot of areas to work on, and while i really like the way he plays and think he'll be in the side pretty soon, the amount of love for him in this forum is a bit over the top at the moment. All pre-season he's been noted as a fringe player by most on this site. Some had him in their best 22, some didn't. But now come round 1 when he narrowly misses out people are outraged and think he has reason to leave the club? That's just rubbish.
Its more for the physical presence he adds to a team that lacks it and that it's almost impossible for him to be knocked off the ball at the stoppages and after the way we were smashed in the middle last week I think it's fair enough that he's considered a must for this week.
No doubt that is the strength of Bell's game & there is merit to him being included this week, but the calls for him to come in have just been a bit over the top IMO. I've stated earlier that I'd have Buckley & Rowe in for Betts & Hampson, but if Robinson isn't fit to play, Bell is the logical replacement there.
I thought we had the balance pretty right last week.
Mclean, Carrazzo, Judd, Robinson and Murphy seemed like enough ball winners to take into that game. Any more and i think we lose our outside run. Unfortunately, the above guys failed to stand up (aside from some patches from Judd).
I wouldn't have had Joseph in my 22, and naming a tagger as a sub seems stupid to me. Having said that tho he does add more pace and defensive options than Bell, and i assume that's why he's there.
You are right that they were well down and if they had stood up the result would most likely have been different but I also don't think we had enough of them to do the work.
How many on-ballers do premiership teams have? Sydney had Bolton, Jack, Hannebery, O'Keefe, Parker, Kennedy and McVeigh in their team last year which is two more than we named in round one.
I don't think we would've smashed in clearances and contested possessions for the first three quarters (which is where we lost the game) against Richmond if we had've had anough ball winners in the team.
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