keogh wrote:
Well He hardly touched the ball the first 3 quarters and once again had succumbed to a hard tag.
Perhaps Ratten thought of the freo game where Stevens outpointed a midget who recently retired that being Bell.
Moore would looked Bell in the eye
You see Stevens is hopeless overhead. At least agree with that one Con

So he has to play on guys 6cm shorter.
I would have thought that Rattens idea was to play Stevens down back to deliver the ball with purpose and run as well
The ball hardly got to him in the end
We really need a defensive player like Gilbee with good kicking skills
Trouble is Stevens has liitle in this area(defensive skills)
Hope this satisfies your need Con
Nope. Sorry, Changed my mind. I did agree with your post earlier (to those that were unaware) but deleted it after rethinking & rewatching the game again & re-reading your post, closer.
I was probably more agreeing with your more balanced & controlled post, rather than having to endure being "told" by you & was suitably impressed.
I did post this somewhere else before but I'll do it again. I thought Stevo & Juddy provided very good defensive sides to their games in marshalling others into position (etc) & creating pressure, enuf for us to play our game & score against a very dour game style Sydney have, which worked because we were in front at one stage, should have been more so & we should have held what lead we had anyway.
Stevo then had his head smashed into the turf by Ablett's hip, at a centre bounce 6 mins before 1/2 time, which led to a Betts goal btw, which I am not sure he fully recovered from, so that
could be succumbing to a tag.
Did he get beaten in the 2nd half? Probably.
Was he OK still? Don't know.
Did Ratts make a mistake with him or as I posted earlier he may have been pissed with him, thinking if either Stevo or Juddy were winning their respective battles we would have won the game. Banishes Stevo because - Well Juddy or Stevo? If so, that too is a mistake, but I doubt this scenario is correct anyway.

You are right about the marking overhead (prove me & him wrong Stevo) take a hanger this week
As I stated in the 1st post, on Gilbee, lets wait & see what becomes of our defence once it is settled & fit.