Let's face it, he might be in the top 1% of kicks in the AFL (might even be the best kick), but he is 29 in 2009 and still appears to be in the top 1% of the most unaccountable midfielders in the AFL.
I say let's do with Stevo what we did with Braddles late in his career, and start playing him down back. There's a number of reasons for this...
1. We need some experience in the back half (Bower, Jamison and Austin are all babies)
2. He can provide exceptional re-bound and field kicking from half back (and we probably need more of that)
3. He NEEDS to be taught (forced) to be more defensively minded
4. We won't see players like Bateman run off him and burn us the other way like in R22 last year
5. By removing him out of the Centre it enables us to blood Gibbs as a Centreman, which let's face it is his destiny!
6. We relieve him of his tag and we all know he struggled with the tag on occasion in 2008 (this happens to nearly all the good Mids, even Juddy from time to time)
7. It places pressure on our young mids to start to take more responsibility and step-up (ie: someone else needs to start to blitz when Judd is relieved for 5 mins every Qtr, ie: it's not Stevo Time, rather Gibbs Time or Murf Time)
8. If all we hear about his neck is true, he might be better off out of the heat of the centre square
Only downside is he might not be able to do the hard checking jobs. Is he just too attacking oriented??
What do we all think? Terrific idea is it not?
