I’m not going to defend Caldwell because he has been terrible this year. But clearances alone is not reason enough to give Tsatas a game. Let’s look at last week, we dominated clearance, yet only won because Jake Stringer missed 7 shots at goal.
The issue Essendon has is not clearance, it’s what we do with the ball following that clearance. Tsatas does not help with this in any way. Tsatas has quick hands, but the doesn’t create with those hands. He simply handballs to the first person he sees, regardless of whether that player is under immediate pressure. Tsatas plays like Parish, both find a lot of the ball, but neither really impact the contest.
I know fans get mesmerised by stats, but the eye test simply doesn’t paint the same picture. There is a reason that no team showed any interest in Tsatas last year.