Ah you’re correct. Interesting change up from Ross to back in the more mobile setup - in the past he’s been pretty committed to the traditional big ruckman.
Loss of Smith is shaping as a serious blow to our ability to contest the footy. ( not that he has been great this year)
We are on the point of season over. We just cannot afford to lose contested footy players and replace them with uncontested types when our run and gun style is not working.
We might be able to win clearances and compete in stoppages, but once the ball gets outside the stoppage there’s softness there if our outside players are manned up. The Swans exploited it for 3 quarters, Freo will no doubt exploit it as well and they have one of the best defences in the AFL ( 3rd). For that reason I am disinclined to select Ham, much as I like the way the kid plays. Select him instead of Zaharakis and get like for like, but I would go for DClarke instead of Ham. For the same reason I would be playing Dea instead of Ridley. He is much better contested/overhead and we will need that if Hooker goes forward.
Smith hasn’t been right all year, it’s not good news but we can survive it. If Parish can’t step up and give us a similar output then Geelong can have him.
This gives Parish a golden opportunity to step up and play more on ball. He was great against Geelong. If he can get consistent in that output he can cover Smith.
Do we really believe Parish on ball with his tenacity, speed and deft right kick into the 50 is going to do more for us than David Myers 6 possies, 2 of which were pearler right foot hack kicks to nowhere in particular