Round 15 Post Game Thread - Blues v Tigers

[kruddler]

Well I though Cas was miles better than Henderson on Friday night.

Re Henderson perhaps passenger is a little harsh, but you talk about midfield and delivery well he gets it pretty good every week but he does not hold his marks and as astute people in the game have also commented, he doesn't want it enough, which is what I've been saying all along. You said he was average last night well TBH I saw no difference between his game last night and pretty much every game for the past two years. He just went, and that was it. Makes good leads yeah but he simply does not want to hold that mark enough, he doesn't have the ticker required.

Something that i think has changed over the past 20-30 years.

Back in the day, forwards had to be smart, or at least the good ones were. The forwards knew the subtleties of the game and exploited the backmen.
By contrast, the backmen were simply known as dumb footballers who were played back because they were not much chop elsewhere. Usually couldn't kick and would go the knuckle to square up the ledger.

Nowadays, it seems that forwards are now the more eccentric/dumb footballers. It seems that backmen are now the more astute footballers who read the play better and have to be smarter about how to defend as you can't simply chop the arms and hold like you used to be.

Some of the best forwards over the past decade are hot heads who often get the sooks. Fevola, J. Riewoldt, B. Franklin, T. Cloke, M. Richardson, B. Hall, J. Brown, J. Waite...etc
Some of the best backmen are more composed, level headed types. D. Fletcher, H. Taylor, D. Glass, A. Rance, L. Barry even Jamo etc

I think Hendo fits the 'mould' of your modern day defender. He is cool, calm and collected. He hasn't got the hot headed/agro nature required to be a modern day forward.

So yes, i agree that he doesn't seem to 'want it enough', but i think that's part of his nature and he is much better utilised as a backmen because of it.


Still....i think it's best for the team if Hendo plays forward as the next in line are simply too far behind.