Pre game Postulations Round 16 Carlton vs Sydney at Metricon.

[kruddler]

For all the whinging I have heard from people (not having a crack at you by the way) about SPS being played out of position, everytime a side is listed he is always in the backline. And there is a reason for that I reckon, he probably can't play anywhere else. If he was any good to play mid or forward, and if that's also his preference, wouldn't it be logical that Teague would have played him there by now? But he hasn't so that's a big tell. I personally hope they trade him as I have had a gut full of his insipid efforts.

The reason he is picked, and played, in the backline is because we are trying to build a backline 'unit'. A group of players that play together over a long period of time and they know what their teammates can and will do at any given opportunity.

There was some stat i saw recently that said Jones+Weitering+Simpson+Plowman+SPS have played in the backline together for 50-odd games or something like that. I might get some names and numbers wrong, but you get the point.

As for why he personally is played there, because we need run and carry and good ball movement coming out of defense. He is it.
Is he perfect? No.
Does he try and be too cute sometimes? Sure.
Is he still amongst our best users of the ball? Yes.
Perhaps if Newman didn't go down with his knee, and Simpson, Docherty and Plowman also managed to stay fit, SPS would be moved further up the ground.

Can he play there? Yes.
Is he tough enough and will he put his body on the line? Yes.

I did an in depth analysis of SPS and his tackle numbers you may recall (boomer )
He averages more tackles a game than almost everyone on our list. IIRC, only Cripps and maybe Curnow had a higher tackles per game average.
Further analysis shows that 1 in every 10 games, he will get 8 tackles or more. He has hit 10 tackles, twice.

Only twice in his 76 games has he gone without a tackle.
1 was when we dominated the dogs this year...and they barely had the ball for us to tackle them.
The other was when he got 35 touches playing midfield, also against the dogs, when we cracked the ton against them last year.

So sure, have an opinion, but "insipid efforts" should be applied to many a carlton jumper wearing player before it gets directed at SPS IMHO.
If the rest of the team tackled like him, we'd be in a better place.