The Defence

[PaulP]

What Jones did was wrong, whether that is through ignorance or design, but that is clearly not the issue, we have less numbers in D50 than the opposition. The lack of urgency in particular from both Doc and Jones.

But you could argue that Jones may been instructed not to be dragged back to the square eliminating his intercept marking, so are the comments from Lyon and Healy deliberately naivé just to stir the pot?

I fear this is again Barker's mates helping him dodge a bullet!

As I said elsewhere, we simply don't know if he stuffed up or if he's playing to instruction, because we don't have access to behind the scenes information. I like Jones, and him getting to 150 games is Lazarus-like IMO. But I think he's the type of player that really needs a simple task, and he will stick to it diligently and do a good job. I'm not convinced that he has a high footy IQ, or that he's good at thinking on his feet.

I think we can say after the first 8 rounds that Teague simply believing he can outscore the opposition, how matter how many goals they kick, is flawed, at least with the personnel we have available. The concentration of goals among too few players is a big concern of mine. If Harry has an off day, or Betts is injured / rested, then we're stuffed IMO.