What Has Turned Around Bryce Gibbs ??

[DJC]

Interesting post BM. He's been through 5 coaches (Pagan, Ratts, MM, Barker and now Bolton), and off the top of my head 3 of those have given Gibbs very good public wraps. Pagan predicted he would be the best of the 3 No1's, MM declared him untouchable, and Bolts has also talked him up, in his typical, keeping-a-lid-on-it manner.

You may indeed have a point, although I've gone to town on him at times, so I shouldn't talk.

Rattan was another fan:

Ratten said Gibbs, the 2006 No.1 draft pick and third in the best-and-fairest in 2009 and last season, was ready to take the next step.

"He's a player with great skill and he's had a very good pre-season," he said.

"His ability to play multiple positions might go under the radar of people out there.

"But his versatility from a team point of view is something that's probably not respected as much as it is internally here, because we see what value he has and I think his best-and-fairest results have shown how much we value his role at the club and what he does for the team.

However, Ratten, like Pagan and, to a lesser extent, Malthouse, continued to use Gibbs off halfback where he successfully negated opponents but his elite ability to make good decisions and use the ball well was wasted.