I'd be OK with what he says to the media if team selections made sense. I won't go into all of them because I'll be here forever, but LeCras was a late withdrawal vs Carlton due to injury, so he brings Wellingham in. And plays him as a permanent forward in LeCras' role. Now a) Wellingham has played his entire West Coast career in defence and b) Josh Hill, a permanent forward, was available.
He has played the youth in the second half of the season a lot more, so I will give him that, but LeCras went about 6 weeks without a goal and didn't get dropped
Cripps copped a big injury in Round 1 I think it was, came straight back into the team without having to come back via the WAFL, and stunk it up too
Meanwhile Partingon was getting 25 touches and a couple of goals in the WAFL, and held that form for a couple of months, before *finally* getting his chance.
Promising signs for next year though. (Big) Willie Rioli booted 4 goals in his WAFL debut after a couple of weeks in the reserves coming back from a hammy, and Jake Waterman booted a couple and took some big marks in what I believe was his first WAFL game of the year coming back from injury. He made his WAFL debut last year before being drafted as a father-son. Our first pick from the 2016 draft, Daniel Venables was on the cusp of an Eagles debut this year before hurting his foot, and the Eagles have been ultra-conservative with him, so hopefully he has a big preseason and plays well next year.
Back in 2014, Cox's last year and Simpson's first, Simpson played Cox, Nic Nat and Lycett. Cox was in god-awful form and it seemed that Simpson was forced to play him by the powers that be even though three ruckmen is a retarded idea and it cost us wins. Maybe I'm venturing into GameHED territoy, but I see similar patterns now with Priddis. And even LeCras.