I understand what you're saying but we are at cross purposes.
Our spine last year included Dugan who is supposed to be a world class representative player.
He played fullback and was often the first chosen by McGregor as an irreplaceable component of our spine.. So there's your 2nd spine contributor.
Widdop was not on his Pat Malone by any stretch of the imagination and what I am suggesting, instead of rationalizing his poor performances, Is that he will never achieve consistency.
He has already been part of a disastrous equation at our club for 3 years.
Flashes of brilliance does not win you competitions.
He did not gel with Benji - McCrone was just put there because Widdop wanted him there as a defensive foil and the times he was teamed up with Mann - just no cohesion at all.
That says more about Widdop as a player rather than him carrying all the creative responsibility in the team.
You can't seriously interpret my comments as shifting the play making role entirely on to Hunt.
You know that is not what I meant.
in 2018 Widdop will not only have Hunt but also Dufty who is an excellent playmaker in his own right.
All I am saying is that Widdop's best role for the team will be as a link man exactly like he was at Melbourne.
We should stop kidding ourselves regardless of what his Daly M status is.
Just ask Bennett who gave up on him as a half after a game and a half at the WC.
The fact the opposition was able to control, not only Widdop but generally our monotonous and predictable game plan, is a coaching issue that a smarter coach would have provided for.
I am not a fan of Widdop as game manager or as our captain.
Hopefully Hunt will provide the missing ingredient.
We won't agree I know but enjoying the debate though.
Reading some of your other posts, I think we also have a differing opinion of what the term 'game management' means. I think game management is solely that - controlling the speed of the game, kicking into the corners, trapping the opposition down their end etc. and doing this during specific times of the game. I think the other aspect of the game that you include in the term is what I call team management. Steering the team around the park, calling plays. organising players etc.
Based on my definition of what team management is, Gareth definitely needs work in that area OR he needs someone else to do that full time. He's not good at it and it is a role that I am hoping Hunt will pick up and own. I think that is also why he wanted McCrone in the team - I suspect he felt McCrone took that responsibility off of him (I would say with mixed to poor results) and had more experience in that area than any other player available to fill the position. That's also why I think he didn't gel with Benji and why others didn't get a chance in McCrones position. They didn't have that team management component to their game and played too much in the same style as Widdop. Take a look at when Benji played his best - alongside Prince and with Farrah in support. Well known team managers. We also see Mann play his best game at half alongside McCrone - where he didn't have to do any management - just play his game off the cuff. Hutch also could have been a viable option prior to his injury - I can't really comment as I hadn't seen too many of his games but he seemed like a reasonable organiser.
Game management on the other hand, I think Widdop has the ability to do this as we did see this year. However, like I've pointed out, he needs support. Just take Melbourne for example, you have Cronk, Smith and to a lesser extent Munster who can control the game (as well as manage) - kicking into corners, holding the opposition down their end, kicking out of play to slow down the game - all at critical times. Widdop has done this at various points during the year, but it's too much for a single player to be able to do this consistently for the entire game. For those teams in the top 4, how many of them only had a single point of attack? I'd say none of them. The opposition could shut us down more easily than other teams in the 8.
The only anomaly in the whole season was the Cowboys during the finals series. But saying that, they shouldn't have made the finals. They just lifted as a team once the finals series started. I suspect at least 2 of the teams they played went in taking them lightly.
