Eela: Just because the team is winning that shouldn't excuse poor performances from players.
The one week Finch has been out of the side Parra scored the most points they have this year and also conceeded the least amount of points in any game this year. Sure Canberra played poorly but I'm never one to let facts get in the way of a good story.
Seriously though, You argue about Finch's defense two things 1. When Green was on his defence seemed to be just as good as Finch's yet Green offerered a lot more in attack.
and with Ian Hindmarsh, Daniel Wagon etc in the side the last thing Parra needs is another defense only player.
and in saying that while he didn't stand out for all the wrong reasons in defence as he did in attack I also don't recall too much in terms of great defense by Finch either.
With injuries options may be limited as far as replacing Finch alotugh even with bias aside Storer has played well from what I've seen of him this year, debatable if it is enough to prove he can do the same in 1st grade but enough to earn a shot at it.
I will agree with you that other players postions in the top 17 can be debated and they might be a bit lucky to be there but none stand out as much as Finch at this time.
what if a Finch fuc*kup costs Parra a spot in the top 8 or the grand final will you still be saying that at least he made that tackle so Parra only lost by 1 pt not 7.
Due to the injuries to Chad and more importantly Riddell I'm not going to crucify Hagan for picking Finch again however, if once Riddell is back and the form of Finmch and Green stays the same as it is now, yet it's Green who makes way for Riddell m,y tone will definatly change.
also if Finch didn't make so many errors in attack he wouldn't need to be solid in defense because the other team wouldn't get the ball back after Finch created an error. So really if Finch screws up inb attack I expect him to make up for it in defence rather then praising him for doing something special in defense he is simply making up for his screwup with the ball.