The interchange definitely have their responsibilities but Bluey had a habit of pulling Matulino, Packer and Martel off at the same time, often when they were playing well and making great metres. And suddenly all our go-forward is gone.
Further to that this trio were often not around for the crucial last 10-15 minutes of the game, and instead he would field an injured Hurrell or the like. Its basic common sense, you put in your best players during the most important moments of the game. And the worst thing is he never stopped doing it all season.
You just need to have looked at Matulino staring from the bench angrily during the Manly game to know what I mean.
Pulling our starting props off after 20 odd minutes is exactly what Cleary did all last season with no complaints. Mateo has been brought on at all different stages throughout games or has started, all three may have been off the field at the same time for periods of different games, but i doubt he and both props were all interchanged at the same time.
As far as i can remember Matulino and Mateo have been on for at least the last 10 minutes of every game or damn close to it...Hurrell was cleared to go back on by the Warriors medical staff, and was re-injured in his first hit-up. That injury may not of helped his defensive game against Matai, but we saw with his absolutely woeful defense against the Cowboys...it probably made no difference.
Bluey may have tried starting Matulino off the bench so we had him on the field for the last 20 minutes of the first half....which is a valid enough reason, but the fact that he doesn't defend at center or on the wing means we will still lose games because of our pathetic edge defense whether Mut's is on the field or not.
