I have to admit that i have been far more comfortable this season with Hilder in the side than i have been with him out of it. It raises another selection headache for Smith, in so much as Patterson, Taia and Houston arguably demand selection at the moment ( at least Taia and Houston do and Corey is someone we want to give as much time to develop as possible ). So it poses an interesting problem; does having a bigger more deanderous attacker outweigh the advantage of having a smaller, fitter defensive oriented player in the lineup. I am guessing that Smith being a pragmatic kind of fellow will opt for a game by game selection there. So in essence I doubt Hilder will fill out the 13 non stop all of this season, no matter how well he plays. Hilders great appeal is his work rate, and toughness, he is the ideal player to have on the field the entire game, but he is also very valuable playing the back end of both halves as a cleanup style of player. I think for the short term at least, given our brittle defence down the middle at times that Hilder will probably remain a starter with patterson coming of the bench as an impact player.
