Raph Clarke

[bigcarl]

Quality is quality...and Max is quality.

I also think people have forgotten how versatile Max is.

No argument with that. It's just a matter of how he fits into the structure.

For example, you wouldn't want a backline made up of all stoppers or one of all offensive playmakers.

it would leave you either short of run or vulnerable against dangerous forwards.

There's a similar dilemma with the forward line.

there's a good argument that goose is a better player than gwilt, but he can't crack it for a spot, i think because there's a feeling that it would make us too top heavy.

While we're winning as well as we are I'm actually a bit of a fan of like-for-like replacements (whether for injury, suspension or poor form) maintaining what is obviously a very sound structure.

having said all that, since raph was used in a stopping role (to which he is ill-suited IMO) I would not be at all surprised to see what you've proposed happen this week. nor would I be totally unhappy with it. I'm just urging caution over balance.

[skeptic]

Raph actually had quite an unusual game for him. He was bad at the things he's normally good at and vice versa.

He had a terrible first half. His decision making and disposal were okay but he was ocmprehensively beaten in the air on several occassions which is quite uncharacteristic for him.
He's an excellent mark and spoiler.

The other strength to his game is that he's usually very clean with his ball handling. Picks the ball up well, usually disposes of it cleanly. We all saw the incident in the second quarter.

In the 2nd half, he was SUPERB. He set up our first two goals, one with a bullet pass to Roo and the other a desperate lunge forward on the ground to get a finger tip to the ball around demon players.

He chased hard, disposal and decsion making were excellent

He's at an interesting spot right now.

I think because of his previous injury concerns, the coaching department knows better than to try and use him as an impact/explosive player. IMO that's why he seems to always go at about 80% tops

He looked good on a HFF. Certainly worked harder and was more effective than Gram.

Keeps his spot IMO

[bigcarl]

He looked good on a HFF.

with hindsight we might have been better playing raph at half forward and gwilt at half back. raph will never be a close-checking defender and gwilt will never be a goal-kicking forward.

[Saints43]

I know Riewoldt has a couple of more runs on the board but he started the season pretty poorly due to lack of match fitness and I didn't see threads about him being replaced by Cahill.

Would it hurt to be a bit more patient with players coming up to speed with the highest level of the game? If you think he's still not playing well in Round 13 then... but two games in seems harsh to me.