The Roo Issue

[wallbanger]

Is a complex one.

Firstly, with the game now the way it is, having a key forward can be, as Alistair Clarkson said this week, a liability. Why? It is so easy to just double-team a forward out of the contest, like they do with Roo every week - particularly when the ball is moved forward as slowly as it has been this year. As the last 3 GF's have proven, when the ultimate prize is at stake, just put two on Roo - he's the best player, he will struggle to get a touch and that will go a long way toward St Kilda losing. Every team does it to him now, and it is impossible to stop. Teams whose whose best player is a midfielder have a distinct advantage, as they can never be double teamed.

In addition, the coaching staff seem to develop NO PLAN to counteract this - they just seem to throw their hands up in the air in resignation, with the sage advice..."Just kick it to him anyway". WTF?

His confidence has dropped, his leadership is almost non-existent, and he is giving the team very little in terms of output. A lot of that is not his fault - the team is playing poorly, the flooding defence doesn't help, kicking to him is woeful blah, blah, blah...but when you compare him as a captain to someone like Judd, who just wills himself into the contest to get his team up and running...it is chalk and cheese, much as I hate to say it. Roo has to impose himself on the game IN SOME MANNER - if not marks and goals then tackling, sheperding, SOMETHING. With he and Goddard in the same boat, it's no wonder the team is in such a bad way.

If the current coaching staff and playing group cannot sort out a way around this, are we in a similar position we were in with Plugger several years ago? If this side finishes in the bottom 6 in 2011, difficult decisions will have to be made, with long term rebuilding in mind. Will anyone be safe from the trade table...and should they be?

It's so frustrating to watch.