Maybe, but he's a better midfielder/ruck than Raph, and a better defender/midfielder than McEvoy. You're picking one player, not three.skeptic wrote:IMO Jason Blake doesn't offer enough to be in the team... in the team as a defensive stopper which he is only ok at... slow, doesn't win a lot of ball, poor disposal, not a great spoiler.
Would rather have Raph in the team as a defender, McEvoy in the team as a ruck, and ne1 in the team ahead of him as a forward
Blake's strength is his versatility.
He's got enough fitness to play a defensive midfield role.
He's got enough leap/nous to play as an undersized ruckman.
He's got enough height/strength to play as a key backman.
He's not particularly good at any of those roles, but he can do them all, so he's a great utility/gap-filler, and someone like that makes the coaches life easier in dealing with matchup problems or injuries.
I suspect his problem this week is that Dempster is competing with him for the role of tall utility, and it's hard to carry both of them since neither is dangerous offensively.