rodgerfox wrote:It's a fascinating debate this one.
Only 3 years ago, the St Kilda faithful wanted to strung Grant Thomas up for suggesting that Robert Harvey needed to convince the club that he should play on.
Now, it seems the club 'culture' (as much as I loathe that word and the concept of it) has matured to a point where emotion and romance is taking second place behind sense and professional decision making.
Where this debate becomes interesting though, is that alot of people cannot fathom that Eddy, Gwilt, Dawson etc. could possibly get a game ahead of Max and Luke Ball. Based purely on ability and value ot the team, not emotion.
This is where it's interesting. Lyon clearly has his favourites, it's just that his favourites are different to the favourites of the Saints faithful.
This could well be one of those football decisions that either makes a coach a genius, or ruins their career.
And in alot of these situations, the result on the day overshadows the actual merit of the decision they make.
Meaning, if we lose there is no doubt that Lyon will be criticised for not playing Max and/or Ball - regardless of if in reality they would have made the difference.
I agree with a lot of what you are saying.
At the end of the day Lyon and the coaching staff are charged with the responsibility of bringing to the club our second premiership.
To complete this task they have to pick the team they think has the best chance of winning the 3 more games the club needs to win to claim the flag.
I, like most here, would love to see Maxy rewarded with a premiership if the club was to win it, however, you don't send out a team that you don't think is your best (if you can avoid it) when the premiership is on the line.
Premierships are hard to win, nobody knows that more than our club, surely if the choice is between giving yourself the best chancing of winning the cup or honouring a great servent of the club you choose the former.
Don't get me wrong I still hope that Maxy can still somehow get back on board the train, but he doesn't get there unless he is the best option.