As long as he’s on the list, there’ll be temptation to play him. We’ll keep getting exactly what we’ve seen - occasionally brilliant but mostly ordinary, especially in big moments against best teams. I’ll always remember the disdain Collingwood showed him in the last quarter this year - they knew he was suspect in a contest & not prepared to bust a gut to compete in the right defensive spots. Exploited Chol perfectly & it’s why he isn’t a long term option for us. We have to have better players than that.
I have loved his best traits which have resulted in some great individual efforts - so much talent. But have despaired of him ever becoming a truly professional, desperate and ferocious Richmond Man.
However, just for my own interest, I factored in a comparison for this season. Mabs has not played enough career games for any other look. Clearly one plays almost entirely forward but does some rucking there, while Chol is virtually the opposite. It's interesting in some respects - that Chol is ahead in effective Ds and DE ... when you factor in the huge disparity in game time.
Mabior Chol and Tom Lynch AFL Stats Comparison.
www.footywire.com
I suppose I was just wondering whether, if Tom is struggling so badly with his movement and hampered by injuries, could Chol play KPF and TL sent out to pasture. Yes, I know, the answer is probably that he cannot read the ball well enough in the air and refuses to compete hard enough for long enough.
But maybe his performances are not that much worse than Lynch's over the season and in some ways he is even more effective - damn good disposal and goal-kicking. Another key problem with Chol is he is still too light, listed at 91kgs cf. to TL who is slightly shorter but 8kgs heavier, although not a heavyweight either for that size. If Chol was to put further muscle on, would he be able to finally reach that potential with greater hardness in the contests?
OR, we have 2 talls who are just not able to perform strongly and consistently at the highest level in 2021, which has left us so dependent on the over-worked Nank with CCJ still an apprentice ruck, and no sign of Soldo's recovery.
