Menadue has played some very good footy off half-back this year. I would suggest he's never been given the chance in the ones because others were already in the role when he was fit and in-form. (And he's 6'2 and skinny, he's still filling out.) Still, if he hadn't had an interrupted pre-season there's a good chance he might have been given first crack at it this year and maybe you'd be talking about how we need to sign him asap (and I'd agree, along with Shai he's the priority re-signing for mine).
Anyway, as I said, we're asking more of Menadue by sticking him in the guts and he's responding beautifully. Six clearances yesterday. Another pre-season, another 5kg, and he will break AFL tackles and weave out of AFL packs the way he did yesterday.
My position on stats is well established: they're nonsense. You can use stats to argue Tom Mitchell is better than Trent Cotchin, that's how meaningless they are.
'Metres gained' is a stat invented by some nerd at Champion Data. It is inherently biased towards those who play with the field in front of them, especially those used as outlets from defence. Mine is just as valid and more representative of what is actually happening onfield. Short gets a long way forward (by instruction, no doubt) and midfielders run back harder than him in transition and cover for him. Another example from the Geelong game: last quarter, Higgins wins a free in the centre. Short runs behind him for the handball and kicks laterally to Ellis, who pops it to Conca, still inside the centre square. Conca wheels and kicks long to the hot-spot, ball is spoiled, turned over and Geelong rebounds. Conca sprints 80-odd metres, gets back to defensive 50 and spoils a Geelong marking attempt out of bounds. Short is still in the centre square. From the resultant throw-in, we get Sheds' line-breaking run and long bomb to George for the mid-air soccer goal. Thanks to Conca's defensive running and gutsy spoil while our half-back-flanker was jogging through the centre of the ground.
This is where we get to 'roles' and playing to individual strengths. Short rarely gets involved in contests, because he ain't much chop at them. He applies little defensive pressure. He doesn't run back hard in defensive transition because he ain't a great runner. But others are, and do, and he's a great kick. So that's his role. Kicking. We're maximising his strengths and covering his weaknesses. That's why we're so good - not why he is.
Dunno what you're talking about here. What generic football speak?
Wilson is a better player than Short. He's bigger, stronger, faster, just as good a kick (if not better), can win his own ball and get it back off the bad guys. He has line-breaking pace, Short doesn't. No one is offering pick 25 for Short. They just aren't.
Murray was a bizarre one. Looked good for a month or two (his stats are better than Short's, for the zero that's worth) but hasn't been seen since Round 9, despite Collingwood's long injury list. Again, he's very quick. And he's 187cm and 86kg; he has a presence. Short is 175cm (on tiptoes, I reckon) and a couple of saunas away from being a jumps jockey. Murray, pick 70 and Sydney's future 3rd rounder were traded for Collingwood's future 2nd - so roughly Murray, pick 50 and pick 70 for pick 35, the way things are looking.
Yep, plenty of guns play at half-back. Deledio and Houli two more. All these players have more strings to their bow than Short. They can win their own ball. Mark. Have genuine pace.
We traded pick 31 (ended up pick 36 after Academy bids were matched) and a future second-rounder we expected to be in the 30s (ended up pick 28 after our disastrous 2016) to get Yarran. Of course we value the role. Yarran was a far superior talent to Short. A fit and firing Yarran in our current side would be lauded as a superstar. If we had a fit and firing Yarran in our current side we would be even more dominant - we would be shredding teams.
I'm not bashing Short, I swear. I'm looking at his strengths and weaknesses objectively and rejecting the notion that he's irreplaceable and we should pay overs to keep him. He's trying to maximise his income, and fair enough. I just don't think he would look as good in any other side and can't see modern-day Richmond being held to ransom.
