You are probably right but he is only 25 and appears to be a very hard worker. Our backline was amazing this year, but dont be fooled - it needs a big overhaul if we are going to go back to back.. If the Cats had Hawkins, we wouldn't have made the GF. We counter argued that with "well if we had Rance...." at the time but.....Next season, we dont have Rance & they do have Hawkins alongside Jenkins too now. I do fear that our very short backline & its system which worked so well in the backhalf on 19, can easily be exposed by good coaches & 6 months of planning for it. The club MUST find another competent tall backman from the current list for 2020. Garthwaite is the obvious choice but i think many doubt he is good enough, for good reason. Too Slow. Maybe they develop K-Mac as a more "3rd tall in" type. Most likely they back in Balta early and hope it works. If he struggles it will be interesting
Yeah not sure whether Hawkins would have been the difference in the prelim. We smashed them 2nd half 8 goals 8 behinds to 2 goals 4 after playing a shocking first half. Not sure how KMac would have influenced Hawkins form if both were playing. Hawkins kicked 4 earlier in the season but that was probably against our weakest side of the season when Townsend, Balta, Butler. Garthwaite, Stack, Higgins, Kmac, Naish played, none of which played in our finals campaign. Before that Hawkins form against the Tigers hasn't been that great. 1 goal in 2017 QF, 1 in 2016, 3 in 2015, 0 in 2014, 2 in 2013. He turns 32 next year. Jenkins will be 31 and he's truly a fair weather player. Then they have Ablett (36 next year) playing forward and his form really tapered off 2nd half of the season. I think our backline comfortably handles Geelong.
KMac has never shown he can play against talls as a key defender. At 191cm he's too short anyway and doesn't have a great leap. To me if you're trialling another backman as a tall it has to be Garthwaite (who's only 192cm himself) or Balta. It'd be nice if Miller or Chol could step up but seems unlikely. KMac would have to replace a Broad or Vlastuin type or a Houli/Baker/Short as a release player but I just can't see it happening. Our game style supports a shorter backline. It's up to the opposition to try and counter it. But I do agree we're potentially vulnerable if we have a couple of injuries to a copule of our taller backmen.