LRT - does he deserve his place in seniors

[bomber-princess]

i have just one question!! Do people think that LRT deserves his spot in the seniors list or do people think he needs to develop more in reserves?
opinions!!!

[penga]

Re: LRT - does he deserve his place in seniors

Originally posted by warfes_babe
i have just one question!! Do people think that LRT deserves his spot in the seniors list or do people think he needs to develop more in reserves?
opinions!!!

yes... while u r there delist warfe...

[Plugger46]

Yes, he definitely does deserve his spot. Was pretty important for us against Port, I think.

[Dave]

This seems a strange post to me.

Why would he not deserve a place?

He is hard at the ball, he has the ability to kick goals and provide ruck relief and also seems to offload the ball well under pressure IMO. (Also a Rising Star nominee)

Considering the amount of experience he's had, I would say he definitely deserves his spot.

[Dave]

Re: Re: LRT - does he deserve his place in seniors

Originally posted by penga
yes... while u r there delist warfe...

lol.

I thought about posting something along those lines myself.

[Roscoe]

I would get into trouble if I said anything similar !

[desredandwhite]

Hmmmm.. I think he does. IMHO LRT has not done anything badly enough to warrant being dropped. I reckon he's got a pretty good temperament for senior footy. I think he's a great mark, great tackle and offloads by hand really well. My only question mark over him is that he seems to hesitate a lot when he gets the ball - probably his lack of experience, as he doesn't seem to know what option to take, and then usually handballs. Looks composed in front of goal, but the indecision means he's perhaps not as effective delivering quickly to a leading forward.

Definitely deserves a spot IMO.

[JudesaGun]

He's teh best of our second tier big men and we need him to support Goodes. If Ball was in the team, i'm not sure if he should be in the team but he is developing quickly and could be good up forward - although i only really see him as a relieving ruckman

[stellation]

I think that LRT would have done well from a season in reserves, but they have given him too much match experience now to have him step back down a level. They don't really have anyone to play a similar role (Mark Powell and Scott Stevens are shorter, or at least seem to be...) anyways so he is good relief.
I would suggest that next year he needs more seniors gametime.

[hammo]

I initially thought LRT was too raw for seniors but he's done some good things over the past few months and deserves his spot.

I agree he hesitates a bit too much and seems reluctant to put it on the boot, always tends to handball to a Cressa or Williams - not a bad thing.

Some of the freekicks he gives away are frustrating but with our ruck stocks low he's needed to help out Goodesy.

Lewis needs a haircut though.

[undy]

Keep him.

He's great to watch on TV - you see that 50% of his game is made up of 1%ers - great ground-level efforts for a tall bloke.

He could make good money by getting a sponsor for that enormous gum-shield.

[Sanecow]

Originally posted by hammo
he ... seems reluctant to put it on the boot, always tends to handball to a Cressa or Williams - not a bad thing.

I noticed this hesitation to kick long against Port but he seemed to mostly choose the right player running past IIRC. Other inexperienced players could well learn from the example!

[Troy G]

Probably more than Stevens

[Dpw]

Originally posted by desredandwhite
Hmmmm.. I think he does. IMHO LRT has not done anything badly enough to warrant being dropped. I reckon he's got a pretty good temperament for senior footy. I think he's a great mark, great tackle and offloads by hand really well. My only question mark over him is that he seems to hesitate a lot when he gets the ball - probably his lack of experience, as he doesn't seem to know what option to take, and then usually handballs. Looks composed in front of goal, but the indecision means he's perhaps not as effective delivering quickly to a leading forward.

Definitely deserves a spot IMO.

Agree, and would only add replace with who?.

[liz]

Originally posted by Dpw
Agree, and would only add replace with who?.

Precisely. Surely its about picking the best possible team, considering talent, experience and team balance from what's available. If we had a full list to pick from - fit, firing and in form - he probably wouldn't yet be in our best 22. But even ignoring the balance / height factor which weighs in his favour, of the guys on the list who didn't play on Sunday

James, Ball, Meiklejohn, Fixter, Thewlis, O'Loughlin, O'Keefe, Sunny, Buchanan, Hunt are/were injured.

McVeigh, Malceski, Dempster are even more inexperienced and haven't been knocking the door down demanding selection.

The only three who could be considered as possible replacements (again, ignoring team balance) are Powell, Warfe and Frosty. One of these is probably next in line to get a call, if needed, and is probably at a similar level to LRT in terms of development, and two are not really likely to be part of the team's long term plans.

Furthermore, remember this is still officially a development year in which the intention is to expose as many younger players to top level footy as possible.

Even ignoring his relative lack of experience, Lewie had a pretty decent game at the weekend - his best for a month or so - and it seems a very strange question to be raising right now.