I am all for throwing him in, but I am staggered we showed our hand so early.

Teams analyse opposition players to the nth degree but West Coast would not have been expecting Gardner nor would have they given their forwards/defenders any vision of him. Now we have given them a few days to find vision and get them up to speed. It feels like an amateurish and dum call to me.

Why not tell him privately and bury the footage till later? Spring him as a late in from the emergencies and give WC no time to adjust. In a environment where teams are looking for every tiny competitive advantage this is an instance where we could have pulled a really big rabbit out of the hat and maybe through mismatches gained a little bit of an edge.