McCartney urges patience

[Nuggety Back Pocket]

Re: McCartney urges patience

Grant and Higgins are certainly performing a lot better.

It hasn't translated into big numbers or bags of goals (yet), but they are contributing much more, especially defensively.

No, there isn't. I was really tired last night, and a little grumpy after a long day of work and uni etc.

Apologies to NBP if he's taken offence.

There isn't any offence jeemak as we all have our own opinions. My frustrations have been that both Grant and Higgins have now been at the Club for 5-6 years and both lack consistency and that under the extreme pressure of League football today that they can perform at the optimum level. An example would be how well Dahlhaus has been able to perform so well each week by comparison and yet playing in a similar role at half forward.
There is little doubt that BMcC has been able to make both Grant and Higgins have a stronger attack on the ball, however to be a really good team, I believe they are capable of being
much better. I continue to read your thoughts with interest.

[LostDoggy]

Re: McCartney urges patience

Grant and Higgins were the great white hopes of the club, Grant being a no.5 pick and Higgins exciting us all after his first couple of seasons. They have undoubtedly failed to live up to those expectations, and probably never will, so we need to change our standards for them somewhat -- if we ask if they played like superstars or game-changers, the answer will generally be 'no', but if we ask the question of whether they were solid contributors on the weekend, this year at least it has generally been a pass mark, if nothing more.

No doubt they are doing the one-percenters a bit better than they were, but it was a very, very low base they were coming from on that front. Also, I suppose we have always wanted more than one-percenters from these first round picks.

You can see they are doing their best, but Higgins looks incredibly, incredibly slow these days, his first three or four steps away from a pack look like he's wading through treacle.. often he would be put into space by lovely little handballs, only for him to have to hurry his disposal because he runs out of time so quickly. It's really sad his injuries have reduced him to this -- I remember him bursting through traffic only a few years ago.

[Mofra]

Re: McCartney urges patience

You can see they are doing their best, but Higgins looks incredibly, incredibly slow these days, his first three or four steps away from a pack look like he's wading through treacle.. often he would be put into space by lovely little handballs, only for him to have to hurry his disposal because he runs out of time so quickly. It's really sad his injuries have reduced him to this -- I remember him bursting through traffic only a few years ago.

I guess that's the rub - they are doing the best they can with the physical limitations they have, which why I think some fans get frustrated at the abuse they cop during the game - I don't know how anyone can honestly say they aren't trying.
Higgins on current output is in our best 22

[LostDoggy]

Re: McCartney urges patience

Josh Hill has played some very reasonable matches for West Coast this season in their forward line being on the end of some laces out passes

He's also working a lot harder, and seems to have rectified the attitude problem (to a certain extent, anyway). I'm happy he's turned it around somewhat and resurrected his career.