Can't see Nank surviving the season rucking 100% of the time , Jack comes back with a broken wrist , Lynch with his knees , maybe Caddy or McIntosh can do the job , don't know much about Soldo.
Just start 4 mids at the CB and don't contest at all ?
As bad as his SC was I actually thought he showed some signs.
I only saw bits of him (albeit he only had 10 touches) and he does occasionally look good. He set up one scoring shot (think it was a goal) with an intercept near D50.
You’d have to think that he can’t make as many errors (especially errors per possession) as he does, equally I think he’s now done it three games straight. He’s had 5, 3 and 7 clangers (which I think includes the 50s against, but I believe they’re -8 SC vs -3 for a normal FA) from 5, 5 and 10 possessions. That’s a clanger to possession ratio of 1, 0.6 and 0.7 - he’s got a clanger most times he’s touched the ball.
Two things would concern me about him:
- I went back and looked at his JLT scores yesterday, trying to see if I’d missed something, before trading him out. He had a great game in JLT1, but a lot of key players also missed or played lower TOG during that game ... I was looking at those who registered I50s in the JLT (that’s what Balta was doing, as an indication of the role he was given) but in JLT2 a number of other Richmond players went from 50 or 60% to 70 or 80% TOG and their I50s went up accordingly. In aggregate the TOG difference was more than a player’s worth - so Balta’s JLT1 role was not just generous, it might have been completely eliminated.
- Balta’s one TOG was only 43% last night. I can’t recall seeing such a low figure for an in injured player in a proper (non JLT) game. That could indicate that they do need him to pinch hit in the ruck occasionally, but it also indicates to me that he’s clearly the last player they want on the field, to the point that they would actually rather have him off the field much of the time even if it limits their rotations (I’m assuming Balta wasn’t himself injured etc). His TOG in prior rounds was 52% (I thought Dimma was teaching him a lesson for not coming off when they were signaling for him to) and 94% (when Short and Cotchin were both injured intra-game).
I wouldn’t be surprised if he jagged an 80+ spike game if he had a match with fewer clangers and higher TOG, but equally I wouldn’t be surprised to see him dropped and only played occasionally. He might even do both!
