Is Jarryd Blair the best small forward since Daicos?

[jackcass]

[Mugwump]

[jackcass]

[Piesnchess]

I honestly don't know what to make of Blair, he seems to chip in here and there, then fade out, truly a player of short bursts of brilliance, then gone with the wind.

[RudeBoy]

The little man puts in.

[stui magpie]

Say what i want about Blair?

OK, he's short and his mum dresses him funny.

[Tannin]

Piesnchess nailed it: short bursts of grunt and magic; long periods of effort without results to show for it.

Which statement is true?

(a) Blair is a liability; he tries hard but he just doesn't contribute enough often enough to count as a genuine top-level AFL player in a top eight side. At best, he's handy depth. He slips into contention with some notable contributions, nearly always against weaker sides, and a lot of what he does isn't obvious, but in the end, he just doesn't do it often enough or for long enough.

(b) Blair earns his place in the side on merit, pure and simple. For all of his limitations, he's still a better player than the others competing for his spot, and it is for that reason that he gets a game. Say what you like about Blair, right now he is a better footballer than Aish or Broomhead or any of the others running around in the twos hoping for a call-up. Blair plays every week because he's the best man we have for his spot in the side.

(c) A side which relies on not-quite-up-to-it players like Blair won't win a premiership. Not in this decade where any tiny weakness is ripped open by powerful opposition sides like Hawthorn and Sydney. In a genuine contender, Blair would be a depth player. The fact that Collingwood plays him every week just shows how shallow our talent pool is.

(d) Blair in 2016 is to our side as Licca and O'Bree were to our 2010 side. Wonderful players, gave everything for the club, but so long as they were in our best 22, we were try-hards, not real contenders.

Ans: All of the above.

Blair absolutely should play next week, and every week. No-one playing in our seconds is good enough to push him out of the team. He should and will play until someone in the twos gets his act together, forces his way into the seniors, and grabs the game by the scruff of the neck. When an Aish or a Berg or a Broomhead bangs the door down and demonstrates that he can do all the defensive stuff Blair does and get more kicks and inflict scoreboard misery on oppositions, that's when Blair should go. Not before.

To all you lads playing seconds: there is a weak spot in our team with a blank label where your name could fit. But to actually write your name on it, you'll have to walk over J. Blair, and he's not an easy man to do that to. He's tough, he's very fit, and he's got the heart of a lion. You have to prove that you can do the job better than he does. The ball is in your court.

[Piesnchess]

^ Good stuff Tannin, please become Nicks Team Coach again, you were fair and balanced, and usurp the usurper who grabbed your job in an act of treachery and sleight of hand. !

[jackcass]

[Tannin]

Cheers P&C and thanks for the memories. Inside the team or outside it, you were always a good clubman. (Apart from a few ... ere ... episodes which we will say no more about. Probably because I can't remember them.)

Just on a point of detail, John Wren didn't usurp my job, I handed over to Swoop at the end of the season when I felt that I had reached my use-by and it was time for someone else to have a turn, someone with fresh ideas. (And more time!) John Wren usurped Swoop, not me - though I hasten to add that this wasn't because of any sense of loyalty or fair play on his part, it was simply that he tried and failed.

[yin-YANG]

[Mugwump]

^ Yep, Licuria was a dual Copeland winner, and a bona-fide match-winner (220 QF Vs Port stands as memorial to his greatness) , in a way that Blair will never be - and that is no disrespect to the Wee man.

At his best Licca would have been in the top one-third of the players in that 2010 team, though he was past it by 2006.

[Pies4shaw]

I think Tannin probably meant Lockyer - Tarks played in a few games in 2010?

[Monco Matt]

What I love about Blairy is that he never spectates. If he is within a few meters of the footy he will go at it hard and I think that is probably the main reason Bux plays him. He is even starting to get a bit creative as well, like that tap over the shoulder to Varcoe, very nice work. He will never be a 25+ possession guy or a 3+ goal scorer but he will always give 100% effort, chip in with a goal, give one off and always found at the bottom of a pack, and I love that stuff. We have our issues as a team to sort about but whether or not Blair is in or out is very much at the bottom of the list.

[inxs88]

Okay Blair sycophants defend this one????