Jarryd Blair's worth to the side

[David]

One of the very few willing to take the game on tonight when so many of our stars looked like cybermen. Certainly not his fault we lost.

[Albert Parker]

Thought he tried hard.
Took a good mark on a lead at one stage.
We could do worse that try someone else in his role though before season is out because he's not impacting much.
White copped it this week. Other's might be impacted next week.

[HAL]

Let's get back to that later.

[Jezza]

I don't agree Dyso!

Blair earned his spot in the latter stages of the 2010 because of his strong VFL form whereas Tarkyn's form had dropped off substantially in 2010 unfortunately and he did have a chance to get back into the team in late 2010 when he played against Essendon in round 20 (we won by 98 points) but unfortunately he only had 6 possessions all night with no goals.

I liked Tarkyn as a footballer and I thought he was great servant for the club during the 2000s but I struggle to see how he warranted his spot in late 2010 when competition for spots was massive at that stage. We won the flag because the best players were playing that year, it was not based on reputations that players were securing spots in the senior side.

[Greeny2968]

Blair would not get a game at any other Top 8 team.

[Dave The Man]

NOTHING

[AN_Inkling]

[Mugwump]

I haven;t seen teh game end to end, and probably missed ca 30 mins in all as I watched it in between sporadic work. Several things I saw included a scything run by Blair where he evaded several GCS players and drilled it to a Pies player (Cloke?) 20m out for a goal ; and a final passage of play in the last 2 minutes where he won a hard ball and handballed it with brilliant vision straight to Macaffer in the clear, who passed it to Clinton Young - who inexplicably, inexcusably dropped it. If we had won the game with that final act, it would have been Jarryd Blair's desire and hard-ball get that won it.

He is not a superstar - but he's a very useful small forward who creates goals, even if he does not kick them enough himself. I really don't understand the venom directed at him. He was probably more significant and effective, for those two acts alone, than anything Swan did on the night. I'm now going to look through the whole replay to see if I missed anything critical that he shoud have done, but I doubt i'll find much.

[neil]

Puopolo is a lot faster than Blair
Blair does get pushed off the ball a lot
He does not hurt on the scoreboard
Goldsack is quicker taller and a stronger defensive forward.

Perhaps when a few injured players come back he will be dropped
Not convinced we need two defensive forwards playing but other than Martin who has raised their hands in the VFL to be another forward?

[thompsoc]

blair misses a lot of tackles
had one score assist for the night
just ask yourself -
would any other team pick him up or trade for him at the end of the year?
this is the true worth of a player!
my answer would be no
not even as a steak knive!

[HAL]

You don't say.

[Big T]

Surely he would make an ideal orange boy.

[Mugwump]

Watch the game. If we'd won it, which we should hav in those last two minutes, it would have been largely down to Jarryd Blair. That's why a bloke called Buckley, who knows a thing or two aboit footy, keeps picking him.

[Az]

I think it's time to give someone else a try down in the forward line. I can only see Blair as a player who spends the bulk of his game in the midfield in and under where he played his best football for us in 2012. Unfortunately for him, there are plenty ahead of him in this role so sadly I think he needs to go back to the magoos. He was never supposed to be a forward, and has only ever starred there a handful of times in the past 4 years.

[Harvey]

The problem with Blair is that he's consistently average. He just has 0 upside. This is currently the best that he's playing and it's hardly enough. If he was a kid that was just inconsistent then I'd be more than happy with his performance. However, we should be expecting a lot more from a 100 game player. Unfortunately there's 0 improvement left in him and it's compounded by the fact that he's small and slow.

If we go through every player in our top 30 and look at what their best game is, they can be potentially matchwinning including the kids like Thomas, Kennedy, Fasolo and Adams. Blair's best is 15 possessions, 2-3 goals and 8 tackles (all of them in pack situations and none that are run-down turnovers). It's just not good enough, I'd much rather play a kid who has 2-3 quiet games that aren't too much worse than Blair's average and every once in a while can pull out 30 possessions or 4-5 goals. At least by playing them, they can get more consistency in their game which comes from experience. Blair is already experienced and consistent. And it's consistently average.