SRV wrote:
I agree, Brown knew how to handle our young players. Thompson and Richards were perfect examples. He played them sparingly at first, and put them in and out of the team at the right time throughout the season. Then he had the balls to put them both in for the play offs and Grand Final ahead of the more experienced, but less useful Laffranchi. The only mistake he made was dropping Swift for Dawson, but again thankfully he put Swift back in.
Brown did some great work with our young players and turned our recruitment from shambolic to fantastic in just two years, and we're now reaping the rewards of his fantastic work.
Again I don't think that was a mistake.
Swift was getting turned around in defence at that time. Had he just left Swift there, more and more teams would have targeted that side and it could have gone from being an issue to being a mental issue. Remember Kevin Penny, a talent going forwards, but left to flounder in defence and had his confidence and abilities blown away, it''s taken the best part of 5 years to turn that around.
Swift was rightly dropped, got time to fix up that part of his game and is now back just as lethal going forwards but more solid in defensive duties.
I'm also very much against having favourites and playing them what ever their performance. Players should always have the pressure to play for the jersey and not feel from day 1 that they are a dead cert to play come what may.