Hopefully he can still impact with his running back. I certainly don't think it's in the guts.
Maybe it's not off a wing either. A poster some ways back suggested him forward. With few options there I actually don't mind that - get him absolutely gut running to be a linkup option every time the ball is turned over and we have a chance to attack. Run 200m in an arc to get seperation from his man even if it's just for that extra handball we need coming through the centre square. He's not creative enough coming out of the back half but he's excellent at being a clean link in the chain after running what would gas most players, and a clean link is really what we need. Someone connecting between Yeo/Jones/Hunt moving it out of the back half to a Ryan/Kelly/Cripps working out how to generate a scoring opportunity.
We saw in the praccy match he can find that seperation for a loose mark in the 50, and he's actually not a bad shot on goal if not too far out. Could also be played on their distributors and make life hard for them by keeping up wherever they go, where say Ryan would be better served saving his energy.
Petrucelle is yet to show he can consistently produce that same type of seperation running and Long probably needs to be allowed to play on instinct a bit more this early on.
It may not be his natural position but I think he could do it. And like Redden said last year, got to sacrifice your best/most involved role sometimes for the good of the team. We have a few candidates for wing spots, would allow us to fit a Clark/Hough/even Winder or Burgiel there and see what they're made of
His ability to help out the defence (either clogging the hole, dropping in front of a lead, or providing an outlet) has been severely missed.
That said, if he is trying to do that as a pseudo inside mid, or as our main attacking wingman, or even as a mark/kick wingman then we are in trouble.
Ideally he can be that extra defender, and if used as an outlet can release runners with quick handballs (occasionally kicks) to allow us to get the ball moving.