What if it's not about laying tackles? What if it's about a defensive effort? EFFORT being the operative word? Bumping a player instead of tackling. Hands on hips as the ball is sped away by the opposition is NOT what we need in our team particularly as the focus is on the opposition mounting attacks from defence.
If Tex raises the EFFORT aspect of his game (as it sounds like he did yesterday) there is no reason he won't be brought back in. Last year it took him 3 weeks to tick all the boxes after being dropped. It will be interesting to see how long this year.
If this is what he does, i'm still waiting for someone to tell me where is the same treatment for others that do this.. Especially our lazy midfield who don't apply tackles, let clearances slip out so easily due to no pressure, don't burst from the centre bounce to chase the opposition mids if the opposition win the ball, and so on..
The number of times they win the ball and their mids stream ahead, i look back to the centre and our mids are standing there spectating watching our backline stuck dealing with a swarm..