The coaching group is already there, I think. Last two weeks he's been running with the best opposition mid, attending stoppages with them and then trying to expose them defensively by moving forward (with some success too). Those two games he's attended more than 50% of CBAs, which he'd only done once previously for the year, against Collingwood when he was running with Daicos.Keays 3 coaches votes. Looking at the votes, it's possible he either got 3 from 1 coach & 0 from another, or 2 from 1 1 from another, but I reckon it's pretty likely to be the 2/1 option.
Either way, they thought he was our best. Because he was. Not saying him in the guts should be a permanent thing by any means, but plenty of premiership winning mids carried liabilities in their game.
It's worth remembering that last year one of Berry & Crouch played every game (and they both played 7 together) for 66% centre bounce attendances. Removing that from the rotation and effectively replacing it with Dawson changes the dynamic. There's more size, there's more outside class/ball use & better spread from the stoppage.
That has a material impact on how Keays's style meshes within that midfield group. I think it's worth giving it a run with Dawson in there to see if it works. I think it will.
I think he'll be our main tagger going forward and will attend quite a few stoppages, unless he's running with a Saad type.