Way to miss the point or is that just plain old avoidance. Dont know where its written you cant win premierships and play deserving kids at the same time.
Imo those in charge have become too enamoured with those who had the success avoiding hard decisions even when they have been shizen.
In anyones language we have been guilty of this.
Im absolutely certain those in charge are fully aware of Castagna's and McIntosh's abysmal disposal and poor form but they just keep on playing them week after after week year after year. So many have been very ordinary for long and short periods and instead of giving them a rest we have mostly just continued to play em at the cost of kids getting needed experience. We play blokes out of their normal position at the expence of kids Caddy laughably comes to mind.
Every single man and his dog knows for us its been all about team and a lot of our players are not so flash. Its why the dynasty is not recognised as being a good one. I for one am big enough to agree i really dont care how we won our premierships better to win em with a lot of ordinary players than not at all.
But i can at least acknowledge we did win em with our fair share of ordinary players and these are the such obvious ones that we should have been looking for upgrades for.
Who were the deserving kids that we avoided playing? Ross was given every chance at the end of 2019 to get back in. His game against West Coast late in the season went very close to costing us a premiership. He was easily our best kid who didn't get into the grand final team that year, but had his chances. Last year we gave Higgins every chance, he struggled, Naish had an opportunity and was awful against GWS. Aarts was in the team most of the year and fell away late, Chol always seems to come in, play a few good games and then lose all form. Stack was also given every opportunity at the start of last year. When CCJ may have got an opportunity he got suspended. RCD is the only one they could have put in for more games, but maybe he's just not that good. Baker, Balta and Bolton all found their way in and locked up spots over the last few years. But that is the level you have to be to get into a premiership side. McIntosh has been woeful this year, but excellent last year, he played VFL most of 2019. George is obviously struggling but we don't have small forward depth anymore.