For Watt

Dear Watt,

This is what I wrote for Wayne, with some edits due to typographical errors/ambiguities!

-------------------------------------
I think our wings are an issue for us. Caceres and Storey (left and right) are ’soft’ players. They don’t go in hard.

And we have a defensive problem. Byrnes had a shocker against Perth, but is usually reliable. Leijer was suspended for the last two, and I will be happy to have him back. Vargas has done extremely well to slot into the back, and I like his ball distribution - often opting to play the ball out from defence rather than whack it up the park. New signing Kovacic is better off on the bench or not even on the squad list. He is extremely slow. Not something you’d want in a defender (it’s a reason why I don’t play there regardless of how much I like defensive positions). Heck, he had fresh legs and was still being out-run.

Pantelidis is been such a great plug throughout the season, and he plays hard - which I like. Lia was extremely disappointing last season and things haven’t changed. Alessandro didn’t play, but I doubt he would’ve helped us. Ferrante hasn’t been playing, but last season he showed that he was decent. Hopefully some game time will fix him up.

Muscat woke up on the wrong side of the bed, and it was a massive difference compared to the fire of Brebner against Perth, who was suspended for the week. Our other new signing, Broxham, has been a breath of fresh air. He make not be technically great, but with his can-do/never-give-up attitude and youth, it means that he can learn. Also, being short, he is great midfield material due to his low centre of gravity.

Sarkies finally showed his dead ball specialty against Perth, but you* missed his wonder corner against Queensland. It didn’t even get off the ground. And he’s also soft. While Sarkies is young, and can still learn, his attitude needs to change. He needs to be tougher, and once that happens I look forward to his development as a player.

I don’t like Archie - he doesn’t work hard, and often won’t even try to win the ball when he loses it up front. Danny didn’t play against Perth, but I can’t think that’s an excuse to use for his lucklusture performance against Queensland. And Fred was largely absent during the match.

I can see what Merrick’s doing - but I’d prefer for him to maybe change one player in the starting line-up and then put others in for the remaining 25, 20 or even 15 minutes of the match. Let each one integrate before forcing another change. But as I said, one week off from a game isn’t really an excuse. Especially since Murdocca seemed right as rain when he hasn’t played for a number of months.
--------------------------------

You - this was directly to Wayne as he said he could only follow the match via radio and didn't actually see any of it.