Challenge accepted, I will have a crack..
2 games in Pay wont admit he got it wrong or that anyone is out of position and in his mind he has plenty of ammo with players dropping the ball, shit kick options on the last (Wakeham) and brain farts like DWZ and Smith had all night.
Now, before the psychopathic lynch mob on here start reaching for this pitchforks and crosses to burn with me on and stabbing their Lewis dolls,
I dont believe he should remain at halfback and to be honest after watching Averillo debut, probably not the 6 long term either. Wakeham was fucking useless and certainly didn't help Lewis's cause at all but the one thing I and a few others gave Lewis a leave pass was for his excellent defence and competitiveness.
For what ever reason Round 1 he had a couple of bad reads and round 2 missed some one on ones he shouldn't have, plus as Andrew Johns pointed out he lacks soft hands and tends to bullet everything. My opinion was he was trying his ass off and gets way to involved for his ability and personally I have always said he should play 6 with an organizing and controlling half running the play with Lewis looking for places to get involved.
Problem is Wakeham is not that player
yet, he does need time to build confidence and his game. That is the issue Pay has, Wakeham is not ready yet and Lewis is not a half back although Pay has insisted he is, Foran is months away and now you have the extended problem of Averillo who to me was a rare debut.
I remember being at the Footy stadium at Easter about 25 years ago to watch a relo of mine play 19's for Marconi of all things and we hung around to watch 1st grade which also happened to be one of Paul Okons 1st games. What I saw in Okon that night is the same feeling I had watch Averillo make his debut on Thursday, they both appeared completely unfazed about the step up and very sure of where they needed to be. I reckon he would handle the step up right now.
Watching what is unfolding I reckon Pay will persist with Wakeham and Lewis with Averillo on the bench and you can only hope if thats the case he finally bites the bullet and switches numbers giving Wakeham more control of running them around. I actually think he would be better suited starting with Wakeham and Averillo and let them find their combo with Lewis in 14 to cover a halves or hooker, if Pay wants to persist with him. In spite of what a few of you lovely chaps have to say I still think their is a 1st grade footballer in Lewis but he needs to find his spot and its not 7. We also still have the issue of DWZ in the 1, JMK in the 9 and Smith in the 3, all good players but I think also not cutting it in those positions.
That all said, regardless of what Pay does with the halves there will be frothing at the mouth by some kenelers because that is just their thing to be outraged and pissed off that the stupid club and stupid coach dont listen to their expert positional advice. And the boards fucked the CEO is a dick and the bistro food is rubbish..
The board has 2 seasons to keep their jobs but I reckon the pressure will start to build for Pay if we dont improve and he doesn't make adjustments, because even though the board love Deano they also love their jobs..
