It scares the hell out of me having him back there as his hands and confidence have turned to shit. DWZ was great at fullback for half a season when we first signed him but since then he's fallen apart. At the same time, there is no perfect option currently and they all have their flaws. Allan had his chance and looked pretty bad in attack and defence.
The only logic I can see is that DWZ regularly makes 150m-200m on kick returns, is more explosive and gets us off to better starts to sets (when he holds the ball) and is the best support player out of him, Meaney and Allan.
We're 0-4 and haven't scored for 3 weeks so you can't blame Barrett for mixing things up and seeing what combos work in his first season working with these players.
Yeah I can, mate. You have a right to your opinion, but I have a very different one on this issue.
Don't get me wrong, I am far from writing Barrett off at this stage and hope he will succeed here, but some changes he makes seem to be a knee jerk reaction and frustrate the hell out of me. He signed Allan as a long term fullback. What do you think it does to a player's confidence signing him to play a position and then shifting him after three games? He looked pretty damn solid under the high ball in the first two games in abysmal conditions. The only game in which he looked shaky was the Brisbane game.....even the very best fullbacks have bad games....If Barrett wanted explosive kick returns in the position, he needn't have signed Allan and played him there in the first place. He knew what type of player Allan was and what he could offer the team before signing him. As far as DWZ being a better support player, I'm not sure of that at all. Allan showed he was more than capable of backing up a break last year. As far as his attack goes, the whole team has been struggling to click in attack, so singling Allan out seems to be a case of scapegoating to me.
Sure, DWZ did well at fullback when he first arrived here....but for the majority of the time he has played in the position for us, he has been poor....and was VERY dicey under the high ball. On the other hand, Allan was one of the form fullbacks in the comp as recently as the second half of last year. Allan may not recapture that form....maybe he just benefitted from being part of a great backline.....but from my memory he initiated many a movement himself last year. I am a firm believer that if you make a key signing as a coach, you should show a willingness to stick to your plan by giving them a decent opportunity to prove themselves. Allan was given a grand total of three games at the back, two of them in abysmal conditions....and it was only one of those games in which he had shocker. At least he is playing centre now....he could end up doing very well there....moving him to the wing was ludicrous. He can showcase literally none of his best attributes from the wing.
