Do you think it’s all as simple as that? There’s always a lot more to these selections than the average punter will know so I’ll back those inside the tents judgement.
In that game where Lewis was hooked, and deservedly so, Wakeham wasn’t any better and I’m pretty sure turned over the ball more times than Lewis did. Naturally the coach is gonna hold the senior man accountable hence Lewis was hooked. But if we’re gonna be fair dinkum - Wakeham was pretty ordinary in the first 2 games and is far from a walk up starter, especially with Foran due back and Cogger training the house down.
The second consideration which I don’t think anyone in this thread has mentioned was the potential implications of the 6 week training layoff between late March and early May, where players were forced into being more accountable for their fitness and conditioning. We’ve seen Wakeham and Tolman demoted without report of injury. Who’s to say that this wasn’t a result of them reporting back to full time training with substandard fitness/body composition levels? There’s been a couple of reports in here recently that Wakeham loves a drink and isn’t the greatest trainer. Did the lack of routine get the better of him recently?
Point is - there’s always more to a story or situation regarding what may appear to be mystifying selections to the average punter. I’ll back the judgement of the staff who actually have a clue of what’s going on.
