As a saints supporter, i didn't think he should've left in the first place! But when he did, I accepted it and thought that Koschitzke would carry on Gehrig's work at Full Forward!
I thought it a bit sill though, for G to come back though... he kinda wasted a draft pick! (a late one, yes, but it still could've been more valuable with a young bloke).
So, back on the list I thought that an attack consisting of Riewoldt, Koschitzke, Gehrig and Adam Schneider and to a lesser extent Milne, C.Gardiner and all the other small forwards and midfielders would be a hard attack to beat and would stretch some defences!
But Gehrig, who still hadn't fully recovered from his (acchilles? i forget) injuries, was slow and therefore too easy to pick off and didn't/doesn't apply forward pressure to opposition defenders. St Kilda's performances suffered because he was a forward target who wasn't getting marks and goals and defenders would clear the ball out easily.
In tonight's match, the saints forward line was much more open and riewoldt, kozzie, milne and c.gardiner moved freely through there.
Fraser Gehrig's omission from the StKilda team will only see the end of him, IF he cannot get over his injuries and/OR if he is just too slow. But, IF he can get back to his 2005 (i think it was... the season where he kicked over 100 goals, including the finals series) form, then he will be valuable to StKilda once again. We don't know just yet if Gehrig is finished.
Combacks can be very successful but most don't go too well... for example, Stuart Dew was looking great for the hawks until he did his hamstring!
Mark L, your answers in the footy section are usually pretty good... but he's not neccessarily too old* and also, don't you think forwards should be judged on goals and not possessions. Because a forward can get maybe 7 possesions for a match, but if 3-5 are goals than the forward has still made a positive contribution to his team.
too slow? maybe... he is at the moment
*Robert Harvey and Max Hudghton are still very effective despite their age and that's just the players for stKilda.. what about Matthew Richardson? a star despite his age and club.
Same with Brad Johnson for the doggies. Not certain about the ages of these guys but... Darren Milburn, Andrew McLeod, Shane Crawford, Brent Harvey etc are all pretty good despite their age. and again thats just a couple of the veterans.