Terry Wallace has questioned what Greater Western Sydney intends to do with defender Adam Tomlinson in tomorrow’s Preliminary Final against Richmond, declaring their backline as being too tall.
The Age’s Sam McClure revealed this morning on SEN Breakfast he expects small forward Devon Smith to come in as a late inclusion, with either Tomlinson or Harrison Himmelberg to possibly make way.
The former Richmond and Western Bulldogs coach cannot see a spot for the 24-year-old in the side, and said he would rather go with Himmelberg and Smith.
“I’m still sitting here going what are they going to do with Tomlinson? They’ve got one too many (tall defenders),” he said on SEN’s Before the Games.
“I personally don’t think there’s a spot for Tomlinson. It would be Devon Smith for me.
“Does he go forward, Tomlinson, and does that put pressure on Himmelberg for his position, and does he come out of the side? I think Himmelberg has been okay.
“Or does Tomlinson just not have a spot in this side?”
Wallace believes the Giants need to go ‘horses for courses’, as history has shown this year that teams who have gone for a normal defensive structure against the Tigers have come unstuck.
“The Richmond Football Club make you change the way you play, or at the very least have you sitting back saying ‘we don’t actually match them the way we want to if we stay exactly the way we want to play’,” he said.
“When they played Sydney earlier on in the year it was the only time that Lewis Melican was dropped out of the line-up because they didn’t have a matchup for him. They went horses for courses.
“There’s been other sides that have taken on Richmond by saying ‘no, we’re just going to hold our structure as it is’, but then they’ve been too big and it just hasn’t worked.”
“It will be interesting to see which way Leon Cameron goes.”