So, I don’t do this to slur the guy.
His best is brilliant, as we saw last year. He clearly had some injuries this year. And he’s been thrown a lot over his career - playing, forward, wing, mid, you name it - which doesn’t help for continuity. But . . . He’s now 27, a gun we need to fire, and on a good lick of the ice cream, salary cap wise. So what to do?
I’ve vacillated between thinking he’s best forward as a third or fourth forward who can create a nightmare match up as he’s hard to match in the air and on the ground; and then thinking he’d be a great winger with his power running and foot skills and marking; and then watching a game like the one far Carlton this year where he went inside, stood Cripps, and kicked his butt.
The last option has always resonated with me as I remember when this debate was being had once, as it has eternally, and seeing Paul Roos asked on some footy show as someone who’d tracked him since he was a kid and quick as a flash, he said midfielder. And he was adamant, and almost indignant about it.
But I wonder how much pure midfield craft he still has. When Mills finally went in full time at the back end of 2020, he said it took him a bit to regain all the instincts and triggers and body positioning you need to operate in a phone booth. Nanoseconds matter in there. We’ve seen Isaac do it so I’m not sure it’s completely lost - but you’d need to commit to it being a more permanent show so he’d regain his rhythm.
The case for: we could do with hard, big and mature bodies in there, and at his best, Isaac has supremely clean skills, great hands and deft foot skills under pressure. He can fire off quick release handballs in a flash in tight in the forward line, so no reason he can’t in the midfield. He is also hard, a brutal tackler, and when fit, can seriously surge run - both from the contest and on the spread. And he seems to nail the inside 50 kick more than most of our side.
The case against: does he have the high end midfield craft of a Bont or Dusty or Oliver or Pendlebury? (maybe he doesn’t need to, but no). His body seems to take a battering and accumulate small but nagging injuries, so can he sustain it? And as we saw last year, he is elite as a forward, and will probably be even more effective as Logan and McLean kick in down there.
My own instincts are we need to have him spend 60-40 mid, particularly if we plan to follow the Liz-lead and play Parker a bit more forward. Which I think is a good idea. A 20-25 possession game from Isaac can do serious damage given his skills. And he can still drift forward and kick a goal or two.
As I said, I’m not doing this to bag the dude, and being thrown around hasn’t helped him. But he’s absolutely elite at his best, we need to get more out of him, and he needs to get more from himself.
I’m not sure I’ve convinced myself either way, and maybe this is the ultimate chicken and egg argument, so over to you.
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