Ironically long post STMJ given your long winded quip about my quoted post.
Leaving that aside, to clarify you have got the wrong end of the stick. Completely. Our difference of opinion has nothing to do with an emotional standpoint. It has everything to do with a fundamental disagreement about your assessment of Oscar's ability.
Yes i dislike it when footy fans are over the top in their criticism of players in the team they support. I have an equal dislike of opinions and arguments that are illogical and not supported by the available evidence or fact.
I have no issue with you STMJ on personal level and am certainly not personally offended by your 'commentary' on Oscar. Since your commentary on Oscar began all i have ever done is rebut your arguments. And i think largely successfully so.
It seems to me you often state your opinions about Oscar as fact, - or at the least confuse opinion and fact, something that is all too common these days i'm afraid. There are any number of examples - your posts about Oscar are littered with them. But as an example from your post quoted above:
'His improvement and growth this year has been enormous simply because of the low base he was coming from'
It is your opinion that he is coming of a low base. It is not a fact. And i disagree he is coming off a low base. My opinion is he had a really solid year last, his ability was evident and i expected him to go up a level in 2018. You are surprised he is playing so well this year and i'm not.
So i'm happy to accept that your opinion is that he was coming from a low base. But i reserve the right to debate that opinion.
With debates my preference is that facts are used to support arguments. And there is ample objective evidence that your opinions of Oscar's ability and level last year is off the mark.
One such piece of evidence is the fact that, much to your frustration, at the end of 2016 they elected not to target a mature KPD to mitigate against the risk of Oscar not being good enough. Again at the end of 2017 they chose not to chase a mature KPD - despite planning to play his brother up forward in 2018. These, critical, recruiting decisions were made by a club with full time professionals in the recruiting and football departments.
In 2017 they would have been hoping to make finals. In 2018 they would have realistically been targeting a top 4 spot. In that context making the correct call on the KPD position is super important and not one they are likely to take a risk with, for example not recruiting a solid back up player if they were not 100% confident they had a laity player who could do the job.
Given all this it is logical to assume the club decided Oscar was good enough to be a KPD capable of performing at the required level and in 2018 be their key big defender (allowing them to implement their critical strategy of moving Tmac forward). And that there was no little risk of him not excelling. Hence not recruiting a mature KPD as you would have had them do.
Another fact is that generally a young players development is relatively linear. Though a huge improvement can happen in one pre season it is unusual and even in that scenario the talent is usually evident (or else why would they have been recruited in the fist instance). And in such a scenario it would be very unusual for a young player to have been played most of the previous season in the seniors (history suggests players who are not ready do not play regular senior footy - particularly in teams pushing for finals).
More common is that a player builds year on year as they gain experience, fitness, strength etc and improve in increments. I would argue that the latter scenario reflects Oscar's progression and you obviously would not. But the fact remains the latter scenario is more likely to reflect Oscar's development, simply because it is the usual way young AFL players progress.
So your opinion is he came off a low base. Mine is that he didn't. I concede i could be wrong. And you could be right. But the facts support my opinion not yours so logic suggest i am more likely to be correct than you are.
I'm happy for you not to respond to this post STMJ, in fact i didn't ask you to respond the previous one and if i recall correctly about the the only time i have ever done so was to follow up your promise last year of going through a particular game of Oscar's involvement that was supposed to offer proof of how poorly he played. Something you never did. By the by if you want to follow through on that commitment AFL stats pro has video of the entire 2017 season.
And i have no intention to PM you. Why would i? I'm not unhappy, insulted or interested in engaging in a private conversation. You post opinions on a public football forum and if i feel like responding i do so. Simples. And i will continue to do so.
And in doing so i will continue to use fact as the basis of my arguments rebutting yours.