Fremantle great Paul Hasleby believes his old club would be omitting Luke Jackson this weekend if he wasn’t a big-name recruit.
The 21-year-old was the star recruit of the trade period, joining the Dockers from Melbourne for pick 13, Fremantle's future first-round pick and future second-round pick.
The balancing of Jackson and leading ruckman Sean Darcy hasn’t quite worked across the first fortnight of the season, with neither able to find a rhythm in the ruck or inside 50 – both are yet to kick a goal in 2023.
Hasleby believes the logical solution would be to omit Jackson, restore Darcy’s confidence in the ruck and go with a less traditional backup for him.
“On the weekend, they gave Jackson opportunity to get into form. I don’t mind that because you’ve got to find something because of the price you paid for this guy, but it’s now eating into the confidence of Sean Darcy,” the club great told SEN WA.
“A listener suggested putting Jackson into the midfield. Well if you do that, he’s got to take somebody’s spot. Well now he’s taking Darcy’s spot and you don’t have a great ruckman because Darcy was a great ruckman, but we’re now in this position where it looks like Darcy has lost a bit of confidence and Jackson’s not playing well.
“I don’t know the answer. My gut feel is that if Jackson wasn’t a big-name recruit, you would drop Jackson and you would get Darcy back into form.
“We’ve seen clubs go with smaller players as the second ruck. It worked for the Eagles on Sunday with Jake Waterman. Maybe the Dockers do the same and set the tone for that attacking style.”
Knowing that Fremantle won’t omit Jackson, Hasleby feels they’re just going to have to make do with him being primarily a key forward.
“It would be really unfair on Darcy if he isn’t in the ruck for at least 65 per cent of the time. Jackson hasn’t proven anything really in the AFL. He played a great quarter in a Grand Final, but all of last year, if we’re being brutally honest, it was just average football from him,” he said.
“We expect him to improve and there is some massive upside with Luke Jackson, but I think you’ve just got to settle down and say ‘mate, we need you as a forward right now, then go into the midfield at certain stages when Darcy needs a break’.”
Fremantle enters this weekend’s Derby clash with West Coast winless and in desperate need of some momentum to turn things around.
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