No pigeon-holes for Selwood
West Coast vice-captain Scott Selwood says he wants to remain flexible and that any decision to play as a tagger will be a week-by-week prospect rather than a permanent move.
The 24-year-old was sent to Nat Fyfe on the verge of quarter time during yesterday's western derby at Patersons Stadium after the Fremantle star amassed 13 disposals in the opening term.
The move yielded almost immediate results, with Fyfe unable to gather a single possession in the second quarter and at one point slinging Selwood to the ground as he let his frustrations with the close-checking tactics boil over.
It was the second week in a row that Selwood had been assigned a run-with assignment - the same role he was playing when he emerged as one of the competition's best taggers across the 2011-12 seasons.
Despite the success and his modest performances as an outright ball winner in 2014, Selwood said he wouldn't necessarily be switching back to being a full-time defensive midfielder.
"It's still a week-by-week basis," he said.
"The last couple of weeks we've gone with (the role). We went hard with (Carlton's Marc) Murphy - unfortunately I couldn't get the job done. I didn't play my role well enough.
"Then on the weekend around quarter time we decided it was time to try and lock down.
"It's going to be a different thing each week … I try and be flexible. I try and have a lot of areas to my game and hopefully that's why I get picked each week.
"But I don't have it set in concrete to say this is the best way I play footy and I need to play this way to help the team win."
West Coast lost their fourth successive derby after booting 1.8 in the second term in a match where their inaccuracy and slow start proved costly for the third week running.
Selwood said he did not know why the Eagles were starting games in lethargic fashion.
They managed just three inside-50 entries in the first term against the Dockers and were lucky to only be trailing by 14 points at quarter time.
"We'll discuss it this week," Selwood said.
"We'll let the coaches review it and see if it's a tactical thing or it's a mindset sort of thing. As far as we're concerned, we go in with the same intention every single week … hopefully going forward it's not a problem."
