[HPforGrownups][OOP] Quidditch Reserves (was Re: Harry's importance and threats

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 57357

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Ladi lyndi <ladilyndi at y...> wrote:

> --- Troels Forchhammer <t.forch at m...> wrote:
> > In that case Wood would surely have fielded someone as Seeker in 
> > that catastrophy match where Harry was missing. I prefer to 
> > believe that Wood wasn't as good a captain as we have been let to 
> > believe  ....
>


 
> Lynn:
> 
> I agree that if reserves were the norm, than Wood
> did let the team down.  But, do we know that all
> the teams have reserves?  ...edited...
> 
> Lynn


bboy_mn:
My theory on the Reserves.

I don't think the reserves are the 'B' squad or the bench warmers. I
think team develope reserves when they have players who are about to
leave and need to train replacements for them. 

Katie Bell was probably on the reserve team the previous year because
it was the last year for one of the Chasers. That Chaser left and
Katie Bell who had been training, took her spot.

As far as Wood and reserves, I think Wood saw that he had a solid team
with all positions filled and that these players all had a few years
left to serve the team, so he didn't see an immediate need to train a
reserve team. In his eyes, he had the best players available and there
was no point in wasting his time on second best. Although, I think we
can all see how short sighted that was.

Regarding the game and the missing player, as others have pointed out,
Wood may have moved one of the Chasers or Beaters to the Seeker
position. That would give them a functioning team while leaving them
one player short. 

Remember, it's only from Harry's point of view that we are told they
played one player short. Ron says they played without Harry, but
doesn't say that they played with a position unfilled. It could be
they picked another Gryffindor who knew how to fly to play the missing
postition (whether seeker or other), but since that player hadn't been
practicing, his/her skills were rusty and their team work was weak, so
they were unable to function effectively. In a sense, the new player
was an outsider, and wasn't really able to function within the
framework of the team; therefore, the new play was more of a dead
weight than a help. 

There seems to be an implication that a players can't be substituted
while the game is in play (the one exception is the professional game
that went on for weeks), but we see that the Slytherins show up for a
match with all new players. Jordan comments that Flint seems to be
going for size this time rather than skill. That would imply that you
can start the game with new players.  

So, either Wood thought that bringing a new player in at the last
minute would be more of a hinderance than a help, or they pick someone
with some known flying skill, who was ineffective as a member of the
team. Either way, it was the same as playing one player short.

I suspect, Wood shifted and existing player to a new position, and
player one player short. It seems reasonable to me that a last minute,
un-practiced, un-trained player would be more in the way than a help.

Just a thought.

bboy_mn