Because with Dow, the defensive aspect of his game is lacking due to a mindset problem, it's not about him not knowing how to defend at all. When he can't catch them he just lets them go which has probably always been the case since his junior years. That's ok at lower levels but to win AFL games players must chase and pressure the opposition with full vigour, not just a token half hearted jog because it's not about catching them it's about pressuring them. If it was about education then Dow wouldn't still have these issues, AFL coaches would not have missed this and TBH he does position well and do all that well, it's just his efforts when things go the other way aren't there.
It's not about knowledge or knowing how to defend at all with Dow it's about what he does instinctively and breaking bad habits that have formed over his footballing life.
This is a habit that Dow needs to break, it's more a subconscious thing and to break a bad habit someone needs to do the right thing over and over and over again until a new habit is formed. You put him in defence it forces him to defend and forces him to chase a man with 100% of his effort which for him would be creating a new habit and a better defensive response than what we are seeing. If he does that well enough for long enough it will transfer to how he plays his football in all areas of the ground and it will transfer to how he applies pressure as a midfielder or a forward for that matter.
AFL is a very fast and instinctive game and a lot of how well individuals play comes down to how they react. Players don't have time to think about how they are going to react they just react off instinct. Some players like Walsh, how he reacts to all situations is perfect, other players don't react how they need to. How Dow reacts to the opposition getting the ball a bit far away to make a tackle is something which needs to be changed. You see it with all players, how they react when faced with a certain situation, it can be good or it can be bad and it's not always that easy to change that. The way to make it good is to focus on that and give the player directive, put them in that situation over and over again and try and get them to react the right way repetitively until that new reaction is formed. If that doesn't work then you need to force a new reaction another way such as a role or positional change to change how they react, and it takes the coaches and team leaders to push that as well.
You put Dow in defence, he has to chase, he has to put in strong defensive efforts, he has to really up his pressure acts and if he does that well then you fix the problem that he has when he is in the midfield.
Sometimes you can't just show a bloke vision and tell them what they are doing wrong and what they need to do right because they cross that white line and they go straight back into those habits. It doesn't change their reactions. It's not always that simple, some blokes just aren't that coachable and that's why AFL players train game day situations so much but even then that's hard.
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