Pleased to see you draw attention to this, d30, since Balta doesn't seem to have made much impression on Julius' TRs etc. so far in the pre-season. However, if there are some good signs in a fierce intra-club against premiership stars, that is really encouraging.
His progress this year is crucial to offset the loss of Rance to an extent, but especially if we cop injury to one of our key backs. Hopefully that doesn't happen like in '19, and Noah gets to develop gradually at his own rate well enough to step into the side wherever needed. However, he is now the long-term young player with the most potential (IMHO) to fill the shoes of the great man eventually, while never expecting him to necessarily ever be equally as good.
And if it starts to occur i.e. he must be played as a KPD in our AFL team prematurely, supporters need to cut him some slack and remember the testy and chequered early career of Alex the Great. It will be one of those wildly zig-zagging graphs I'd say ... and exactly what is to be expected.