What vacant spot? With all due respect to Youngy and his 400m protege Clay Watkins, I think you’ll find it will take something pretty special by Clay or pretty disastrous by Tristan Thomas to keep the rangar 400m hurdler out of the 4x4 squad.
Thomas bailed the Aussies out last year and replaced Milburn in the 4x400m which won the medal in Berlin. I doubt the high performance dept or the selection panel will readily be dumping that young man.
As for why did they pick someone (Kevin Moore) who does not have even a B-qualifier, ahead of Clay Watkins who does have one, you probably need to read the specific relay selection criteria - but I’ll save you the effort: there is no specific relay criteria! They can pick whomever they want.
However, one always presumes that head-to-head results during the season, but especially in the designated majors (Sydney & Melbourne Track Classics, State titles and Nationals) are paramount.
On that basis, Moore (best of 46.1 in Sydney TC) beat Clay 3-0 and although Kevin - aged 19 and in his first season of 400m preparations - ran on empty tanks by the time he arrived in Perth, he did reach the 400m final and placed fifth in 46.72.
Unfortunately, for whatever reasons, Clay got slower as the season progressed and he failed to reach the National 400m final. That was end game right there (unless he had a medical excuse submitted to the selectors prior to the Nationals).
Clay ran 48.22 when it mattered most, at the National Championships. He placed fifth in his heat and was eliminated. Andrew Boudrie qualified for the final out of Clay’s heat in only 47.18.
On the evidence, it’s really not hard at all to understand why Clay missed this team.
But Youngy has guided him to 45.9 and he can do it again. This was very much a breakthrough year for Clay and for Youngy as a coach in the area of elite 400m performance (45.9 is a very respectable performance and perhaps the fastest in Australian pro running history. To my knowledge, pro Olympian Rob Ballard’s 400m best was “only” 46.2sec which he clocked in 1988 to make the Aussie team which reached the Seoul Olympic relay final.)