Its crunch time now. Another loss this week and Parra may as well start planning for Cancun, Vegas or wherever they are heading for Mad Monday. I get that BA is 'building something' and seems loyal to various players AND there is the issue of the 21-player Top 25 squad to deal with. I also understand there are injuries, however, who exactly is still injured and to what extent is somewhat confusing. Ken Sio is the biggest mystery to me, perhaps along with Lussick.
With all that aside, the time is now, the team needs a couple of changes and minor tweaks to have a chance to turn things around for the end of the season. The team has played so well this year and to finish with a fizz or a whimper would be bitterly disappointing and set the club back a lot. Here are my suggestions (with a few assumptions on availability):
1. Hayne
2. Radradra
3. Hopoate
4. Tonga
5. Sio* (Morgan if Sio unavailable)
6. Kelly
7. Sandow
8. Mannah
9. De Gois
10. Jnr Paulo
11. Edwards
12. Moeroa
13. Lussick
14. Gower
15. Terepo
16. Pauli
17. Moimoi
18. Allgood
I'm sorry for those that defend the key absentees from the list, but Norman and Joe Paulo MUST be out of the side. Both players: (a) stifle and stagnate the attack, (b) overplay their hands and die with the ball too frequently, (c) are poor defenders, (d) are error prone and (e) give away far too many penalties. Its time to go, Corey and Joseph....
Lussick gets a final reprieve (if fit/available) purely for his aggression in defence.
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You can wish all you like but if this side is named ill eat my hat and post the video on here.
why? because of availability....? or because you have a different opinion than mine?
Mannah and Hopoate are likely to be named. I haven't heard anything about Sio but i think he played last week for Wenty so he is obviously fit enough to play. I agree Joseph Paulo needs a few weeks, if not the rest of the season in Wenty. Brad Arthur told him about a month ago that he needed to lift and hasn't so i'd say it's getting close for him to be dropped.
But i don't agree that Norman needs to be dropped and i think Gower needs to start at 13 with Lussick coming off the bench.
Thanks for the feedback Paynted, much appreciated.
I'm hopeful both Hoppa and Mannah will be back today/this week. I'm stunned to think that Sio played or is fit and wasn't named or might not be named in preference to Toutai. Stunned. Paulo Must go. Agree to disagree about Norman. I think he needs to be dropped. He simply hasn't/isn't doing enough and is hurting our attack and defence.
I know what you mean about Lussick/Gower swapping, fair call. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Gower's, particularly with his defence and workrate. However, with the emergence of Moeroa, whom along with Edwards, is a very good and busy defender, I gave the nod to Lussick to come in with that aggression in defence and perhaps the ability to be a little more dominant (than Gower) running the ball. Last chance though for mine.
I'm not too sure a halves pairing of Sandow and Kelly would work. Both get really excited and then produce terrible kicks. And when the going gets tough they don't know how to put away the flash plays. You either have Kelly or Sandow but not both in the same team.
If anything out of a bit of desperation atm, as none of our halves are currently doing their job. I'd highly consider playing Hayne in the halves alongside either Sandow or Kelly (prefer Sandow). I know I'll be shot down for this but as I've said none of our halves are kicking for field territory and when they do they don't have the composure/experience to put away the miracle plays and just kick for field position.
Ham,
All signs point to Hayne not moving into the halves. I have been one of the most vocal proponents of that move for some years now, but have all but given up on it ever happening on a permanent basis.
In terms of not being able to put flash plays on (Sandow and Kelly), this is part of the problem with Norman....he doesn't seem capable of consistently putting plays on and creating try-scoring opportunities. He dies with the ball close to the line so much it hurts. He plays with blinkers on and is a poor defender in terms of reading the game. If BA was being fairdinkum, he deserves to be dropped just as much as Kelly did earlier in the season.
I like this side but as you know I would have Norman ahead of Kelly. The missed tackle stat is pretty much even between Norman and Kelly if you look at %. Same goes for errors.
Paulo I totally agree with!
I wish there was a stat that we could see just how many times players have been caught with the ball on the last tackle and how many have forced dropouts.
Cheers Micky P. I'll take that as we sometimes don't see eye to eye on these things ha ha ;)
I know that your support Norman, but as I just posted, in my opinion, Norman has been equally poor or ineffectual as Kelly had been over those opening few rounds. By that reasoning, he should be dropped and Kelly given another opportunity. Kelly has done well when filling in at Hooker and Halfback during the Origin series when called upon.
RE: your stat about being caught with the ball, I'd love to see some figures on that too. I'm certain it would actually highlight Norman - and Paulo - as the worst offenders. This is one of my big issues with Norman. Close to the line and with support, he continually dies with the ball on late or last tackle plays instead of passing. It is so infuriating. Moeora could have had 2 tries on debut had Norman passed to him against the Warriors.
In terms of drop-outs. I agree. We barely ever force line-drop outs and this is on Norman and Sandow.
Nope just telling you this team won't be named. BA has stuck with Norman and Seffa all year he won't change that with 7 rounds to go. With some of our right edge expected to be playing this weekend why would you?
Fair enough HW. But even with players coming back, I would make the change because I want to win. Neither Norman, nor Paulo are contributing to the team's chances to win right now - in fact they only hinder our chances. I know what you are saying that BA has stuck with them, but this is my point, I think its a mistake.
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