I have always thought that Junior Paulo is a starting prop. He's a big body, fit and skillful. He's also one of our highest paid players, an Origin player and international.
There is no doubt he is crucial to Parramatta's chances this year and going forward.
However, watching Jason Taumalolo playing off the bench for North Queensland in recent weeks does have me thinking there may be a way to utilise Junior in a similar way.
Taumalolo did start today but for the last month he's been used as a super sub by Todd Payten.
Junior coming off the bench probably works best with Reagan Campbell-Gillard in the side
But with a fully available forward pack I could see RCG being partnered with one of either Wiremu Greig or Joe Ofahengaue.
With the skillset of J'maine Hopgood, Parramatta isn't as reliant on Paulo being the middle ball player.
Ofahengaue brings you experience as well as an offload and a pass. So he's effectively Junior light but he's also a little more aggressive in defence.
Greig is the option you go for if you just want to bash through the middle.
There is little nuance to his play. He runs hard and hits harder. But that is what you want when Arthur talks about chasing the collision.
You then have the somewhat luxury of bringing both Ryan Matterson and Junior off the bench.
If there is one thing the Eels have long lacked it's energy and explosiveness from the bench.
Matterson brought that last year but has been asked to either fill in at prop or play on an edge when coming from the bench this season.
Arthur could then also give Junior a considerably long first stint without really pushing him into the red fatigue wise.
Greig can punch out a good 20-23 minutes these days, that means Junior only has to play the 20 minutes until half time and probably have another 10 minutes after half time before a 10 minute rest and back on for the final 20 minutes.
Having Junior come on and adding a new dimension to the side's attack while bypassing the most physically taxing quarter of the game could give the side the punch it needs from the bench.
Because at the moment sides seem to know that if they can stick with us over the opening 20-25 minutes our starters tire and come off and there is a noted gap in quality coming off the bench.
As I've mentioned, Taumalolo does it for the Cowboys, Moses Leota has done it for Penrith, NAS has regularly done it for Melbourne.
Why not have Parramatta's biggest forward used as an impact weapon?
Replies
I have thought about this in the past and before Greig was injured I would have been happy with this rotation. If we have less ball playing forwards to start the game it plays into BA's chase the collision. When Paulo actually runs at the line rather than stopping and passing he actually gets good pcm's. I think teams are hanging off him waiting for him to pass the ball, rather than dragging them in. His offloads should then be more effective later in the halves with tired forwards, rather than earlier in the game.
If joe ofa plays well starting i wouldn't mind seeing one of junior or reg on the bench, especially considering matto is on the edge now
Rcg has too start
I like the idea. I said this during the year. I would be copying how Panthers do it. RCG and JFH are very similar players. Then Leota normallt plays 20min but plays flat out with his running and hard hitting. That's what Greig was doing this year. Than Panthers use leinu off the bench for impact. Leinu has greater leg speed however paulo has the better offloading and ball playing ability. Hence I would start RCG and Greig with paulo Joe O off the bench.
next step one reason we get rolled is because we miss many tackles. Thus I would be playing Matto 80min on the edge for the rest of the year even when Lane returns. Matto is a great defender and had a good combo with DB when we beat South's. That will really strengthen our left edge defence. So for this year if we make finals this would be my team
Absolutely, I made this suggestion early in the season to reduce that flat period when both reg and junior go to the bench. I guess with Greig and reg out we're a bit light on for troops
Yes, if you're going to pay him $350,000.
He'd be much better suited to being an impact sub for us.
The way he is playing whilst starting for us this season, is not effective.
I'd have RCG and Greig start up front and bring Paulo in for Greig after 20mins..
I think he is just feeling the effects of rep duties last year and probably carrying a niggle. He will be back to his best next year.
Junior needs to play like he did in the second half of the Rabbitohs game, not be rewarded for being a lazy plodder by only being asked to do half a weeks work for the same money.
How is he doing half the work if his minutes stay roughly the same?
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