The Eels will potientally have a starting forward pack in 2020 of Campbell-Gillard, Paulo, Lane, Matterson & N Brown, all offer size, strength, good footwork and great defensive ethic, on paper that is on strong forward pack and looks the goods, strongest pack the Eels have had in quite sometime, probably since the early 2000s at least.
What are your thoughts? When was the last time you've seen the Eels with a forward pack this strong, and what are your expectations for our pack in 2020.
Replies
I think we need to keep paulo fit all year, hes our only real big bopper, if he goes down for a decent period of time we might get run over by some of the bigger packs.
The NRL is getting bigger and bigger pack wise, thats the area im concerned with our pack, weve got a bit of height now which was vital, do we have enough bulk up front?
I agree Snake. Paulo is actually surprisingly one of the fittest at the club and dropped a few KGs when he came back from Canberra. He played 24/26 games we played in 2019 (22 regular season games + 2 semi finals) and we got close to 60 mins out of him some games. So I think with Junior we've just not gonna change too much with his pre season resume and he'll be fine. I think he'll definitely be even better for us next year.
You don't necessarily have to have the biggest pack in the NRL to be successful, look at Canberra this season. What excites me about our pack is all 5 of the guys I mentioned above are great with there feet and like to offload and throw the footy around, so hopefully we play a more second phase style of footy next season, Matterson will add a ball playing aspect and RCG coming in will eat up the metres as long as Paulo & N Brown consistently pull there weight and share the workload.
Next years looking really good on paper, I just hope we carry it onto the field for 25 rounds
Our pack has actually got some decent size. Junior is around that 120kg mark, Kane Evans is 110kg, Shaun Lane is 110kg, RCG is 115kg and Stefano Utoikamanu is 115kg. You don't want too many big boppers in this game due to the NRL wanting to speed games up. You look at the Roosters and Raiders. Neither has more than one real big bopper. In fact the Roosters don't have a forward listed over 110kg.
Bigger packs? Are you kidding Parra would have one of the biggest packs running around.
Paulo 123kg
Evans 110kg
RCG 115kg
Kaufusi 114kg
Stefano (if gets start) 115kg
Lane 110kg
Matto 105kg
Nrown 106kg
There is some big boys in there and we have a lot of players at 110kg and bigger, most teams might only have 1 or 2.
It's big, but aside from Junior it's not really bulky, it's really athletic, which is key IMO.
Spot on Brett, our pack is mobile and agile except for Paulo. But Paulo brings another dimension attracting 3 to 4 defenders and is still able to offload. one more very good forward to buy and we will have a pack that can dominate and play footy.
I mentioned that above in my comment to Snaks. It's an exciting prospect
We have the best forward pack we've fielded in a very long time. Our glass ceiling has been heightened. The names you mentioned are very good but don't forget Evans and Niukore.
I think a pack of
Paulo Mahoney Evans
Lane and Matterson
Brown
And then a bench of RCG
Nuikore Alvaro and hopefully a utility is a pretty scary thought for most teams.
Our whole team is looking pretty balanced atm
Our first picked team is starting to look real good - our seconds and backup depth players not so. Heaven forbid we loose one of our halves, hooker or fulback during the season. We need another good forward and another versatile back that can play halves.
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