Gower played 5/8th for half the game, during our fantastic win over Melbourne. The team is clearly stuffed with injuries now. How about we keep Gower at 5/8th with Sandow and Norman rotating between halfback and fullback, with Semi assisting the fullback by running the ball up.
It'll certainly keep the opposition guessing, and hey... it worked the other night! Could this be the winning formula in our run to the finals? We all know Gower puts in 100% every game and it'll open another spot for a forward. Just imagine - we'll be able to fit Lussick, Junior, Mau, Wicks, Mannah and Alvaro into the team on Forward bench rotation.
You might think I'm crazy, but we CAN still make the finals (Do the NRL ladder predictor and you'll see I'm not lying). We can afford to lose our more difficult games to the Roosters and Dogs. We just need the Warriors and Raiders to struggle, as we'll be fighting them for 8th spot. Round 26 against the Raiders at Pirtek stadium will be the decider.
If nothing else, consider this - they say the definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results. How many games have we lost this year by trying the same thing? Yet we beat the Storm in Melbourne by trying something completely different. I know the Storm were supposedly 'depleted' but I reckon our team was more stuffed, with losing Robinson early in the game (leaving us with 3 bench players). Not to mention losing Hoppa to Origin and Manu (one of our best forwards) through an unfair suspension.
AND Gower has previous grand final experience, so he knows what it's like at the top - unlike most of the rest of the team. Sandow has never played finals footy. Gower has played in a grand final. That experience has gotta be worth something.
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Norman was great in defence as fullback. In reality, Seffa probably will return.... and we'll lose too many games to make the finals.
Wouldn't mind him as a middle half coming on when Choc goes off but I don't think he should be in the #6 or #7, those two spots should be for Sandow and Norman.
Next thing you be saying we should play semi at 5/8