First of all thanks for the support/criticism/advice so far. I will try to make sure that this piece is not so verbose and actually has paragraphs. I think I must have gotten excited when writing about our Backs because I really do rate them, hopefully this will be more succinct and informative.
Forwards:
What to say about Joseph Paulo? He had a fantastic World Cup playing five-eighth for the USA, but I feel that his leadership from captaining his nation has paradoxically interfered with our structure this season. His ball playing can lead to line breaks and on occasion even a try assist, as we saw against the Bulldogs. But these are not redeeming enough to warrant his style of play and his role within the team. Brad Arthur has faith in Sefa and I have faith in Brad Arthur so I guess we just have to wait and see. The way that I would utilise Joseph is to include him on our bench and bring him into play late in the halves to add some spark to our attack (in the middle of the field).
My opinion on how to fill our lock position would be to play a Paul Gallen style front rower who is capable of being our workhorse. Unfortunately we don’t have that player at the moment but maybe we can develop one. Pauli Pauli could become that player. I agree with the decision to use him as an edge forward early in his career because this takes some of the workload off him and helps protect his massive frame from injury. He has the skill and size to be a really decent lock, the question is; does he have the fitness and the character to play out long minutes in the middle of the park? I really hope so because I would love to see more of this kid.
Timmy Mannah has been omnipresent as always. He works extremely hard but never seems to get the rewards! So far this season, he currently has racked up the most run metres of any of our forwards with 1868m. Importantly as well, he only misses on average 1 tackle per game of the 25 tackles he makes. A quality leader, who I feel has been pretty unlucky to miss out on the NSW Origin side and also the City team through injury this year (correct me there).
The veteran Fui Fui Moi Moi has been unfortunate as well. I really love watching him play, the stadium calls out in unison when he has one of his crazy runs, his hair exaggerates the shock of the impact and he just gets up and does it all over again. I am not 100% sure why he was relegated though? He can occasionally be caught out in defence and he turns 35 in September so these are my first thoughts. I hope we give him a proper send off if this season is to be his last.
We started the year with the back row pairing of Kenny Edwards and Manu Ma’u. These two have really stood up this year and provided us with the type of hard running, no nonsense enforcers that we have desperately needed. What’s interesting about these two guys is that they are 24 and 25 respectively, and have managed to cement themselves in the team as regulars despite only debuting in the starting side this season (disregarding Kenny Edwards appearance in Round 26, 2013 off the bench against the Knights). In my opinion we have stumbled across some real talent here, and it has taken the aptitude of Brad Arthur to unlock it later in the career span than would be typical.
Possibly another one of our quiet achievers is David Gower. He took a gamble coming to the Eels and I think it has paid off because he has managed a few starting berths and has been really influential. The thing that impresses me (surprisingly), is his knowledge of the game as demonstrated when interviewed. On the Eels website, it will often be the longest of the players and the most insightful. This will be contentious, but I feel like David Gower would have made a great captain for a football club if his career allowed him the length that some players receive. Gowie turns 29 this year and only made his debut back in 2009 for the Wests Tigers. Definitely a good option to have on our bench, if not in the starting second row position whilst Ma’u is recovering from his broken arm.
Lee Mossop is a hard one to comment on because it is still very early into his career as an NRL player. So far he hasn’t lived up to my expectations although there is still plenty of time left to hopefully prove me wrong. Peni Terepo and Junior Paulo have been excellent finds as well, they are both hard runners and get us going forward. I would be asking these guys for a few more offloads (especially late in our tackle count or in decent field position) because this would bring our backs into play more. It is frustrating to see spilled offloads or knock ons from loose carries but what is even more frustrating is to see other teams create exciting second phase play when we struggle to.
Brad loves to emphasise our goals of having a high completion rate whilst earning the right to “play some footy”. Our forward pack has won the arm wrestle against some fantastic opposition but we need to be more consistent. Our discipline needs to improve as does our ability to effectively/legally slow down the play the ball. Other teams consistently achieve these areas better than we do and this is what I feel has the greatest scope for improvement.
Finally, the enigmatic Darcy Lussick has only played 8 games so far this season due to injury and suspension. He is a player who I feel has not reached his potential and needs to be more reliable. He has the ability to fire the team up with a bone-jarring tackle or a strong hit-up, dragging defenders along with him. This is the type of play that makes highlights reels but what I would want to see from Darcy in the back half of the season is more involvement and more consistency. He has the ability to inspire, so I want to see him go looking for the ball when we are driving it out of our own end (similar to what Tim Mannah would do). Don’t wait for the ball to come to you, ask for it! Darcy averages 7 hit-ups a game making a total of 56 so far this season, and whilst we must factor in injury, this is not good enough for one of our senior and highly regarded forwards.
As a final note, and this may be irrelevant to some eyes… But the only Eels forwards to average above a score of 40 in the NRL Holden Fantasy Competition are Nathan Peats and Manu Ma’u. I normally consider 40 a par for my forwards, and this has meant that I have not included any of the Parra boys in my team (since the injuries to these two players).
Still to come -
Our Depth:
Replies
Sorry for the lack of paragraphs, I actually tried hitting enter twice in between each but for some reason my formatting didn't hold when posted.
Good write up Tyron, cant agree with Mannah, he just aint up to origin, he hasnt ever missed out through injury, he simply does not have the attitude for it.
Agree with Darcy, he is a passenger imo, theres no way i'd be re-signing him.
Good read man, I have enjoyed reading the other ones you have done as well
I would say you missed the bus re our Lock position Tyron.
You mention a Paul Gallen type player then do not mention the success Lussick had in this position last year.
For mine it is a no brainer - Lussick went ahead in leaps and bounds at 13 but we haven't seen BA put him there this year.
A rotation with Gower would not be a bad thing - although Gower is now a starting back rower.
Both put on good hits in D and can hit the ball up hard.
Sefa is my least favoured player in the squad and though he does manage line breaks etc he is a crab and I see him confusing our attack more than enhancing it.
The old Offload dilemma