This would depend heavily on whether Parramatta secure Michael Gordon from Cronulla. However, if they don't I suggest that BA gives this spine a chance for the remainder of the year.
1. Norman
6. Kelly
7. Sandow
9. Peats
Kelly showed again yesterday that although he is no world-beater, he can provide early, accurate passing for his outside men. He linked well with Norman on the same side of the field several times in the second half and as a team we looked much better. We even scored points! Jimmy Smith (Fox Sports) also noted that Norman looks better when he chimes in on both/either sides of the field. Smith noted that Norman was playing 'more like a fullback'.
If Kelly can provide that stable role in the middle of the ruck with Sandow and Norman roaming out wider, we could develop a much better balanced attack. You might say that Kelly would be filling the role that BA has used Joe Paulo in during the year. I think this structure could work.
Although Robinson played better at times yesterday, he doesn't cut it for me at Fullback. Norman, well I am not his biggest fan, but he has improved this year. He was downright poor in the first half yesterday (errors, poor passes, poor reads in defence and gave away 2 penalties). He did look better in the second half when he roamed around and fed off early passes from Kelly - when they were both playing together on the one side of the field ie. more traditional halves play OR more like Norman playing like a modern-fay Fullback. To me Norman has become the protected species in this side. Sure he came to Parramatta to play 5/8 - but if he is not performing consistently, then he deserves to be dropped or rotated to another position just as much as Sandow or Kelly do.
Thoughts?
Replies
For his first game in over a year partnering Norman in the halves i think Kelly didn't a damn good job yesterday. Yes we lost and Kelly could've kicked at least one conversion but the basic and structure style of playing was the only reason we went into extra time.
Less than five minutes to go and down by one point Sandow would have tried to get the win with a try. He would have never gone for the field goal to level things up. Nobody would have cared had he gone for the win and actually succeeded but with sandow it is always a gamble on which way the ball bounces.
If we play like we did yesterday and that is the worst we play for the rest of the year than i'm not too worried about it, especially if we get a better kicker.
That being said i hope we do get Morgan. Not only is he a better kicker than anyone we have (Sandow include) Robinson is a much better winger. I would like to see Gordan at fullback, drop Morgan and put Hoppa at centre then Robinson on the wing outside of him.
1. Gordan
2. Semi
3. Takairangi
4. Hoppoate
5. Robinson
6. Norman
7. Kelly
Paynted,
I don't disagree at all. I think Kelly had a solid game as well, apart from his very nervous goal-kicking. He should have hit that first one at least. But credit to him for holding his nerves and calling for the ball and making that FG at the end. Top stuff. His general play and organising was very good.
I also said in my original post above this type of move depends heavily on what happens with Michael Gordon. I also like the backline you have suggested here. IF Gordon comes, I would imagine that's what will happen in the backs. The option though, would be to bring Sandow back and play all 3 - Sandow, Norman and Kelly.
I was impressed with Kelly yesterday. His job is too not play flashy or win games on brilliance. It is to control the team and kicking. After our first half we played fairly well. This was the first game with a new and completely different style of halfback. I say give it a couple more games before we start to judge.
I'd like the side to just grow a spine. Any spine at all cause we don't have one atm.
Personally i think that if Sandow did get back in the first grade squad Kelly will be dropped. The problem is i don't know if there is anyone who can try and keep Sandow from doing insanely risky plays. There good when they come off but, more often than not, they don't.
If Sandow is in the team the team seems to look at him to get the points. Sandow and Norman doesn't offer as much as Kelly and Norman do as a halves pairing. When Sandow is playing he is the dominant half and he doesn't seem to be that effective. Whereas Kelly and Norman seemed to play well together yesterday. Norman is the more dominant, but only slightly, and is more consistently effective in attack. But it's almost like Norman is the halfback and Kelly is the 5/8.
cheers HKF
cheers HKF
No need for Sandow defending in the front line, we looked okay yesterday in defence (which we've struggled with since Sandow has been put into the team) just a few things need to click better in attack and we should be right for the rest of this year. I'd say we need to put Jnr Paulo in the team over IDG, we look a lot slower in attack when Peats moves out of dummy half and we also lose that go forward when De Gois comes on, hopefully we should see JP lining up on the bench this week. We will then have a strong go forward which will give Norman more time on the ball. Kelly essentially played the Sef Paulo role, which suits him more than a Sandow role. Allow Norman to be the main play maker and let Kelly get the ball out to where it needs to go. atm I don't see a major reason why Sandow should be in the team, yeah you can say goal-kicking but we can't be sure that we would have been in the same position at the end of the match if Sandow was playing, we could have been 40 in front or we could have been 40 behind a moot point really.
Kelly just needs to stand deeper when kicking, there was a few times yesterday where he was nearly caught before kicking the ball but that can be fixed, hopefully. Sandow has proved that his defence can't be fixed and neither can his style of play, I don't think we need his style as we can still score points just need a few things to come off for us to score more. A more conservative style is what we need at the moment where we mightn't score the most brilliant tries but we're defending them; to complete the game plan we still need to work hard to get those repeat sets, I can't remember one yesterday and we desperately need them.
Thanks for your input Ham, cheers
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