How does he not start games at lock for us next season ?
Its the perfect position for him . His silky ball skills before the line , his pass selection has been perfect and his runs off the back of it more damaging .
Then when Dylan Walker comes on he can have a rest or drop back to prop. I honesty think the biggest thing to come out of these games from a Parra perspective is Junior would be a top 2 or 3 lock in the comp.
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Yep definitely
Paulo at lock 13 works for Samoa because you got Molo and a bloke named Haas bending the line.
Eels do not have that starting prop that bends the line to afford moving Paulo to 13.
Molo would be flat out having 50 metres and 40 of them were from kick offs .
Hopgood will be a prop next year .. as will Jack Williams , De Belin , Big Sam , Moretti , Doorey.. NAS would be phenomenal get but not counting on it . There's more than enough go forward through leg speed in that side. They're not 1 out brutes but that side will go forward with Paulo playing 13 and bringing blokes onto the ball. I think Ryles bought De Belin to play the role but Paulos skill makes it a no brainer for me . His pass selection is outstanding .
Id have Junior there opening 20 , Dylan Walker there back end of the half while Junior spends the next 15 or so at prop.
We will if we get NAS ;)
I don't think you should be worried about our starting props being any worse that Junior.
The point of the exercise is that lock looks like an advantage we can take of him, his skills don't disappear.
I'm sure we will have plenty of emphasis on this in the pre season training after Xmas. I feel much more with Ryles being prepared to experiment whereas in BA "s day he just couldn't/understand what being innovative was.
It not only gives us another type of attacking weapon, but potentually enlongates his career.
This
bigger question. When Murray T got injured, why the fuck would Samoa move Paulo to the back row? He has never played backrow. When you got the likes of Kini and Brown running at him, Paulo has no chance to keep up with their speed and agility
100% agree with everything you said here. Would love to Junior kick on in some sort of coaching capacity post retirement and help develop our juniors. His leadership and the respect other players show him is a real asset for us
Whose going to do the job in the front row starting whose your alpha ?
Paulo is a prop first for us and still our tone setter.Parra doesn't have another prop that does that and has the ability to have impact in both stints.
Don't be fooled what Jnr does for Samoa is offset by Payne Haas who plays 80 allows Jnr to pick and choose run or pass that's the difference.
Jnr can still have a similar impact here but he'll do it with a different number on his back.
The only way I see him being used in a similar manner is if we sign NaS and then you can pick and choose where you want to start Jnr.Only disadvantage I see is you'll lose lateral agility in the middle if you lose the possession battle you'll get gashed like Samoa did in the second half today.
I don't think it's really how the games played anymore where you have to be a prop to be the alpha or the forward pack. Just because he'd start at 13 doesn't mean he's not the alpha in our pack. Payne Haas would be Brisbanes alpha from anywhere in the pack .
Who is Melbournes alpha ? Stefano ?
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