Amongst the many positives to come out of the last couple of wins, which include Bevan French taking his chances and the guts and spirit that is clearly evident in this team, I think Rory O'Brien's performances should not be underestimated.
It is clear that if we are to stack a backline that may potentially have five marquee players in it next year then we're not going to have a lot of money to throw around in the forwards and if a player like Rory O'Brien can potentially fill a bench spot or even fit into the roster as first drop, it could really make a difference to the overall health of our roster.
Last week, O'Brien only got 20 minutes but his work was high quality. If we let the couple of errors slide, he made six runs for 52 metres at almost 9 metres per run with two tackle breaks. It was a step-up from his debut with us where he only managed three runs, but notably for three tackle breaks.
O'Brien is the kind of big-bodied prop that we miss in our pack. With the likes of Mannah, Wicks and Terepo we have good leg-speed, but you really want a big body who can break up the defence so your guys with the leg-speed get to charge at a retreating line. Junior Paulo left that hole in our club, but it has opened up an opportunity for O'Brien.
As was well publicised O'Brien only got his NRL debut for the Dragons at 25 after he started buckling down on his football, so it's probably fair to say that given he's only been in a professional NRL environment for two years, he's got a fair bit of ceiling left to stretch to. And Brad Arthur has a great record of getting older props to find new levels as we've seen with the likes of David Gower.
Indeed, I keep hearing that we are looking to go out and recruit a big bopper, but I wonder if O'Brien's performances might have Brad Arthur thinking about holding off to see if he can establish him as being good enough to be a part of a four-prop rotation.
Do we need to splash on another prop or should we be saving our bikkies to ensure we can accomodate our five-star backline?
Replies
6ft 5in - 126kgs
Certainly not small.
He was 126kg but not anymore, more like 115kg now. Has really slimmed down which is a testament that he wants to play fg on a more regular basis now.
Im a fan of him to But love to get sam moa here to help us
I agree...I think he showed glimpse's of being a real handy footballer, footwork, bit of an offload and hard to pull down.
Surely, we can tee up a TPA with a shampoo brand!
Agree completely. He is not old by prop standards, thing that he needs to do is somehow get the bit of podgy baby fat turned into muscle. He reminds me a bit like Big George Rose, but not as big, & I think a bit more athletic. He has the potential to give this club 3-4 more good years, especially as we look at the age of several of our forwards now.
I think the same applies with Alvaro but he's still very young & same with Twal who has no podgy look about him, just need a bit of filling out.
There was nothing wrong with Georgie ch - podge and all.
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