CAPTAINCY is going to be a big issue in rugby league this year for two
of the best coaches in the game - Daniel Anderson at Parramatta and
Craig Bellamy with the NSW State of Origin side.
Let's get straight to the point here - I don't believe Nathan Cayless should be in Parramatta's run-on team and I think Kurt Gidley will struggle to
make the Blues' starting line-up.
We'll start off with the situation at Parramatta, which has taken only 80 minutes of football to become a serious issue that could make or break their entire season.
Any decent football judge will tell you that Fuifui Moimoi is the most explosive front-rower in the game and should be in the Eels' side with
big-money recruit Justin Poore as the starting props.
This would relegate the veteran Cayless to the bench, from where you can't captain a football side in the NRL.
I believe Daniel Anderson is close to making that decision.
Without Fuifui in the starting line-up, Parramatta struggled in the opening exchanges against a willing Dragons pack at Parramatta Stadium on
Friday night.
They were down 12-nil before Fuifui came on in the 23rd minute and immediately the Eels got some momentum.
Later on when Cayless was back on the field, the Eels edged back into the game through a Luke Burt try in the 63rd minute.
But they lost possession when Cayless spilt the ball from the kick-off and immediately released pressure on the Dragons.
These days Cayless only averages around 100m a game from his hit-ups. That's compared to the top three from the weekend - Petero Civoniceva (159m
from 19 runs), Ben Hannant (147m from 15 runs) and Dan Hunt (146m from
16 runs).
And now to the difficult part. How does Anderson make the call to dump such a loyal player who has given the club a wonderful service over the years?
Sentiment would tell him to put that call into the too-hard basket. But sentiment doesn't win football games, let alone premierships.
So how does he ask Nathan Hindmarsh to take over as skipper, knowing there is a good chance he would reject it because Cayless is his best friend?
Who else could do the job? Luke Burt, maybe, but that's about it.
The easy way out is to keep Cayless as club captain until he retires at the end of the season to handle all the media and sponsorship requirements.
Or make him co-captain with Hindmarsh like a lot of other clubs are doing these days.
Anderson is not the only one with a prickly problem. Just ask Craig Bellamy, who gave Kurt Gidley one of the most prestigious jobs in the game last year
because there was no better candidate.
I still don't know if there is a better skipper for NSW - but I do know there are better players in Gidley's fullback position.
Two champions, actually, in Jarryd Hayne and Brett Stewart.
Gidley is versatile enough to play hooker, halfback or five-eighth but not ahead of Robbie Farah or Michael Ennis at hooker and not ahead of a
stack of halves options in Mitch Pearce, Todd Carney, Brett Kimmorley,
Jamie Soward, Jarrod Mullen, Greg Bird and Terry Campese. Which raises
another point ... Who would captain the Blues if it's not Gidley?
Farah is a possibility but he can't be guaranteed a starting position for all three games ahead of Ennis. Paul Gallen has captained Cronulla but has
more repair work to do on his image before he could be considered a
state captain.
Presumably Bellamy and the selectors will pick the best team available - and then worry about putting a "c" next to someone's name once it is chosen.
And therein lies the difficult part.
Replies
Cayless isn't in the top 2 as far as props are concerned at Parra. Could he be a more than handy second rower? I know a few years ago he was given a shot in the second row, and at that time it wasn't ideal on account of our lack of prop depth. Cayless is a good ball player and maybe having the pressure to take the big hit ups off his shoulders could bring out the best in him.
Our run on forwards could be
8. Poore
9. M. Keating
10. Fui
11. Hindy
12. Cayless
13. Mateo
Bench
14. Keating
15. Smith
16. Oake
17. Mannah
I guess the big problem here is lack of go forward when our starting props have a break. Plus, is Cayless an 80 minute player?
Also i dont believe second row is the right spot for Cayless, he has no running game, we need second rowers to be running out wide, hence what Ben Smith does and Hindmarsh, and Mateo etc
Making Hindmarsh dual captain is good i feel.
If he suggested this after nearly any game last year I would have probably been inclined to agree.
However Cayless was our best forward on the weekend and therefore on that basis deserves to bat on.
What is to gain having Hindy and Cayless in the backrow? Not much, Hindy is not the same player he was, too many niggles, and to have a similiar player in Cayless there we will lose strike power.
Early on in his career Cayless should have been a backrower. He is a front rower now and do you really want to mess with team dynamics and try to teach the old dog some new tricks?
We have to start with Cayless and Fui. That is the front row that took us to the GF. Even though he is a SOO player, and didn't shine for that matter, Poore to the bench. He is a worker and solid toiler, he isn't going to do the same job Fui did last year.
If we are going to move anybody from the front row to the second row it has to be Fui or Mannah!
I don't understand why Cayless is coping a flogging already. He was our best forward on Friday. He looked faster than he has in years and he had 2 or 3 in every tackle. He looked targeted to me! He made one mistake and it never cost us in the end. Oh that's right, he is over 30!
don't agree aout poore thouugh, it's obvious cayless is the weakest of our forwards, but he is definantely not finished, he is still a great player and im over all the bashers. He will porbably retire at the end of this year anyway.
And yeh if i see hayne not picked at fullback for NSW and he gets shoved on the stupid fukn wing then im not watching the origin.