Take a look at Parramatta’s 2012 recruitment and one thing becomes very clear - in Stephen Kearney’s book size does matter.
If you look across this year’s squad it’s probably the biggest I can remember. I remember writing a blog post a couple of years back, where I compared us with Newcastle’s forward pack. At that time, every member of Newcastle’s pack was 190cm or taller. We didn’t have a single player of that stature.
You only have to look at the team photo to see how big this year’s side is, and it’s worth noting that many of those massive guys were brought into the club this year.
Let’s look at some of Stephen Kearney’s recruits:
Matthew Ryan (198cm/101kg), Cheyse Blair (194cm/99kg), Esi Tonga (190cm/101kg), Daniel Penese (189cm/104kg), Taulima Tautai (190cm/110kg)
I find these height and weight stats can sometimes be a bit inaccurate, but even assuming they’re in the ballpark - these are all big, big boys.
A few of those blokes raised eyebrows, because they were picked out of the NSW Cup competition. My guess is that, particularly when it comes to picking our fringe players, there is going to be a strategy to pick up guys with great size and physical attributes, with the hope that their general game can be lifted a notch to convert them into NRL footballers.
Of the 35 squad members, just seven don’t reach six foot (182cm) tall, compared to having ten players in the squad who are 190cm or taller. There’s only six players in the squad who weigh less than 90kg. That said, there are none above 110kg either. All of these guys are big but physically athletic and relatively mobile.
We saw last year, that Stephen Kearney’s game plan is based on the underlying principle that his side successfully competes in the physical aspect of the game. We significantly improved how successful we were on a week-in, week-out basis in terms of winning or matching the opposition on the grounds of territory and the battle of the ruck. And for the most part we defended well. Obviously size is a positive factor on all of these fronts and so from that perspective, it’s no surprise to see this is where our NRL recruitment is headed.
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They all appear to be mobile as well as big which is very important in the modern game, if you compare the Manly 2011 team to the Manly 2010 team you will notice that although it is very much the same roster in 2010 they really bulked up and lost some of their mobility but in 2011 they comprimised a bit of muscle for more mobility and were rewarded with a premiership.
I really like where the eels are headed as a club and feel good times are a head.
And then you have Sandow struggling to see over those sat down in front of him. ;)
Who is that guy right of Chris Sandow? Look at the size of his gut, he doesn't even look close to being in good shape.
Our right=Jake Mullaney
His right=Matt Keating
Esi Tonga to the second row?
In the immediate future, I'd say probably not.
There's nothing to suggest though, that Tonga is Esi is not destined for an eventual move to the second-row, though.
Gee we've got some huge centres don't we? Loko 192cm, Esi Tonga 190cm, Cheyse Blair 194cm!
I always thought Taulima would evolve into a prop - too me he's always struck me as the next Micky Vella. The thing with TT is you just don't want him to have to make decisions or think too hard. If you cast your mind back to 2008, he made 100m every week without fail bringing the ball back upfield and his tackle break stats would have been right up there with the best. He just made too many errors and wasn't agile enough - or made the right decisions - in defence.
I'd so like to see Barba as a 14 if they could get him physicall capable of doing it, and get his defence up to the mark. I think he would be absolutely brilliant in that position even if its just for the last 20 mins in the match. I think he'd do PJ Marsh like damage.
Let's hope we have a bit more success protecting our halves this year. I think one of the nice things about Roberts is he's big enough not to have to protect. We all admired Jeff Robson's defence but he still missed more than a few tackles that led to tries and the Robson/Mortimer combination of two small halves made it difficult to cover both of them. With Roberts, it means you only really have to look after one bloke which I think is immeasurably easier. And Sandow may bounce off a lot of tackles but at least he tends to make a decent first contact that allows a second defender time to clean up. I admit to not seeing a stack of Souths games, but it didn't appear like he got steam-rolled too often.
Saw a video on youtube of esi training for parra, wtf he was only deadlifting like 80 kilos, I deadlift 180 kilos and i weigh 84
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