Spine on the up or ready to crumble?

Eels are a strange case when it comes to the spine. So far this season we have rotated through a fair number of 1s, 6s, 7s and 9s.Im not sure what the general opinion is so I thought id write this and gauge where everyone is at. Gutho at fullback is a masterstroke, like many of you i still see Frenches immense talent BUT King Gutho must remained unthroned for now because of two reasons. 1) he is killing it and 2) he is the glue keeping it all together.I noticed it in the Storm vs Eels game. The halves though having immense talent and brilliant moments in the game, were/are not quite geling together. The argument here is "give it time" but im not quite sure. For the past year Norman has pretty much had to play key Halfback role, the general and ball player. Now we have Moses for that and in terms of that link up for the running game or tip on on the edge, Gutho has been playing a sorta Matt Moylan role. Norman just seems confused as to what it is he is meant to do, i know how freakishly talented Norman is but for now especially while Gutho and Moses are firing, he just needs to take the support role. Something he hasnt had the luxury of doing in Blue and Gold. Once he takes a step back and puts that trust in his teammates, i see a spine that can tear teams apart. King will only get better and if a new hooker comes along thats great, but we need our 6 and 7 to gelWhats everyone elses thoughts on what Norman should do? And if im reaching let me know

Norman is a long way off being a 7.
But he is an elite 6.
He seems to want to be a 6 but it does not seem to fit his personality
When Norman comes to terms with being the 6 and lets Moses be the 7 they will be awesome
Having said that I a more than happy to see Norman be the dominant half for the rest of this year - until Moses becomes part of the team. This usually takes 6 months minimum. But next year Moses needs to be the dominant half, especially in the oppositions 20.
The mistake we made with Foran was pushing him into the captaincy before he had earn this stripes at the Eels. BA does not seem to be making the same mistake twice.
Good advice: when joining a new group, keep your mouth shut for 6 months

"Start Samrani either centre or wing. He smashed the sharks and the chooks. Was fast, tackle-busting and once he set his eyes on the try line it was curtains for the opposition.
I'd start him on the wing as not to disrupt Rusty and the combos set up…"

Replies

Wile E. Coyote July 10, 2017 at 11:18am

Norman is a long way off being a 7.
But he is an elite 6.
He seems to want to be a 6 but it does not seem to fit his personality
When Norman comes to terms with being the 6 and lets Moses be the 7 they will be awesome
Having said that I a more than happy to see Norman be the dominant half for the rest of this year - until Moses becomes part of the team. This usually takes 6 months minimum. But next year Moses needs to be the dominant half, especially in the oppositions 20.
The mistake we made with Foran was pushing him into the captaincy before he had earn this stripes at the Eels. BA does not seem to be making the same mistake twice.
Good advice: when joining a new group, keep your mouth shut for 6 months
- BK > Wile E. Coyote July 10, 2017 at 11:33am
  
  Agreed definitely dont rock the boat, Norman is an elite 6 but has had his hands full with being primary playmaker the last couple of seasons and singehandedly won games but has to bear that burden alone.
  they will be great together when they click! If they can fast track that to 3months then i think there is a chamce to make Semis. Something to build on for next year, if they dont click this year then we may be shown the back door come finals time.
Fiddy July 10, 2017 at 11:19am

our backline is the best its been since 2009. Leave it as is.
Also, king is better than KP imo
- BK > Fiddy July 10, 2017 at 11:35am
  
  King is coming along nicely and i dont mean that it should benchanged but need to look at it as it is and that is an almost ducktaped together heap. They are doing great now is my point but if they click they will be amazing. And '09' the spind and team photo was Hayne. This spine is better already
BK July 10, 2017 at 11:20am

Agreed, but how long will he be happy there? I dont see him doing an Alex Johnson and reserving that there are better players ahead of him within his own club
Michael Ericson July 10, 2017 at 11:29am

That's the issue moving forward. We are obviously limited in terms of what we can pay him as a winger. It's not a problem for a while because he just signed a contract and I can't see sides beating down the door to sign French as a fullback. But if he continues to kill it on the wing eventually a side is going to make a play for him and promise him a fullback role with an upgraded contract. Still a lot of water to go under the bridge till then though.
Carl July 10, 2017 at 11:30am

I think our backline looks really good ATM
Then we have Hoffman who may find it hard to get back into the backline ATM
It's just our forwards need to start aiming up, but we do have Terepo and frank Pritchard coming back as well
Nathan Brown has been great but some other forwards need to be harder and more aggression
I think King looks better then Pritchard at this stage
- BK > Carl July 10, 2017 at 11:38am
  
  It does look good though i would much prefer Auva over Taka, he just looks a little lost out there. King has done his job well, much more control than KP. He continues this for, i wouldnt mind the money saved for a hooker to go to another big bopper
- Mathew Clarke > Carl July 10, 2017 at 3:23pm
  
  Taka is the best thing for Semi as Taka is a good passer/off loader. Auava is a runner of the ball. I wouldn't be changing Taka unless injured.
BK July 10, 2017 at 11:36am

Heres to Hoping for a GF appearance before then haha

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