Obviously we had a few out tonight but I cannot understand why we started with Taka on the edge over Niukore? I understand Niukore has developed into more of a middle forward but he does have game experience on an edge and is mobile enough to play 12 and get the job done.
Niukore has been one of our in form forwards all year and really gives our halves some room on the back of his ability to get in behind the ruck. At best Taka is a bench player.
Anyway I am not saying this is a major contribution to the result but I do think we would start better with him in the side of ever we have Matto or Lane out.
Lets hope we can pull together next week with a full strength side and towel the Tigers.
Go the Eels...
Replies
LPB, to me the two main weaknessses in Arthur's coaching are; 1. he can be overly loyal to certain players & 2. he still makes strange decisions with the make up of the bench.
In the case of Takaraingi, even before he played at Parra, he has been tried as a starting forward & has always eventually been switched back to the outside backs or bench. I agree with you that Niukore had to start.
It seems amazing now, but at the start of the 2019 season if George Jennings was available instead of injured he was down as being selected ahead of Sivo.
The bench is still unsettled, although obviously if the team is at full strength, we wouldn't need to fall back on players at the level of Gower or Davey. What has stuck in my mind is some of the unlikely & unsucessful bench rotations in past seasons, eg; Terepo starting at hooker with Mahoney benched , injury-prone players Kaysa Pritchard & Nathan Peats starting at hooker then being used as back rowers.
What disturbs me most is that players that have consistently put in poor performances, such as George Jennings & Will Smith, are still being named in the 21 man squad.
Go The Eels.
our best bench is stone kaufusi niukore and evans can we all agree? Also BA seems like too much of a mate to the players sometimes. There was a shot of him tonight before the game laughing and relaxing with the players. I don't know what goes on there but can't imagine other coaches doing that, save that for after a win.
Takairangi is a utility who can play all four edge positions. He would be a better edge defender than Niukore as well. But mostly we needed Niukore providing some punch in the middle. We got 17 runs and 169 metres out of him. He wouldn't have done that out wide. He's a middle forward these days.
This
Start Niukore on the edge then move him to the middle after 30 mins. I'm still trying to understand why BA would put Taka there he's always been dreadful there.
No nrl standard edge players available
Why is he there at all Davey proved I'm 1 outing he is better.
Davey was making his debut and BA probably thought it was best to start him from the bench. Probably not a decision that lead to the loss.
Did Taka fuck your sister or something? Fair dinkum, you are absolutely relentless!
I think the thing was that we needed Niukore as a middle forward. Normally he probably will slot onto the edge. I hope we get some of the injured players back next week. Playing half a reserve grade team is not good.
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next