Out of the players that we have to work with this year, what would be the team you would name against the rabbitohs this week? After watching last weeks game, there are some players I don't want to see in first grade again:
- Maitua - haven't seen him do anything since game 1
- Paulo - too much sideways movement in attack, defensive liability
- Keating - slow, bad passes
- Roberts - almost always gives away penalties and makes errors
These players show no heart, are slow, give away penalties and provide no spark in attack (no paulo, crabwalking doesn't count...).
I was pleasantly surprised with the performance of our backs, particularly:
- Morgan - really awesome performance
- Sio - his best game of the year
- Blair - big, and his offload led to a try
I want to see Ricky experiment with the players that are in form and give them the chance to build combinations with each other.
This is the team I would name for the rabbits match:
- Hayne (c) - the best fullback we've got, in both attack and defence
- Sio - speedy, knows how to find the line
- Blair - big and knows how to offload
- Loko - tackle breaking machine, needs to offload more and draw in defenders
- Morgan - speedy, knows how to find the line
- Kelly - I don't really rate him, but he's the best 6 we've got atm
- Sandow - Needs to focus on kicking into space, spliting defenders, running the line etc.
- Mannah - Plays good when he wants to, needs to want to win games
- Pritchard - Urgent (my favourite quality in a hooker), with more game time he will get better
- Lussick - Make this man into an offloader, saw glimpes in last match, looked dangerous
- Pauli - Just need someone to fill the position, have heard great things about this guy
- O'Hanlon - He made some good runs on the weekend, I think he'll improve with more game time
- Terepo - This kid knows how to make a run. With Fui on the field at the same time, they can be devastating when they want to be
- Nathan Smith - still better than keating, rotated with Pritchard
- Moimoi - Impact player. Should be utilised when we are starting to gain momentum.
- Allgood - Not good, not bad
- Edwards - Again, still better than Ben smith, Paulo or maitua
I put Blair and Loko in the centres because these guys are big men that are capable of offloading to the speedy wingers.
What are your thoughts people, what can the club do now to help improve results?
Replies
Fair point. There are some things I like about Maitua, like when he runs at the line at full speed, puts an offload out the back to a support runner and they are away. But like I said, I haven't seen him do that since round 1.
There are lots of things I don't like about him too like the way he tackles by grabbing the legs, constantly giving away penalties, and a lack of leadership skills on the field.
Paulo hasn't crabwalked since round 6 or so but still lacks impact
Morgan is our consistent best, he is our future player
Sio will be an absolute gun next year if we can create some space around him
What we really need is a few big blokes, genuine wingers and we can improve out of sight.
Forget Sio, absolutely useless in defence, IMO a perennial team liability. Whoever signed off in renewing his contract should be made accountable. A typical over reaction by Parra regarding a junior, because he can run strongly & scores an occasional try he becomes highly rated even though he is consistently useless in defence & appears totally incapable of reading the game.
Morgan should be first pick in the centers and you even don't have loko in there . Are you serious ?
not all 12 will be gone, I cant see Ricky making 12 new signings before the end of the year. I'd say about 6-9 players will go and some who will have proven that they deserve a contract will be signed for what they are worth which will probably be less then what they are getting now