I've noticed over the past few seasons that many backs, in particular the centres and wingers, are losing their ability to play on both sides of the field. Adam McDougall made the point that when he came into grade that to be an outside back you had to be able to play on all sides of the field. This, sadly, is no longer the case, as players are rooting themselves to the one side of the field. This is making it harder to select players in representative teams. There are only a few players who can play on both sides of the field these days, 2 of them are Luke Burt and Jarryd Hayne. The main reason that players choose one side of the field is due to their preference to tackle or line up with a certain side of their body. This is beginning to occur in the halves. It was seen during the ANZAC Test Match as Marshall and Johnson played mainly one side of the field. Sterling stated that a five-eighth shouldn't be passing to his halfback "If Brett passed the ball to me there'd be a serious problem." He went on to say that backs should be versatile enough to play on both sides of the field if needed. This would prevent the problem of players being unavailable due to what side of the field they're playing on.
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That's what Gould said. He stated that he'd hate to think that they are being ear-marked in the juniors to only play one side of the field. They should be coached how to play both sides of the field so that they can if needed.