I'm going to assume that the club has a view of retaining Pauli Pauli and we will see him in the blue and gold next year.
Seemingly we have the majority of our 2016 team worked out with a spine of Gordon Norman Foran and Peats. Wing 3/4ers in Rads, Robinson, Taka and Hoppa.
Id hazard a guess that Watmough, Scott, Ma'u, Moeoa, Gower and Edwards are our best second row options and there wont even be enough spots to accommodate the above 5 in the best 17 unless Gower is willing to play in the front row. (im assuming Edwards will pick up where he left off in 2014.)
Our likely front row appears to include Mannah, jnr Paulo, and Wicks. (Alvaro is still on the fringes). I doubt we will see Faaoso in 1st grade again.
And we also have some promising depth players in Nelson, Terepo and if they can continue to improve Ualesi, Twal and Fuimaono. Not to mention two good back up hookers in De Gois and Pritchard (if he is re-signed)
Now I've been impressed by Pauli's continuing development this year. He is obviously still very raw, but his potential is enormous. Also I'm prone to be a bit more lenient on the defensive side of his game given he defends inside Sandow in most 1st grade games he has played. Defending inside Sandow is difficult for a seasoned veteran so putting a young raw bloke in there makes life much more difficult.
My view would be to develop Pauli into a front rower, with a bit of ball playing ability. He is already enormous and still growing. We have seen how easily he can punch through a defensive line and when he puts his mind to it he can really leave a dent on the opposition.
Given the massive depth at second row, I think Pauli should make that move into the front row next season. Under Arthur and with the leadership of Choc and Watmough I believe Pauli can cut out the laziness in his game and fulfill his potential to become one of the most damaging forward in the game.
Where do you think Pauli fits next year?
Replies
Very good news about Pauli coming very soon, he will be in eels colours next year and a few years after that.
Really Snake? Nice, I hope so. I really think Pauli is a talent worth holding onto. He still needs refinement but I think he'll get there and be worth the effort and wait.
Where ever he wants
I am not arguing with him - did you see what he did to Soward
We'll definitely have a lot of players fighting it out for the bench spotw next year. I think we can safely say that Moeroa and Wicks/Jnr Paulo will hold 2 of those positions so it may depend on how we're looking to play a certain game. We could be going with Nelson or Aloiai if we believe the opposition pack will be better worked against if you have mobile defenders who will go non-stop providing some stern defensive whacks. Gower if we want to have that element of passing as well as the work ethic. And if the pack is a little bit smaller than ours we could be looking to go with a powerhouse in Pauli who could attract a few defenders. Then you also have to factor in De Gois, and Pritchard who may be getting a couple of minutes next year to sure up the middle and have mobile defenders on there as well as the dummy half element.
As for Pauli himself I hope that we let him roam around a bit. Play him out wide when in attack but also have him take a few hit-ups in the middle and try to get his arms free for an offload. In defence I want him in the middle. Not only is his lack of lateral mobility less impacting but he can put some hits on the other big boys of the competition and really rattle some cages in the middle.
I was thinking about this the other day, hes a first grade worthy layer, yet id have all the abov mentioned in over him on the edges. We have great depth on the edges, not so great around the ruck.
Pauli has a lot of improvement in him and I am glad he has chosen the eels to develop that talent. These kids need confidence and he played his best game on the weekend. I expect a massive performance against the pussy cats.
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