That's one thing that puzzles me, Taumalolo. Every time i see him play he looks great, so hard tackle. He's good enough to make any team's starting 17 yet can't crack the Cowboys regularly. It's not like he needs to be brought in slowly either, he's shown he's up to it & has been playing NRL since the end 2010.
If you were coach what side would you pick?
Bloody hell. Wrote a whole reply but accidentally did report post instead of reply... Guess that's what you get for being deso driver and staying up so late lol.
I'll try and write close to what I did first time around so here goes:
Henry has screwed Taumalolo mentally this year with him clearly down on confidence and not playing as good as he did last year in first grade anyway as he kills it back at Mackay under coach Kim Williams (guy who imo should take over next year). Anyone that saw him play for Tonga earlier in the year would of seen how good this kid could potentially become. He would of been close to the best on field and if memory serves me right he ran for nearly 200m, not bad for a then 19 yr old.
He has some defensive flaws especially in his decision making when there are several runners coming his way but his agility and strength is no problem. He just manhandles guys once he gets a hold of them. He needs to be persisted with in first grade so he can learn and get better in reading the play and making the right decisions in defence. Besides what he provides offensively far outweighs his defensive problems. Right now anyway as the season is all but over.
As for my team right now well first off I wouldn't be picking any guys who definitely won't be at the club next year. Season is over its time to look forward to 2014.
My team right now would be:
1. Bowen, hope he stays on for another year but be the no.14 next year. Santo would then be no.1 and should of got a run this year if it wern't for a freak injury with his appendix only a couple weeks ago.
2. Rona, been killing it all year for Mackay in his first year of seniors footy.
3. Tate, only just though, been absolute sh*t all year for us. If only he thought he played for QLD every weekend.
4. Linnett, big fan of his but he has been down on form this year too.
5. Javid Bowen, along with Santo these 2 have been consistently the 2 best players week in week out.
6. JT
7. Lui, unfortunately there's no one else that's better then him.
8. Scott
9. Thompson, imo he could become a very solid hooker and play the 80 minutes as well.
10. Tamou
11. Lowe, has looked really good in his couple games this year. A standout in Q-Cup all year and was rookie of the year last year.
12. Cooper
13. Riethmuller, gives it his all for every second he is on the field.
14. Would be Bowen next year if he signs on again but for now it would be Leary.
15. Bolton, why he isn't re-signed yet is beyond me. He needs to be signed up ASAP.
16. T Sims
17. Taumalolo
That would be my 17 this week but we all know that if fit Hall, Johnson, Graham, Winterstien will be auto picks and then add on the likelyhood of Mitchell, A Sims etc in the 17 and you can see why they are going so crap.