Josh Schuster.

The club thinks they're going to be playing 5/8 which is what matters.
I look forward to a frustrating 2021 seeing how Hoy, Watson and Mann get shoe horned into the 17.
 
Mann did a good job at 5/8 i also like Watson at 5/8 just because he is a live wire and has a little more room there .
 
Ethan said:
Mann did a good job at 5/8 i also like Watson at 5/8 just because he is a live wire and has a little more room there .
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I love Watson's energy and enthusiasm, but he can't pass or kick, which would rule him out of the running for 5/8 for mine.
 
The 5/8 position really does come down to what the coach wants the team to play like.
We could put Chris Randall in there and ask him to do 60 tackles and nothing else.
We could put Ponga in there and ask him to be in position to do an attacking play at the end of every set.
We could ask Hoy or Watson to run with energy and be unpredictable.
We could put Crossland in there and ask him to play like Pearce, only the other side of the field.
We could even put one of the fitter forwards in there and just ask him to play like a lock.

The coach seems to have all the options from an out and out attacking option to an out and out defensive option and everything inbetween.
He just needs to decide where we are going next year.
 
I think your being a bit harsh on Mann go back and watch the games he played at 5/8 he can kick and he can pass but the coach wanted a running 5/8 and thats what he got .
His defence is pretty good too.
 
I think if we want someone who is a genuine half it should go to Crossland. He’s never played hooker until this year and the defensive load will burn him out before he even gets started. Why not just play him in the position he’s grown up playing? Give him a full preseason there and I’m sure he’ll take the pressure off Pearce in no time.
 
Ethan said:
I think your being a bit harsh on Mann go back and watch the games he played at 5/8 he can kick and he can pass but the coach wanted a running 5/8 and thats what he got .
His defence is pretty good too.
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I like Mann as a player, Ethan, and he has a better passing and kicking game on him than Watson. I'll even go as far as saying that he has probably been our best and most consistent player this year. But, if Pearce is our half, I don't think we will be challenging for anything with Mann at 5/8. That's not a slight on Mann at all, it's just that I don't think he is the 5/8 that we need.
 
Battler said:
I like Mann as a player, Ethan, and he has a better passing and kicking game on him than Watson. I'll even go as far as saying that he has probably been our best and most consistent player this year. But, if Pearce is our half, I don't think we will be challenging for anything with Mann at 5/8. That's not a slight on Mann at all, it's just that I don't think he is the 5/8 that we need.
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Agree, Pearce was successful with Maloney. He need a half that can half the load.
Blake Green looked good with him for the game or 2.
 
I’m pretty sure the Roosters made Bunnies look way better than what they were. You watch the highlights and it almost looks thrown.
 
Billy said:
The 5/8 position really does come down to what the coach wants the team to play like.
We could put Chris Randall in there and ask him to do 60 tackles and nothing else.
We could put Ponga in there and ask him to be in position to do an attacking play at the end of every set.
We could ask Hoy or Watson to run with energy and be unpredictable.
We could put Crossland in there and ask him to play like Pearce, only the other side of the field.
We could even put one of the fitter forwards in there and just ask him to play like a lock.

The coach seems to have all the options from an out and out attacking option to an out and out defensive option and everything inbetween.
He just needs to decide where we are going next year.
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We could put Ponga there and tell him he has a free license to attack, you don't have a player like Ponga and put structure on him. Pearce can be told all he has to do is be the calming influence, run the ball if he sees a chance, some improvement with kicking in general play and direct the game. Put the ball where we want it at the end of a set etc.

All we would need from Pearce would be smarter ending of sets and a little creativity occasionally.

Unfortunately we all know, Pearce doesn't seem to get kicking in general play as a strategy and just boots it downfield. He puts our defense under pressure from the beginning of their set practically every time.

We could also play Lino at 7, Ponga at 6 and give Lino Pearce's instructions. He seems capable of getting decent kicks in at least.
 
Kurriboy said:
We could put Ponga there and tell him he has a free license to attack, you don't have a player like Ponga and put structure on him. Pearce can be told all he has to do is be the calming influence, run the ball if he sees a chance, some improvement with kicking in general play and direct the game. Put the ball where we want it at the end of a set etc.

All we would need from Pearce would be smarter ending of sets and a little creativity occasionally.

Unfortunately we all know, Pearce doesn't seem to get kicking in general play as a strategy and just boots it downfield. He puts our defense under pressure from the beginning of their set practically every time.

We could also play Lino at 7, Ponga at 6 and give Lino Pearce's instructions. He seems capable of getting decent kicks in at least.
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Ponga isnt a 5/8 either and doesnt have the room to play his natural game , its been tried and didnt work at all and i would rather not weaken f/b to try something that doesnt work ..
If since rd 7 we had those smarter endings and more creativity we would be in the top 4 now.

Easy to say we need this and that from Pearce but we have been trying to get that from him most of the year first 6 games we did but not since .
Leave Ponga where he is , Hoy is about the only guy to replace Ponga at f/b and imo he hasnt shown enough to take ponga's place and the team benefit from it .
Hoy is no Ponga .
 
Its hard to make a call on this from 80 minutes of football a week. I suspect they will probably try a few things through the off season but they need to make a call early on what the halves will be so our team can start to gel.

You don't want to chop and change all pre season and head into next year with uncertainty and people looking like they have never seen each other before. I think that has been one of our biggest problems this year. For all their talk of next man in, we have looked clunky as hell for a majority of the year.
 
We didnt do that this year either Mann was told early that the 6 was his and the 7 was always Pearce's.
 
Ethan said:
Ponga isnt a 5/8 either and doesnt have the room to play his natural game , its been tried and didnt work at all and i would rather not weaken f/b to try something that doesnt work ..
If since rd 7 we had those smarter endings and more creativity we would be in the top 4 now.

Easy to say we need this and that from Pearce but we have been trying to get that from him most of the year first 6 games we did but not since .
Leave Ponga where he is , Hoy is about the only guy to replace Ponga at f/b and imo he hasnt shown enough to take ponga's place and the team benefit from it .
Hoy is no Ponga .
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Pearce isn't going anywhere next season and being club captain and our million dollar half isn't likely to be dropped. OB has shown all this year that Pearce is untouchable.

Lino is not likely to be retained by the club and he is our best creative ball playing half outside Ponga. Oh, and nobody else can goal kick reliably either.

So something has to happen at 5/8 or we are dead ducks next season. What is your solution there?

OB seems to want to play Mann in the starting squad, but Hoy is being talked about as the future at 5/8 and honestly I don't see it. A running 5/8 with little to no ball playing creativity is not going to work with Pearce at 7.

You say Ponga at 5/8 didn't work and it was true of the time. But a lot has changed since then, new coach, Ponga has evolved as a player etc. At the moment, the vast majority of Ponga's highlight reel is of him playing like a half. At the moment we have Ponga practically taking up two roles. For mine it's easier to take the fullback role off him and let him concentrate on being creative, and get another fullback or develop a player there.
 
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