Your team v Bulldogs?

Junior said:
there’s not one single suggested lineup saying drop him completely, i just think he provides impact off the bench and hasn’t had the same punch as last years efforts off the bench, he’s not an 80 minute starter yet imo. Them simple errors (some coming out of trouble) shouldn’t be happening from our starters, but if rewarding mediocre ball handling under fatigue is the game we are in then so be it.
Just don’t think the starting role is his just yet and wouldn’t hurt giving the next man up a shot after a below average weekend, 10 runs for 69 metres, 6 miss tackles and an error out of trouble, doesn’t scream retention of his run on spot imo

and obliterating nsw cup is what manueleleau was doing prior to his call up so idk why your logical reason is to drop him back after 10 minutes at the end of a game in a well and truly defeated team with 12 men
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What I’m saying is that the step up is massive and I reckon Francis would really, really struggle with it, way way worse than you’re thinking.

He came on after the sting was taken out of the game and looked absolutely rooted immediately. I’m pretty sure he got hooked. Feel free to go back and watch his minutes if you disagree. The other team already being on top is beside the point, he’s the fresh man and shouldn’t look the most fatigued. That didn’t happen with any of Jermaine, Elijah, Cody or even Tom Cant in their first game. You would be throwing him to the wolves to start him in an NRL game right now. He’s not ready.

Missed tackles are the most meaningless & misleading stat in the NRL, when spat without context, I don’t give a ****.
KPGreatness said:
I mean you are right I agree.

But some have their favourites and take any criticism of that said player as someone saying they are crap, they simply can’t take criticism of the player they like and switch over to emotional thinking
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Well you’ve got me skewered here haven’t you, if I admit I’m annoyed by this you’ve proven I’m emotional. Guess it’s easier than making an argument isn’t it?

Of course it’s impossible that your side of it is “well I really like Manulelua” and reasoning backwards from there. We all know that only the people we disagree with do that.
 
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To be honest I thought ESL would get a start before Frank. He really looked gassed after the small stint. Some guys just don't have the motor to compete at NRL level but absolutely brain cup. They are the guys that smash in in the super league. Maybe that's his end game.
 
Yeah the signal I got from Francis was that he’d want to massively improve his work rate & fitness before he gets another crack at first grade. Even if he’s not scoring sick tries & stuff in reggies anymore as a tradeoff. As I understand it he’s overwhelmingly played on the edge in reggies too so it’s definitely a bit rough to put him on in the middle in firsts, I agree with that. But what I take from that is we need to tell the Cup head coach to play him in the middle for a while, before we ask that of him again.

As it stands he’s giving me a bit of a “Gideon Gela-Mosby, but for back rowers” vibe.
 
Throwing in the towel on one of the most naturally gifted players we've got at the club because he looked gassed getting thrown into the middle in a team already getting rolled by one of the best packs in the comp feels like an overreaction.
 
mullenmagic said:
Throwing in the towel on one of the most naturally gifted players we've got at the club because he looked gassed getting thrown into the middle in a team already getting rolled by one of the best packs in the comp feels like an overreaction.
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Nobody is throwing in the towel on him. It's just a general read on how he went. His not ready. I'm sure lots of league watchers would have the same feel.
 
Junior said:
there’s not one single suggested lineup saying drop him completely, i just think he provides impact off the bench and hasn’t had the same punch as last years efforts off the bench, he’s not an 80 minute starter yet imo. Them simple errors (some coming out of trouble) shouldn’t be happening from our starters, but if rewarding mediocre ball handling under fatigue is the game we are in then so be it.
Just don’t think the starting role is his just yet and wouldn’t hurt giving the next man up a shot after a below average weekend, 10 runs for 69 metres, 6 miss tackles and an error out of trouble, doesn’t scream retention of his run on spot imo

and obliterating nsw cup is what manueleleau was doing prior to his call up so idk why your logical reason is to drop him back after 10 minutes at the end of a game in a well and truly defeated team with 12 men
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Tbf those errors you could say the same for Crossy. They will get better atleast they have desire not just plodders happy to have a spot. My take with Crossy also is- we shouldn’t make him play 80 he gets tired and gives away stupid penalties and errors. Maine is the same he doesn’t have an 80 min high intensity motor just yet but have a look at Francis Mane after 5 mins he looked gassed and that’s our next man up level
 
Yeah there were enough guys struggling in that way where if you single one out for a dropping or demotion it’s kind of a bad look. Except Francis who’s on the fringes anyway and giving a guy a debut then telling him to go away and work on some stuff is very common practice.

You just have to say, well that’s the level the elite teams are at. That’s what we’re chasing as a collective. And then bring more spew buckets next pre-season.

Crossy’s struggles under fatigue actually worried me more than anyone else we had. But we were asking him to get through a power of work though.
 
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I think Manu is going to be a short minutes impact player off the bench, and he'll be massive for us if we are mostly in possession and oppositions are tired.
I don't think he'll ever be a starting middle.
Putting him on for 9 tackles in the middle in 11 minutes is the worst way to use him.
Running at a small half is his sweet spot.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
I can only go on what I saw mate and he was struggling to get up and get back in position almost immediately. Granted it was a tough situation to come into but he didn’t look like the freshest player on the field.

I think there’s an element of McEwen not being the new toy this year with how he’s being rated. He’s been thrust into a very tough role and as Les said elsewhere he continues to go effort on effort & isn’t letting his head drop when something goes wrong. The only thing he’s really getting wrong is he’s susceptible to a forced error under fatigue, he’s been good at all the other little things you want from your back rowers.

On what we’ve seen so far the best thing for the team is to let him keep working through it. I think he’s already at a level where obliterating NSW Cup players won’t actually help him get better. He doesn’t need to get his confidence back, he’s been consistently tough & willing.
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I wonder if it would be better starting Friz and then moving him to the front row to spell saf or Mooney and bringing in McEwen for 50-60 mins instead of playing the full 80?
 
Macca89 said:
I wonder if it would be better starting Friz and then moving him to the front row to spell saf or Mooney and bringing in McEwen for 50-60 mins instead of playing the full 80?
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I was thinking that might be an option in pre-season but they might think Friz is just a bit too old for that now. I’m not sure there’s a perfect answer, unless we get Marata Niukore in the next few weeks.
 
Shape is our 6. If he plays, he plays 6.
Countless posts about how we have had so many halves combinations and then lets change the halves.
 
Don’t mind me, just doing some emotional thinking over here.

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KPGreatness said:
I mean you are right I agree.

But some have their favourites and take any criticism of that said player as someone saying they are crap, they simply can’t take criticism of the player they like and switch over to emotional thinking
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I don’t think it is”switch over to emotional thinking” at all. McEwen is a very good player, even with the few errors in him.
The fact is he is an infinitely better player than those below him in our squad atm. He is learning and he is tough. Other than Nikora arriving this year, McEwen and Lucas are our best back rowers.
There’s no emotional thinking in that, it is just the facts of the matter.
 
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