Your team v Bulldogs?

I was having a little think about a centre option for gags. Someone who is like cooper vuna coz you know I really miss that guy. Looking league wide, nobody really stands out other than that makasini guy from tigers? Who would be a centre you'd really go for if you had a decent budget. Maybe Howarth?
 
danknights said:
I was having a little think about a centre option for gags. Someone who is like cooper vuna coz you know I really miss that guy. Looking league wide, nobody really stands out other than that makasini guy from tigers? Who would be a centre you'd really go for if you had a decent budget. Maybe Howarth?
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Ahh Cooper Vuna … was he the Knights’ outside back great who never was? Got injured and then fell behind Uate and McManus … but damn, so much potential and we’d already seen so many good things from him.

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Apologies if ive got the spelling wrong but Aoke looks like a player that if we’re gonna change out an outside back it’d be worth the punt local lad too
 
This is fully based on Sharpe being back, so this could change if he isn’t.
  1. Fletcher Sharpe
  2. Dom Young
  3. Dane Gagai
  4. Bradman Best
  5. Greg Marzhew
  6. Tyson Gamble
  7. Sandon Smith
  8. Jacob Saifiti
  9. Phoenix Crossland
  10. Peter Hola
  11. Dylan Lucas (c)
  12. Jermaine McEwen
  13. Mat Croker
Bench
14. Harrison Graham
15. Pasami Saulo
16. Cody Hopwood
17. Tyson Frizell
18. Fletcher Hunt
19. Kyle McCarthy

Reasons:
Ok Hunt and Graham are very obvious so won’t talk about them.

Peter Hola:
Veteran that’s been great so far in cup, he won’t shy away from the hard stuff and knows what to expect so I’d have him starting with JSAF.

Rotation props:
Saulo and Hopwood would be my pick with Hopwood being kind of a must if you think about it, when we attack at our best we utilise offloads normally that’s Mooney with him gone we need someone that can use offloads and that’s Hopwood who can spray them like crazy, whilst having a massive motor.
Saulo will be kept for this game as a final stand, he needs to lift and offer something or else he should be dropped as he has Crouch, Hola and Hopwood banging on the door for his place when Mooney returns

Halves:
Same old, I don’t think Smith played a bad game in attack wasn’t great but you have to understand our forwards were gassed and getting dominated and we rarely saw that side of the field so no halfback is doing anything in that position, now in defence he was awful so that certainly needs to shape up at the same time the whole team needs to shape up in defence as Smith wasn’t the only one missing, but I do agree with most his defence left a lot to be desired.

Dane Gagai:
With the likes of Hunt, McCarthy and De Coursey in the wings two of which had great games in cup, Dane has to have a much better game against the dogs, he was awful against the Wahs on both sides and needs to understand he isn’t undroppable and his form needs to pick up.

Jermaine McEwen:
I’ll give him another go, he isn’t exactly the dominate line bending metre eating second rower we thought just yet, but you only get that from experience so I’ll give him one more but I will move him to the bench in some games, as to avoid burn out as playing 80 for 20+ games for a 20 year old must be tough, but for this game I’ll start him.

Kyle McCarthy:
Been one of our strongest in cup, if two injuries strike we can fully cover 1-5 with hunt and McCarthy and if halves get injured you can push Sharpe in and put hunt at fullback and it still leaves McCarthy we can use for injuries or foul play as you can activate a 5th for that.

Ps. We seriously need to find a way to get Graham into games we can’t continue with Crossland for 80 every single game that’s not fair on him, in a ideal world we use Saulo, Hopwood, Frizell and Graham for our next game rotations but that’s an ideal world.
 
There's simply no replacing Gagai. The best we can hope for is for Winter to somehow become a special player who takes to centre in FG. Or Seve.

But outside thee total fluke it would be to stumble upon another Bradman Best at the very moment we needed to, Id say there are no great options, certainly none that can approximate what Gagai brings to this team and the players around him.

Although Sharpe is probably that guy tbh lol. We wont see him play centre long-term if Holbrook would even consider playing him there
 
Plenty of chat about how bad McEwen was and he should be dropped, not much about Mooney though. I'll leave out the sin-bin as it would give it away, but:

Player A: 10 runs for 69m, 40 tackles (6 missed), 1 error
Player B: 9 runs for 62m, 29 tackles (1 missed), 2 errors, 2 penalties, 1 ruck infringement

Which one is which?
 
Defence wins games said:
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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I wouldn't mind McEwen going back to cup to work on his motor a bit more, seems gassed and I believe that's were the errors come from.

Also guys like Hopwood sitting on the bench, needs a stint in cup, nothing beats match fitness.
 
slotmachine said:
Plenty of chat about how bad McEwen was and he should be dropped, not much about Mooney though. I'll leave out the sin-bin as it would give it away, but:

Player A: 10 runs for 69m, 40 tackles (6 missed), 1 error
Player B: 9 runs for 62m, 29 tackles (1 missed), 2 errors, 2 penalties, 1 ruck infringement

Which one is which?
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I see your point, I think both could have a bit more output. For the record, I don’t think McEwen should be dropped as a result of this game.

Stats only tell half a story though - game context is big.

Mooney’s first ‘error’ comes from leading the kick chase, to make a play on a ball where Warriors get there at the same time, on their 10m line. If it comes off, he scores. If he doesn’t make the “error”, nothing changes. They still get the ball on their 10m.

McEwen turns the ball over on play 2 after we have just defended set after set after set. While it’s unlucky, and I don’t really blame him too much, it still is really bad timing. We got a lucky penalty, we needed to get to our kick and take some pressure off.

This turnover lead to defending another set, and Jackson Ford goes over.

Mooneys second error comes in the 72nd minutes, as he takes his second run in the set in a good tackle. Not great this one.
And a bit of a brain snap to target Boyd and

I agree, I would love a bit more output from Mooney at times. I do think he always looks to be an option and runs his lines. He’s also played 30 minutes less. But for a guy of his size, he doesn’t often ‘bend the line’.

Sometimes the timing of errors can have a big impact on how we remember them. Hunt makes one error yesterday - but it leads to the period of play where we concede lots of 6 agains and penalties, and inevitably ‘forces’ the ref to bin us a few minutes later. Makes that Hunt drop a bit more noticeable as it invited more pressure and momentum really shifts here. That’s why McEwens error hurts as well. In a period when we needed to try and wrestle back momentum.

Same with Marzhew - we lose Hunt to the bin after his ‘error’ (which is when he ‘steps on the line’ - I’m a little skeptical on this one…) and then concede the try.

Anyway. I think there were a few that were a bit disappointing in their own way. Not meaning to bash McEwen, Mooney, Marzhew or Hunt with this specifically, as that’s footy.
 
Mooney reminds me of Spencer Leniu a bit. At the Panthers Leniu would come on for 20 minutes and run for 93 metres. At the Roosters in 40 minutes as a starter he seems to be good for about 80 per game. The same guy who's this unstoppable wrecking ball when there's fatigue in the game hits a brick wall and stops when he's starting and taking play 1 hit ups against the biggest big dogs, the real hard men, like Fisher-Harris, Leota, Haas, Horsburgh, etc. A lot of Roosters fans are absolutely filthy on Leniu because with the bigger, harder role, he's just obviously been worse, less impactful. His niche may be specialist bench prop.

With Mooney he's an absolute wrecking ball in Cup, he comes into the NRL and tries to play the same way, and at the moment the results are mixed.

The good news is I think the signs are a lot better in terms of how willing & fit Mooney is (Leniu's biggest issue: his endurance just is not that good), he is always trying **** to impact the contest, and just by eye test he is very committed and going very, very hard in defence. But, he's 23, most props are not physically matured by then, and he definitely did not win a lot of his collisions on the weekend. Maybe in four years with more time in the gym, more exposure to the rigors of first grade, he'll go from what he is now, a wannabe alpha dog who isn't quite there yet, to absolutely one of the alpha dogs. Maybe he won't and his niche will be lock forward or bench prop (but like a big minutes one, not a 20 min impact guy like Spencer). Either way I think he's at least a pretty good rotational middle right now (albeit one with a lot of rookie errors in him), where we hope his ceiling is a top 10-top 20 middle.

Similar thing going on with McEwen, the Wahs definitely targeted him on the weekend and yeah he came off second best a fair few times. With young guys it's about how they respond. If he keeps fronting up, keeps running hard, then as his body develops you hope he develops into the guy who does the bullying.
 
I wouldn't make too many changes apart from I think Crossland needs to possibly be in the halves.

Also was it just me or did the team look unfortunately in the warriors game, quite different to the first two games. Possibly due to being reffed out of the game??
 
McEwen had a terrible 1st half but improved in the 2nd half. I’d drop him back to the bench and see what he can do in an impact role. Above everything else ESL deserves a starting spot for his great form.
 
I heard Gus say recently that a at some point players just have to play NRL. The only way they’ll get used to the pace and intensity etc is by playing first grade. Just playing more NSW Cup won’t help them acclimatise themselves to the top level.

I really don’t know what people are expecting from young guys like McEwen. He’s only 20, and yeah ideally he’d be coming off the bench instead of having to play a full 80. Unfortunately that’s where we are the moment, can’t blame a 20 year old for the club’s recruitment and retention problems.
 
Interesting stat from warriors game, JSaf played 43mins, Mooney played 44mins, both only a fraction over half a game leaving the balance with others.
Frizell played 37mins replacing JSaf while Saulo 24mins, Manuleleau 11mins covering Mooney.
Would have expected Saf and Mooney to play longer as our 1 & 2 props, Saulo mins not good enough.
 
Newygirl said:
I heard Gus say recently that a at some point players just have to play NRL. The only way they’ll get used to the pace and intensity etc is by playing first grade. Just playing more NSW Cup won’t help them acclimatise themselves to the top level.

I really don’t know what people are expecting from young guys like McEwen. He’s only 20, and yeah ideally he’d be coming off the bench instead of having to play a full 80. Unfortunately that’s where we are the moment, can’t blame a 20 year old for the club’s recruitment and retention problems.
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A good example of this is Mat Croker. Fans were calling for his head after only a couple of games because he hadn’t turned into the next Paul Harragon, but as of the last three games he’s been one of our most consistent and better forwards. Some players just adapt quicker than others and some need proper nurturing through the grades.
 
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