Armavinit wrote:Fans 17 maybe but can you see the club bringing him in and not playing him???
No one has said that.
Personally I see him getting the nod at centre. If Radford wants him to play there, and his squad number suggests he does, then I'd expect him to do enough in preseason to get picked ahead of Michaels and Yeaman.
Totally agree but logical thought process has to take into account probable 17. My concern is Pryce. personally I think his legs have gone. His main attribute was his step and go, through the gap he created in the 3/4's. He no longer appears to have it. Distribution has never been an attribute. 6 will probably go to Abdull. I think the backs will be Shaul, Binman, Fonua, Tuimavave and Micheals.
If we don't sign a back up hooker then I can see Washbrook starting at 13 for the first 25 mins (before unleashing manu) and then coming back on for the last 20 mins at no.9 to try and stop Houghton burning out too soon. I'll take a punt on: Shaul Fonua Tuimavave Logan Talaton Pryce Snyed Taylor Houghton Watts Pritchard Mini Washbrook
I wouldn't be unhappy with this team, do we really want Washbrook as an interchange hooker, just protect Danny more by not having him have to make ridiculous amounts of tackles every game, we have a pack that should be in a position to take some of the workload he's been asked to do the last two seasons to a level that doesn't need an interchange. sorry but Talanoa loses out to Micheals on the wing for me and I'd still prefer Ellis in the 2nd row, Mini at loose. Balance prop interchange of green/watts & Taylor/Bowden, with an extraordinary backrow of Pritchard/Eliis/Mini that should have the potential to do massive amounts of damage and with Manu & Thompson to really pull teams apart toward the end of the halves. Think Fonua is going to be the next fans favourite if he plays like he can...
IF we can get the attacking structure right in the final 20 and keep our discipline we have a team that can and actually should really go places, top 4 is very achievable and anything less should be seen as failure, if not with this squad then it'll never happen (under Radford)
Shaul Fonua Tuimavave Logan Michaels Abdull Sneyd Green Houghton Watts Ellis Pritchard Mini
Joined: Feb 19 2009 Posts: 1957 Location: East stand!
knockersbumpMKII wrote:I wouldn't be unhappy with this team, do we really want Washbrook as an interchange hooker, just protect Danny more by not having him have to make ridiculous amounts of tackles every game, we have a pack that should be in a position to take some of the workload he's been asked to do the last two seasons to a level that doesn't need an interchange. sorry but Talanoa loses out to Micheals on the wing for me and I'd still prefer Ellis in the 2nd row, Mini at loose. Balance prop interchange of green/watts & Taylor/Bowden, with an extraordinary backrow of Pritchard/Eliis/Mini that should have the potential to do massive amounts of damage and with Manu & Thompson to really pull teams apart toward the end of the halves. Think Fonua is going to be the next fans favourite if he plays like he can...
IF we can get the attacking structure right in the final 20 and keep our discipline we have a team that can and actually should really go places, top 4 is very achievable and anything less should be seen as failure, if not with this squad then it'll never happen (under Radford)
Shaul Fonua Tuimavave Logan Michaels Abdull Sneyd Green Houghton Watts Ellis Pritchard Mini
Taylor Bowden Manu Thompson
For me playing mini through the middle instead of the edges where he was our player of the yr would be criminal. Same with pritchard. Manu has the game most suited to the middle but id not want to see that till later in the game. Personally I'd go with green early on. Ellis has been great at times he's played prop and with the players around him I think it's a good move. Could lay a foundation and slow the opposition before bringing on for eg Taylor. I'd have to go with Talanoa over michaels personally. Tala makes great metres. Statistically with Briscoe is the best in the league at fast play of the ball (which is the very stating point often of our big metre sets due to it and hence being 2nd in metres made in end of yr stats) plus give Tala a 1 on 1 ten out he'll score. Michaels is in touch. Also you can't protect Houghton. The forwards as a whole did plenty of graft last yr. Houghton can only be protected by being spelled. He has no choice over his workload. Opposition run at him as a tactic. 1 to take away his effectiveness going forward 2 because if you're a forward running it in and have a choice of watts Ellis or Houghton to directly run at you're gonna pick Houghton. That said all these team combinations people are picking work. Don't think we've had this kind of choice or flexibility in a long time. Teams in recent times have picked themselves
airliebird,runninglate! wrote:For me playing mini through the middle instead of the edges where he was our player of the yr would be criminal. Same with pritchard. Manu has the game most suited to the middle but id not want to see that till later in the game. Personally I'd go with green early on. Ellis has been great at times he's played prop and with the players around him I think it's a good move. Could lay a foundation and slow the opposition before bringing on for eg Taylor. I'd have to go with Talanoa over michaels personally. Tala makes great metres. Statistically with Briscoe is the best in the league at fast play of the ball (which is the very stating point often of our big metre sets due to it and hence being 2nd in metres made in end of yr stats) plus give Tala a 1 on 1 ten out he'll score. Michaels is in touch. Also you can't protect Houghton. The forwards as a whole did plenty of graft last yr. Houghton can only be protected by being spelled. He has no choice over his workload. Opposition run at him as a tactic. 1 to take away his effectiveness going forward 2 because if you're a forward running it in and have a choice of watts Ellis or Houghton to directly run at you're gonna pick Houghton. That said all these team combinations people are picking work. Don't think we've had this kind of choice or flexibility in a long time. Teams in recent times have picked themselves
Good post. I chose my backs in an earlier post but shied away from the forwards because of the plethora of talent we'll have, don't know where to start. Here goes, Ellis at prop, starting with Watts, spelled by Taylor and either of Green or my choice, Bowden. Mini and Pritchard plus Manu at 13. think Washy will spell Houghton and Thompson to back up at prop or second row, the mind boggles. Green really needs to step up and I think Bowden grew as the season went on last year but so did Hadley and there's no room on the bench for him
knockersbumpMKII wrote:I wouldn't be unhappy with this team, do we really want Washbrook as an interchange hooker, just protect Danny more by not having him have to make ridiculous amounts of tackles every game, we have a pack that should be in a position to take some of the workload he's been asked to do the last two seasons to a level that doesn't need an interchange. sorry but Talanoa loses out to Micheals on the wing for me and I'd still prefer Ellis in the 2nd row, Mini at loose. Balance prop interchange of green/watts & Taylor/Bowden, with an extraordinary backrow of Pritchard/Eliis/Mini that should have the potential to do massive amounts of damage and with Manu & Thompson to really pull teams apart toward the end of the halves. Think Fonua is going to be the next fans favourite if he plays like he can...
IF we can get the attacking structure right in the final 20 and keep our discipline we have a team that can and actually should really go places, top 4 is very achievable and anything less should be seen as failure, if not with this squad then it'll never happen (under Radford)
Shaul Fonua Tuimavave Logan Michaels Abdull Sneyd Green Houghton Watts Ellis Pritchard Mini
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