Larry Billey wrote:To be fair what i did see of Riddell and Berrigan it was obvious they were very good players.., Riddell was part of the champion side , Berrigan was criminally misused by Hull in my opinion, would have loved to have seen him at Rovers.., from my limited evidence of the others i think O Donnell has already shown he is quality , Perry and Lima have yet to show much and Mason and Morgan need to decide why he is here...
The thing about all the above though is that they all have "runs on the board" in Morgan speak, all rep or international players who without question , have done it and a probably a good bet to come good.., Green has never done anything, has no runs on the board etc ..and in my opinion was not a good signing for such a pivotal role in such a supposedly aspirational team, i held this view prior to him signing and nothing i have seen has changed my mind..he is not a "winner"...the phrase "here for the experience" springs to mind.....one of the reasons i think we have missed the boat..we should have made a "quality" six and nine , as Nick quite rightly says, a priority...instead we give a reserve grader a two year deal and the captaincy.. for all the good it will do us.. i,e none., we might as well have given Bell two years to see if he can crack it...nothing to lose if we aint bothered about challenging..(and perhaps everything to gain..)
But in fairness Dobson had no runs on the board, yet ,even if you disagree, he has been a very good player for us. Ridell played in a champion side I agree, but in all fairness was nothing more than average for them, Andy Coley also played in that champion side and he's average to poor at best.You seem to be saying reputation prior to coming is all that matters unless your signing for HKR then why the hell are you here (this is what your comments ref Mason seem to say). There are some players that come over with no real reputation but our game just suits them more than the NRL. The diamond in the rough to quote a phrase, Pat Richards had few runs on the board, journey man was used to discribe him, yet he seems to have done ok.
I'm willing to give Green the benefit of the doubt as I believe his attributes will compliment Dobsons rather than our other 6's which seem to hinder. If by the end of the year he has shown no improvement then I will hold my hands up.
Bell isn;t ready yet, not sure if you've seen him play but apart from being injured he isn't there yet, a year or so's time and he'll be ready and needs to be eased in. If he was fit right now then I'd maybe say give him a go, but he was no way ready to be ourstarting 6. Hardcastle (No7) looks further away still and will need to add a bit of bulk to compete at SL standard.
I think you put across a decent arguement but you do seem very eager to put ourplayers down and big up others who in all honesty are no better than what we have.
Just out of interest in your opinion apart from Luluai, is there another class 7 in SL.
