Jake the Peg wrote:So what are everyone's thoughts? For me only 2 candidates - Taylor and Connor.
Taylor has been fantastic, carrying the rest of the forwards on his shoulders for most of the year despite being injured for most of it. The rest of the forwards have been a pale shadow of what we've seen from them before.
Connor has gone from fighting it out with griffin for a centre spot to probably our most important player this year IMO. Before he went off injured v saints, we were winning the game and he'd been the key to us winning games despite being without sneyd and/or kelly for much of the season. Add in his England performance on top of that.
faraimo a distant 3rd but no one else really even looking like the players we know they are.
Tough choice between taylor and connor. taylor maybe just shades it due to connor missing a number of games due to his injury
Young player? Again, a difficult one. Are masi and fash even young enough to be considered? Of the rest probably lane is the only one who has played enough games
My view on the squad:
shaul - more errors in his game this year and really needs to find a way of creating space for centres/wingers or he needs replacing - 6/10
talanoa - started like a house on fire but another long injury and not been the same since he came back 5/10 - I would have let him go personally
Carlos - Not been the same since his injury - 6/10
Griffin - Excellent before his injury not the same since - 6/10
Connor - Brilliant until his injury - 9.5/10
faraimo - doesn't quite offer what fonua did as an overall package but despite a couple of blips has been good 8/10
kelly - copped a bad concussion v cas and been nowhere near since. 5/10 for effort
sneyd - injury put paid to his season - 5/10
Taylor - awesome 9.5/10
houghton - captaincy taking it's toll? Curse of the testimonial? Playing 80 minutes every week catching up? - 7/10 - below his best by some way
paea - not the player he was in his last spell with us. Has had some decent games but overall inconsistent 7/10
green - too many injuries - 4/10
bowden - slow start then injured - 5/10
mini - probably been our best back rower but too many injuries again - 7/10
manu - average season - 6/10
hadley - barely strung more than a couple of games together due to injury - 6/10
westerman - looked good in the few games he played - not even seen enough to give him a score
abdul - either not good enough or doesn't suit our style of play. The injury didn't help - 5/10
fash - tries hard but not big enough at this level. Worrying that he's picked up a couple of concussions - 6/10
matongo - has the build but does he have the heart? Needs to run like luke thompson who is around the same age - 6/10
lane - looks like a prospect - 7/10
miloudi - maverick and skilled but too many errors and too unorthodox for radford. - 6/10
logan - looked better on the wing than centre. Not sure he will make it at SL level - 6/10
downs - not big enough 6/10
litten - looks lively but needs to bulk up - /10
scott - looks a decent prospect but barely played - 6/10
harris - not sure why we signed him when we have sneyd, connor, kelly and abdul on the books. Inconsistent as you'd expect at his age but try v rovers is worth - 7/10
radford - trying season for the coach who has made some mistakes this year IMO. Needs to stop the rot and get a decent start next year or I reckon pearson won't put up with him for too long - 6/10
Season as a whole? Started off badly and been downhill ever since - 4/10
I used to think Jamie Shaul was a good full back but when you see a class full back in action its plain to see Jamie is half a full back because the attacking link/pass part of his game is missing and it does cost us points
We all know what Barba can do but even average Aussies like Rankin or Quinlan at HKR show what a full back should be doing when attacking and how the correct pass will produce the tries.
The problem we have going forward is if we move Connor to full back then we lose him as a centre or if Kelly doesnt play again which could happen then Connor will move to 6 so Shaul remains at full back with no competition.
Miloudi is not a full back but i would play him on the wing in place of Talanoa.
Full back is definately an area we should be looking at.
I would play Shaul as a back up 9.He is doing more running from acting half now than Houghton.
Cant say im looking forward to next season as the team is weak in comparison to the top 6.
We will probably be competitive in knock out games but once again average throughout the season but should just scrape into the to eight.
