Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="Big Pete, post: 2742011, member: 1899"] The jury is out on Nathan Brown. While his approach is brave, it isn't the best idea to have too many young guys at once. If he can nurture 5 genuine first grade talents, then it will be a success. However, let's say the likes of Dane Gagai, Sione Mata'utia, Danny Levi, Korbin Sims, Jack Stockwell, Pauli Pauli stagnate and he continues to play them than it's on him as a coach. Blooding a bunch of players when there's little else on offer makes sense in theory but in execution what tends to happen is that these young players get over-awed and the genuine prospects tend to grow complacent. Wests are a basket case. It seems as if they've been sold up the river with the likes of Nofoaluma, Moses, Brooks, Sironen etc. being no where near as good as they initially thought. What's really puzzling is their salary cap situation. How are they even close to their limit? Even taking on board the Farah deal, they can't be that bad. I think either they've got to hope there will be a few clubs around willing to make generous release offers or they'll have to make some ballsy decisions. If I was assembling their 17... 1. James Tedesco 2. David Nofoaluma 3. Tim Simona 4. Michael Chee-Kam 5. Kevin Naiqama 6. Mitchell Moses 7. Luke Brooks 8. Aaron Woods 9. Matt Ballin 10. Ava Seumanufagai 11. Chris Lawrence 12. Dene Halatau 13. Joel Edwards 14. Tyler Cassell 15. Tim Grant 16. Dallas Graham 17. Manaia Cherrington With Woods and Ballin currently out, Sue and Farah have an opportunity to make their case otherwise the axe has to come in. Sironen is another. On the changes I've made... I never understood the decision to bring Rankin in. At best, I saw him as a depth option for fullback or the halves but you can't keep picking him on the wing. I believe he needs to go and the Tigers need to look at an alternative in the centres. For now, they should play it safe and go with Chee-Kam who is a lot like Takairangi for Parra. It may not be flashy, but at least it provides the Tigers with more grunt to work the ball out, more skill in the centres and gets Naiqama playing in a position that suits his strengths. I don't particularly have a high opinion of Halatau or Edwards but the Tigers need some starch and confidence and both players have that over their team mates. On the bench, I have a relatively inexperienced mob, so I've thrown Grant in with them to ensure there's another old head there. Cassell is a gritty player who is basically everything they want in Lovett. Graham is a rugged no nonsense prop who provides more punch than Buchanan or litany of back rows. [/QUOTE]

Verification

Active Now

No members online now.

Total: 6 (members: 0, guests: 6)

Reply to thread

Log in

Active Now