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Message: [QUOTE="Brett, post: 2653826, member: 8361"] My thoughts - This could be long winded... [B]Kahu:[/B] Solid for the whole game. Took the line on hard with his kick returns and took at least one difficult bomb. I cringed at the end when he was clutching at his right leg, but it looks like he's okay. [B]Vidot:[/B] Fairly quiet, but was solid, too. Quality hit ups as we've come to expect from Daniel and looks to be playing quite a few kilos lighter and looks better for it. [B]Witchurch:[/B] Handling errors galore, but was decent in defence. I thought he blew a try too when he passed to early and too high to Maranta - should have dummied and gone himself maybe. Overall he needs to work on his game a lot if he's gonna play first grade. [B]Hodges:[/B] Good game apart from letting Burgess get on his outside and palm him off towards the end of the game there. His try saver, held up that he pulled off in the first half showed not only great physical strength, but also a real willingness to win. Great to see. [B] Maranta:[/B] Had a solid game. Took a few good bombs, made good meters from hit ups when the forwards were still getting back on side and scored a good try. Seems to be slimmer still than last season and looks agile. I wouldn't be mad if he got a Wing spot this year. [B]Milford:[/B] Great game. First half he was just going through the motions and feeding his outside men (Glenn in particular, whom I'll come to later). Passing game is improving, kicking game needs a lot of work, but I thought towards the end of the second half he really came alive. Sniffing around the ruck for those offloads and using his speed and agility well. Good signs. [B]Hunt:[/B] Steady game for Benny. I thought towards the end of the game he controlled the game well. Kicked for the corners and kept pressure on Wigan. Hard game for a Half to be dominant in, but he was solid overall. [B]McGuire:[/B] Thank god we re-signed him! Absolute beast of a man and I thought he was our best on field. Always taking the hard yards up the middle, plenty of mongrel in him and he still has that big gas tank. [B]McCullough:[/B] Bit rough in patches - I remember one bad pass to Glenn near the end of the game which Glenn dropped as it was behind him and over his head. Couple of good kicks for the corners and was solid in defence. [B]Blair:[/B] Great game from Blair. Looked interested and worked hard, couple good offloads and adds some starch to the middle with McGuire. [B]Glenn:[/B] Second best on field for mine. Ran great lines off Milford, made a few clean line breaks too. Looks to be a few kilos lighter and looks fast and agile. Really excited to see him used properly this season. [B]Thaiday:[/B] Decent game for Slammin' Sam. Used properly as a wide running Backrower off Hunt, he played quite well. Could still drop a few kilos for mine and you can tell that he's used to playing in the middle because there were a few times where Hunt had created a hole for Sam, but Sam was lagging back a bit and wasn't running the line he needs to be running. That will come with more games though I believe. [B]Parker:[/B] Good game from Corey. Can't believe he's still our kicker, but anyway... He was marked well all night, but looks right at home back in his number 13 jersey. [B]Dodds:[/B] Played well. Hit hard in defence and did some good work. Still looks under done fitness wise, but it's to be expected after being out for so long. Looks hungry though. [B]Gavet:[/B] Reasonably impressed with Gavet. He ran hard and threw himself into tackles. Looks a big lad too. Should provide good impact for us off the bench this year. [B]Ofahengaue:[/B] Looked good without being a stand-out. Didn't really get a good chance to show much, but didn't let anyone down. [B] K. Nikorima:[/B] Filled in pretty well at Dummy Half. Needs to back himself a bit more, but he's still young and trying to fit in with the team. Probably won't play too much first grade this year. Overall I was reasonably happy with this game being the first hit-out of the year in those woeful conditions. I think given some time, the Milford/Glenn + Hunt/Thaiday combinations will be very good for us. Not sure where that leaves Gillett, but I'd bring him off the bench. I thought our defence was light years better than last year. Guys like Blair and McGuire have brought a new aggression to the team. Few changes are easily made for round 1, but it's gonna be really interesting to see what team Bennett goes with. I'd go with... 1. Kahu 2. Vidot 3. Copley 4. Hodges 5. Maranta 6. Milford 7. Hunt 8. McGuire 9. McCullough 10. Blair 11. Glenn 12. Thaiday 13. Parker 14. Gillett 15. Oates 16. Gavet 17. Garbutt That's leaving out players like Jack Reed, Kodi Nikorima, Greg Eden (whom I thought has been awesome in the 9s and trails), Mitchel Dodds... I'm probably forgetting some too. We should have a strong entire first grade squad this year. TL;DR - Happy with the way we went. Bennett has some hard team choices to make. Excited for the season. [/QUOTE]

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