Is this a "who would you like" team or a predicted team?
I would go with:
1) Gardner
2) Williams (Left)
3) Best (Left)
4) Bukuya (Right)
5) Mills (Right)
6) Carney
7) Townsend
8) Ross
9) De Gois
10) Gibbs
11) Smith (Tight)
12) Frizell (Right)
13) Gallen (c) (Left)
14) Fifita
15) Tagataese
16) Tupou
17) Graham
18) Taufua
- That's our best mix of defensive potency and attacking ability. Bukuya shores up the gaping chasm in the centres that is Pomeroy v. Lawrence (though he has had some decent games against the Tigers) and allows Flano to fit in Frizell, Taga and Tupou. Bukuya reminds me a lot of Alex Glenn, who did a very good defensive job at centre in 2010 when Hodges was injured all year. Let's just admit that we don't have the quality in the 3/4s and play a guy in Bukuya who is NRL standard, has good hands, quick feet and reads the play so we can get the best 17 out there. Friz is the best line runner at the Club and is more important IMO to Carney's effectiveness out wide than having a rocks and diamonds/dumb centre in Pomeroy.
- Townsend at 7 gets Carney wider where he will do the most damage and allows us to have three ballplayers on the field- hopefully it would make up for the lack of potency out wide.
- Williams and Mills are both defensively safe enough, decent coming out of our end and can finish.
- Best is the best centre at the Club.
- Taga and Fifita have to be in the side because they offer too much in the way of impact and ball-running ability. The idea of not including Fifita seems ludicrous to me- the bloke wants to show what he's got after Sheens chose Woods and Groat over him. Also, he's a tryscorer.
- There's absolutely no point IMO carrying a hooker on the bench when we have someone of De Gois' calibre. Very few clubs bother with it anymore. I bet the Tigers won't bother with one- they will use Fulton as Farah's cover. Graham covers De Gois but plays left edge once the heavy hitting is done and Gal moves in to the ruck.
Taufua very unlucky to miss out. First reserve.