(Archived) THE RUMOUR MILL - Player Movement

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Nu does seem to be getting groomed towards being a hooker from reports. I wouldn't mind seeing him on the bench to play the impact hooker/utility role but at the same time I wouldn't mind carrying another forward.
 

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Nu does seem to be getting groomed towards being a hooker from reports. I wouldn't mind seeing him on the bench to play the impact hooker/utility role but at the same time I wouldn't mind carrying another forward.

Yeah in the positional breakdowns from sharks.com.au they claimed Nu has trained exclusively at hooker in pre-season. Not sure how i feel about that, but if it means he sees game time off the bench during the season I'm all for it.
 

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Nu does seem to be getting groomed towards being a hooker from reports. I wouldn't mind seeing him on the bench to play the impact hooker/utility role but at the same time I wouldn't mind carrying another forward.

And unless Ennis is out for a prolonged period, I really don't see the point in doing that.

We have a need for a half. We don't really have an immediate need for a hooker. Nu has already played in the halves and done a decent job. He's still really young too. Much younger than Murphy and with first grade experience. He's probably already better than Robbo. He has a tonne of experience around him as well. Barba might not be the most experienced 5/8, but he has played his fair share of first grade now.

Sure, if Ennis gets injured play Nu at hooker. If Nu doesn't work out as a half, use him off the bench as a hooker. But really the timing of bringing Nu in and Ennis retiring doesn't really correlate all that well.
 
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And unless Ennis is out for a prolonged period, I really don't see the point in doing that.

We have a need for a half. We don't really have an immediate need for a hooker. Nu has already played in the halves and done a decent job. He's still really young too. Much younger than Murphy and with first grade experience. He's probably already better than Robbo. He has a tonne of experience around him as well. Barba might not be the most experienced 5/8, but he has played his fair share of first grade now.

Sure, if Ennis gets injured play Nu at hooker. If Nu doesn't work out as a half, use him off the bench as a hooker. But really the timing of bringing Nu in and Ennis retiring doesn't really correlate all that well.

I wouldn't have a clue why they are doing it but I'd assume that they just don't see him as the answer in the halves and prefer him as an option at hooker. If not this year I can see Ennis not playing the full 80 minutes next year. Over that period Nu will have a great opportunity to learn from a top line hooker and grow as a player whilst still being able to add spark in other areas of the ground.

If we see Nu on the bench I wouldn't be surprised if he saw game time even with Ennis on the field and alternated between being an extra play maker and the dummy half.

Of course that's all just how I see the situation from what I've read.
 

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I wouldn't have a clue why they are doing it but I'd assume that they just don't see him as the answer in the halves and prefer him as an option at hooker. If not this year I can see Ennis not playing the full 80 minutes next year. Over that period Nu will have a great opportunity to learn from a top line hooker and grow as a player whilst still being able to add spark in other areas of the ground.

If we see Nu on the bench I wouldn't be surprised if he saw game time even with Ennis on the field and alternated between being an extra play maker and the dummy half.

Of course that's all just how I see the situation from what I've read.

Yes. I think this is exactly how it will play out. 3 big forwards and Nu on the bench.
 

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If we see Nu on the bench I wouldn't be surprised if he saw game time even with Ennis on the field and alternated between being an extra play maker and the dummy half.
Yeah I agree that sounds like it might be what's happening, especially with the new rule changes.

Blokes like Fifita and Gallen will always draw multiple defenders, so if we take 3 out it's easy metres for the dummy half scoot which Nu is real good at. If they try to tackle them with 2 men they'll just offload to Barba for some second phase play. I reckon it suits us very well.
 

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If Ennis can handle it we'd be crazy not to play him the full 80 minutes, look what happened at the dogs when he wasn't on the park, they lacked direction

To me nu would be wasted on the bench unless ennis really struggles to play the full 80, having him come on to replace robbo is a waste imo, robbo and nu are two different style of players, need the same half back for the full 80 to keep to the teams structure, switching halfbacks mid game is going to do nothing but confuse our footy style

I do like the idea of nu at hooker though, said it before he even played first grade that imo he is a better hooker then half, if we didn't sign ennis I would have loved to see him play in the 9, but it's not to be, he should spend the year in nsw cup at hooker to fine tune his skills

I'd like to see jack bird given the utility spot, would add more value
 
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If Ennis can handle it we'd be crazy not to play him the full 80 minutes, look what happened at the dogs when he wasn't on the park, they lacked direction

To me nu would be wasted on the bench unless ennis really struggles to play the full 80, having him come on to replace robbo is a waste imo, robbo and nu are two different style of players, need the same half back for the full 80 to keep to the teams structure, switching halfbacks mid game is going to do nothing but confuse our footy style

I do like the idea of nu at hooker though, said it before he even played first grade that imo he is a better hooker then half, if we didn't sign ennis I would have loved to see him play in the 9, but it's not to be, he should spend the year in nsw cup at hooker to fine tune his skills

I'd like to see jack bird given the utility spot, would add more value
I'm not really fussed. I don't really know anything about Bird but he gets some wraps from some pretty good judges hopefully he turns out to be the goods.

I like the idea of having Nu on the bench and I also dislike it. It's not totally uncommon for a side to bring on a half/hooker type and leave their other halves and hooker out there so there still could be a role for him coming off the bench as an impact player. However these roles are limited as to when they will be effective so there may be games that he would be a wasted bench spot.

I'm more leaning to the idea of having four forwards. Making sure our forwards stay fresh could be a big thing for us this year with our lack of kicking game. The other side to that coin is we have so many forwards capable of playing big minutes so it could again become a bit of a wasted bench spot. I'm hoping someone like Houma or D Fifita can play a role as an impact prop off the bench, come in make some big runs and hits and come off again.

At the end of the day isn't it great to have options again.
 

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If the play the ball ends up as fast as Wayne Bennett wants it to be we'll probably need 4 forwards on the bench
 
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If Ennis can handle it we'd be crazy not to play him the full 80 minutes, look what happened at the dogs when he wasn't on the park, they lacked direction

To me nu would be wasted on the bench unless ennis really struggles to play the full 80, having him come on to replace robbo is a waste imo, robbo and nu are two different style of players, need the same half back for the full 80 to keep to the teams structure, switching halfbacks mid game is going to do nothing but confuse our footy style

I do like the idea of nu at hooker though, said it before he even played first grade that imo he is a better hooker then half, if we didn't sign ennis I would have loved to see him play in the 9, but it's not to be, he should spend the year in nsw cup at hooker to fine tune his skills

I'd like to see jack bird given the utility spot, would add more value
There is ways of having Ennis on the field and bringing Nu on, some teams successfully do this kinda role with their utility. However that 'late game spark' is somewhat a myth, how many teams have a 15 minute window where a live wire just carves up the opposition. Ennis will have our forwards moving forward for the full 80, that better than what Lichaa, Morris and Degois did last year
 

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I wish Lichaa all the best of luck and all that, but jeez, he didn't look like he could pass long without taking about five steps backwards. It's going to be such a delight to have a gun hooker.
 
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I wish Lichaa all the best of luck and all that, but jeez, he didn't look like he could pass long without taking about five steps backwards. It's going to be such a delight to have a gun hooker.

Especially with this new everyone
Let go same time tackling..rekon lots of dummy half darts. Imagine if we still had jmo and dewah
 
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I still think Lichaa will grow into a good hooker and probably enjoy a good career. There was times through the season you wished he wasnt on the field, he just didnt seem ready, which was a real shame because he was the one all along claiming he was ready. Hard to say you held your own on the field if you played a part in the worst attacking record in the comp, the worst defensive record (i think) as well as the spoon. The try he set up for Carney vs Brisbane was very nifty 9 work. He could passed it quick but did a small dummy that just got the defenders second guessing, those extra 2 or 3 metres he ran helped open up that gap he put carney through
 

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I still think Lichaa will grow into a good hooker and probably enjoy a good career. There was times through the season you wished he wasnt on the field, he just didnt seem ready, which was a real shame because he was the one all along claiming he was ready. Hard to say you held your own on the field if you played a part in the worst attacking record in the comp, the worst defensive record (i think) as well as the spoon. The try he set up for Carney vs Brisbane was very nifty 9 work. He could passed it quick but did a small dummy that just got the defenders second guessing, those extra 2 or 3 metres he ran helped open up that gap he put carney through

Struggle to understand why at this stage in his career that the Bulldogs would get rid of Ennis for him.
Think there's every chance he could make something of himself but no way he plays better for the Dogs then Ennis will for us next year.
 
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yeah I think Lichaa has another year of growth in his before he hits some comp form, even though i think the guys a bit of a knob, and his ego is a bit inflated ill still be interested to see where he goes with his career.
I saw an interview with him recently where he said when he was younger, when he last signed a contract with us, Des was knocking on his door back then but he wanted to be a Shark, as he was a local bla bla bla. This time round he didnt want the opportunity to slip to play under Des, after seeing him bring some star players to the top of their games. Cant really knock that reason to be honest. But i do still think he had this sense of entitlement from such a young age in a sport that doesnt debut people of even his current age every week
 

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Struggle to understand why at this stage in his career that the Bulldogs would get rid of Ennis for him.
Think there's every chance he could make something of himself but no way he plays better for the Dogs then Ennis will for us next year.

I don't think they got rid of him. They just weren't willing to keep him for another 2/3 years. If the Bulldogs had it their way we would of seen Ennis playing 60 and Lichaa playing 20 throughout this season. I can't help think Lichaa won't be their only hooker this season.
 

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yeah I think Lichaa has another year of growth in his before he hits some comp form, even though i think the guys a bit of a knob, and his ego is a bit inflated ill still be interested to see where he goes with his career.
I saw an interview with him recently where he said when he was younger, when he last signed a contract with us, Des was knocking on his door back then but he wanted to be a Shark, as he was a local bla bla bla. This time round he didnt want the opportunity to slip to play under Des, after seeing him bring some star players to the top of their games. Cant really knock that reason to be honest. But i do still think he had this sense of entitlement from such a young age in a sport that doesnt debut people of even his current age every week

Des loves lichaa, lichaa was very close to signing with manly a few years ago.
 

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Lichaa has gone. No loss. Got offered above his worth by us & we still got outbid.

WGAF? - I don't. Can't see why anybody would, he didn't impress me in the slightest.
 
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Lichaa has gone. No loss. Got offered above his worth by us & we still got outbid.

WGAF? - I don't. Can't see why anybody would, he didn't impress me in the slightest.

me either mate. Im not dirty we lost him, i think if we had of kept him as first string it woulda really hindered us for a couple of seasons. If anything us signing Ennis, and having guys like Nu, Dietz etc will be brilliant. Theres the opportunity there for a few younger blokes to learn off one of the top hookers in the game. Not to mention with us being Ennis' final contract, like many before him we could end up with Ennis being around the club for years beyond this contract in a coaching/mentoring role for some of the young rakes. This can only be a good thing.
I think 2014 highlighted that he was not ready, so Des is going to have to really put some work into him to have him lead that team around.
 
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I tend to agree, I know he had a lot of hype & people that are high profile rate him but I cant help but think maybe they jumped on the bandwagon a bit about how good he actually is.

I cant really say on what he showed us last year & I admit it wasn't a lot of game time but he didn't stand out for me from what I saw, who knows, maybe in a year or two I might be cursing the sharks for letting him go or not offering enough $ to keep him as he might be killing it.

One thing I do know is the heat or attention will really be on him this season as he will more than likely start or be viewed as the dogs number one 9 & with all the hoo ha about him plus his dad being vocal in the media last year he needs to produce otherwise the dogs fans & media will be all over him.
 
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