Official Samuel Stonestreet

Gards said:
I get it, Sione and Ronnie can't play for ever but they are still just 28 & 26 years of age respectively. No where near retirement / ESL age and both arguably playing somewhere around their peak football. I rate them both quite highly, Sione still offers alot to this team even if he isn't considered the all round modern big , fast , athletic wing prototype there are things in his game he does just so well week in week out

I don't thinking giving Sione another 12 or even 24 month contract would be a terrible decision. I don't see his performance level dropping off all of a sudden drastically in that time and Stonestreet isn't the complete package yet and I don't really consider him a future NRL star or anything

He could become a Alex Johnston type winger, a decently capable player with a knack for finding the try line on the regular

With Sam being 23 I can also understand him probably not wanting to be considered 3rd choice / depth for too much longer and wanting to cement a starting spot and get his FG career underway proper either here or somewhere else

I can also understand our club preference being to stick with a local junior that they already know and has come up through with our systems / fellow squad members opposed to taking a punt on another young winger externally

With Ramien possibly moving on and Hiroti confirmed to Titans I have to wonder if we could make Ronnie work at centre, he's big, powerful, fast, makes line breaks ect. Might be able to go back to wing once a younger centre from our ranks can lock down a FG spot (assuming Katoa was kept on for another 12 months or so) OR we find another up and coming winger to play on the otherside from Sam
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I’m not saying I would get rid of them, just if we thought either was likely to leave it raises Sam’s stocks a lot. Both the other two very keepable.

andrew's_sharks said:
I bought up the Ronnie at centre a couple of weeks ago and got shot down. I am with you it should be investigated and considered. It makes sense.
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My main gripe with this argument is what makes you think it hasn’t been investigated and considered?

Us not getting to watch it for half a dozen games to make our own minds up doesn’t mean the correct answer isn’t known in house.
Im sure he could convert back eventually but if we don’t think it’d be quick enough how long do we realistically wanna run a worse winger and a bad centre.
 
andrew's_sharks said:
I bought up the Ronnie at centre a couple of weeks ago and got shot down. I am with you it should be investigated and considered. It makes sense.
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Because you don't move one of the widely considered best wingers in the comp to a position they haven't played in since 2019. He has had 9 games as a centre in NSW CUP and 1 in the NRL.
 
Gibs said:
Because you don't move one of the widely considered best wingers in the comp to a position they haven't played in since 2019. He has had 9 games as a centre in NSW CUP and 1 in the NRL.
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Sometimes you do things like this though on balance of what the team might need now and into the future and as the situation calls for it

It allows us to keep Sione on the wing who is a good consistent performer (and not expensive) for us while letting Stonestreet develop and continue to improve on the other and not go elsewhere for the next contract.

All 3 have had their injuries so it gives us another quality backline option who has FG experience as Hiroti is gone and Ramien might also be

Holmes was one of the best wingers in the comp but it didn't stop him being moved to fullback, centre, halves ect over the course of his career and depending on what the team/coach needed and wanted

Ofcourse you could simply just not offer Katoa a new contract but then we are potentially going into 2027 with both a rookie centre and/or rookie winger/wingers while essentially having zero depth with FG experience (unless we go to market)

I wouldn't suggest Ronnie in the centres if he didn't have the capabilities to perform there - bloke is an athlete and some of the stuff he is already doing from the backfield is classic centre play
 
Gards said:
Sometimes you do things like this though on balance of what the team might need now and into the future and as the situation calls for it

It allows us to keep Sione on the wing who is a good consistent performer (and not expensive) for us while letting Stonestreet develop and continue to improve on the other and not go elsewhere for the next contract.

All 3 have had their injuries so it gives us another quality backline option who has FG experience as Hiroti is gone and Ramien might also be

Holmes was one of the best wingers in the comp but it didn't stop him being moved to fullback, centre, halves ect over the course of his career and depending on what the team/coach needed and wanted

Ofcourse you could simply just not offer Katoa a new contract but then we are potentially going into 2027 with both a rookie centre and/or rookie winger/wingers while essentially having zero depth with FG experience (unless we go to market)

I wouldn't suggest Ronnie in the centres if he didn't have the capabilities to perform there - bloke is an athlete and some of the stuff he is already doing from the backfield is classic centre play
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If we move Ronnie to centre, we are still going into the 2027 season with a rookie centre (rookie by games played at the position) and winger, plus we would be trying to change 7 years worth of first grade position coaching.
 
Gibs said:
If we move Ronnie to centre, we are still going into the 2027 season with a rookie centre (rookie by games played at the position) and winger, plus we would be trying to change 7 years worth of first grade position coaching.
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There is a big difference bertween an actual rookie and a shuffle in your back line.
 
I'm sure Ronnie could learn centre to a competent level, I'm not sure he'd shine as well as he does on the wing, I think he could get close-ish.
While he makes poor defensive decisions at times at wing (often forced, but definitely also messes up at times) I also don't rate his contact and hit and stick too highly. Both would create massive issues if he was was at centre, look at how raiders picked apart a good defender in Iro on an off day.

I also don't know if being close-ish to the same Ronnie but in a different position takes him one preseason or two... and can we afford to carry a below par centre for a season?
 
Also need to consider how he returns from his knee injury and if his effective on the wing would be hampered by that at all
 
andrew's_sharks said:
There is a big difference bertween an actual rookie and a shuffle in your back line.
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There's a big difference between 10 games at centre, in your entire career, and a career centre, even if they are a rookie. Hell, CV has had more NRL games at centre than Ronnie has
 
Ronnie could definitely be as good a centre as Pomeroy.

He’d just had to remove 4 fingers and wear a really foggy pair of those glasses Seve uses.
 
Sharks NRL Prospects said:
Ronnie could definitely be as good a centre as Pomeroy.

He’d just had to remove 4 fingers and wear a really foggy pair of those glasses Seve uses.
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Speaking of Pom, a good look at his hands does explain his struggles.

hh-15.jpg
 
Maybe 10 times I've seen Ronnie in the centre position off a scrum or something. Prob 8 of those times he's made a break. I reckon offensively he'd do really well. I'm just not sure if it's worth taking him off his wing and hoping he does well at centre, and then looking to find someone for his wing spot who can offer what he does.
 
Since there's such overwhelming agreement with me, which sensibly recognises that I'm rarely (if ever, but I don't want to come across as having tickets on myself) wrong, I'll leave it at that...
 
Gards said:
I've never been on the Stonestreet hype train but tries get scored around wingers all the time, almost every game

The problem often starts further infield of the defensive line, it isn't necessarily a winger making a bad decision to jam in.
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Say it louder for the "just stay on your damn wing" idiots in the back.

Jamming is defence 101 for when you're beaten for numbers. Force the opposition to make the harder/extra pass and if they score so be it. Better than letting them run through the clear hole further in field for an easier try/conversion.
 
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