I agree AB.
And my mindset before getting Carney is different now and I have to think about things differently. For example before Careny we had some good halves options but none set the world on fire, so I wanted to have Townsend/Kelly/Graham all on the field to sort of make up for it. But with a player like Carney maybe we don't need that.
But Graham really deserves to play. It's a weird situation.
Do you reckon Gallen would be happy ever being on the bench? I think I'd rather him play 80 but allow others to share his work load more. If he could lower his work rate and focus on quality over quantity and let the pigs do more work I think we look after him while not requiring him to warm the bench.
Do you think he will ever let others take on his workload while he's on the field?
I hope waking up a couple of times after only play 70mins might convince him that its a good idea.
I don't like the lack of line runners in most people's teams. Mitch Aubusson's hole-running did as much for Carney's game in 2010 as Carney did for the Roosters. FPN was the same. Good ballplayers need good runners- or at least runners who can run the right lines to create space.
Our best line runner is Friz, then probably Taga and Bukuya. Tupou and Graham are different in that they like to footwork their way through the line and ballplay. Gal could maybe do a job for us but his damn workload means he overcalls the ball and makes a lot of bad decisions because of fatigue.
Bukuya also gives us some lateral/footspeed speed in defence that the others don't. Don't be surprised to see him named in the 17 over a more 'fancied' player come round 1 for those reasons.
EDIT: Its a reason we need to extend Graham before Round 1... so we're not beholden to playing him even if he isn't in the best 17. With Smith and probably Tupou moving on over the next couple of years there will be spots there in the back row- but maybe not this year.
