Your Round 1 Team

[greenie1957]

interesting to see our centres & wingers, i really hope it is different to last year

 

[greenie1957]

yes i have him as a cheapy in my supercoach

 

[Beejay]

Well considering we havent bought any new ones, Id be surprised if it wasnt more of the same.... unless of course Ross wants a shot playing out wide

 

[greenie1957]

Warriors have been named, that Hurrell chap is starting at centre

good cheapy in dream team

 

[greenie1957]

Well considering we havent bought any new ones, Id be surprised if it wasnt more of the same.... unless of course Ross wants a shot playing out wide

i thought maybe we might try something different

 

[since1967]

Gardner
Mills
Best
Pom
Wright
Graham
Carney
Ross
Degois
Gibbs
Smith
Bakuya
Gal

Tupou
Frizz
Taga
Fifita

De Gois needs to play 80 (hopefully he doent get knocked out) for us. A back up hooker is a waste of a bench spot!

 

[snowman]

i like that team. i would probably run with it as well, and there is a way around the whole degois injury thing as well.

matt wright has played a heap of 5/8 and could fill the void if degois got injured, and graham had to move to hooker.

then you could put one of boogie, taga or friz in the centers

not a bad team

 

[slide rule]

I think the starting team basically names itself. The interesting thing will be the bench.

 

[Mark^Bastard]

I can understand why people talk about 80 minute hookers but one thing I don't understand is the reasoning.

We have 4 bench spots and if you don't have a hooker/utility on the bench and just have another second rower instead, it just means that your second rowers are playing less minutes too. The same thing you didn't want your hooker doing.

Hookers are forwards, they tackle a lot in the ruck. They also touch the ball the most out of any player on the field and often take attacking runs and feature heavily in attacking structure.

It's great to have an 80 minute hooker but they can't all keep up the level of insity, physicality and skill over 80 minutes. Not to mention what happens if they're injured.

We have a genuine 80 minute back rower in Gallen. He doesn't need or want any rest and would take it as in insult if he was subbed off. He's also our captain and I believe the backbone of our team. I would rather him on for 80 minutes than De Gois.

Now if you agree with that and think they both should play for 80, that means you have 4 back rowers sharing 160 minutes of game time for an average of 40 minutes each. That's the same as props. I'm not sure I can agree with that. Sure it may be a nice luxury to have but it's at the expense of the hooker.

To take it even further, we have had a hooker on the bench for the last couple of seasons and in that time we have often had a forward on the bench that only played 15 or so minutes! If we've already got someone like that being under utilised why would you want yet another forward on the bench?

 

[slide rule]

An extreme example, but what would you do if Cameron Smith was our hooker?

We would probably want to leave both Gallen and Smith on for the entire 80 minutes. Would you shift either of them off to bring on an inferior substitution? I think a tired Gallen or Smith is better than (say) a fresh Morris. I wouldn't put Degois in the same catergory as Smith, but I think he really controls the ruck really well and is probably capable of the 80. Is a fresh Morris better than a tired DeGois? Should we be making interchages just because we can? I'm not sure that we should. But in saying that, we should maybe have our 4th bench spot taken up by a utility player, which just happens to be Morris anyway.

In the end, I think it's one of those things which should be refined as the season progresses.

 

[BurgoShark]

I know this is "your team" for round one and some people are arguing whether Flanno will pick hotdog ... but I find it amazing that some people here would chose BOTH Wright and Mills over Williams. I can get on board with giving either/both of them some time to prove themselves as centres, but do people here really think that AS WINGERS both these guys are better than hotdog?

 

[BurgoShark]

An extreme example, but what would you do if Cameron Smith was our hooker?

We would probably want to leave both Gallen and Smith on for the entire 80 minutes. Would you shift either of them off to bring on an inferior substitution? I think a tired Gallen or Smith is better than (say) a fresh Morris. I wouldn't put Degois in the same catergory as Smith, but I think he really controls the ruck really well and is probably capable of the 80. Is a fresh Morris better than a tired DeGois? Should we be making interchages just because we can? I'm not sure that we should. But in saying that, we should maybe have our 4th bench spot taken up by a utility player, which just happens to be Morris anyway.

In the end, I think it's one of those things which should be refined as the season progresses.

If Cameron Smith was our hooker we would probably have a guy on the bench who can play more than just hooker - like Ryan Hinchcliffe does. He came to Melbourne as a hooker and they turned him into a guy who can play a bit of back row too.

It's not really relevant to say that "if Cameron Smith was our hooker" AND "you must choose from these hooker/halves or back-rowers on the bench (the ones we already have now)". If we had signed Smith we would have a plan for that bench spot or addressed that need in the off-season - based on our current crop of players the best choice for that type of player is Tyrone Peachey - but the jury is out on whether he is 1) ready for first grade, or 2) more deserving of a spot than several other guys.

 

[Mark^Bastard]

An extreme example, but what would you do if Cameron Smith was our hooker?

We would probably want to leave both Gallen and Smith on for the entire 80 minutes. Would you shift either of them off to bring on an inferior substitution? I think a tired Gallen or Smith is better than (say) a fresh Morris. I wouldn't put Degois in the same catergory as Smith, but I think he really controls the ruck really well and is probably capable of the 80. Is a fresh Morris better than a tired DeGois? Should we be making interchages just because we can? I'm not sure that we should. But in saying that, we should maybe have our 4th bench spot taken up by a utility player, which just happens to be Morris anyway.

In the end, I think it's one of those things which should be refined as the season progresses.

If it was Cameron Smith, who has routinely proven himself as an 80 minute player that is resistant to injury then of course I'd play him for 80 minutes.

If it's De Gois I'd wanna do what I've said before and start Morris for the first 20 then chuck him on the bench for the rest of the game, to cover injury only.

It's an interesting example. Last year people were calling Morris an 80 minute hooker and saying the same thing. Personally I think Morris turned to absolute dog crap after about 45 minutes.

I'm happy to see De Gois back in Sharks colours to make my mind up but I would really doubt he could be an 80 minute hooker for 20+ rounds this year.

 

[Mark^Bastard]

I know this is "your team" for round one and some people are arguing whether Flanno will pick hotdog ... but I find it amazing that some people here would chose BOTH Wright and Mills over Williams. I can get on board with giving either/both of them some time to prove themselves as centres, but do people here really think that AS WINGERS both these guys are better than hotdog?

God no.

My opinion of wingers in our team is that Hotdog is the best, Stapo a close second. I don't think anyone else in the team is a genuine winger of even close to NRL standard.

Mills is a capable fill-in and I can see the point in playing him on the wing so that he can get first grade games. A lot of centres do so fair enough. Wright did get a lot of experience there last year and did get better. He was OK before his injury in my opinion. Perhaps worth a look in but still a centre or even back rower over a winger I reckon, though hardly staking a massive claim.

 

[since1967]

I think hooker is as important as half or fullback. We don't replace them if there tires nor should we for a hooker. All the good sides have 80min hookers farah,ballin,ennis,smith to name a few, it gives us the option of having guys like taga, and frizz who can cover centre and back row and allows gal to move tight where he ends up anyway. 3 props is plenty and I think we have more strike with 1 hooker who plays 80mins

 

[Blair]

I'd like an 80 minute Degois cause I want Taga, Bukuya, Toops and Frizz in the team. But I don't think its a smart move. Unless Say Graham had done extensive training in that position, which I doubt he has, then he isn't a 1st grade hooker and we would lose momentum whenever Degois went don't injured. Which history shows us is quite often.

I think we will just have to wait until there are some injuries or poor form before we start seeing all these players in 1st grade.

 

[josh11223344]

i put bakula in for centre in and you laughed at me

hahaha it's fifita and robson all over again. BukuYa

 

[teflon77]

Just once could we release a team earlier in the day. Not too much to ask is it?

 

[snowman]

the team is named, flanno just cant decide on his extended bench yet :lmao

 

[Mark^Bastard]

On twitter they say around 2pm, maybe they meant QLD time.