Aitken is not a centre; does not have a good passing game and his defensive reads are very poor. He mostly holds onto the ball and tries to do it all himself. Aitken nees to be on the bench and may one day be a good backrower.
Nightingale is done and should not be in first grade. Mary's wasted so many opportunities to blood a youn winger and centre this year. We knew about Aitken and Nightingale last season and so should have had the likes of Lomax and Herbert on our right edge early and maybe by now we would not be having this discussion.
I was a big fan of Mann but no longer. In the game yesterday he showed the same lack of technique that saw him dropped to reserve grade a couple of years ago. If possible I'd like to see him gone for 2019.
Yes Dufty is a work in progress however, surely the coaching staff should be working on his positioning and reads in defence. If his defence does not improve, I'm afraid that he may go the same way as Quinlan.
Our forwards are not dominating like they did earlier on in the season. Same, same as in previous seasons albeit the Dragons are further up the ladder this year. I would move Frizell to prop, Sims to the right edge and Leilua to the left edge. Sims would really stiffen up the defence on the right side; the combination of Frizell - Hunt - Aitken - Nightingale is a disaster and needs a complete revamp. At least on the left we have Widdop, Lafai and Mcdodald who seem to do an OK job in defence.
Lomax to right centre and Herbert to right wing unless of course Millward lands a couple of forwards and a couple of first grade rightside backs. I like the idea of retaining our juniors but not at the expense year after year of poor first grade results.