Team 2012!!

[timka4]

Aku would be stupid to play for Fiji now, he'll be in the aus and nsw teams for years to come.

 

[RHCP]

Matt Hilder is a real 'you don't know what you've got till it's gone' player. Whenever we lose, there'll always be somebody faster, bigger or stronger to take his place, whenever we win, he'll usually miss out on the accolades until we load up the stats when he gets an 'attaboy'. That's just the nature of the way he plays, I myself am guilty of it as a lot of others are.

I'm sure Wayne will find a place for him in the 17. Whether that's 9, 13 (probably not) or 14 is up to who else is available for round one.

 

[Seage]

Aku would be stupid to play for Fiji now, he'll be in the aus and nsw teams for years to come.

He'd also be stupid to have any more interaction with Rick Stone than he needed to.

And i'll fight anyone who says Matt Hilder is not in our top 17. I'd take him over Cuthbertson a million times over. His quality is shown by how high his own team mates rate him. Blokes fail to turn up some weeks, put in lazy efforts, or don't look like they're trying in some instances. He ain't one of them.

 

[Rolla]

Aku is a much better winger than Boyd.
He works harder for Aus than he does for Newcastle.

Stoney is talking about asking Civo and Tuquiri to play for Fiji when he coaches them in the world cup - bet he'd love to talk Aku into it too.

Really? Based on what?

 

[Yosh]

*Bump!

So here's my team:

1. Boyd
2. Uate
3. Tahu
4. Wes
5. McManus

6. Mullen
7. Stig

8. Snowden
9. Kidley
10. Tui
11. Taia
12. House
13. Costigan

14. Bedsy
15. Eddy
16. Faas
17. Cuthbertson

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

With the kidley to hooker bedsy to bench scenario I would take Roberts over stig. And maybe Hilder over cuthbertson. I dont think hilder deserves to lose his spot, but having both hilder and bedsy on the bench does make it look fairly light on. Some tough decisions to be made, but thats a good thing.

 

[Tom155]

1. Boyd
2. Uate
3. Sau
4. Wes
5. McManus

6. Mullen
7. Roberts

8. Snowden
9. Kidley
10. Tui
11. Taia
12. House
13. Costigan

14. Bedsy
15. Eddy
16. Faas
17. Tetevano/Cook

 

[Joker's Wild]

Waltzing won't be left out. We would miss his clean up around the ruck too much

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

Hilder is the ideal forward to play the full 80minutes, or you could keep him on the bench until the last 10 min of the first half and have him play out the remainder of the game. He should be one of our key players when it comes to preventing our end of match fade outs which I have no doubt will be one of the coaching staffs main focus during the off season. If it isn't then they have rocks in their heads.

 

[Tom155]

Waltzing won't be left out. We would miss his clean up around the ruck too much

yeah i know, i just forgot him

 

[League_God]

I think with the current quality of our depth, we may see some chopping and changing in the forwards depending on the game plan and the other side's strengths & weaknesses.

1.
6.
7.

should stay untouched bar form, injury etc.

9. and 14. could alternate between bedsy and hilder.

The forwards and bench will most likely chop and change throughout the year.

 

[doggone]

Hilder will be in the team, Bennett had the opportunity to let him go but didn't, that says enough for me! Everyone will be vying for positions which is good. There are so many options it's scary! Every position is covered for injuries which is great!! Bring it on!

 

[Spot On]

So I read Bennett's article re All-Stars game in the DT today and he wrote Kade Snowden was polling well, will most probably partner Gal in the front row and has had a bumper off season with Newastle. So is this bloke seriously injured or is it manageable or is it bullshit?

 

[Silent Knight]

So I read Bennett's article re All-Stars game in the DT today and he wrote Kade Snowden was polling well, will most probably partner Gal in the front row and has had a bumper off season with Newastle. So is this bloke seriously injured or is it manageable or is it bullshit?

I'm calling bs at this point but I kind of wish Kade wasn't playing in that All Stars game. I've been to all of them on the GC and when Kurt went down in 2010 it was a major kick in the guts for my mate and I.

I just hope we have Kade fit and ready to take on an aggressive Dragons team in round 1. We'll need him.

 

[Spot On]

I'm with you SK, worries me blokes could potentially be seriously injured in this game but the fact that Bennett wants him to play and he is allowed to play tells me the talk about his "chronic, f**ked, wrecked" back is absolute crap.

I've read posts from users outside this forum who have stated they know for a fact his back is f**kED!!!!!! How bad can it be if Bennett wants him playing in this game??? Answer - not that bad.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

I hate the unknown about Kade, for 400k a season you would have hoped that some homework was done on his injury. I guess come the allstars game and then round 1 we will have a strong guage on where he is at.

 

[Newie is God's Country]

Does anyone really think Benny would have signed Kade if his back was f###ed? Tinkler sacked Culina cos his knee was shot completely. Benny would shelve Kade if he thought he was going to reinjure himself.

 

[Newie is God's Country]

Double post.

 

[billy2]

<H1>Kade Snowden passes fitness and fans&#8217; test for All Stars

BY ROBERT DILLON
17 Jan, 2012 04:00 AM
KADE Snowden appears to be a certain starter in next month&#8217;s All Stars match after convincing Newcastle&#8217;s training staff he has recovered from a neck injury.
Snowden missed several games for Cronulla last season with a bulging disc in his neck that was still troubling him when he arrived for pre-season training with the Knights in November.
It was feared the Test and NSW Origin prop might need surgery that would sideline him for several months.
But the 25-year-old trained strongly and Knights high-performance manager Jeremy Hickmans said there was no reason why he would not be available for the third annual All Stars season opener, to be held on February 4 at Skilled Park.
&#8216;&#8216;Touch wood, he&#8217;s been really good,&#8217;&#8217; Hickmans said yesterday. &#8216;&#8216;His injury was something we wanted to address at the beginning of the pre-season, so he did a couple of weeks extra to get him ready for what we wanted.
&#8216;&#8216;He&#8217;s been training the house down. We&#8217;re really happy with him.
&#8216;&#8216;If he&#8217;s picked [for the All Stars], I see no reason why he can&#8217;t play.&#8217;&#8217;
Voting for the All Stars closes at midnight tomorrow and Snowden is at short odds to be Newcastle&#8217;s supporter-elected representative.
About 15,000 fans have voted to select 16 players. The squad will be boosted to 20 by automatic selections Benji Marshall and Cameron Smith and two &#8216;&#8216;coach&#8217;s pick&#8217;&#8217; players nominated by Wayne Bennett.
As of yesterday, Snowden was more than 2000 votes clear of his nearest Newcastle teammate, back-rower Neville Costigan.
Circumstances have increased Snowden&#8217;s chances.
Newcastle backline game breakers Kurt Gidley, Darius Boyd and Akuila Uate are unavailable for the All Stars, because of injuries.
Test props Matt Scott and Petero Civoniceva withdrew last week, leaving Snowden likely to partner Sharks skipper Paul Gallen or Gold Coast co-captain Luke Bailey in the engine room.
Scans have confirmed rookie utility back Peter Mata&#8217;utia is likely to miss Newcastle&#8217;s pre-season trials with a knee injury.
Mata&#8217;utia, who played in five NRL games last season, scoring two tries, tore his medial ligament in a contact drill last week.
&#8216;&#8216;It&#8217;s probably somewhere between six and eight weeks ... That probably means he&#8217;ll miss the beginning of the season,&#8217;&#8217; Hickmans said. &#8216;&#8216;It&#8217;s not ideal but these things happen.&#8217;&#8217;

</H1>http://www.theherald.com.au/news/lo...ness-and-fans-test-for-all-stars/2421972.aspx

 

[perverse]

it's a shame about Pete, but great news on Snowy. who knows how much bullshit is spun in that article, but they say he can play, and he's playing... so that's better than the alternative i suppose. hard to be confident that he's 100% given the things we've heard about it.