I don't think Lance or Marto have gone well this year at all to be frank. Their defence is getting busted a bit, and they're not breaking the line. The last few weeks, particularly against Melbourne and Canterbury Hohaia dropped a lot of unforced ball at crucial stages. I thought it was inevitable he'd be dropped sooner or later. Marto I think was starting to get picked on his goal kicking and experience, but he was getting exposed in defence and not offering any attack and Michael Witt showed what a lot of us already knew that he is a top line goal kicker. From recollection, his career record is around 80%, and he's hummed some rippers over from the sideline particularly when he was at Parramatta.
I was liking Ropo at 6, but I guess now he should move to the centres... particularly with next year looming we could have McKinnon Ah Van Ropati Tate Vatuvei Witt Rovelli which could be alright. I think Mannering is an entirely better player as a backrower, so for the rest of the reason, provided Byrne is consistent I'd like to see him perservered with in the centres. He defended very well last night on Paul Gallen in particular, and he's a very good player. He got into dummy half and took some important dummy half runs. I wouldn't resign him, but I'd keep him at centre ahead of Martin. And as DMM knows, I was initially a Martin fan, but to be honest, he just hasn't been the player he once was. He was outstanding at Melbourne before going to England. He used to be very quick and make a tonne of line breaks.... now he's submissive and weak.
