Team v Panthers

[Beavers Headgear]

Sadly centre has largely become a joke position in league - this confirms it again... oh for the days of Lyon, Girdler, Gasnier, Cooper, even f**king Hodges... let alone O'Connor, ET, Kenny, Miles, etc etc...

Yep gone are the days of quality centres like Gidley and Lyon making careers for the wingers outside them who got tries giftwrapped for them

 

[Fufu Andronez]

Yep gone are the days of quality centres like Gidley and Lyon making careers for the wingers outside them who got tries giftwrapped for them

its almost the opposite now. Acrobatic wingers are making the centres look good by turning half chances into amazing tries

 

[SpaceMonkey]

its almost the opposite now. Acrobatic wingers are making the centres look good by turning half chances into amazing tries

Manu made our plodding left centres look better than they were for a decade

 

[Penrose_11]

Gotta say that Hiku has certainly stood up pretty well these last 2 seasons and i’m sure Fus in ‘18 and Ken ‘19 aren’t complaining. Another metre of pace wouldn’t hurt tho. We’re actually missing genuine pace in our backline, so could probably point that finger at nearly everyone except RTS.

Oh to have a Bronson Xeri in the team. Mmmm hold on........

 

[Matua]

Gotta say that Hiku has certainly stood up pretty well these last 2 seasons and i’m sure Fus in ‘18 and Ken ‘19 aren’t complaining. Another metre of pace wouldn’t hurt tho. We’re actually missing genuine pace in our backline, so could probably point that finger at nearly everyone except RTS.

Oh to have a Bronson Xeri in the team. Mmmm hold on........

Yeah, Hiku has excelled at exactly the sort of play that @JJ was describing.

And he tightened up his defence a bit last year too.

I turned around on him after really not liking him initially.

 

[JJ]

Yeah, Hiku has excelled at exactly the sort of play that @JJ was describing.

And he tightened up his defence a bit last year too.

I turned around on him after really not liking him initially.

Yep Hiku is a bit of a throwback...

 

[Penrose Warrior]

Sadly centre has largely become a joke position in league - this confirms it again... oh for the days of Lyon, Girdler, Gasnier, Cooper, even f**king Hodges... let alone O'Connor, ET, Kenny, Miles, etc etc...

That's sad if so. We played our best footy with genuinely good centres - Tate, Toopi, Carlaw, even Jerome Ropati at his peak. And when we were shit, we had a new centre every week. The combination with the wingers has often been a make or break for us. I'd argue no premiership side in recent memory ever carried a rubbish centre. Wingers they might've been able to house a Scott Minto with quality around them, but not centre. Too much traffic both ways.

 

[Beavers Headgear]

Yep Hiku is a bit of a throwback...

Probably because he spent so much time outside Lyon seeing how he operated

 

[JJ]

That's sad if so. We played our best footy with genuinely good centres - Tate, Toopi, Carlaw, even Jerome Ropati at his peak. And when we were shit, we had a new centre every week. The combination with the wingers has often been a make or break for us. I'd argue no premiership side in recent memory ever carried a rubbish centre. Wingers they might've been able to house a Scott Minto with quality around them, but not centre. Too much traffic both ways.

I meant joke in that imo the skill has gone... they’re back rowers now, there’s not much creativity expected, no creating space for wings etc. watching some of the old games made me long for more ‘footballers’

 

[SpaceMonkey]

I meant joke in that imo the skill has gone... they’re back rowers now, there’s not much creativity expected, no creating space for wings etc. watching some of the old games made me long for more ‘footballers’

I was watching the 1989 Balmain vs Souths semi the other day on Kayo, whatever you think of him these days geez Blocker Roach was a hell of a footballer. Great ball skills for a big bloke and a good footy brain.

 

[Penrose Warrior]

I was watching the 1989 Balmain vs Souths semi the other day on Kayo, whatever you think of him these days geez Blocker Roach was a hell of a footballer. Great ball skills for a big bloke and a good footy brain.

He must have CTE then. I can't stand his commentary. Cannot wait to wheel out the big Warriors forward line (he did on Saturday) and then also pulled out his favourite one, the 'Warriors are out on their feet' line about halfway through the first half. Mind you, he seems to have a major chub for RTS.

 

[Penrose Warrior]

I meant joke in that imo the skill has gone... they’re back rowers now, there’s not much creativity expected, no creating space for wings etc. watching some of the old games made me long for more ‘footballers’

Yeah there's definitely not the quality of centres. Lyon was that archetypal quality centre, set his wingers up perfectly and could defend well within a structure too. Brent Tate was also incredibly good. I know our lack of big boppers has always been bemoaned but to me, lack of good centres has hurt us just as much since 2011. It's just not a position you can convert someone to and expect them to perform - Fus never worked, Lolohea, they're shoving Keighran in there, Lawton, it just doesn't work.

 

[Rich102]

The new faster game with more fatigue at play should make good centres more valuable. And big props less valuable?

 

[Matua]

I meant joke in that imo the skill has gone... they’re back rowers now, there’s not much creativity expected, no creating space for wings etc. watching some of the old games made me long for more ‘footballers’

It drove me nuts when we used to play back rowers at centre (I don't think for the Warriors it's a recent occurrence), then we started playing Kata who was basically a midget prop.

I think Herbert is a genuine centre but we're playing him on the wing it seems.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

It drove me nuts when we used to play back rowers at centre (I don't think for the Warriors it's a recent occurrence), then we started playing Kata who was basically a midget prop.

I think Herbert is a genuine centre but we're playing him on the wing it seems.

hopefully when Fus is back in a couple of weeks we’ll see the Herbert/Hiku combo

 

[SpaceMonkey]

He must have CTE then. I can't stand his commentary. Cannot wait to wheel out the big Warriors forward line (he did on Saturday) and then also pulled out his favourite one, the 'Warriors are out on their feet' line about halfway through the first half. Mind you, he seems to have a major chub for RTS.

looking at the fat dopey toad these days it’s hard to reconcile what dynamic player he used to be for sure.
Funnily enough the closest equivalent I can think of in our current mob is Blair on his rare good days.

 

[jaseg]

lol... 'big Warriors forwards' might be slowly coming back as a reality tbh - Tohu, Paasi, Katoa, JTB... Murdoch-Masila coming next year. I wish I could put Pulu in there in good faith also, but he ain't getting picked...

How about that size for a starting pack?
JTB & BMM as props, Tohu at lock, Pulu & Katoa on the edge. Paasi & Leeson on the bench with Jazz for some small guy action when the opposition are getting tired. Blair watching from the sideline. Love it.

 

[DuggyB]

The list of players for next year that are props or can and sometimes do play prop is getting remarkably long.Consider that all are fit and firing -it looks like this.
JTB, Blair,LAM,BMM,Rudolph,Bunty,Frei,Paasi,and Burr.And maybe Murchie might extend also-hell why not?-cant have too many props!Sure,some might not be back next year-Frei and Burr possibly might move on.The forward depth does look much better quite suddenly with the introduction of Katoa and King added to Tohu,Jazz Papalii and Curran..Plenty of competition no doubt.

 

[Fufu Andronez]

Big Ken ruled out, pompey in

 

[Penrose_11]

Big Ken ruled out, pompey in

Big boots to fill. Watched Warriors TV last night and RTS was saying at one stage V Drags him and Ken looked at each other knowing their forwards were done and that they needed to take hit ups for the whole set. Ken is a monster.