'14 // Origin I // Wed 28 // QLD 8-12 NSW // Suncorp

[souths_pride]

I don't think you do agree with me. I'm saying John Sutton is overrated. Any halve can play as good as he is playing behind a good pack. Look at Maloney/Pearce and Reynolds/Hodkinson, they all play behind massive packs hell Pearce and Maloney won a freaking premiership. Not necessarily knocking them, but the way they play isn't the traditional halves, yet it works because of their pack. You remove the big blokes from Souths and John Sutton falls into the pit of irrelevance again bringing Reynolds with him.

What puts Mullen on a level higher than Sutton and even plenty of halves in the NRL is that he doesn't have the luxury of playing behind a big pack, it's complete shit and one of the worst in the NRL, yet he stands out because he's pure class.

South's success these last few years is all due to Greg Inglis. You may not like it, you may not want to accept it, but unless Greg Inglis is firing on all four cylinders, South Sydney will never be a true premiership contender. John Sutton had very little to do with it. Quite simply, John Sutton has played consistent, but that consistency hasn't contained anything to warrant selection.

I agreed with you in the sense that John Sutton has been producing his best footy over the last 3-4 seasons. As for Souths' success being all down to Greg Inglish - you've got to be joking! To say that Souths' success is all due to Greg Inglis is complete nonsense! No doubt hes an legendary player but to say that all their success is due him is rubbish! For starters I'd say Sam Burgess has probably been our best and most consistent player (along with Inglis) over the last two and a half years, while George Burgess has emerged as a world class prop, while Ben Teo, Chris McQueen and Issac Luke have all contributed heavily. Also Dylan Walker is emerging as a quality centre.

I said it before...the problem with Newcastle is NOT their forward..yes they're a bit old and a bit injury prone but youve got some good names there..eg. Willie Mason, Jeremy Smith, Kade Snowden, Korbine Sims, Beau Scott! Yes theyve got a couple of mediocre players in their forward pack but I don't feel thats their reason for Newcastle losing games! In any case..there is no team in the comp that has a team 1-17 of world class players; every team has what id call 'squad players' or players who opposition teams would target in their game plan. As I've said your outside backs are very poor defensively and even a couple of your forwards tend to make bad decision in defence. On top of that I dont think Mullen or Tyrone Roberts offers enough in terms of organisation, structure and creativity. Mullen has his moments no doubt but he is highly inconsistent.

You keep mentioning Newcastle's forwards but what do you feel is wrong with them? You sort of allude to the fact that theyre not a massive pack but having a good forward pack is more that just chucking big men on the paddock and in any case its not as if your forwards are small! There are quite a few teams in the comp that have smaller packs than you guys. You also imply that halves are only good if theyre playing behind massive packs? In reality there are only three teams in the NRL that have what I would call truly massive packs - Roosters, Bulldogs and Roosters..look at Melbourne theyve probably got one of the more smaller packs in the NRL and Widdop/Cronk combination was one of the best halves combinations in the NRL - the Melbourne attacking game plan is all about players in motion, mobility and hole running. Not every team tries to bash their way up the middle!