We are starting to get combos going now. I can't see them being changed. Whare/Simmons on the right. Robinson/Brown running off John. They won't change. Naiqama is a NSW Cup player atm granted he shows promise but he isn't a certainty. Mansour was great outside Jennings but has struggled since.
Do you not remember his form this season before injury? He was one of our best players and was consistently the only back looking like he was actually putting in. The team was in terrible form, but he was still playing well:
Round 1 - 19 runs, 173m gained, 8 tackle breaks, 3 offloads, 1 linebreak assist, 10 tackles, 3 missed
Round 2 - 15 runs, 132m gained, 4 tackle breaks, 3 offloads, 12 tackles / 2 missed
Round 3 - 10 runs, 84m gained, 1 tackle break, 3 offloads, 7 tackles / 1 missed
Round 4 - 20 runs, 247m gained, 8 tackle breaks, 4 offloads, 6 tackles / 3 missed
Round 5 - 15 runs, 166m gained, 7 tackle breaks, 4 offloads, 1 line breaks, 9 tackles / 2 missed
Round 6 - 16 runs, 113m gained, 8 tackles
Round 6 is the game he was injured in. But up until the moment of his injury he was averaging:
15.8 runs for 152.5m gained
4.66 tackle breaks
2.83 offloads
8.66 tackles
1.833 missed tackles
That was in a team with only one win and 5 losses, and with our only ball player being Luke Walsh. The halves were Coote and Humble. The centres were Daniela, Tighe and Naiqama. Fullback was Dean Whare, and then Wes in Round 6.
His form was outstanding until he was injured, unfortunately for him it came at the same time as other injuries that were crucial to the team turning around. Wes Naiqama got injured, and suddenly Dean Whare moves to centre and Matt Moylan comes in to fullback. We then have a fullback who is killing it and igniting our attack, and a centre who is finally playing in his best position and setting up his winger. David Simmons has never looked better then when Whare moved inside him and Moylan helped them get quality ball.
If Josh Mansour was playing on the wing outside of Lewis Brown or Dean Whare, he would have been scoring tries, averaging more metres and have more line breaks to his name. All the work he has done so far this year has been from dummy half runs and hitups. He has not had the ball with room to move to boost his stats. Brad Tighe and Geoff Daniela are not centres who create opportunities for their winger. Throw in Matt Moylan who adds another dimension to the attack, and Travis Robinson came back into first grade under the absolute best possible circumstances and David Simmons sudden try scoring form is obviously not because he has just taken his game to another level. :lol:
David Simmons is in great form at the moment. But that form is a result of changes that were forced upon the team when Wes Naiqama and Brad Tighe were injured. That changed both our centres and brought in a proper fullback. David Simmons had scored 3 tries in the first 6 games, which is still better then Mansour, but far from the form he is in now where people now think he is a superstar.
Then we bring in a fullback to play fullback, move the centre that was at fullback to centre and things suddenly click for us. David Simmons scores 8 tries in the 8 games since players were playing in position. Suddenly the first 6 weeks were nearly every one agreed that Mansour was our best back cease to exist, and David Simmons was also better then him in those games. :lol:
Go rewatch them. Go through the match day threads. Mansour was the one that impressed in an awful side.
