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All eyes are on rookie halfback
BRAD EARL
09mar05
MOST attention will be on rookie Tim Smith in the Eels' hoodoo position of halfback when they kick off the 2005 season this week.
Coach Brian Smith is giving his unrelated namesake his NRL debut against Wests Tigers at Telstra Stadium on Saturday.
Tim Smith, 20, is a former Australian Schoolboy from the Gold Coast who has spent the past two years coming through Parramatta's ranks.
He has won the battle for the No. 7 jersey with PJ Marsh, who resumes his Eels career where he left off after the 2001 grand final in the No. 14 role of interchange dummy-half.
Marsh, who in the pre-season trial matches has made a successful comeback from a serious neck injury suffered in mid-2003 with the Warriors, provides the option of relieving new hooker Mark Riddell, a star signing from St George Illawarra.
To accommodate Riddell, John Morris has switched from hooker to five-eighth, which means he and Smith give the Eels a new-look halves combination.
The backline also features a new centre pairing in more ways than one, because both players are changing positions.
Timana Tahu, a NSW and Australia representative on the wing, came from Newcastle on the promise of playing in the centres, while the other spot goes to Daniel Wagon, who joined the Eels as a winger in 1999 but has played five-eighth and lock in recent seasons.
In the forwards, three leading recruits have been named in the run-on side: Paul Stringer (from South Sydney) at prop, Chad Robinson (Sydney Roosters) in the second row and Glenn Morrison (North Queensland) at lock.
A name that looms large on a six-man interchange bench is Kangaroos second-rower Nathan Hindmarsh, who had surgery on a bulging disc in his lower back two months ago.
BRAD EARL
09mar05
MOST attention will be on rookie Tim Smith in the Eels' hoodoo position of halfback when they kick off the 2005 season this week.
Coach Brian Smith is giving his unrelated namesake his NRL debut against Wests Tigers at Telstra Stadium on Saturday.
Tim Smith, 20, is a former Australian Schoolboy from the Gold Coast who has spent the past two years coming through Parramatta's ranks.
He has won the battle for the No. 7 jersey with PJ Marsh, who resumes his Eels career where he left off after the 2001 grand final in the No. 14 role of interchange dummy-half.
Marsh, who in the pre-season trial matches has made a successful comeback from a serious neck injury suffered in mid-2003 with the Warriors, provides the option of relieving new hooker Mark Riddell, a star signing from St George Illawarra.
To accommodate Riddell, John Morris has switched from hooker to five-eighth, which means he and Smith give the Eels a new-look halves combination.
The backline also features a new centre pairing in more ways than one, because both players are changing positions.
Timana Tahu, a NSW and Australia representative on the wing, came from Newcastle on the promise of playing in the centres, while the other spot goes to Daniel Wagon, who joined the Eels as a winger in 1999 but has played five-eighth and lock in recent seasons.
In the forwards, three leading recruits have been named in the run-on side: Paul Stringer (from South Sydney) at prop, Chad Robinson (Sydney Roosters) in the second row and Glenn Morrison (North Queensland) at lock.
A name that looms large on a six-man interchange bench is Kangaroos second-rower Nathan Hindmarsh, who had surgery on a bulging disc in his lower back two months ago.
