Breath on the neck

[Meth]

2 rounds in, in your view, whose spots are in jeopardy, and from who?

For me;

Hohaia- his form needs to improve to justify not going ahead and introducing either Fisiiahi or Locke.

Seymour- John injured relieves the pressure on him a little, but he is the same as Hohaia for mine.

Heremaia- Mara

I am itching to see Ta'ai back in. I have not been overly impressed with Mateo, but I do agree that he does bring some creativity and intent to attack, so I am willing to persevere with him.

 

[hitman82]

I agree all round.

I'd make the Mara for Heremaia change right now. We need something different, we need spark, we need creativity. Mara MAY bring that - we need to give him a shot.

The other change I want to make right now is Luck gone, Mannering to lock and Mateo and Ta'ai in the second row. Tackle bot is not saving us on D anymore - and his attack is still not worth mentioning. Ta'ai needs to come in with his aggression and passing game.

Matulino and Lillyman need to be a lot more present and aggressive. I don't see much from either of them right now. Another 3 rounds for them and if there is no change we bring Latimore or Gavet or Poching in for the worse of the two.

Hohaia needs to combine his attack and defense skills and bring them both to the next game.

Seymour stays by default.

Locke goes back to the Vulcans and Fish gets another shot.

 

[Dr Crane]

luck's attack is worth mentioning. it's so sh*t it alone should be a reason for being dropped.

 

[Warmess]

Hohaia, Seymour, Heremaia and Luck should all not be in the side.

Unfortunately I can really only see Heremaia (maybe Seymour too) being given the punt and that wouldn't even be for another 5 rounds.

I just hope some serious questions are being asked of Cleary in the Warriors camp.

 

[Sam_the_man]

If you drop Luck which of our lazy arsed forwards are going to do his work load? He does the defensive work of two forwards which should free up other forwards to attack more.

 

[NZ Warrior]

If you drop Luck which of our lazy arsed forwards are going to do his work load? He does the defensive work of two forwards which should free up other forwards to attack more.

Exactly, The Man Who Is Sam! Luck may be sh*t on attack, but sh*t we need him on defense.

The hook has got to be above the following players:
Lillyman
Matulino
Moon

These guys really haven't impressed me so far. The likes of Hohaia & Seymour have had on & off games. But at least they've been contributing to the team. The club has a glut of backrowers, so the likes of Matulino should be busting his arse to stay in the team.

We'll see what happens on Sunday. But if those 3 that I've mentioned, don't perform well enough, I'd hope Ivan drops them.

 

[ozbash]

2 of those 3 are playing out of position.

1 of them is still very young and should be perservered with

luck and mannering's style of play is identical, defense orientated. Thats ok but do we need 2 defensive demons ?

Leadership isnt a strong point in that team either.

 

[Martli]

Leadership isnt a strong point in that team either.

Yep. We lost a lot of it when Tate left. I don't rate Mannering as a captain but struggle to find a viable alternative. Maybe Sam Rapira.

 

[ozbash]

Maybe Sam Rapira.

wasnt he JK captain or was that Packer ?

 

[Micistm]

All good points but let's face it, if we can trudge through '09 without changes we are going to have to face this year as well!
I'm hoping they get form, because there is **** all chance of anyone being dropped

 

[Meth]

Moon's form is a concern- we desperately need his form to come right

 

[mean]

Yep. We lost a lot of it when Tate left. I don't rate Mannering as a captain but struggle to find a viable alternative. Maybe Sam Rapira.

Anyone who has school certificate will do.

 

[Warmess]

If you drop Luck which of our lazy arsed forwards are going to do his work load? He does the defensive work of two forwards which should free up other forwards to attack more.

We _may_ leak some more points, but I hardly see any 'attack' from our forwards anyway. Luck still manages to get his hands on the ball inside the opposition 20, and all of our forwards take weak hit ups in that zone anyway.

Get rid of him and we'll truly have better attack, not 'free up' other players to do so.

11. Mannering
12. Mateo/Brown
13. Luck

How scary is that?

11. Mannering
12. Ta'ai/Brown
13. Mateo

Imo, I'd rather possibly leak more points but almost definitely score more as well. Opposition seem to be scoring at will inside our 20 anyway...

 

[Meth]

Personally, I'd rather see Luck stay, Mannering look to attack more, Rapira play more minutes and either Lillyman or Matulino make way for Ta'ai

 

[hitman82]

wasnt he JK captain or was that Packer ?

That was Packer.

Rapira strikes me as a mature, straight to the point kind of guy, and is certainly a leader with his playing style. No idea whether his personality is that way inclined though.

 

[hitman82]

Personally, I'd rather see Luck stay, Mannering look to attack more, Rapira play more minutes and either Lillyman or Matulino make way for Ta'ai

Yeah I'd be fine with Luck staying except as you say, Mannering's attack has dropped off big time.

We don't have amazing outside backs now that Manu is gone.

We don't have a ball-playing prop who regularly scores or sets up tries.

We don't have a consistent x-factor half or fullback

Therefore, having an overly defensive second row and lock is just stupid. We need to jam as much attacking prowess into our team as possible.

 

[KeepingTheFaith]

Luck needs to go. Offers nothing that can't be covered elsewhere. This isn't the NFL where players only do one thing. A good start to helping our attack would be if we actually had a fair 13 on 13 contest in attack instead of leaving ourselves automatically one short.

 

[NZ Warrior]

I really don't get all this Luck hate??? It's not his fault that he gets passed the ball in the opposition 20m. It's not his fault that Mannering is a similar player and is the captain.

If you took Luck out of the team, our defense would fall apart.

 

[Meth]

I really don't get all this Luck hate??? It's not his fault that he gets passed the ball in the opposition 20m. It's not his fault that Mannering is a similar player and is the captain.

If you took Luck out of the team, our defense would fall apart.

qft

Although, I'd like to see him stay out of the way inside the 20. But then, the real issue is that I'd like to see somebody take responsibility for mounting an attack inside opposition territory

 

[hitman82]

We aren't a BAD defensive team.
We ARE a bad attacking team

Therefore, we can sacrifice a bit of defense (Luck) in the interest of more attack - Ta'ai.

Ta'ai isn't a bad defender anyway - he brings the pain in most of his tackles. Somewhat poor lateral mobility, but our props aren't that large and should be able to up their defensive workload a bit.

In the first 2 games of 2011 Luck hasn't actually been as prolific in the tackle count as usual - I reckon his tacklebot status is a bit overrated at the moment.