Any news on who will actually be on the bench?
Surely we cant have 3 front rowers there? Is it possible that Graham will be playing back-row with 2 props and Iosefa off the bench?? Elliot can't name Grant, Puletua and Bell all on the bench can he??
Bell used to play back row to start with, I see him as a prop/2nd rower. Frank Puletua used to also play either prop or 2nd row though these days age has caught up.
Now a comment on the team. Smith, Cooper, Lewis is a WEAK, piss weak second row, Elliot playing favourites again. Those two (Smith, Cooper) couldn't break a line to save their lives (Ok Smith has a few easy ones against weak teams when given some of space). Traditionally Panther's teams of the 2000's have had damaging fringe runners, these blokes barely damage the blades of grass they tread on.
With Walsh playing with his dinner suit on the talentless little p?*sy he is, I don't give us much of a hope.
Biggest problem in the match up against the Roosters is the inequality between the play makers. Pearce, Carney are 100x> Walsh, Burns. In fact Pearce or Carney + gumby off the street 3x> Walsh + Burns.
This has been our Achilles heel since Elliot came to the club - our halves. He either stiffled talent and/or misplaced it (Sammut and to a degree Graham) or replaced them with talentless drones (Walsh, Burns).
What has made up for it this year is that our highly talented backrow has been helped by the boost given by our normally mediocre front row. Without Grant / McKendry stepping up we'd have barely made the 8 if at all.
Now our backrow is gumby quality (sorry Lewis no offence to you). However in relation to 3 prop rotation, Smith and Cooper as ineffective attackers that they are, are close to 80 minute players - meaning we can just rotate through our props.
