Nice to see the mighty army in attendance tonight at Gosford, here is a brief run down of how the boys went :-
2.Merrit- Impressive, solid in cleaning up kicks and returned with vigour, no glaring defence problems and cleaned up some breaks well.
3. Franze:- Very solid, still looks to be finding his feet again, but one or two magic passes ( yes, the flick ! ) to set up rieck and some bone jarring defence, hit the line well with ball in hand
4.McGoldrick- welcome home ! a fine effort, dangerous with ball in hand and eager in defence, adds wonderful depth to our 3/4 line and will cause raper headaches should he, vagana and feranze all be fit at once
5 Rieck- outstanding, best back on the park all night long, scored some great tries, pace and stepping and zero handling problems, the kind of form that as a shark fan is very exciting !
6 Bird-average, to below average. no change from last season at all, stepped too much to no avail against second string defence, dummied all night long, and when he threw the pass, put players under extreme pressure, zero kicking game. He looked best when runing to the line , honestly I think 2nd row or possible lock is where this kids future lies, if anywhere in first grade.
7. Kimmorley- very solid, broke the line plenty , kicking game a little off but sure looked like the deeper attack has not harmed his game at all.
13. Hilder- Disapointing a little bit, not a high involvement rate at loack forward and handling let him down a bit,honest in defence though, fair trial.
12. Bickerstaff- solid without standing out, tough up the middle and his defence was impressive, I feel there isnt room for both him and isemonger in the 2nd row.knocked out cold in final 3 minutes but recovered for the warm down.
11. ISemonger, better trial than bickerstaff, good hands and good work rate up the fringes
10. Beattie- Only sparked up in final 15 minutes when some cheap shots were coming from the bush teams, other than that was disapointing, same as last season, he looked pedestrian next to nutely, lomu , newton, green etc
9. Bosnich, very solid at hooker, picked up where he left off last year.
8. Nutely- consistently broke the line and troubled them all night long, raced 60 metres to bring down an intercept winger, great effort all round !
14. newton, good trial from the kid, front row when beats and nitely off, awesome effort !
15. Jon Green- a very impressive effort from Green, I think he will play much first grade.
16- Russo- I think one of the stand outs tonight, played lock and dominated with ball in hand, good size and speed, great hands, very very impressive !
17- Sullivan, played some hooker and halfback when noddy went off, nice effort, same sully as last season
18 Lomu- another candidate for best player tonight, AWESOME ! he busted tackles, has good speed, great off load and safe hands, best prop there tonight
19 Gallen- quiet but standard honest effort
22-stephen ross, started on the wing and had a bad opening match, bad hands, but nerves were a factor, came back on late and really showed some good signs, may struggle for a wing spot though in firsts.
some other notables from premier league
1. Bronx Goodwin- great match from the fullback, scored some brilliant individual tries and safe at the back
3. Kris Pyper, a fine centre in the making, good size and speed and great hands.
6 Russel Aitken, played a nice trial in reserves then came on the last 1/4 in first grade when noddy had a rest, played 5/8 and played no better or worse than bird.
7 Dallalana- played well in reserves and then came on at hooker late in first grade, a very good fill in at half if needed. tough as teak.
12 Reece williams, played alot of first grade too and stood out in the pack, a great prospect
13 Ciraldo- best on park for premier league, a tall lanky lock who has filled out a bit in the off season, very honest and great offload skills.
18. travis byrnes, came off the bench in reserves at halfback......one to watch !
