Parraren
Bench
- Messages
- 4,100
I'm really confused about Johhny Morris. Last year when he was playing at 5/8th (outside Michael Witt, remember him?) he was in outstanding form. Easily our most reliable & consistent player last year. Now he's back in his "natural" position at hooker and he's just not firing. Alot of dropped ball, very little spark and rarely looks like making a break or putting a player through a gap. Is he just in a form slump or is he actually better suited to 5/8th rather than hooker? Many people don't realise but Johnny actually played the majority of his junior football in the halves and played 5/8th & halfback in the lower grades at Newcastle before making his debut for the Knights first grade where he was a bit of a utility filling in where ever the Knights had injuries: Wing, Centre, Hooker, Half.
I'd personally like to see him shifted back to 5/8th and reunited with his partner of 2003 - Michael Witt. The partnership they struck up last year looked very promising and few could argue that we played our best brand of football in the last 2 1/2 years when being led by these 2 in the halves last year depite having a piss weak forward pack infront of them. Where does this leave Thorman and Dykes I hear you say, and who will play hooker?
The first part is easy - Dykes can take his sideways runnning and horribly inaccurate kicking game back to Premier League for the time being and give the young blokes a chance to show what they can do.
Thorman has potential, there is no question. He is also versatile, being able to fill in at half, 5/8, hooker or even centre & fullback. For this reason I'd use him off the bench to be interchanged with our starting hooker or 5/8th. At hooker, i'd be inclined to start with Lee Hopkins with Shane Muspratt another possible option. Both players are robust, good in attack and defense and posess a good enough passing game to be effective as dummy halves. Hopkins has more speed off the mark and is more agile than Muspratt but both players are more than capable of holding down the position well. Thorman could be interchanged with them after 20 to expose a tiring defense as well as being able to provide attacking kicks from dummy half.
That leaves us with;
6. Morris
7. Witt
9. Hopkins / Muspratt
14. Thorman
I think we have a more balanced look to the side this way as well as going back to a tried and tested halves combination, something that is sorely lacking right now. Thorman can give us the spark off the bench and the bigger blokes (Hopkins/Muspratt) can do the dirty work in the opening 20.
What are your thoughts?
I'd personally like to see him shifted back to 5/8th and reunited with his partner of 2003 - Michael Witt. The partnership they struck up last year looked very promising and few could argue that we played our best brand of football in the last 2 1/2 years when being led by these 2 in the halves last year depite having a piss weak forward pack infront of them. Where does this leave Thorman and Dykes I hear you say, and who will play hooker?
The first part is easy - Dykes can take his sideways runnning and horribly inaccurate kicking game back to Premier League for the time being and give the young blokes a chance to show what they can do.
Thorman has potential, there is no question. He is also versatile, being able to fill in at half, 5/8, hooker or even centre & fullback. For this reason I'd use him off the bench to be interchanged with our starting hooker or 5/8th. At hooker, i'd be inclined to start with Lee Hopkins with Shane Muspratt another possible option. Both players are robust, good in attack and defense and posess a good enough passing game to be effective as dummy halves. Hopkins has more speed off the mark and is more agile than Muspratt but both players are more than capable of holding down the position well. Thorman could be interchanged with them after 20 to expose a tiring defense as well as being able to provide attacking kicks from dummy half.
That leaves us with;
6. Morris
7. Witt
9. Hopkins / Muspratt
14. Thorman
I think we have a more balanced look to the side this way as well as going back to a tried and tested halves combination, something that is sorely lacking right now. Thorman can give us the spark off the bench and the bigger blokes (Hopkins/Muspratt) can do the dirty work in the opening 20.
What are your thoughts?
