Lawrence to 6

[tiger_nick]

in 05 we had an unbelievably fortunate injury run aswell as the form 1,6,7 & 9 of the comp. the rest of the players simply had a role to play and did it perfectly.

i agree with eddie, put prince and laffranchi back in our side and we are easily top 4 material. actually we'd be close to premiership favourites.

 

[alien]

http://www.leaguehq.com.au/news/news/lawrence-has-six-appeal/2009/01/24/1232471657120.html

What do you think about Teflon's grand design - Lawrence to 6 and Marshall to 7 with Morris "still part of the halves mix"?

I dont mind in theory but I question our recruitment then- we seem to have gone out of our way to recruit and promote players capable of filling the 6/7 role and no centres and yet Teflon wants to take an existing centre and shift to halves and leave the recruits to wither......... and we are potentially exposed with a weaker centre pairing - what is he proposing for that hole he is creating in the centres?

Possible starting line up:

1/ Lazarus
2/ Tagive
3/ Collis
4/ McDonnell (?)
5/ Ryan
6/ Lawrence
7/ Marshall
8/ Galloway
9/ Farah
10/ Payten
11/ Ellis
12/ Heighington
13/ Fulton
14/ Morris
15/ Tuiaki
16/ Halatau
17/ Gibbs

yikes i hope that isn't our side. i dont think they would have morris and halatau on the bench. its either one or the other. and mcdonnell in the centres is scary (dont give them those type of ideas) :evil:.

i hope tagive has practiced his catching because he could turn into a really good player since he has speed and power.

This would probably be my side at the moment if skandalis is able to make a comeback

1. Lazarus
2. Lawrence
3. Collis
4. Ryan
5. Tuiaki
6. Marshall
7. Moltzen
13. Fulton
12. Ellis
11. Heighington
10. Payten
9. Farah
8. Galloway

14. Halatau
15. Laurie
16. Skandalis
17. Gibbs

 

[Magpies Forever]

yikes i hope that isn't our side. i dont think they would have morris and halatau on the bench. its either one or the other. and mcdonnell in the centres is scary (dont give them those type of ideas) :evil:.

i hope tagive has practiced his catching because he could turn into a really good player since he has speed and power.

This would probably be my side at the moment if skandalis is able to make a comeback

1. Lazarus
2. Lawrence
3. Collis
4. Ryan
5. Tuiaki
6. Marshall
7. Moltzen
13. Fulton
12. Ellis
11. Heighington
10. Payten
9. Farah
8. Galloway

14. Halatau
15. Laurie
16. Skandalis
17. Gibbs

My side was trying to make sense of Teflons declaring his starting 6/7. I included McDonnell, well, we all know why McDonnell will be in the side, and Tuiaki to the bench in as much as he can play on wing and in the forwards and, to be honest, I reckon the opposition figured him out last year and I dont think he can hold out a specialist winger- that is why I'd like to try a starting side with Tagive and Ryan on the wings. I'd love to see Skand in the mix but without any declaration that he will play I have not considered him. (BTW- WT's where is the number 25 player you trumpted you were searching for in October 08?). I really dont think Gibbs can make the final 17 in the starting match until injury takes a toll on the existing squad.

 

[westie]

In 2005 we had all the key components of a premiership winning side:
-A good front row: Check (Skando/Boof)
-A world class halfback: Check (Prince)
-Strike power out wide: Check (Whatuira and Richards almost scored 40 tries between them)
-A player who creates something out of nothing: Check (Marshall)
-Quality youngsters: Check (Farah, Marshall etc)
-Impact off the bench: Check (Hino, Payten)
-Experienced heads: Check (Skando, Hodgson, O'Neill)

We lack several of those components at the moment.

You could easily apply those sort of things to our current crop if they produce one quality season like most of the guys you just mentioned.

Boof doesn't even play prop most of the time.

 

[Marshall_magic]

You could easily apply those sort of things to our current crop if they produce one quality season like most of the guys you just mentioned.

Boof doesn't even play prop most of the time.

Now days we lack a quality halfback and a quality front row. The only team to win a premiership without a quality halfback in the past 10 years is Brisbane (they had Lockyer at 5/8 however), and no side has won the premiership in the past 10 years with an ordinary front row.

Boof played front row in the finals, I know for a fact, not sure if he did in the regular season.

 

[westie]

Now days we lack a quality halfback and a quality front row. The only team to win a premiership without a quality halfback in the past 10 years is Brisbane (they had Lockyer at 5/8 however), and no side has won the premiership in the past 10 years with an ordinary front row.

Boof played front row in the finals, I know for a fact, not sure if he did in the regular season.

We don't have a half, but we have Marshall at 5/8 (and Farah).

Boof is a second rower and we won with him at prop. Doesn't that mean we had an ordinary pack?

I think we're a few slices short of a loaf, and people should be held responsible, given it is their responsibility, but that doesn't mean things can't go our way.

 

[madunit]

Our back row has become stronger, front row is still lacking, Heighington and Ellis will be required to do a fair bit extra, more than most other back rowers would.

We should have three forwards on the bench every week as a bare minimum. Anything less would be suicide.

Lewis should be made to play at halfback, he's got a better kicking game than anyone else at the club by a long way. Benji and Farah should be kept away from the number 7 job.

I'd be inclined to have Lawrence at Fullback if only his defence and catching ability were greatly improved.

Our entire backline though looks to be very weak defensively.

Personally I think Halatau and Collis will struggle to play many games this season (unless there are injuries)

 

[Crippler]

to be honest I think our 09 pack would of steamrolled our 05 pack

' 09

Payten
Farah
Galloway
Ellis
Heinington
Fulton / Halatau

'05
Laffranci
Farah
Skando
Galea
Oneill
Halatau

 

[Scottey]

Lawrence at 6 aint a great idea IMO.
It's the classic case of a club un-veiling a fantastic new talent in the centres, and trying to give him more ball by pushing him to stand-off.

And Benji isn't a halfback. A half-back is the cool-headed, conductor of your team. Benji's the weapon of mass destruction.

 

[Magpies Forever]

Lets face it- its Sheens again playing games with player selection. It almost seems as though he is deliberately trying to subvert any recruitment the club does- the club recruits players capable of playing 1/2 and 5/8 and Teflon goes and shifts existing players around so that he does not have to use the new recruits (and exposes a new hole in the centres....)

At very least robbing Peter to pay Paul. Crazy. Pls for godssake WT- p' Teflon off at end of season.

 

[madunit]

I'd think our best side for 09 will not include Benji at half, or Lawrence at 6.

I'd have Benji at 6 and Lewis at 7. We need a natural halfback to play at halfback. We haven't had that since a severely out of form Matt Head last season, and he went pretty well until the coach decided to change the gameplan on him and eventually play him out of form.

Prior to that it was Prince.

The team has performed considerably better with a natural halfback playing regularly at halfback, it common f**king sense.

If our forwards can actually start going forward regularly, and defend even better, then we will see the brilliance of Benji come to the fore once again. His confidence is well and truly back, the World Cup finals convinced me of that, he will get a full off season of training under his belt, and he will be ready to hit the ground running Round1.

 

[super_coach]

A REAL NO7 would make hell of a difference. One only has to look at how Sandow turned a broken down rabbits outfit into a handy team at the back end of 2008.

Iam sure if we had had a Prince style no7 last year Lawerence would have scored 30 meat pies just by explosive gap running. I know their are not to many top notch no7s running around but lets see what we have in our rank, Dunley,Lewis,Waters,Lazarus moltzen a few names that come to mind. With my pick being Lewis than Dunley.

Anyway back to the post Lawerence is a threequater or a no1, he could be used as a no6 when we are in certain attacking postions but his next move in a few years will be to the back of the scrum not to the no6

 

[Marshall_magic]

We don't have a half, but we have Marshall at 5/8 (and Farah).

Boof is a second rower and we won with him at prop. Doesn't that mean we had an ordinary pack?

I think we're a few slices short of a loaf, and people should be held responsible, given it is their responsibility, but that doesn't mean things can't go our way.

Boof in the back row pretty much did the job of a prop, and basically, it allowed him to make the transition a lot easier. We didn't have a lot of front row depth, but we had lots of back rowers meaning someone had to make the move up front, and he did it with great success.

Marshall is a great 5/8 when in form, but he is no Darren Lockyer, who basically played like a halfback but wore the 6. Also, Marshall's form over the past 3 seasons doesn't fill me with confidence that he can deliver a premiership.

We are definitely a few slices short of a loaf as you say. For us to win the comp, things need to go our way.