gr8_1 I have no problems switching positions if it's a genuine effort to put a player in a spot he's better suited to. I advocate a number change myself for Fulton and Gibbs for instance. What I don't advocate is dicking good enthusiastic and hard working players like Covell.
Sheens isn't going to use Luke as a 'utility' (f**k - how many damn utilities does he want, he'll have half a team of hem soon).
Sheens isn't going to use him as a 2nd Rower - he went OK against the Bears, but also spent half the game in the centres. He just isn't ever going to be an NRL second rower. He could posibly be a fair stop gap lock, but Sheens has about 8 of them on the books.
Sheens isn't going to use him as a winger despite the more than credible performances he put in there for a pretty poor team in his rookie season. No he ain't greased lightning, but he's also no where near as slow as some people make him out to be.
Sheens just isn't going to use him at all. If the Tigers first grade squad were killed in a plane crash I'd still be far from convinced Covell would get a run under Sheens.
Now that's fair enough. The coach should have the right to choose who he wants and doesn't. I'm not arguing against that at all. It's the coach whose neck is on the block (at most clubs anyway - at the Tigers failing to win 2 games in a row earns you a 2 year extension).
What gets my goat is the BS. If you don't want the kid, then tell him honestly and give him the option of a release. He doesn't deserved to be screwed around. If Tim just told him outright the honest truth - that he ain't in the plan and is highly unlikely ever to be in the plan - then Luke could have moved on to somewhere that he'd be helping his career. He could easily be playing First today for Souths or another club, or jetting off to Salford instead of Buddha to start a long and profitable career in pommy land, where I have no doubt he would have soon found himself at a quality club making big bucks due to the pile of points he would provide. Instead he's being continually jerked around and despite his best efforts his football career appears to be heading backwards. Whilst I'm totally with Gobbs on how pathetically Manly have treated Buddha, I can't say the Tigers treatment of Covell is much better.
