Also, just read the referenced article. Great! Brad Fittler and Andrew Johns telling Queensland how to play ...!
Why don't you find out what Laurie Daley thinks as well? I'm sure he wants to shift Slater to wing ...
So, let me get this straight. Slater loses a metre of pace, so you want to move him to the wing. Makes perfect sense. While we're at it let's put Lilyman on the other wing.
I think Dylan Napa would go better on the wing and leave Lillyman on the bench.
If you want Inglis kick returns, that can easily be achieved with him defending at wing.
I don't know what space for halves Inglis at full back is going to provide. If its Cronk first receiver, to JT, with Inglis at centre and Boyd outside on the wing with Slater roaming between Cronk and Thurston, which player do not you not mark up on? Whenever I see that line up, I get excited because a try is on. Heck I get excited if JT is the first receiver and Cronk and Slater are not even in the line up on that side of the field. But think about it, everyone knows Cronk will work with Slater, if he has Slater roaming and JT to link upto, and JT has GI outside, where do the defenders bulk their attack? With no disrespect to Darius Boyd intended at all because he does his job fantastically well, he gets a lot of a free tries in Origin because of those inside him and the defenders having to commit themselves to the great players inside him.
Game 3 was a destruction job because Queensland's forwards stood up and Cronk and JT were on top of their games. Inglis was looking every bit dangerous in game 2, even with the forwards beaten and DCE at halfback.
I don't believe in "if it aint broke don't fix it" if something will improve a team further, but Billy Slater is a smart smart footballer. You lose too much from the side with his Cronk combination in attack, smart defending and GI at centre, than to lose all that with GI at fullback. Head to head as players, GI may well be the better more dynamic player if you could only choose one for your club. But this is rep football. You can have both. And Cronk is there to weave his magic for Slater. And that is by far the best alternative.
Slater on the wing is not an option these days. He's not going to take the rumbling second hit up effectively with his build and so that would cost the forwards dearly. More so if he has lost a yard of pace which is far more critical on the wing.
