Round 1 team to face the Raiders

[Black Majik]

Take out Weston put in Plum and swap Newton for Sika Manu and it is the same as my team:

1. Dean Whare, 2. David Simmons, 3. Wes Naiqama, 4. Brad Tighe, 5. Josh Mansour, 6. Lachlan Coote, 7. Luke Walsh, 8. Tim Grant, 9. Kevin Kingston, 10. Sam McKendry, 11. Lewis Brown, 12. Sika Manu, 13. Nathan Smith
RES: 14. James Segeyaro, 15. Jeremy Latimore, 16. Sika Manu, 17. Nigel Plum, 18. Adam Docker

Manu is going to be busy :sarcasm:

 

[umina panther]

No Austin is strange

 

[Sharkie73]

No Austin is strange

I think one of the Manu's you've named will make way for Austin

 

[BOMAR]

Clint Newton is the one missing.

 

[Luke Bowden]

I was really hoping for Austin.

 

[Kilkenny]

No one should be surprised by the 17 announced, pretty much as expected. You can mount an argument for Austin, Robinson and perhaps one or two others but probably our best and safest option for the first game.

 

[franklin2323]

I don't know why people are surprised. It was the same story last year. Trial's sort of predicted this. The team named is the players that got the game time.

Austin played centre and halves. Is too good for Windsor and will show that. Nabuli 6 tries in 3 league games so needs to keep doing that so there's no excuse not to pick him.

Masoe, Weston, Cherrington, Robinson, Docker is a 1st grade pack in Windsor. They shouldn't be there for long.

Aside from injuries or a few beltings this is the core of our team this year.

 

[Kilkenny]

I don't know why people are surprised. It was the same story last year. Trial's sort of predicted this. The team named is the players that got the game time.

Austin played centre and halves. Is too good for Windsor and will show that. Nabuli 6 tries in 3 league games so needs to keep doing that so there's no excuse not to pick him.

Masoe, Weston, Cherrington, Robinson, Docker is a 1st grade pack in Windsor. They shouldn't be there for long.

Aside from injuries or a few beltings this is the core of our team this year.

You have to have some faith in the coach. He doesn't pick a side to lose surely he picks what he believes is his best available side. Some of the above will no doubt get opportunities if they display strong form for Windsor and our top 17 underperform.

 

[marty65]

Not a bad team to start the season off with. I'm reasonably happy. 4 new players in the starting lineup (6 in the squad of 18). We got plenty of depth this season, so the players should know that the Windsor coach is waiting for them, should they not perform. The likes of Austin, Nabuli, Robinson & co. will be waiting for their opportunity, and I'm sure we will see plenty of them during the season.

 

[herbert henry1908]

How much longer do we have to put up with dave Simmons on the wing? Honestly , it's embarrassing.

 

[Kilkenny]

How much longer do we have to put up with dave Simmons on the wing? Honestly , it's embarrassing.

David's made 40 appearances for us since coming from the Sharks and had one bad game. He's not going to be selected for Origin but he never let's us down in my opinion.

 

[herbert henry1908]

David's made 40 appearances for us since coming from the Sharks and had one bad game. He's not going to be selected for Origin but he never let's us down in my opinion.

I agree , he's solid.

But solid ain't going to get it done.


Never letting the team down is not the criteria we need. We need to give a young and fast winger a go.

 

[franklin2323]

You have to have some faith in the coach. He doesn't pick a side to lose surely he picks what he believes is his best available side. Some of the above will no doubt get opportunities if they display strong form for Windsor and our top 17 underperform.

Not saying he tries to lose. No coach does. Doesn't mean he is good either.

At the Warriors he could virtually pick any squad member and have good size. We don't have that luxury maybe his game plan doesn't suit our squad?

Well the no impact bench helped us early last year?

Assuming Docker is just for cover & keeping Segeyaro out of it as he's a machine.

Newton wont give anything he either starts or doesn't play.

Latimore huge doesn't offload, Doesn't hit hard.

Plum hits hard no offload not even quick play the balls.

 

[Kilkenny]

Not saying he tries to lose. No coach does. Doesn't mean he is good either.

At the Warriors he could virtually pick any squad member and have good size. We don't have that luxury maybe his game plan doesn't suit our squad?

Well the no impact bench helped us early last year?

Assuming Docker is just for cover & keeping Segeyaro out of it as he's a machine.

Newton wont give anything he either starts or doesn't play.

Latimore huge doesn't offload, Doesn't hit hard.

Plum hits hard no offload not even quick play the balls.

Mate, I dont argue with any of your points they are all valid. Newton and Plum won't be with us in 2014 so I would expect they will not necessarily be automatic selections towards the latter part of this season once we are no longer in contention for a top 8 spot (assuming that is the case). Having said that I am prepared to accept the round 1 selected side and see how we perform given Ivan thinks it is his best side for round 1.

 

[franklin2323]

I agree , he's solid.But solid ain't going to get it done.
Never letting the team down is not the criteria we need. We need to give a young and fast winger a go.

Spot on. If we had a quality halves. Hell even Jennings gifted him some tries. We have nothing in the way of backs. We could play safe players.We need someone who in space will score or has good footwork.

He has neither. The Parra trial was a good example. got a lose ball and with a headstart was rounded up by the 30m line. A quicker player scores & it could win us a game. Solid will help us not lose.

 

[Sharkie73]

Spot on. If we had a quality halves. Hell even Jennings gifted him some tries. We have nothing in the way of backs. We could play safe players.We need someone who in space will score or has good footwork.

He has neither. The Parra trial was a good example. got a lose ball and with a headstart was rounded up by the 30m line. A quicker player scores & it could win us a game. Solid will help us not lose.

Yes because the center is meant to set up his winger...?



Three things I can tell you about Simmo from his years at the Sharks are:

- He's fast (just not in the rain)
- He has good footwork (playing fullback is when he shows it best)
- He doesn't have brain snaps (essential in big games)

As I said earlier the Panthers should go win a backline of:

1. Moylan
2. Simmons (Roberts when he's fit)
3. Whare
4. Naiqama
5. Mansour

 

[Kilkenny]

At the end of the day this game is not going to be won by the wingers either ours or theirs. The battle up front will decide the outcome. Grant and McKendry will be the key and they surely have to deliver a platform in the first 25 minutes. If we can get on top up front then we can secure the two points. If we don't then it could be a disappointing afternoon.

 

[Kilkenny]

Yes because the center is meant to set up his winger...?



Three things I can tell you about Simmo from his years at the Sharks are:

- He's fast (just not in the rain)
- He has good footwork (playing fullback is when he shows it best)
- He doesn't have brain snaps (essential in big games)

As I said earlier the Panthers should go win a backline of:

1. Moylan
2. Simmons (Roberts when he's fit)
3. Whare
4. Naiqama
5. Mansour

James Roberts was the x factor and likely to have figured in our top 17 but for unfortunate injury. Whether he would have been selected in place of Simmons we will never know but I like Simmons he is very dependable.

 

[franklin2323]

Yes because the center is meant to set up his winger...?

Of course but watch his try against Canberra at Penrith in 2011. Jennings drew 2. Simmons catches it and scores. Even the most basic u20's winger can do the same thing.

Compare him to Mansour. Mansour made 4-1 errors. Yet didn't cost us any games. However in 14 games he had the most hitups. Ave 250m a game. Not the fastest but does the job. Our leading tackle breaker. So give me that over a solid winger.

Round 25 last year. Look at the Jennings/Mansour try. Tighe/Simmons had the same situation on the right and didn't even get close. A winger that can break a tackle or more speed it's a try.

 

[mxlegend99]

It's hard to be excited about the game when 4 of the first 7 names listed are blokes who shouldn't be anywhere near first grade, and at most clubs wouldn't be.

David Simmons isn't horrible, but he sure as hell aint much more then a reserve grader and when we got him from the Sharks he had been dropped to reserve grade there despite them having one of the worst backlines in the competition.

Wes Naiqama was unable to cement a spot in the Knights backline. He had his solid games, but he also had plenty of poor ones. He's another year older and honestly it makes no sense to throw him in ahead of many of our talented young guys with potential to be more then a fringe first grader. Heck we even have a few with some first grade behind them.

Brad Tighe has been deadset average for us for the past few seasons. he has pace when there's no one infront of him. But he offers nothing else. He isn't creative, doesn't bust tackles, doesn't set his winger up and doesn't make it through gaps. At best he should be on the wing to finish off backline movements with his pace, but even then we have more talented players for the wing.

Luke Walsh... hatd to see how he keeps his spot in the team when there have been a billion instances where him not being there has resulted in us actually scoring points. Or when he has been there our points have had nothing to do with his input. ie. 200+ minutes of football last year with him at halfback and no points. THen when we finally break the drought we do so through Burns creating the opportunity and Jennings scooting over from dummy half. Walsh gets injured and with a make do halfback we score a couple more tries. People claim we lack direction without him, yet despite that we manage to create more try scoring opportunities. Because his direction is about as predictable as it gets.

If these guys don't improve out of sight and still manage to keep their spots in the team despite injury, I won't be wasting my money to go and watch them play. Our team isn't going to win many games with these guys filling out the positions which usually contribute points to the team.