I've been thinking about our team line up and rotations.
My thoughts are.....
Start with our biggest pack until Hunt needs a spell, probably 20min mark.
When Hunt goes off, Bird comes on to exploit the edges and Pole moves from lock to more of a middle role.
The reason for this is Bird, whilst fearless, can't be expected to do too much physical stuff at his age and body type.
The inclusion of DaSilva on the bench to give Api a spell and work more with Galvin. He also kicks if AD isn't playing.
More on AD. Most of you know that I predicted him to play this year a long time ago as we are limited in the centres. I stand by this. He has an unfavourable name tag which is understandable.
AD is a competitor though. In the past he was part of a poor team and he often overplayed his hand. His tackling is also shoddy at times. If he can sort that out he will be an asset, like him or not.
If he does play then DaSiva may miss the gig and they settle for another edge fwd like Matamua.
I'd like to get people's opinion of the possibility of Latu Fainu playing a dummy half role since our depth in the halves is solid.
In the world cup, he played in this role and has better service left and right than Api does. He also have an astute grubber kick to in-goal. I think he offers a more complete and versatile repertoire than most. A good benchy and backup to Api, maybe?
I've been watching replays and highlights of Luai and my take on him is his energy, especially in resetting the line. If one raid fails the the next quickly follows. This is what Penrith do so well and is the main reason they have those rings.
The faster you raid and reset the more likely players like Taruva will score in the corners.
Our team must learn to keep up especially our decoy runners. Passing the ball left then right won't work if we don't tie up the edges.
Finally, what's was the main reason we have got all those spoons. TERRIBLE DEFENSE!!!
I can't believe we have opted to keep Johnny Morris on who is our D coach. Something isn't working and something had to be done in the off season to address our defensive blunders. Or are we going to get 50+ put on us again? Maybe they have addressed it but I haven't heard how they are going to fix this.
They bought in Brett Hodgo but his coaching resume is very poor.
Anyway, just a few thoughts.
