And maybe people don't agree with that? Just as they didn't agree with Stuart's idiotic strategy of putting Ben Creagh and such on at prop. f**k one of the backrowers off and have something like Tamou, Grant, Fifita and Woods and he'd be set. Forget about having middle rotation bullshit and have simple prop rotation. Then have Gallen, Lewis, Merrin, Bird and Watmough as backrowers. Any of Lewis, Gallen, Watmough and Bird can play either left or right and have done so for NSW and Australia in the past. Lewis and Bird can cover halves and outside backs without having a utility that is likely to never get on the field sitting on the bench all game.
People are allowed to disagree with Daley's strategy, especially when it hasn't worked in the past. Stuart's strategy worked best when he finally took Gallen out of prop and brought Grant in.
As I said in the previous reply to you and many other times on this forum, that would've been my original approach too, i.e., 4 conventional props.
When Gidley pulled out on Monday night, another prop was never going to be selected in his place. Not because Daley had said so. Just simple analysis of the his forward unit composition when the team was announced on Sunday night was enough.
Forget about the simple reference to 'back rower'. That word is f**king redundant these days. More accurately, you have left/right (edge) forwards, and the middle forward.
One backrower/small forward generally plays tight with the props. It's normally the #13 but in reality it can be any of the #11, #12, & #13. For instance, at Manly it's not G Stewart but Watmough.
This is something that's lost on many rugby league followers when analysing the performance of players who play in those numbers. Middle forwards like Gallen, Merrin, Watmough are considered superior players with high work rates, but they see much more ball and complete far more tackles than an edge forward because they play tighter.
Then you have blokes such as Hoffman, Tony Williams, SBW, T'eo, G Stewart, etc who are exclusively edge forwards and for the freak exception, are considered cats or poorer players in comparison when they are quiet in games. Little recognition is given to their actual role on the edges.
Hoffman is exclusively a left forward. He won't play in the middle and he isn't in the team to play in the middle. His performance, as are other edge forwards, is largely dependent on the performance of the middle men and the distribution of ball from the halves. Last year for example, the NSW attack was very left-side dominant to utilise the strengths of Jennings and Hayne, so Bird got a lot of ball as well. In contrast, G Stewart was largely quiet in both games he played on the right edge. In teams with little cohesion such as the NSW teams of recent years, edge forwards generally have a hard time to have an impact on games. The plays and decoys and holes we see in many effective edge forwards at club are very much a product of repetition.
When Hoffman was selected, it was clear that Bird was going to shift into the middle. With Watmough, Merrin & Gallen also in the squad, they were in the middle too. The balance is made up by the props Tamou and Fifita. The fact there are only two recognised props selected amongst 4 middle small forwards highlights the mobile strategy in comparison to the conventional 4 prop/2 small forward rotation.
All of those 6 players Daley has picked will be used in high impact bursts. Neither of them will play anymore than 50 mins IMO, even Gallen.
So as you can see, losing Gidley did nothing to require another prop. If anything, it would've diluted the influence of the other 6 players Daley selected to rotate through the middle.
