Team v Manly

[Meth]

1- Tuivasa Sheck
2- Fusitu'a/Kosi
3- Pompey
4- Berry
5- Maumalo
6- Walsh
7- Nikorima
8- Evans
9- Egan
10- Afoa
11- Curran
12- Murdoch-Masila
13- Harris

Res- Ah Mau, Ale, Sironen, Tevaga

Ale in for JTB

 

[Benek]

Do we know why Fusitua was ruled out last minute? He might be back next week?

How far off is Hiku?

 

[Meth]

Do we know why Fusitua was ruled out last minute? He might be back next week?

How far off is Hiku?

Hiku and Aitken are a couple of weeks off, I think.

In theory, Montoya and Fusitu'a might be available next week. Not sure I'd take them over Berry and Kosi though. Maybe Montoya over Berry...

 

[Penrose_11]

Thought Kosi was shown up defensively. If Fus or Montoya are fit surely they’ll be straight back in?? Other than BMM with the HIA, did we have any other obvious injuries today?

 

[Meth]

Thought Kosi was shown up defensively. If Fus or Montoya are fit surely they’ll be straight back in??

Yeah I was actually just coming back on here to change my selection.

I think Kosi had a good debut and there's potential there, but I just don't think he's quite fit and/or fast enough just yet.

 

[Penrose_11]

Kosi looked good in 1st 1/2 going forward but they all did. We missed some of those big tuff winger carries deep in that 2nd team 1/2 when our forwards were sucking in the big ones. Guess that’s where Fus does well. It’s a shame Fus and Aitken weren’t able to put a few games together and get a decent combo going

 

[Izz]

Fus unlikely according to Brown in press conference

 

[Philip_Smith007]

Fus unlikely according to Brown in press conference

Heard the same.
Picking guys on effort?

 

[Big Marn]

Heard the same.
Picking guys on effort?

Brown said in the pre match interview that Fus had trained well all week but his hamstring tightened up quite a lot in the warmup. So he was a late scratching and they had to play Kosi

 

[Leber]

Same team, Fus in for Kosi.

Gee I hope BMM is Ok.

 

[Penrose_11]

I’m still not sold on Jazz. For me he’s not creative and very slow to be defending in the middle beside props traditionally the slowest players. I don’t think our bench rotation is quite sorted yet. I think Curren could eventually be more of a lock forward 13 than Jazz. Curren looks like he has a huge motor and very good D and was involved in a couple of tries, nearly scoring in the 3rd minute. If Curren moves inwards, this allows a Katoa/Murchie to come into the side. Jazz isn’t covering for Egan at hooker as didn’t go to dummy half once yesterday. Tohu back to his favoured edge spot.
Easy for me to sit here in NZ and be critical from 2160kms away tho

 

[Meth]

I’m still not sold on Jazz. For me he’s not creative and very slow to be defending in the middle beside props traditionally the slowest players. I don’t think our bench rotation is quite sorted yet. I think Curren could eventually be more of a lock forward 13 than Jazz. Curren looks like he has a huge motor and very good D and was involved in a couple of tries, nearly scoring in the 3rd minute. If Curren moves inwards, this allows a Katoa/Murchie to come into the side. Jazz isn’t covering for Egan at hooker as didn’t go to dummy half once yesterday. Tohu back to his favoured edge spot.
Easy for me to sit here in NZ and be critical from 2160kms away tho

Yeah, Jazz wasn't good last night.

It'll be interesting to see what happens once some of our injured players come back

 

[TheDMC]

I'm more of a fan of Jazz than many on here, but he seriously annoyed me yesterday. Came on and almost immediately turned momentum the Cowboy's way. First with a completely un-necessary and very low percentage offload attempt (knock on) followed by falling big time for the dummy half's dummy leading to a try. That offload...when the team is rolling well, Jazz doesn't need to try and be the creative spark, just tackle and run hard. In fact, with Reece Walsh on point to add a heap more potency to our attack and forwards like BMM (and AFB), maybe Jazz's "creativity" is becoming redundant. A hard running tackle bot like Curran might be the way to go. Saying that, Jazz did settle into his work after early bloopers. But they were costly.

 

[Izz]

A hard running tackle bot like Curran might be the way to go.

Curran's got decent ball skills too. That offload he gave to Pompey was all class & allowed Pompey to run back against the grain. He's thrown a few other nice passes since he's come into the team as well. Hard hitter, runs good lines, big motor. Just has to work on keeping his cool when there's a bit of niggle...

 

[Penrose_11]

And that’s probably where my thinkings at as well. I think someone like Curran has a lot more benefits for us than Jazz especially with where the current speed of the game is at. Cheap penalties/ errors can just kill a team these days. I’m still a massive Murchie fan and can remember how he owned the right edge for us at the end of last season. Is BMM potentially a ball playing prop? I’m know he’s going great guns now on edge but we need all our weapons on at once and benched or in reserve grade

 

[Fufu Andronez]

Its a different feeling when the rookies get a go this year, for all his faults Brown does seem to have a pretty calming influence on the kids and is not afraid to give them a go.

Unfortunate that Ratuva got injured pre season, he would have been straight in on that wing

 

[Penrose_11]

Is Ratuva still with the club? Have a feeling he was released back to rugby

 

[Izz]

Is Ratuva still with the club? Have a feeling he was released back to rugby

Nah, pec injury so left out of top 30 this season. At least that's what this article from beginning of March says: https://i.stuff.co.nz/sport/league/...l-season-starts-before-signing-another-hooker

 

[Fufu Andronez]

Is Ratuva still with the club? Have a feeling he was released back to rugby

I thought he got a season ending injury so they released him for 2021 to get the spot back in the top30 but re-signed him for 2022.

I think if he didnt get injured he would have been kept in the squad, but I could be wrong.

 

[Big Marn]

can we acknowledge JTB has 2nd year syndrome? Just doesnt seem to have the same impact this year. Throw Ale in for a week to see the difference?
And Kane Evans rolls the dice a little too much lying all over the player. Got away with a couple in the 2nd half.