What do Bunty and Ale offer? Bunty has had multiple chances and really hasn't proved himself over and above our bench on the weekend. Ale does have upside as a more aggressive runner but will be too underdone to come in in a sudden death game. I do agree Lussick is an interesting selection and clearly a contingency for Wade. Our forward passing more at the line is the key to generate more ruck speed and space. This was definitely missing against Penrith but clearly supports Websters team selections. Definitely need more Curran though
I agree that Bunty and Ale aren't elite props. Ale still getting his first-grade legs, while Bunty has probably reached his ceiling. But out of our available resources, imo Bunty at least is a far better option than what we've been rolling out. He adds defensive starch, for one. He can actually stop guys, take the wind out of them, not just wrap them up ala Sironen. And he very rarely gets dominated on a hitup. He might not make massive post contact metres but you don't see him getting driven back. He's good for absorbing early punishment as
@SpaceMonkey said and for tiring the opposition middles out.
Start him at prop, bring Barnett off the bench after 20 minutes, and we'll get back to owning the middle, or at least getting parity against the top teams, which is something we haven't really done for some time.
