Team vs St George.

[Rich102]

Utility Jazz Tevaga and props Albert Vete and James Gavet have been recalled while new signing Shaun Lane is set to make his Vodafone Warriors NRL debut in Sunday’s ninth-round clash against St George Illawarra at Mount Smart Stadium (2.00pm kick-off; match day sponsor: Flava).

Rookie hooker-back rower Tevaga will make his fourth appearance after being used in earlier matches against Melbourne, Newcastle and the Sydney Roosters while Vete returns on a five-man bench after missing the last two rounds.

Joining them on an extended bench are Gavet – used in the first three rounds of the season – and Lane, who turned out for the club’s Intrust Super Premiership side in wins over North Sydney and Newcastle. The 198cm back rower was in Melbourne as 18th man for last night’s 0-42 Anzac Day loss to the Storm.

The 22-year-old former Bulldogs forward is set to become Vodafone Warrior #211 in this week’s clash.

After losing first-choice fullback Roger Tuivasa-Sheck with a season-ending injury in the win over the Bulldogs, the Vodafone Warriors are now without his replacement Tuimoala Lolohea, who was forced off the field with a minor knee after only 26 minutes last night.

Lolohea is expected to be out for up to two weeks meaning David Fusitu’a will become the Vodafone Warriors’ third different starting fullback in as many games.

Also ruled out is loose forward Simon Mannering who is expected to be sidelined for one or two weeks. He was forced out of last night’s clash with an ugly facial wound; he had his lip stitched back together by a plastic surgeon in Melbourne last night.


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VODAFONE WARRIORS v ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA
Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland
2pm, Sunday, May 1

Vodafone Warriors
1 David Fusitu’a
2 Jonathan Wright
3 Blake Ayshford
4 Solomone Kata
5 Manu Vatuvei
6 Thomas Leuluai
7 Shaun Johnson
8 Jacob Lillyman
9 Issac Luke
10 Ben Matulino
11 Bodene Thompson
12 Ryan Hoffman (c)
13 Charlie Gubb

Interchange
14 Jazz Tevaga
15 Sam Lisone
16 Albert Vete
17 Shaun Lane
18 James Gavet




Warriors email.

 

[JJ]

f**king Gubb?!?

I like a big (ger) man wearing 13 - but not him

 

[Mixmasterreece]

Heard today that Koni is about to be granted a release

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Heard today that Koni is about to be granted a release

I'll bet he's heartbroken, NOT. I also expect he'll immediately sign with another club, possibly in the ESL. I could see him killing it in England. What a wasted talent.

 

[JJ]

Can we grant McFadden a release too - they can continue their romance in the north of England...

I imagine there will be some NRL interest if teams have any wiggle room in the cap

 

[SpaceMonkey]

I'll be gutted if he signs with the Broncos or Storm, they iron out his flaws and he tears us a new arsehole next outing :/

 

[vvvrulz]

I'll be gutted if he signs with the Broncos or Storm, they iron out his flaws and he tears us a new arsehole next outing :/

Just about any other NRL club would have made him a superstar by now.
If he does go we've really dropped the ball on that one.

Not the first time either, there's Fish, Laomappy, arguably Tomkins, can even go further back to Locke. Other than Manu (who makes up for it with his hit ups), our back-line has become a dead zone, a far cry from the epic Toopi-Meli days

I don't know what it is, but our game plan just does not support them.

 

[JJ]

there's a game plan?

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Just about any other NRL club would have made him a superstar by now.
If he does go we've really dropped the ball on that one.

Not the first time either, there's Fish, Laomappy, arguably Tomkins, can even go further back to Locke. Other than Manu (who makes up for it with his hit ups), our back-line has become a dead zone, a far cry from the epic Toopi-Meli days

I don't know what it is, but our game plan just does not support them.

Hmm, don't necessarily agree on most of those names. Laumape went fine when he wasn't injured, and Tomkins definitely added to our attack, his problems were physicality and being somewhat average under the high ball. Fish I'll give you. Locke... well I think that mainly came down to Nobby's own personal issues.

 

[Izz]

How's Fish going at the Chiefs?

 

[vvvrulz]

Hmm, don't necessarily agree on most of those names. Laumape went fine when he wasn't injured, and Tomkins definitely added to our attack, his problems were physicality and being somewhat average under the high ball. Fish I'll give you. Locke... well I think that mainly came down to Nobby's own personal issues.

Not quite what I meant, we didn't completely blow all that talent, as you say they had varying degrees of success here. But did we get the full potential out of any of them? I don't believe so in every one of those players.

Look at RTS for example, his first couple of weeks were "shit I am getting NO service whatsoever, the only way I'm going to get anywhere is to run my ass off".

 

[RHYTHM AND STEALTH]

I doubt he is going anywhere
Hes got a lady now, that might be a reason to stay.

 

[RHYTHM AND STEALTH]

But in all fairness who is Cappy supposed to drop
Kata and Ayshford are probably our 2 form players

 

[SpaceMonkey]

But in all fairness who is Cappy supposed to drop
Kata and Ayshford are probably our 2 form players

And I hate to say it but we'd probably have leaked even more points to the storm with Koni on the field instead of Ploddo. Though maybe we'd have actually scored a few too...

 

[Penrose Warrior]

Absolutely clueless. We've had benches with back-up hookers/no back-up hooker/a centre-winger there in the chance of injury/a centre-winger playing in the forwards, props converted to locks, a guy playing four positions in seven weeks and f**k knows what else.

But none of them beat not only dropping Charlie Gubb, but promoting him to start. Here's Charlie's missed tackle count in eight of his last nine games:

3 in 36 mins, 4 in 29 minutes (v Dogs when 3 of them were on our line in the space of 5 minutes), 4 in 28 minutes, 2 in 44 minutes, 2 in 22 minutes, 4 in 56 minutes, 2 in 40 minutes, 2 in 41 minutes (he missed none v the Roosters)

He is a scrub, yet McFadden has this dumb desire for him.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

I guess now Kata is actually playing well he's stopped having to give Cappy his morning gobbie before training to keep his spot so now Charlie's on sucky-sucky duties...

 

[vvvrulz]

But none of them beat not only dropping Charlie Gubb, but promoting him to start. Here's Charlie's missed tackle count in eight of his last nine games:

3 in 36 mins, 4 in 29 minutes (v Dogs when 3 of them were on our line in the space of 5 minutes), 4 in 28 minutes, 2 in 44 minutes, 2 in 22 minutes, 4 in 56 minutes, 2 in 40 minutes, 2 in 41 minutes (he missed none v the Roosters)

He is a scrub, yet McFadden has this dumb desire for him.

Gubb the Scrub huh.

Good stats, really telling. It's also just a matter of time before he smacks someone and gets the bin, especially now that the refs have remembered there is a bin. Literally the worst possible replacement for Mannering.

 

[Blair]

Gubb's hit ups seem pretty ineffectual too, he appears to fall into the tackle.

It was great watching him live at the ground though, i.e. v Roosters this year. He had a lot of positive on-field personality and energy. Is this what coaches see and appreciate which TV watchers don't?

 

[JJ]

Gubb's hit ups seem pretty ineffectual too, he appears to fall into the tackle.

It was great watching him live at the ground though, i.e. v Roosters this year. He had a lot of positive on-field personality and energy. Is this what coaches see and appreciate which TV watchers don't?

Coaches no, not in the absence of good football - McFadden - apparently

 

[Penrose Warrior]

Gubb's hit ups seem pretty ineffectual too, he appears to fall into the tackle.

It was great watching him live at the ground though, i.e. v Roosters this year. He had a lot of positive on-field personality and energy. Is this what coaches see and appreciate which TV watchers don't?

I agree with the first part. There's no real leg drive when held, no particularly quick play the ball, it's almost like a space filler for a tackle. Vete is a much more complete player who I have no idea why doesn't get the nod over him. The only slight on Vete's game initially was his defence, and Gubb's is shocking. If we need a headless chicken to spark us, we're toast anyway.