It is black and white. Soward > Rogers. Why is there any doubt over that? You're focusing on the perceived defensive advantage Rogers has over Soward, which in my opinion it is so small it is negligible. Soward's technique is fine, and he has the pace to mix it with the fast men out wide. The attacking advantages Soward has over Rogers are too numerous to mention, but I will point out the vastly superior kicking game which was so sorely lacking on Friday night. For intense, tough semi final-style games your kicking game needs to be very good to excellent. With Rogers we are well below that level. You mention also Rogers' effectiveness on a dry track (although he has shown a knack for dropping the ball in all kinds of weather). Friday night proved more than "Rogers is useless in the wet". He is also useless when his key teammates (Young, Hornby) are not 100% firing. He's useless when the forward pack is not completely dominating their opponents. He's useless when the defence is a little closer than usual. And of course as mentioned, he struggles to hold a ball. I've been a supporter of Brownie's for a long time but this decision has me quite flabbergasted. He seems to have prioritised defence over everything else - which also explains the continual selection of Ben Ellis who provides nothing more than a high tackle count. But the Soward thing is more confusing because he's not a sh*t defender. I'm gonna pray that there is a late change and Rogers is dumped. Pray til I need to buy kneepads.
IMO Soward is better than Rodgers
Soward defence isnt shown up until you get close to the line where unless hes very close to the sideline he has proven a speed hump
Godz I didnt mention Rodgers effectiveness on a dry track. Hes okay but error prone and has given more penalties per game away than any other in the squad. (Manly give about 10% more penalties away than we do BTW so that may stand in our favour)
I said that Sowie may prove supernumerary with Nighty at full back, who provided us with all kinds of options. Now Sowie is untested in that environment and may read the game well enough to know when not to attempt to dominate play. You cant argue that despite Rodgers shaky play, that with him at 5/8 and Nighty at full back, we proved very effective in attack. Perhaps only bettered by the Storm!
Personally Id go with Sowie. What I put forward is that the Rodgers decision is not completely without logic or a level of rational thinking
Your are correct in assuming that Rodgers will need to operate under extreme pressure as Manly will come with all guns blazing. Lets hope that flip Hayne doesnt let them get away with too much!
Id love to see the media give him a bath about his performance last week.
