Thompson deserves to play for NSW just as much as Fitzgibbon

[Mr Saab]

look TC is 10 times the player Timmins is. timmins is running around on 75 yr old legs, and a poor reader in defence (no not just the semi debacle)

 

[PB]

..... Its a sad situation of affairs but a generation of stat freaks are developing. F@ck the stats, .......

Funny, the two biggest stat freaks in the game are your (Roosters) two coaches (The 2004 and 2005 NSW coaches). If you had half an idea of how much they play on stats you wouldnt have said that.

Anyway i agree with just about everyone here.

a) If Thompson had been given a chance at State level ( i know he has had untimley injuries in a couple of seasons), then he would have made a bird of state of Origin, no question.

b) Fitzy deserves his spot in sky blue also. he is a worker, he does flop and get away with it, but then so do other players with good reputations such as Shane Webcke and Steve Price. All 3 do plenty of good work, but they are also guilty of putting in anywhere from 5-8 flops in a game. Where as players like Priddis, Nutley, Morris etc get blown up straight away because the refs are watching for them to do something wrong.

c) Hindmarsh is a FREAK. After his first stint in rep footy in 02 i questioned whether he was up to it because he was such a 'play with your heart' sort of player. But having seen his games this year for NSW and his effort on saturday morning for Aus, there is no reason why Thompson a similar sort of player, wouldnt be up to playing rep footy. He (Hindmarsh) i believe has taken the mantle as the premier second rower in Australia now. (that 78th minute charge down, and the chase to dive on the loose ball which set up the winning set of six, Gold!)

 

[lolesi]

Just on Gallen - When NSW didn't have a 5/8 for game 2(before Freddy came back) someone said to Gus what about Gallen and Gus replied with "he is a queenslander isn't he?" then he was told about Gallen being a nsw boy and gusses eyes opened up and he wrote it down. Hopefully Gus gets into stickys ear and gets Gallen atleast a city/country game

You just made that up.

No, it happened.

 

[PB]

ahahah. I like these gimps who think they know more than others.

You said Carroll was allowed, & he played for them. Again, they didn't make him play for Australia, he chose to

TC is in the SAME boat as ricketson. He played origin in 1999/2000 and then played for ireland and then played for Australia. Why is his situation different to TC?
And yes i DO know more than you.,.,ALOT more

Actually they were very different boats.

Ireland is an "emerging nation", and players were allowed to play for an emerging nation if they have heritage from that country and still be eligable for Aust, NZ or GB.

"TC" played for NZ, not an emerging nation.... But then you would know that.......

 

[Mr Saab]

the emerging "clause" doesnt sit with me. Campion, Ricko, & Willie Mason all played for other nations and mason and ricko went on to play for australia.
The league world cup was a mickey mouse in 2000 and the ARL knew it

 

[The Colonel]

the emerging "clause" doesnt sit with me. Campion, Ricko, & Willie Mason all played for other nations and mason and ricko went on to play for australia.
The league world cup was a mickey mouse in 2000 and the ARL knew it

Why doesn't it sit with you? Because it upsets your argument?

 

[PB]

So you do understand why the Rickertson and Carroll situations were different then.....

 

[Mr Saab]

the emerging "clause" doesnt sit with me. Campion, Ricko, & Willie Mason all played for other nations and mason and ricko went on to play for australia.
The league world cup was a mickey mouse in 2000 and the ARL knew it

Why doesn't it sit with you? Because it upsets your argument?

my argument is still solid. The hate on TC is misguided.

 

[The Colonel]

the emerging "clause" doesnt sit with me. Campion, Ricko, & Willie Mason all played for other nations and mason and ricko went on to play for australia.
The league world cup was a mickey mouse in 2000 and the ARL knew it

Why doesn't it sit with you? Because it upsets your argument?

my argument is still solid. The hate on TC is misguided.

Of course it is. Point is he should never have been allowed play Origin or for Australia. Only really happened because Bennett is the coach. If they were so pressed for a lock then Hill or Harrison should have been picked first and foremost.

 

[Mr Saab]

he played origin in 1998/9 with the hope of playing for Australia. He never played (rejeted their advances) for NZ in that time.
The ARL GAVE him the chance to play for NZ in the world cup and he took it. Just like every other player that wasnt selected for OZ. The world cup of 2000 was a JOKE with a CAPTIAL J. I love league but it was a farce.
I am glad TC is the lock for Australia. He is a very good player. ( i wont say great as that word has meaning for me...very few great players playing today)

 

[borat]

Can anyone explain to me how Tonnie Carroll gets away with being in the test team with the princely stats of 17 hitups and 0 offloads total in 3 tri-series matches?

6 in game 1, 7 in game 2 & 4 in game 3. Thats 17 in 240mins of football. TC hides when Australia have the ball.

Maybe he is making tackles? wrong. He lags far behind Hindmarsh, Webcke, Ryles and co. So what the hell does this guy do? Big hits? where. Look if someone can show me that he spends alot of time off the field I will stand corrected. But at the moment all TC offers to the Test Team is a player with a very low work rate and is scared of running ball at the opposition.

On the thread topic, as a dragons supporter I can admit that Fitzgibbon and Hindmarsh are the top 2 second rowers in the game. But IMO there is not much between Ryan and Thompson and had it not been for injury Thomspon would have secured an origin spot because his early season form was better than Ryan. Ryan's form in the latter part of the season better.

 

[BlueNGoldBlood]

how TC is there still is baffling really to everyone but bennet, and thats all that matters to keep him there unfortunately..

i would put waterhouse there but what i think dont matter does it :lol:

 

[Red Bear]

Tony Carroll, apart from being a Kiwi, doesnt deserve to be lock for Australia, Timmins, Hill Harrison are all better(Harrison should be there).

 

[God-King Dean]

I actually rate Carroll higher than Waterhouse. But at least Waterhouse is Australian ;-)

 

[Johns Magic]

Am I the only one who finds Ryan over-rated?

 

[The Grouch]

I rate Ryan, but personally I would have that big unit Waterhouse in there over Carroll

 

[Timmah]

Luck of the Dragons!

Dude your club consistently gets overrated hacks picked in origin ahead of more deserving players. Even after tearing Saints apart in the weeks before SOO1, the selectors still opted to pick a wad of Dragons in the side over in form Dogs players. Hell, the f**knobs got rid of Ryan for Kennedy didn't they? Now tell me how that decision was fair. While Thommo is a good player, he can wait in line.

 

[Timmah]

Am I the only one who finds Ryan over-rated?

Go to NRL.com and navigate to the Telstra Video Gallery. Open games from Rounds 17-26 for Canterbury, and then try telling me he's overrated. He single handedly kept that run of 10 straight wins going for a good few weeks there. Overrated? Look at your avatar. :roll:

 

[Johns Magic]

Am I the only one who finds Ryan over-rated?

Go to NRL.com and navigate to the Telstra Video Gallery. Open games from Rounds 17-26 for Canterbury, and then try telling me he's overrated. He single handedly kept that run of 10 straight wins going for a good few weeks there. Overrated? Look at your avatar. :roll:

His stats are considerably worse than the likes of Thompson, Hindmarsh, Fitzgibbon, O'Donnell, Dean Young, Mason, Waterhouse, Kennedy, Fletcher, Wiki, Morley, Watmough, Parker, Gallen, Reynoldson, Laffranchi, Sattler, and even Clint Newton had better stats than him.
That's all according to nrl.com by the way.

Everyone goes on about what a workhorse he is, but his stats don't show it. And don't come back saying "you cant use stats", because stats are exactly what show the workrate of forwards.

The fact that he is considered so highly for representative levels is amazing. He got carried by the fact that he played for the Bulldogs.

 

[Timmah]

Stats don't mean shit mate, the performance in the game by him all year proved it. Refer to those rounds I said above and you'll see exactly why he got selected. If you had it your way I'm guessing Johns would've been selected without playing a game since April for the Australian side, had he been fit. :roll:
However, a stat I think shows what a versatile player he is - top tryscoring forward in 2004.