The reality is that none of our back line are stars. Holmes could be a star.
None of the backline players have a mortgage on their position so take your pick as to who to drop. I wouldn't lose any sleep over any of them but would drop Wright or Gordon to get Holmes in.
He could be. But he might not be. I really liked what I saw of him in the 9s, but that hardly equates to first grade. We definitely do need to see how he goes in first grade.
When we have proven flops, like Ayshford, still in the team, and don't give someone like Holmes a go (they obviously went with Gagan, so deemed him more ready than Holmes), it is a very bad situation. The club can't drop players for a bad game, but for several in a row, then I think it is fair to give a young guy a chance.
But when they are not performing badly, I think you are on shaky team ground to drop a player just to give another non proven performer, a go. As long as we don't revert to protecting poorly performing incumbents at any cost, I am happy to say that players who are playing well (and the backs are all certainly playing well at the moment) should not be dropped for experimenting. Holmes will get a chance (we can't possibly keep the back 5 all injury free for too many games in a row), as long as the Sharks don't try to reinstate Ayshford or move Wright to wing or something stupid, I'm happy with him waiting.
