What happened to Tony Puletua?

[Marty]

I remember back into 2003-2004 he was pretty awesome...but now he seems pretty crap to be honest...goes missing in games. He does a bit of tackling but he doesn't seem to run the ball like he used to. Is he carrying injuries or what? For that matter what happend to Joe Gnalavou? He is absolute crap now but was dally m second rower of the year back in 03...anyone know what happened to him as well?

 

[murraymob]

Pulutua is at the end of his carrer .Has not had a good game for a long time.Spends the whole game standing next to the wingers.

 

[smitty]

he cut his hair

 

[Mr Angry]

Has not been the same since the injury.

Not sure why.

 

[PEPPSY]

Really frustrating. He should be tearing the opposition apart!

 

[otag]

on his day, he is unstoppable. but i dare agree with some that he is at the end of his career.

 

[Kilkenny]

Big T is far from the end of his career.

While he has not figure in MOM performances in the first six rounds of 2007 he'll be back bigger and better than ever.

 

[BuBz81]

I remember back into 2003-2004 he was pretty awesome...but now he seems pretty crap to be honest...goes missing in games. He does a bit of tackling but he doesn't seem to run the ball like he used to. Is he carrying injuries or what? For that matter what happend to Joe Gnalavou? He is absolute crap now but was dally m second rower of the year back in 03...anyone know what happened to him as well?

Joe's playing reserve grade for the bunnies.... I saw him recently and he's trimmed down alot.. I haven't seen him play so I have no idea why he's not in first grade

 

[Munky]

Joe was rubbish in 04 and even worse in 05 for us.

I was happy when we released him. He lost all the bulk off his legs which gave defenders nightmares.

 

[*Sandy*]

Back to T...

I would like to see more input from the big man on the field. Whether he can improve on what he has given thus far is entirely up to him, the coach and training staff to work on. I have no doubt in my mind it can and will be achieved.

 

[The Wrong Eye]

The Big T should be put out to pasture and give him a job within the club as a welfare officer helping the youngster coming through.
There has to be better players on the market ,value for money for what the Big T is producing and getting paid.

 

[PEPPSY]

I seen Joe play last week when Souths played the Knights here on the Coast..done absolutely nothing.

 

[gorilla with a shotgun]

I thought Puletua played some awesome games for u's last year and u's had a losing streak when he was out injured

 

[mxlegend99]

He hasn't been at his best, but he has been pretty good for us. He was dissapointing against the Storm, but they do have a very good team, and he was backing up from the night before.

Round 1 - 91 metres. 4 tackle breaks. 14 tackles
Round 2 - 102 metres. 5 tackle breaks. 15 tackles
Round 3 - 102 metres. 5 tackles breaks. 25 tackles
Round 4 - 76 metres. 2 tackle breaks. 26 tackles
Round 5 - 63 metres. 2 tackle breaks. 15 tackles
Round 6 - 45 metres. 0 tackle breaks. 12 tackles

IMO, he hasn't been all that bad with exception of against Storm. He is just playing nowhere near his potential, which is definitely a let down. But we have a great forward pack, so he doesn't really need to be making 50 tackles and 200 metres a game.

Our real weakness is ineffective halves. We have poor 5th tackle kicking, and never get repeat sets. They rarely setup linebreaks also. But our forwards always get us metres, and our backs are doing their fair share of scoring when given the chance.

If anyone deserves to be blamed, it's our halves. Gower is our highest paid player, and of everyone on the field, is the one not doing his job.

 

[Kilkenny]

Gowie tried his guts out against the storm, maybe to hard. From where the wife and wife were sitting at ground level, we could really see Gowie trying to get things moving. His efforts would not have come accross on the foxtel coverage but believe me it was not for want of trying on Gowies part.

Our single biggest problem area remains our kicking in general play. Unless we sort out our kicking game then we will surely finish among the also rans this season.

Our defence is generally sound.

Our attack will surely develop as the season goes on.

But our kicking has been poor in comparision to almost all other sides in the comp for the past two and a bit seasons.

In relation to Big T, he is an impact back rower. He is at his best when we are able to get quick play the balls which give him a little bit of space two or three off the ruck, out wide. Our offensive plays are largely not giving him any room to move and hence it is unreasonable to simply expect him to bust tackles every time he takes the ball up. It will come, give him time.

 

[dontmakemeangry]

time for big T to take up a spot on the bench. He has been given a rails run from the day he first appeared in the top grade, and rightfully so, but it's time he went back to the bench and was used as purely an impact player. I never thought i'd say this but his brother Frank is the Panthers best forward this season by a mile!

 

[Panther]

Agree about Frank.

 

[Fibroman]

time for big T to take up a spot on the bench. He has been given a rails run from the day he first appeared in the top grade, and rightfully so, but it's time he went back to the bench and was used as purely an impact player. I never thought i'd say this but his brother Frank is the Panthers best forward this season by a mile!

Waterhouse was my standout prior to his injury, and Pritchard has looked very dangerous in attack. F.Puletua is the next best. Big T should start from the bench and play the last 20 minutes of each half.:crazy: