Witt to start in premier league

[_goParra]

According to todays telegraph, smith was quoted saying

"Michael proved on a number of occasions that he has a good head for the pressure of NRL football, He is a smart kid but he does know he has a lot of work to do on his game. I think in the early season atleast our preference is for him to develop some more before we put him back there again. We feel that later in the year we will have a clearer picture of whether to paly dykes and witt or dykes OR witt"

I support smith here, I am all for young witt to play some more in PL and hone his skills, remember he was thrust into first grade well before BS would have liked but he did the job remarkably well.

Also starting him in the PL will remove some of the focus off him. I would hate to see him bogged down by expectations and play under pressure to perform.

 

[Twizzle]

Some good points, but if it means Wags is at 5/8 our backline wont see the ball.

 

[Parraren]

Hmmm?? I wonder about this. It reaks of typical 'Smithesque' mind games that only one man can understand....Smith. I mean, come one, Witt played more than half the season at halfback last year behind a pretty ordinary pack of forwards that were'nt going forward and I thought he handled it extremely well. Infact, he improved considerably with each game. He showed maturity, confidence & skill. What more could he do to show he could handle the rigors of the NRL? :roll:

I'll admit this, Smith has got some balls because if we start losing games early on with Witty running around in premier league it wont take long for the knives to start coming out again...

 

[The Engineers Room]

It will happen unfortunately. I think Smith could be a great coach but he is too set in his way and won't try things. He looks like he is being spontaneous sometimes but you can tell it is all planned in his mind weeks earlier.

 

[Hurriflatch]

Will be interesting

just on the rest of the article that this quote came from it was in regards to the Eels pack.

They had a look at the size of some players the ones they had listed

Cannings 115kg
Moi Moi 120kg
Armit 104kg
Hindmarsh 107kg
Peek 106kg
Cayless 103kg
VElla 107kg

found it intresting that Tsoulos didn't get a mention.

 

[Hurriflatch]

If Smith really wanted a HUGE team he could name

now I'm not saying this is out best team just a BIG team

1. Vaealiki 100kg
2. Grothe 100kg
3. Lyon 96kg
4. Langi 102kg
5. Kativerata 100kg
6. Wagon 97kg
7. Thorman 90kg
8. Cannings 115kg
9. Hopkins 101 kg
10. Tsoulos 120kg
11. Hindmarsh 108kg
12. Moi Moi 120kg
13. Kaufusi 114kg

 

[PARRA_FAN]

I for one strongly disagree with Witt in PL, Dykes at half and Wagon at 5/8.

Firstly, Witt is a good player is had a good future ahead of him. He played pretty well at halfback towards the end of last season, good kicking game and good passing, even got the ball out wide to the backs. But I cant understand why Smith wants him in PL, whats he done wrong? :?

Secondly Dykes is not a halfback, his kicking game isnt as good as Witt's, I would say Burt's a better kicking game than Dykes, plus Dykes is a good standoff and his the ability to break the line at 5/8. A few occassions hes done this and set up a few tries. At halfback I think he tries too hard, and isnt as dangerous as he normally would be at 5/8. I saw the Tigers game last week he tried to hard with his kicking game and hardly got into a position to get it out wide.

Finally, why does Smith keep picking Wagon at five-eighth. He is not a 'five eighth' he is a running backrower that offloads occassionaly. Wagon doesnt pass the ball at all, so why 5/8. If Smith does pick Wagon at 5/8, Lyon and Vaeliki might as well sit on the bench. There are plenty of options at 5/8 other than Wagon, theres also Thorman, Morris, Hopkins, Delany and I believe O'Dwyer is a 5/8.

We'll soon find out what happens, but if Parramatta looses its first games and Witt continues to carve em up in PL, there are big problems.

 

[PB]

I agree 100% with this decision.

Witt is only young, we have him signed for four years. He will be better off building up again this year by gaining confidence in PL, rather than jumping in the deep end in first grade.

Wagon, well facts are, he is now too small for our forward pack.
Whether you think he is a 5/8 or not, he is not a premier league player.
He would play first grade at any club.
Wagon was the players player last year. So the players know something that us arm chair critics do not.

 

[Pazza]

Wagon got voted Players player playing at lock forward and thats where he will play this season. If he gets selected for 5/8 i will scream. Morris is clearly the best player to play 5/8. He provides fast, clean ball to the backs, Lyon and Vaealiki dont need anything special, they just need room and they they will make there own gaps. Hopkins is more than a suitable replacement at hooker and will definately add some muscle to the pack.

 

[Jake the snake]

Don't worry about Mick Witt being the next superstar half back, i truly now believe after seeing for myself that Tim Smith will be a very good half, also Blake green from the S.g ball looks the goods as a 5/8 and feliti mateo is a Jason smith remake. But once again Tim Smith will be a champion half u can see it by the way he plays.

 

[Parraren]

Wagon got voted Players player playing at lock forward and thats where he will play this season. If he gets selected for 5/8 i will scream. Morris is clearly the best player to play 5/8. He provides fast, clean ball to the backs, Lyon and Vaealiki dont need anything special, they just need room and they they will make there own gaps. Hopkins is more than a suitable replacement at hooker and will definately add some muscle to the pack.

Yep, spot on Pazza. If Witt starts the year in prem's then the only other acceptable option (IMHO) is to play Morris at 5/8 with Dykes and move Hopkins to no. 9. Morris has a very good short kicking game and is an excellent passer which unfortunately cannot be said for Wag's. He also played a huge chunk of last season at 5/8 and did very well there. Don't get me wrong because I have the utmost respect for Wagon and I would have him first picked at lock, but a 5/8 he certainly ain't!

Assuming Witt starts the year in Prem's this is the side I'd like to see run on against the dirty dogs:

1. Burt
2. Grothe
3. Lyon
4. Vaealiki
5. Peterson
6. Morris
7. Dykes
13. Wagon
12. Cayless (c)
11. Hindmarsh
10. Vella
8. Cannings/Pearson
9. Hopkins

14. Widders
15. Pearson/Cannings
16. Tsoulos/Armit
17. Kafusi/Stapleton

 

[Pazza]

I still wanna see Witt on the bench. He did a good job last season and Smith has no right not to let him play first grade. We need more options in attack, if Dykes has a off day then we are stuffed.

 

[PB]

You guys who are saying that Morris should play 5/8th instead of Wags because he has a better passing game. Just a thought, but who is the player who touches the ball most on the field? What is one position on the field where it is a huge asset to have a player capble of consistant accurate passes (from the ground preferable)? If morris is the best deliverer of the ball, then he should be hooker! Morris is best suited to hooker. His kicking game can be just as vital from there, kicking for the line from 10 metres further up field than where the ahlf would be, or short attacking kicks. He is a tireless defender and misses very few tackles on the big forwards. he is very strong in the legs, and so drives well in defence.

 

[Pazza]

Hopkins is very good hooker, he will do a fine job.

 

[Eelectrica]

Put Wags at hooker ;-) - he'll be forced to develop a passing game. :shock:
Either that or be killed as defences tee off on him after making his 50th run from dummy half.

 

[Parraren]

You guys who are saying that Morris should play 5/8th instead of Wags because he has a better passing game. Just a thought, but who is the player who touches the ball most on the field? What is one position on the field where it is a huge asset to have a player capble of consistant accurate passes (from the ground preferable)? If morris is the best deliverer of the ball, then he should be hooker! Morris is best suited to hooker. His kicking game can be just as vital from there, kicking for the line from 10 metres further up field than where the ahlf would be, or short attacking kicks. He is a tireless defender and misses very few tackles on the big forwards. he is very strong in the legs, and so drives well in defence.

Dammit! We wouldn't need to worry about that if Smith would bloody make his mind up with our halves combinaton. I agree, Morris is best at hooker but i'd sure as hell have him at 5/8 before Wagon! We are less than a week away from the first game of the season and we have no idea who our halves are or if indeed we have any????? :evil:

 

[PB]

We do know who our halves are!!!!! Smith has made his mind up!!!!!!

7. Dykes
6. Wagon.

You don't like it, i believe the blue and whites are looking for some new supporters.

Hopkins can fill in at hooker ok, but again, hasnt spent his life practising in the role like a James Webster for example.

 

[Pazza]

i am definately not looking ofrward to that Halves combination.

Hopkins has had experiance at Penrith at hooker. He came to Parra has a Hooker/backrower.

 

[thewizard1o1]

I will also be screaming if Wagon starts at 5/8....if witty is to start the season in premier League i would rather see Morris or Hopkins at 5/8.

On Dykes, halfback is a little to close to the ruck for him, from what i have seen of him he likes to get outwide and run at the line like a centre would...which is where he makes alot of his breaks.

Any word on how Thorman is settleing into the NRL, i'm really looking forward to seeing this chap get a run in the top side later in the season.

Bring on the Doggies :twisted:

 

[Hurriflatch]

I beleive Hopkins was orginally a hooker but got a bit too big + the fact Gower & Drew were at Penruff so he moved to the back row.