Your Teams Best Line up/Side for 2015 and Why

[gorilla with a shotgun]

1. Jack Wighton
2. Sisa Waqa
3. Jarred Croker (c)
4. Brenko Lee/Jeremy Hawkins
5. Edrick Lee
6. Blake Austin
7. Mitch Cornish
8. David Shillington
9. Josh Hodgson
10. Paul Vaughan
11. Josh Papalii
12. Sia Soliola
13. Shaun Fensom

14. Kurt Baptiste
15. Dane Tilse
16. Joel Edwards
17. Tevitia Pengai Jr

Our upside IMO is: Sneaking into the finals and being dispatched in week 1. But we're not making the 8, but hopefully we'll be more competitive, competing in each game, maybe pick up around 10 wins and steady the ship for a finals run in 2016

I'd probably have Boyd over Edwards.
I'd normally say Tilse needs to go but he was a monster at the end of last year. He didnt give away penalties or make stupid offloads which was a pleasant surprise.

 

[grouch]

With Russell Packer and Craig Garvey on deck, the Drgons have a formidable police line up

 

[Noname36]

Mason ?? we should go hung ho for MERRIN

Willie is only good for 2-3 games a year these days.

 

[Nice Beaver]

I think size is kinda been over rated a bit to be honest. The Dogs huge pack got nullified by plenty of packs this year, sure they made the grand final, but lets be honest they got away with some dirty tactics and had players not even get cited for worse than others were getting 3/4 weeks for. When you look at Souths ALL of their success with their forwards this year was built on the back of one dominant forward in Sam Burgess. Yes he was a big unit, but without him the giant Souths pack would have been much like the Bulldogs and containable, it also helped he had Teo firing with him as well, and Teo ain't no monster. I think people are kidding if they think Souths pack will even get close to what they did this year minus their two best forwards.

As mentioned by another poster - the 2 biggest packs were in the GF :crazy:

If you have no size in this comp you get dominated. Unless they cut the number of interchanges and get rid of the wrestle that's the cold hard reality.

 

[rabbitohs95]

Again Grant will not provide impact from the bench. Back to his best and he'll go over the advantage line reasonably but don't expect him to be offloading and breaking tackles.

Well he'll still continue a good roll on and lay a good platform, which is what you need from a good prop forward, plus we have Tom Burgess and to a lesser extent McQueen for impact off the bench anyway.

 

[Frankus]

Grant is a high minutes prop, he's no impact player

Grant's best days are behind him. There was a reason he wasn't in our starting 17for most of this year, he wasn't in the top 4 performing props. Simple.

 

[Kiwi]

As mentioned by another poster - the 2 biggest packs were in the GF :crazy:

If you have no size in this comp you get dominated. Unless they cut the number of interchanges and get rid of the wrestle that's the cold hard reality.

The same could have been said for the Broncos of 2000, monster pack, going by the same logic they should have been unstoppable for a few more years. Look I don't disagree that you do need SOME size to a pack for sure, I just don't think you need a monster pack where you have 4+ huge units in the front row rotation.

If you were to pick the two best front rowers in the world right now, I doubt you would find many sane league fans who wouldn't name two of the smallest props in the game in Matt Scott and James Graham. Again yes size matters in some cases and you do want atleast some size in your pack, but overloading with size isn't the answer. Bulldogs got ALOT of favourable treatment to get as far as they did and it showed when that dried up on Grand Final day and they had nothing and would have probably got 50 put on them without Graham in the side. The Broncos much smaller pack dominated the Bulldogs monster pack twice in 2014, twice. Size isn't the be all and end all.

 

[Frankus]

1.Moylan
2.Mansour
3.Whare
4.Blake
5.DWZ
6.Soward
7.Wallace
8.McKendry
9.Seg
10.Anderson
11.Cartwright
12.Peach
13.Taylor

14.Brown
15.Idris
16.Latimore
17. Kite......for now even though he's a pillow

2016 Moylan moves to 6 and DWZ to fullback

Idris to centre and to start. No room for turnstiles in the starting 13. Blake needs to prove himself before taking the spot of one of our top performers.

Kite also to start ahead of Anderson (him or Latimore to drop off the bench) with Sika being somewhere in the 17. Docker needs to be in the 17 somewhere as well, probably starting ahead of Peach who is better suited to coming off the bench. We need some starch in defence with Plum likely to be playing NSW cup (if he hasnt already retired). My take on it anyway.

 

[redandgreenduck]

1. RTS
2. Tupou
3. Jennings
4. Ferguson
5. SKD
6. Maloney
7. Pearce
8. JWH
9. Friend
10. Moa
11. Cordner
12. Aubusson
13. Guerra

14. Napa
15. Evans
16. Liu
17. FPN/Hastings/Meehan

Thugs,sex fiends and druggies....this wont end well

 

[Disco]

Two big packs make the grand final one year and everyone obsesses about size, remember Bulldogs nearly missed the 8.

1. Stewart
2. Hiku
3. Lyon
4. Matai
5. Gutherson
6. Foran
7. Cherry-Evans
8. Lawrence
9. Ballin
10. Starling
11. Watmough
12. Symonds
13. Buhrer

14. Lui
15. Sene-Lefao
16. J Trbojevic
17. Horo

Taufua will come in provided he improves under the high ball, Mason comes in for Horo if he signs

Trbojevic is the future of our pack

 

[Kiwi]

Two big packs make the grand final one year and everyone obsesses about size, remember Bulldogs nearly missed the 8.

1. Stewart
2. Hiku
3. Lyon
4. Matai
5. Gutherson
6. Foran
7. Cherry-Evans
8. Lawrence
9. Ballin
10. Starling
11. Watmough
12. Symonds
13. Buhrer

14. Lui
15. Sene-Lefao
16. J Trbojevic
17. Horo

Taufua will come in provided he improves under the high ball, Mason comes in for Horo if he signs

Trbojevic is the future of our pack

Bingo Souths have had this pack for how long and have 1 premiership to their name and the Bulldogs have won how many since having a huge pack?

 

[WaznTheGreat]

Peats is wasted at five eighth, his defence is far too good to not have him in the middle. De Gois is a total plod by comparison... Though not a bad backup to have overall. I also hope Champion finally finds his feet, but his defence leaves a lot to be desired and his injuries have crueller him

obviously Norman will be in the number 6,i just left him out on purpose cos hes a dope,Peats will be hooker of course.

 

[Red Bear]

Canterbury's big pack with a more competent backline would cause even more damage. Souths backline improved dramaticaly this year and was able to better capitalise on their forward packs good work.

Size is definitely very important. If you just have big guys who don't do alot with the ball and don't have a huge impact on the line you might suffer - see some of Canberra's forward packs of recent years. But if you know how to use big players you can be pretty successful.

 

[Nice Beaver]

The same could have been said for the Broncos of 2000, monster pack, going by the same logic they should have been unstoppable for a few more years. Look I don't disagree that you do need SOME size to a pack for sure, I just don't think you need a monster pack where you have 4+ huge units in the front row rotation.

If you were to pick the two best front rowers in the world right now, I doubt you would find many sane league fans who wouldn't name two of the smallest props in the game in Matt Scott and James Graham. Again yes size matters in some cases and you do want atleast some size in your pack, but overloading with size isn't the answer. Bulldogs got ALOT of favourable treatment to get as far as they did and it showed when that dried up on Grand Final day and they had nothing and would have probably got 50 put on them without Graham in the side. The Broncos much smaller pack dominated the Bulldogs monster pack twice in 2014, twice. Size isn't the be all and end all.

Who was talking about having 4 gorillas in the front row, or the entire pack for that matter?

I was merely saying the 2 biggest packs made the GF in response to your notion that big packs don't matter.

What the Bronco's pack of 2000 did has as much relevance to the argument as the price of peanuts to the price of oil. It s a COMPLETELY different game these days. Yes the fundamental rules of the game are the same but the way the rules are adjudicated on and the spirit in which the game is played are different entirely.

I agree that size is not the be all and end all. I also said if you have NO size in this comp you get dominated.

I stand by my assessment that Manly need more big units to complement the smaller, more mobile forwards. Yes a front rower at 105kg and 6"2 is OK if you don't have 4 of them.

Matt Scott has Tamou and other big units in his pack. Graham has a team of monsters around him to do his thing. Do you think Graham's play would be as effective as it is in a small pack getting dominated? Not likely.

And yes, the teams with the monster packs will get their pants pulled down on occasion. But when the whips were cracking where were they?

 

[Kiwi]

Canterbury's big pack with a more competent backline would cause even more damage. Souths backline improved dramaticaly this year and was able to better capitalise on their forward packs good work.

Size is definitely very important. If you just have big guys who don't do alot with the ball and don't have a huge impact on the line you might suffer - see some of Canberra's forward packs of recent years. But if you know how to use big players you can be pretty successful.

Not denying a player with size can have a big impact, but so can one 10kg lighter in the same position. Size isn't everything, size without skill or heart is nothing, skill and heart does not require size to be successful, even in the forwards.

 

[Kiwi]

Who was talking about having 4 gorillas in the front row, or the entire pack for that matter?

I was merely saying the 2 biggest packs made the GF in response to your notion that big packs don't matter.

What the Bronco's pack of 2000 did has as much relevance to the argument as the price of peanuts to the price of oil. It s a COMPLETELY different game these days. Yes the fundamental rules of the game are the same but the way the rules are adjudicated on and the spirit in which the game is played are different entirely.

I agree that size is not the be all and end all. I also said if you have NO size in this comp you get dominated.

I stand by my assessment that Manly need more big units to complement the smaller, more mobile forwards. Yes a front rower at 105kg and 6"2 is OK if you don't have 4 of them.

Matt Scott has Tamou and other big units in his pack. Graham has a team of monsters around him to do his thing. Do you think Graham's play would be as effective as it is in a small pack getting dominated? Not likely.

And yes, the teams with the monster packs will get their pants pulled down on occasion. But when the whips were cracking where were they?

Graham did pretty well Grand Final day against a Souths pack where most had 10kg plus on him while the rest of the Dogs pack did SFA. SO yeah highly likely he would still perform.

ONE year a monster pack wins the GF in how many and suddenly it's the reality. Hardly.

As for the rest I would say we agree kinda, I think we are both kinda saying the same thing just going about it different ways

 

[Russell Crowe's Band]

1. Michael Gordon
2. Jacob Gagan
3. Sosaia Feki
4. Ricky leutelle
5. Valentine Holmes
6. FaManu Brown
7. Jeff Robson
8. Andrew Fifita
9. Michael Ennis
10. Sam Tagatese
11. Luke Lewis
12. Wade Graham
13. Paul Gallen

14. Tianau Arona
15. Anthomy Topou
16. Chris Heighington
17. David Fifita

potentially

Gordon
Gagan
Feki
Farrell
Nightingale
Barba
Robson
Fifita
Ennis
Kennedy
Lewis
Graham
Gallen

Arona
Tagatese
Topou
Heighington

but yeah. who knows with signings.

id like us to offload guys like heighington, wright, ayshford, topou etc

 

[Far Canal]

That's a very good pack - if they are injury free, they could be really good. Pity about the shite backline.

 

[roostersrule2]

Thugs,sex fiends and druggies....this wont end well

As opposed to a team with Inglis, Auv'a and Gurgess in it.

 

[Pugzley]

1. Craig Gower
2. Craig Gower
3. Craig Gower
4. Craig Gower
5. Craig Gower
6. Craig Gower (c)
7. Craig Gower
8. Craig Gower
9. Craig Gower
10. Craig Gower
11. Craig Gower
12. Craig Gower
13. Craig Gower

14. Craig Gower
15. Craig Gower
16. Craig Gower
17. Craig Gower

I think we can put this under the cap. :sarcasm: