FMD...Lomax 11 v 2..Rava has to lift his game no matter what wing he is on
His defence has been ordinary in 1st grade
Lomax scored a hat trick in one game. so in 1 game Lomax scored 3 better strike rake taking your point
Another view to you point. Alex Johnston will soon be the greatest try scorer in the games history
Greatest winger.. in my opinion far from it, might make Top 20
I dont think he has been the best winger ever at Souths
Who gives a f**k about Souths or Johnstone all that is irrelevant
So I take it that you subscribe to the theory that moving a player before a ball is even kicked who just scored 21 tries for the season was a great piece of coaching.
The beneficiaries of the Lomax move
Bird, NSW, Feagai, Parramatta and I admit the fans for some spectacular athleticism by Lomax albeit it was already on show late 2023.
Some would say Lomax is beneficiary but as he wants to play anywhere but wing and is now leaving the club he supposedly loves not sure exactly if he thinks he has benefited.
Losers out of that move
St GI and our best try scorer for 3 out of 4 seasons.
So our Pre miership winning coach evidently can’t make a centre out of Lomax but can make him a winger, can’t make a better winger out of a try scoring metre eater winger, can make a centre out of a busted arse, penalty magnet cripple.
Yes Lomax did score 3 tries in 1 game but ultimately it is the total that will be the yard stick. If not mistaken I think Rava has also bagged 3 in a game so not as if it is beyond him
Anyway for all the toing & froing I somewhat see Zac’s wing play as a consequence of S F’s absolute desire to have Bird at centre rather than Zac will kill it at wing and therefore we have no option but to play Bird at centre.
One will never know what the outcome of having Lomax & Rava together for 2024 would have been but I believe that we should have bothered to find out.
I love Rav. He's my favourite player. I was disappointed to see him get dropped and even more disappointed to see him get suspended for actions that I thought weren't his bag. BUT, he has been poor this year in the games he's played. Now I understand you think that's because he's been moved to a different side of the field. Might be a contributing factor, however defensively he's always had his issues. And he has been further exposed in the move.
With regards to the 21 tries, another way to look at it is - how many games did we win last year with the 21 tries? How many games have we won this year with Lomax on the same wing but with less tries. Obviously the aim of the game is to win matches, not ensure a players try tally has been maintained. I don't care how many tries this player or that player scores so long as we are winning games. If that means Rav has to learn a new side or gets dropped then so be it. The changes Flanno has made isn't the sole reason we are winning more games, but has definitely contributed to the improvement we are seeing.
I hope Rav can improve his game and maintain his spot in the team. I love seeing him on the field.
I appreciate your thoughtfully explained post.
For me the measure of whether a changes is good or bad IMO there has to be some sort of comparison so to that end what do we have to compare and I would think 2023 would be fair.
Now taking into account it was a poor year and not many wins to think 1 player scores 21 tries would surely indicate some ability on his part and to totally dismiss that on the idea that Lomax would be better on the wing seems a bit too good to be true. After all many in here said he was way to slow to be a centre let alone a winger.
In the end I think many issues rolled into it but if S F is half the coach people say he his surely he should have sort to remedy a defensive issue to maintain a known and highly successful try scoring combination before dismissing it and instantly making a change.
The argument re we have scored less but won more is interesting and probably needs some better and deeper analysis but if defence was the issue for Rava then the fact that we are still leaking like a sieve both right and left and have had record scores and losses recorded against us would possibly indicate that the move never fixed the problem and perhaps we would have won this number of games anyway.
I think the beauty and spectacular nature of Zac's aerial skills might somewhat be clouding the reality of this debate as for sure and certain we haven't had anything of that nature for a long long time and Rava's barging, bullocking, smashing qualities are somewhat lost due to the agricultural nature of them.
A bit like comparing ballet to weight lifting.
