why dont we look at melbourne

[susan ridgepipe]

every year melbourne lose 5 or six players to the cap.every year they find youngsters who step up.they are given confidence by the coach,feed off the experienced players and thrive.half of that team the other night ive never heard of and they will get the job done each and every week.

we beat melbourne 40 nil in 08.we were minor premiers in toyota cup in 09.why is it almost sacrilige at our club to suggest we give young guys a chance when deficiencies and injuries are rampant.the only one we seem to take a risk on is  williams,a guy who is playing out of position and  has so much too learn it not funny

if this latest crisis doesnt force a rethink then we are cooked.

look at brisbane's new fullback norman ,their outside backs and loose forwards,look at mortimer,look at idris.look at pearce and symonds at the roosters,the melbourne youngsters,the knights loose forwards and centres,jennings,coote and co at penrith,josh dugan,croker and young carney at the raiders --the list goes on. all not great palyers yet but all confident and improving quickly and most of these sides dont have the hardened experienced guys we have to guide them as melbourne do and we could do.

the real great teams of the last 20 years rejuvenate swifltly when the time is right.bennet and bellamy are ruthless and inspire confidence in youngsters.

if stwey is shot and our 3/4s and fullback for the year are matai,t.williams,robbo and farrar regardless of results aand hodkinson isnt given a go then we are a joke.
we have some great talent.lets get on with it.

i have a feeling these injuries and suspensions may prove a godsend.

 

[Canteen Worker]

Sue is making good sense! Foran was a revelation last year. It will be interesting to see how JWH goes in the forwards for the Rorters as the pigs tend to mature later.

 

[Garts]

Des only seems to like to blood one youngster per year.  We need to give 2 or 3 a shot over the season if Stewart is out.  These would be my 4, Hodgo, Hoppa, Whare and Lussick.  Everyone is talking up Lussick so I have gone with him but I have seen little of him play. 

I dont think we can throw all 4 in at once but we should find room for 2 of them and see how they go to start with. 

 

[ManlyBacker]

The only one who might be out of their depth at this stage out of Hodgo, Hoppa, Whare and Lussick is Hoppa. The other three would do me straight away.

 

[Fluffy]

we dont have the money or junior base of other teams, if we were propped up by 6 million a year we could easily have more juniors wrapped up early.

Am hoping Lyon moves out to the centres and hoddo gets a run next week

 

[lsz]

Is it just me or is anyone else hoping Foran copes a week.....

 

[susan ridgepipe]

we do have the juniors at the moment. we won toyota minor premiership last year.i hate melbourne being propped up too fluffy but their attitude to giving blokes a chance and reponsibility is what continues to make them the benchmark.

i agree with last post.i love foran but he is a lock like johnson.him missing a week will force des's hand and we will get a handle on hodkinson.he may step up,he may not but lets find out.

as i have said previously i cannot remember one single dominant half who has been manufactured.they are always natural halfbacks.as good as kieran is he wont change history IMO.

we are not a snowflakes chance in hell for next week so lets at least learn something.

 

[Bradza]

For the first 50 minutes last night the Tigers played safety first footy with error minimisation lookin to be their priority. During that period I thought Tony Williams looked good in attack and defence because they we not forcing him to make tough decisions (ie: use his brain). Once they did put questions to him he came up with a couple of costly mistakes. With the better attitude he displayed last night doesn't this support the idea of him being an impact backrower off the bench? Start with Rodney or Galuvao and rotate with Williams with Choc/Gifty playing 80. I don't think Bailey is crap but he is only solid and should be our backup utility.

Even though I acknowledge the sense of Sue’s summary I’m not convinced that Will Hoppa is physically ready yet. I think we should put Farrar at fullback next week and leave Robbo on the wing. I don’t think Foran will get suspended for that tackle as there didn’t seem to be direct contact on the chin. Bring Hodkinson in and put either Lyon or Foran in the centres with Matai. This still leaves us short a winger so probably means T. Williams on one wing for now. Either that or take the plunge with Hoppa.
I like the idea of Foran as lock but see that a couple of years down the track.

I caught the backend of the u20s last night but couldn't get much of a handle on individual efforts. Can anyone provide feedback on how Whare went?

I am not so sure that Lussick is ready for first grade yet. Let him toughen up against the Qld Cup opposition for most of this year unless we get desperate in the forwards. When are Matt Cross and Gulavao available?

 

[eggson]

Can Whare play wing?  He may even take over T Rex in the centres...  so long as des is ready to take a punt.

 

[Jethro]

Is it just me or is anyone else hoping Foran copes a week.....

No, I don't want him to cop a week but I would like to see Hodko given the chance at 7 in the top grade just to see how he goes and how he handles it.

 

[Matabele]

The only one who might be out of their depth at this stage out of Hodgo, Hoppa, Whare and Lussick is Hoppa. The other three would do me straight away.

  In what way is Hoppa less ready than Stewart was in 2004?  Arguably the standard and expectation of Toyota Cup is higher than Reserve grade was back then. 

 

[Brookvale]

I agree 100%.

Also look at the other grand finalists Parra. Good forward pack great backs. But inexperienced halves. A journeyman like Robson and a 70kg player in Mortimer played like a stars!!!

We have one of the best packs in the comp surely we can follow suit. 6 Foran, 7 Hodkinson!! 

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

Des only seems to like to blood one youngster per year.  We need to give 2 or 3 a shot over the season if Stewart is out. 

Yes of course you are all correct. Silly old stodgy Des. As usual last year he didn't bring in any promising young players  because he is too conservative (oh, except for Neumann, Suniula, Tony Wiliams, Foran and JWH).lol

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

as i have said previously i cannot remember one single dominant half who has been manufactured.they are always natural halfbacks.as good as kieran is he wont change history IMO.

What about that Australian Test player who has played in the last 4 straight grand finals?
...actually Kieren is not unlike him in some respects.

 

[KaZa]

[quote author=lsz link=topic=182643.msg254692#msg254692 date=1268689831]

Is it just me or is anyone else hoping Foran copes a week.....

No, I don't want him to cop a week but I would like to see Hodko given the chance at 7 in the top grade just to see how he goes and how he handles it.
[/quote]

I would agree if we had a different coach but Des would just play Bailey there or something stupid like that.

 

[susan ridgepipe]

kronk is a rugby union star junior from brisbane who has always had a brilliant kicking game from the day he donned a boot.he played utility because orford was at melbourne.

 

[Matabele]

And Melbourne didn't fight hard to keep Orford, did they?  I suppose the same could be said for us last year, but was it because we were confident of our 7 being Foran or Hodgkinson?

 

[susan ridgepipe]

i think the club handled the orford situation well.we bought him to win a premiership.he got to a GF,WON one(often forgotten for some reason),won the dally M then had a very ordinary year and there seemed little reason to think he could raise his game back to previous heights.as such we did the the right thing for the clubs future.

my gut feel and mail suggests it was because we had a ready made halfback in TH as opposed to a great prospect more in the running mould.time will tell i suppose.

 

[Kiwi Eagle]

[quote author=ManlyBacker link=topic=182643.msg254677#msg254677 date=1268686897]
The only one who might be out of their depth at this stage out of Hodgo, Hoppa, Whare and Lussick is Hoppa. The other three would do me straight away.

  In what way is Hoppa less ready than Stewart was in 2004?  Arguably the standard and expectation of Toyota Cup is higher than Reserve grade was back then. 
[/quote]

Mata, I watched him a few times last season, and he didn't look close to NRL level physically, he still looked like a kid out there tbh. I remember watching him and thinking then he wasn't ready both it terms of size and what he was showing on the pitch, what a full off season has done for him I don't know

Not sure on the reserve grade thing mate. Have seen some of the 20s come through and dominate straight off, but we have also seen the likes of Barba and Hunt dominate that comp in the halves and be a long way from NRL level when they had their turn, and we even have Tony Williams in that boat at the moment of dominating 20s but struggling with the transition

 

[Matabele]

[quote author=Matabele link=topic=182643.msg254815#msg254815 date=1268718347]
[quote author=ManlyBacker link=topic=182643.msg254677#msg254677 date=1268686897]
The only one who might be out of their depth at this stage out of Hodgo, Hoppa, Whare and Lussick is Hoppa. The other three would do me straight away.

  In what way is Hoppa less ready than Stewart was in 2004?  Arguably the standard and expectation of Toyota Cup is higher than Reserve grade was back then. 
[/quote]

Mata, I watched him a few times last season, and he didn't look close to NRL level physically, he still looked like a kid out there tbh. I remember watching him and thinking then he wasn't ready both it terms of size and what he was showing on the pitch, what a full off season has done for him I don't know

Not sure on the reserve grade thing mate. Have seen some of the 20s come through and dominate straight off, but we have also seen the likes of Barba and Hunt dominate that comp in the halves and be a long way from NRL level when they had their turn, and we even have Tony Williams in that boat at the moment of dominating 20s but struggling with the transition
[/quote] Halves are different to fullback.  Of all positions it has the least defensive pressure involved, so build is less of an issue.  What we did see on Friday night was a Bronco kid, I think 1 or 2 years younger than Hopoate, make his debut and win a MOTM award.

Surely it's worth a punt when we had most of last season to see that Robbo does not provide the answer?