Its important for me to say, and its just an opinion, that my comments about Schuster are not made to diminish Foran's efforts this year which have exceeded my expectations. He has performed well and is a good foil for DCE. My argument is that Schuster is potentially, I believe, one of the best players on the rise in the game. But I would suggest its detrimental to burn him out with forward play when his skill is ball play.
Lets be serious when describing the backline. The two standouts by a long shot are DCE and Turbo. It can be seen in the number of try assists the two create (Turbo : 28 tries 28 try assists in 18 games, DCE 9 tries 27 try assists in 25 games). No one in the side comes within cooee of those stats and we mustn't forget that DCE averages almost 21.5 tackles a game. Without these two Manly would be in the bottom half of the comp.
Now we compare that to many on this forum's favourite, Foran. His stats show 4 tries, 11 try assists and 3 offloads in 25 games. If we look at Schuster, playing second row, he has 2 tries 9 try assists and 21 offloads in 21 games. Add to that Foran does 15.4 tackles a game at 86.4% efficiency while Schuster averages 27.9 tackles a game at 93.5% efficiency.
What these figures show is that what we see on the field, especially in those flashy moments, hides the actual work these players do.
Now I know many will think I'm bagging Foran. Quite the opposite. I think Foran has done remarkably well this season. I just think Schuster would do better if given the chance at 5/8. I think an opportunity is being lost. The mixed messages on this forum keep indicating Schuster is too big, too slow, too whatever for 5/8 and is better suited to second row. Yet I read regular criticism of his play he's too fat, not involved enough etc at second row without recognising he is one of our two 80 minute forwards and he does a lot of defensive work. In fact for involvement he is one of the top four involved in the game.
Schuster has played second row in the juniors and that's the argument used for him being suited for such. In fact he was moved from second row in the juniors to 5/8 because it was recognised that's where his skill lay. In the second row he was not as effective. I personally, and I have enormous respect for Des, but I think he's erring with Schuster. And what worries me is if he is left in the second row, other clubs will eventually turn up to offer big money and an assurance of 5/8 to break his existing contract. If I was Schuster, I would be very tempted.
