As mentioned elsewhere, the team should come first, we have some real talent in the side, it’s such a shame it's either not used to it’s best potential or comes down to certain individuals seemingly flexing their status or perceived value, so as to maintain their desired position, we have the potential to be a better side with some positional changes, if certain players were willing to put aside their personal positional preference to potentially make us a better footy side. Maybe it’s just not how Seibs see it, disagrees or isn’t willing to gamble his future by looking outside the box.
Let’s speculate.
DCE would have made a great 9, still might, maybe? (His certainly a special player, but game manager and chief play maker he is not, his age doesn’t seem to slow him down and there is a solid argument that mature halves are a better option (young Kotoa says hello) which raises questions to where he offers the best value to our side, especially in context of Manlys current squad, SOO, yes he can play half and it works perfectly, but it’s not yielding the same results for Manly.
Rubes is a first class winger, amongst the top shelf, not sure why we have seemingly weakened one position to persist with this experiment when we potentially have other options that have the potential to make us a better footy side, guess it deserves a little more time, but seriously it is a questionable experiment at best.
Koula is wasted at centre, a touch to small for the position and could be Dynamic at 1, has the skill and speed to play a similar game to Walsh, Kennedy, etc with the potential to make us a better side, we got a window into the possible late last season. But then there’s Tom, we can’t upset Tom, his Bipolar enough, could you imagine if he didn’t and clearly doesn’t want to play centre, boom he is on record as wanting to play one.
Tom is a great player but you have to ask, wouldn’t he strengthen our side at 4 and unleash a wasted talent at 1, he will be playing 4 in Origin, he can’t displace Teddy and shouldn’t be picked in front of Edward’s, but as a centre, who would you pick in front of him? So when we have a potentially explosive number 1 in our own ranks tell me why Manly stick to the current status quo? Tom’s lost the pace to be that dynamic No 1, his still an out and out superstar and someone you want in your side, I love the bloke, but just think Manly can be a better footy side with him at 4, he has the potential to be a Joey Manu type, possibly better.
Quac is another, love him as a player, but I’d like to see him in the middle, he has the potential to be our Big dog, JFH or AFB type prop freeing up space to get some speed and mobility on the edges while improving the very same in the middle. He can make an impact from a standing start, gains post contact meters, can play big minutes, could easily develop his offload to create second phase play from one of our middles and be given license to drift out on occasion to hit the edges similar to what Leota does for the riff. Quac has the tendency to go missing during games. I think he would bring super value as a big minute prop and help balance out our side, maybe even become the No 1 prop in the game, it’s the modern way, speed up or make up the numbers.
If we were serious about winning a premiership we should be chasing 2 edge forwards to change the dynamic of our pack, I know you can’t have every superstar but it doesn’t seem to stop other sides from trying, players like Fifita and Crichton should be on our radar, what ever Shoes contract was, these pair aren’t that far away. Our pack is too slow and maybe too big, it’s definitely not a well balance pack.
We have the backs to be competitive, perhaps even dominate if used to their full potential, but in saying that they can only play off the back of our pack and it’s sadly out of balance and unable to play that up tempo game, we gas without the ball and struggle to remain competitive for 80 minutes least of all on a week in week out basis, especially in respect to playing with line speed and mobility.
Tom‘s not a Myth, his a talent and we should be building our side around him for the next few years while we have him, get our pack right and have Koula firing out the back with Tom playing a roving roll around our three quarter line and we have the potential to place ourselves in the hunt for a premiership. Sadly with the current status quo we are just making up the numbers at best. It’s a tough one, not for the faint hearted, but if being honest, does our current side make an impact on the comp (we maybe lucky to make the. 8) and more importantly can we compete in Sep? Answer, probably not, can we improve our side and give it a shot, definitely. Oh and if we want to play touch footy and make the most of this season with what we have then get Koula to one, Tom into the backline at 4 and really go after that style of play, currently we are to predictable, every side is ready for what’s coming.
