Re: The Prop Problem : Sat Mar 27, 2021 9:51 am  

Last season showed we have a real prop problem, to the point we made an emergency signing who solidified the pack. We've now spent an entire off season offloading two dead weight (who both should never have been signed) and replaced them with nought. Recruitment has been the biggest issue at this club for the last decade and will continue to be with Rads in charge.

Re: The Prop Problem : Sat Mar 27, 2021 9:55 am  

jonh wrote:

Havard is a big concern for me.

Is he?

Thought we started to get back on top of the game when he came on. His work rate is unbelievable.

Huge potential and already a very good player now imo.

Him re-signing and not going the NRL was huge for us.

Pack is crying out for a elite metre eating prop, in the Watts, Thompson, Cooper mold. I thought the club realised this last year the GBurgess signing who pre injury was just the type of player we need.

There’s not many around I guess and they don’t come cheap.

Re: The Prop Problem : Sat Mar 27, 2021 10:18 am  

NSW wrote:

Is he?

Thought we started to get back on top of the game when he came on. His work rate is unbelievable.

Huge potential and already a very good player now imo.

Him re-signing and not going the NRL was huge for us.

Pack is crying out for a elite metre eating prop, in the Watts, Thompson, Cooper mold. I thought the club realised this last year the GBurgess signing who pre injury was just the type of player we need.

There’s not many around I guess and they don’t come cheap.

Probably not a good choice of words by me to be fair.

He clearly has the quality and the athletic ability/physical gifts to be a top prop.

I just think at the moment he lacks that aggressive side that both Partington and Byrne displayed last night to fight back against the Leigh pack.

My worry is that, that’s either in you or it isn’t and from what I’ve seen of him so far it isn’t in him.

Coley was a similar player physically and he lacked that bit of aggression until Madge came in, I’m hoping Havard can do the same.

Re: The Prop Problem : Sat Mar 27, 2021 10:27 am  

NSW wrote:

Pack is crying out for a elite metre eating prop, in the Watts, Thompson, Cooper mold. I thought the club realised this last year the GBurgess signing who pre injury was just the type of player we need.

Pack is also crying out to play anything apart from one-up rugby. We played into Leigh’s hands massively last night by sending play after play back into the ruck area, which they were stacking out with the big lads. The whole idea of a mobile pack is that we play it in that way...run in pairs, play off halves. Havard would have had an absolute field day if we did this last night, and Bullick would given he’s quick for a prop.

Re: The Prop Problem : Sat Mar 27, 2021 10:35 am  

Hopefully once we give it a couple of months the NRL market will open up and we can pick a prop up on the fringes/out of favour. I think we’ll need one as the season goes on but in fairness the young props did a good job last night. We needed more from Singleton and Bullock in that first spell.

Re: The Prop Problem : Sat Mar 27, 2021 10:40 am  

Can anyone explain us opening up the game by kicking on 3rd? Put Leigh in the front foot straight away IMO, didn't really seem to catch them out of position or give us a chance to challenge for possession.

Re: The Prop Problem : Sat Mar 27, 2021 10:44 am  

Grimmy wrote: Can anyone explain us opening up the game by kicking on 3rd? Put Leigh in the front foot straight away IMO, didn't really seem to catch them out of position or give us a chance to challenge for possession. it was baffling, makes sense when powell did it late and no one was there but he kicked it straight to the winger. like they'd agreed to do it before the game and didn't change when leigh had it covered. I think all our backs missing will have hindered go forward too. hanley is probably to young and small, i dont think field touched the ball until he got injured. wingers are important to get sets started and manfredi and marshall should help if they ever get fit, Not taking too much from that game. disappointing we didn't open with much intensity but good to earn the win, hopefully we'll be better for it. https://www.rugby-league.com/match_report/133703 Stats. Harvard the only non embarrassing metres, think he got more than partington, bullock and singleton combined.

Grimmy wrote: Can anyone explain us opening up the game by kicking on 3rd? Put Leigh in the front foot straight away IMO, didn't really seem to catch them out of position or give us a chance to challenge for possession. it was baffling, makes sense when powell did it late and no one was there but he kicked it straight to the winger. like they'd agreed to do it before the game and didn't change when leigh had it covered. I think all our backs missing will have hindered go forward too. hanley is probably to young and small, i dont think field touched the ball until he got injured. wingers are important to get sets started and manfredi and marshall should help if they ever get fit, Not taking too much from that game. disappointing we didn't open with much intensity but good to earn the win, hopefully we'll be better for it. https://www.rugby-league.com/match_report/133703 Stats. Harvard the only non embarrassing metres, think he got more than partington, bullock and singleton combined.

Re: The Prop Problem : Sat Mar 27, 2021 10:57 am  

NickyKiss wrote:

Hopefully once we give it a couple of months the NRL market will open up and we can pick a prop up on the fringes/out of favour. I think we’ll need one as the season goes on but in fairness the young props did a good job last night. We needed more from Singleton and Bullock in that first spell.

My concern is that we need a genuine quality Prop and I can’t remember the last time a quality player became available mid season.

I’m not saying it doesn’t happen but I’m struggling to think of when it has. Maybe going back to Ali Lautiti.

We don’t need a project or a fringe player we need quality.

My guess is we will be relying on a player to have an off field issue for someone of the standard we need to become available.

Re: The Prop Problem : Sat Mar 27, 2021 11:25 am  

jonh wrote:

My concern is that we need a genuine quality Prop and I can’t remember the last time a quality player became available mid season.

I’m not saying it doesn’t happen but I’m struggling to think of when it has. Maybe going back to Ali Lautiti.

We don’t need a project or a fringe player we need quality.

My guess is we will be relying on a player to have an off field issue for someone of the standard we need to become available.

I’m hoping Lams knowledge of the NRL will help us pick up a good one, even if it’s not a big name. We are hoping though and that’s not a great place to be in. A couple of names I noticed were playing Queensland Cup were Andrew Fafita and Herman Ese’ese. I know Fafita is out of favour at Cronulla but I’m not sure why Ese’ese is playing in the reserves (maybe coming back from injury). Now I’m not saying they’re players we could get or should even be trying to but there’s some good players sat outside their clubs 17’s already.

Fingers crossed something drops later in the season.

Re: The Prop Problem : Sat Mar 27, 2021 12:35 pm  

As well as props who can make meters we used to have backs that could make plenty ground as well.
There used to be Gelling, Charnley & Sarginson who all made over 100 mtrs and sometimes 200.
We are now missing Manfredi, Marshall & Gildart.
Those backs make a massive difference to the teams meters gained and the problem needs sorting.
We watched the first game of the season in appalling conditions.
The performance needs to improve but I'm pleased the lads got the two points.