Re: Tom Johnstone : Wed May 11, 2022 1:15 pm  

I’d never begrudge if he left for more money/chasing silverware as I don’t think we’ll be challenging any time soon. It is a short career and as Johnstone has known through injury it can be cut short with injury. I’d really like to keep him, as he is one of the best wingers in SL. I think it shows where we are as a team if we’re relying on 1 winger to keep us afloat, though that shows the class above he is from the rest of the team

Re: Tom Johnstone : Wed May 11, 2022 4:27 pm  

vastman wrote:

You don't need to be clairvoyant IMHO. At the moment he is quite literally the difference between 2 points for 6 and 6 is pretty poor. So short term at least it would be a disaster, long term I suppose we'd get over it so long as the team improves. It all boils down to whether the 2023 team we put together is as a unit better than the one we have with TJ in.

The tragedy is that we should be looking for both, the dream is to put together a team that will allow TJ the opportunities he needs and we seem miles off that at the moment

One point, this is a completely different scenario to Ellis and Westwood whilst Brough sacked himself. In those days the club was a selling club and the club always wanted the money thus the players were happy to go. This is far closer to a call and I'm absolutely certain the club wants to keep him. But it's not about money IMHO, this is one of those rare occasions where it's about success or that lack of.

Sadly … the chances are… if we had had some success … he would probably have missed the big games through injury.

Re: Tom Johnstone : Wed May 11, 2022 4:31 pm  

Spookisback wrote:

Sadly … the chances are… if we had had some success … he would probably have missed the big games through injury.

That’s a fair old leap.

I could just as easily say he probably wouldn’t have got injured if he didn’t have to do so much graft!

Re: Tom Johnstone : Wed May 11, 2022 6:33 pm  

Disappointed he'll be going but he's got to think of himself and his career prospects and salary. The thing for me we've never used his strengths correctly so he's never given any space so has needed to score the spectacular acrobatic tries we've seen. Rarely seen us kick to his aerial strength or use a chip over. Or playing outside a centre who needs his own ball. Look at the strike rates of for example Eden & Solomona or even Clare at Castleford similar or better strike rates but no where near TJ ability wise. If and when he goes invest in the players we're lacking and give Lewis Murphy the chance.

Re: Tom Johnstone : Wed May 11, 2022 7:09 pm  

It’s a pity he did not play when Solomona was playing for us, just think how many 4 points he would have scored.

Re: Tom Johnstone : Wed May 11, 2022 9:39 pm  

Scarlet Pimpernell wrote:

It’s a pity he did not play when Solomona was playing for us, just think how many 4 points he would have scored.

Not to mention Domic.
He's wasted with us half the time, sick of seeing him driving it out of his own 10 and getting no ball out wide in space.
Hope he doesn't leave, but part of me will love seeing him play in a better team (as long as it's not Leeds, Wigan, Cas, Hull, Catalans, Huddersfield, Salford, KR, Saints or Wire). Shiit, maybe i'm not ready for this afterall...
...

Re: Tom Johnstone : Wed May 11, 2022 10:32 pm  

Scarlet Pimpernell wrote:

It’s a pity he did not play when Solomona was playing for us, just think how many 4 points he would have scored.

Just imagine if he’d played outside Foxy….

Re: Tom Johnstone : Thu May 12, 2022 6:22 am  

The perfect centre for TJ was Dean Collis, a genuine centre who knew how to draw his man and get the ball to his winger in space. Missed each other by a season, what a shame.

Much as I like Tupes he’s not a wingers centre he’s a yardage maker capable of scoring. It’s funny really, he’s helped Tom score some spectacular tries yet at the same time he’s buggered up some really simple ones. Typical winger made centre imo, never quite knew when to let the ball go.

Re: Tom Johnstone : Thu May 12, 2022 6:28 am  

vastman wrote:

The perfect centre for TJ was Dean Collis, a genuine centre who knew how to draw his man and get the ball to his winger in space. Missed each other by a season, what a shame.

Much as I like Tupes he’s not a wingers centre he’s a yardage maker capable of scoring. It’s funny really, he’s helped Tom score some spectacular tries yet at the same time he’s buggered up some really simple ones. Typical winger made centre imo, never quite knew when to let the ball go.

Yeah ‘Bare’ was a quality centre …. Liked him at Wests and when he came to the Sharks…

Re: Tom Johnstone : Thu May 12, 2022 6:44 am  

I appreciate we're not a 'selling club' any more, and I'm fully behind our process of producing our own players - and there's a fine crop coming through it seems- but as a realist I know that unless we win some silverware, other players we produce like Tom, will drift away. It's a shame but that's how it is.