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CGD

Coach
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  1. Was it really the mics or did England deserve a much better crowd than that? That atmosphere was a real shame for such an all conquering tournament opening performance. Samoa. More like Samold, Samold. Very disapponting effort with their best side on paper maybe ever. Parish has repeatedly been responsible for poor team culture.
  2. Speculative list, but Blake Green is best value there by far. Raiders probably have Austin, Sezer and Williams for the price of Cronk.
  3. Hodgo re-signing was always coming but still glad to hear it in the news. He is the most important player for the Raiders now, and going by the trial against the Knights, he's in for an even bigger year than 2015.
  4. Tamou to Raiders doesn't look like happening, apparently he is asking too much. May sign Grevsmuhl instead. Leilua could be announced next week
  5. That is a fantastic squad. Very impressive. No team will beat this Kangaroos team by luck. Any team that does beat them, will certainly have earnt it, no two ways about it.
  6. Wow. I remember watching the 2008 Grand Final with a fair few people at a mate's place. None of us were Manly fans, but when Menzies went over for his try, we all got to our feet as one and cheered for him. We were farewelling him from the Australian game, and never did I expect him to play on for another 5 years elsewhere. He never had the skills of a Johns or Lockyer, but his records and longevity put him in a league of his own, separate to more celebrated league greats but proven to be held in very high esteem by everyone. I take off my hat to you, Beaver.
  7. Campbell is first choice fullback for the Titans, as is Boyd for the Dragons (he just won Dally M Fullback of the Year actually).
  8. Hayne is simply a "victim" of being a player playing in the most hotly contested position in the NRL. Established rep players playing important positions aren't unseated very easily. It took two whole series worth of Origins before Hayne even got a shot at fullback (while, for the grand majority of the time, he dominated from the wing of all positions). For Australia, he's stuck behind Billy Slater. And AndyCapp is right, take a look at Hayne's game in the Four Nations Final again. He ripped up. Anyway, it's the same predicament Josh Dugan and Lachlan Coote will soon (if they're not already) find themselves in. Those two were just about the two best players on the pitch in their debut rep match, playing opposite eachother. Indeed, Dugan was officially Man of the Match in that City/Country game. While Coote's size will count against him in earning rep caps, Dugan will be squeezed into Origin and Tests, somewhere, sooner rather than later. In my honest opinion, I believe Dugan is in the top 3 fullbacks in the game, with Slater and Hayne. It's arguable that he is a better fullback than Hayne. Hayne is easily the better athlete of the three, but as a specialist fullback, his ranking is questionable. Like already suggested, Hayne is still too inconsistent. Yes, even in his "quiet" games, his stats often impress, but he can struggle to star when he's not the absolute focal point of an attack. You can forget just how young he still is, so there's no reason to doubt that he'll improve his game in years to come. Slater just has just been such an executioner of opposite rep teams over the years to not name him as no.1 fullback in the game. Last year, after making his debut, Dugan ended up playing 16 games. When you look at averages in stats, he was the leading metre gainer, leading kick-returner and i'm pretty sure he was the out and out leader for tackle breaks for 2009, as in game average and total for the year. This year he has been in first-grade since Round 1. He is currently third in metre gaining, behind Gallen and Hayne. He is second in kick-return metres, behind Coote. He is again first in tackle breaks, by a long way. He is fourth in line-breaks, and first in linebreaks from kick-returns. He turned 20 in May. He WILL play for NSW and Australia. As for Carney and not being picked for Origin. By Origin 1, he had played 9 NRL games in the previous 1.5 years, and up to that point, had been playing fullback for the Roosters. It's not hard to see how he missed out on his NSW debut this year. While I also don't really like players playing for Australia before making it through the Origin furnace, I definitely believe Carney can be a successful Test player. For a 5/8, he's big and strong, has good pace and good footwork. Physically, he'll do just fine. It's plain to see that his skills are worthy of a Test jersey, it's just a matter of when, and if he can handle the responsibility mentally. If worst comes to worst and we're hit with injury to the halves as mentioned, there's no real harm in trying Carney, is there? It's not like he'll have to do it all himself, with Cronk or Prince inside him.
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