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In SL he did, but I think that's many people's point - he's just not doing that at the moment. His defence is what is most concerning for me and in my opinion that is why Tolman is getting the nod over him. For all the talk of Thompson's 'engine', which he no doubt has, you have to consider the side he was playing in compared to where he now finds himself and i'm not even talking about the difference between SL and NRL. At Saints he was surrounded by other very good hole punching forwards and playing off arguably the best 9 our comp has ever seen - go forward for a player like Thompson was steady work. Then there's defence - not only do you have to consider that with how dominant Saints are most games (and therefore do less in defence) you have to take into account most of the time the tackles Thompson would be involved in he'd have either or all Walmsley, Roby, Knowles along side him - years of trust and understanding of what the other guys are going to do. That's not going to come over night at the Dogs and isn't helped by the fact they do spend a lot of time defending when they're tired. Hopefully it'll click in training and start to translate on the field. Like I said in a previous post however, this at the moment looks like a case of right player (for the NRL) wrong club.

I very much agree with this. In particular the comments on his defence because I think this has been his weakness to date. While not skittling defenders, his carries have been ok but his contact in defence is weak and has been grabbing mostly. Harking back to our pervious chat, if the coaching staff at the Dogs do improve him in this area then we will definitely become a better player.

Thompson has some valid excuses to be under performing but it's not the best start if we're all being honest. He will be under huge pressure next year to deliver which hopefully he will. Appreciate that he should be used better but hes still getting 8 to 10 runs/hit ups a game to show what he can do. My concern is the lack of impact in his runs as hes easily stopped by the first up contact. It's all well and good saying he needs 20 carries a game but if your not bending the defensive line back then unfortunately you don't deserve 20 carries a game. He also needs to work on his first up contract in defence. Way to much chest and arms with no shoulder. Give him a good 12 week nrl preseason then judge.

If an Australian international came to play in Super League and produced the stats Thompson has he’d be hung drawn and quartered by most on here.

Can't remember if it was his first or second game but Thompson clearly got frustrated when the dummy half/playmaker shifted the ball away from him again. Is it the game plan to use him as a dummy runner or are his teammates influencing this? Plenty of times I have seen him put his hand up for a carry just for the ball to go somewhere else.

Leeds Kalvin Phillips called up to England squad, interesting, but no Jack Grealish, odd.

The really big story is James Rodriguez eyeing an upgrade on Real Madrid and coming to join Carlo