Who will replace the australia spine?

[rhinos78]

Who do you think will take over from slater,cronk and smith in the australia team?

1.Tedesco/Moylen/Boyd/Dugan

7.Cherry-evans/Norman/Cleary/Pearce

9.???

I think they obviously get weaker in all 3 positions. At fullback and half they still have good quality players to take over,at 9 i dont see anyone in the nrl that stands out to me,think they might struggle there finding an adequate replacement.

[Farmduck]

One of the benefits of Origin is that we get 3 chances a year to test players. I think Tedesco will get the #1 for NSW just ahead of Trbojevic (I'm happy either way) and by WC 2021, Holmes will have replaced Boyd, who'll be 34 by then.

In 2018, the 7 would be Hunt or DCE but within 3 years I think it will be Cleary.

Current 9? Peats, Friend, Granville.  In a couple of years? 2 young ones who've shown all the correct pedigree (AUS Schoolboys, U18, U20 Origin) are Brailey at the Sharks and Jacob Liddle at the Tigers. Brailey was also the 2016 Holden Cup Player of the Year.

[Guest]

14 minutes ago, rhinos78 said:

Who do you think will take over from slater,cronk and smith in the australia team?

1.Tedesco/Moylen/Boyd/Dugan

7.Cherry-evans/Norman/Cleary/Pearce

9.???

I think they obviously get weaker in all 3 positions. At fullback and half they still have good quality players to take over,at 9 i dont see anyone in the nrl that stands out to me,think they might struggle there finding an adequate replacement.

Kalyn ponga has to be in the mix somewhere. Unless he changes his mind and opts for the kiwis. The kid is a dead set freak.

[rhinos78]

13 minutes ago, walter sobchak said:

Kalyn ponga has to be in the mix somewhere. Unless he changes his mind and opts for the kiwis. The kid is a dead set freak.

Yeah he's special. Think browns said he'l be starting fullback for newcastle this season,so he'l get his chance to shine.He's goin to have a pile of competition to get rep honours in that position. Is ponga NSW or Queensland  if he stays committed to australia? Its unreal how many quality fullbacks there are in the nrl.

[Guest]

Just now, rhinos78 said:

Yeah he's special. Think browns said he'l be starting fullback for newcastle this season,so he'l get his chance to shine.He's goin to have a pile of competition to get rep honours in that position. Is ponga NSW or Queensland  if he stays committed to australia? Its unreal how many quality fullbacks there are in the nrl.

I heard that he’d opted for Queensland but I read that he was part of the NZ Maori setup at the end of this season. Maybe he’s keeping his options open. Can you play state of origin and still represent NZ??

[rhinos78]

24 minutes ago, Farmduck said:

One of the benefits of Origin is that we get 3 chances a year to test players. I think Tedesco will get the #1 for NSW just ahead of Trbojevic (I'm happy either way) and by WC 2021, Holmes will have replaced Boyd, who'll be 34 by then.

In 2018, the 7 would be Hunt or DCE but within 3 years I think it will be Cleary.

Current 9? Peats, Friend, Granville.  In a couple of years? 2 young ones who've shown all the correct pedigree (AUS Schoolboys, U18, U20 Origin) are Brailey at the Sharks and Jacob Liddle at the Tigers. Brailey was also the 2016 Holden Cup Player of the Year.

What do you think cronulla do with  moylen and dugan? Will it be moylen fullback and dugan center or dugan fullback and moylen at 6? 

Il watch out for liddel and braily,think theres a deffinate opportunity for a good young 9 to stake a claim for rep honours.

[Hvy wg]

Ponga is one injury away from retirement already. 

[Dunbar]

43 minutes ago, rhinos78 said:

Who do you think will take over from slater,cronk and smith in the australia team?

1.Tedesco/Moylen/Boyd/Dugan

7.Cherry-evans/Norman/Cleary/Pearce

9.???

I think they obviously get weaker in all 3 positions. At fullback and half they still have good quality players to take over,at 9 i dont see anyone in the nrl that stands out to me,think they might struggle there finding an adequate replacement.

Cherry Evans and Pearce are both 28 and Norman is 26. Austraia will be weaker after Thrston and Cronk if any of these get selected as they would have supplanted the two already if they were better than them.

Clearly is different though as he is only 20. There is a reasonable argument to say that he is well ahead of where Cronk and Thurston were at the same stage of their development. There is no reason why he couldn't go on to be as good (if not better!) than both of them.

[rhinos78]

6 minutes ago, walter sobchak said:

I heard that he’d opted for Queensland but I read that he was part of the NZ Maori setup at the end of this season. Maybe he’s keeping his options open. Can you play state of origin and still represent NZ??

No i dont think so,pretty sure you'v got to be available for australia selection to play soo.

[londonrlfan]

33 minutes ago, walter sobchak said:

Kalyn ponga has to be in the mix somewhere. Unless he changes his mind and opts for the kiwis. The kid is a dead set freak.

Unfortunately he'll be terrorising us for the next decade or so 

[Farmduck]

I don't know what the Sharks are thinking. Considering the Maloney swap I guess they're thinking Moylan at 6, Dugan at 1, maybe swapping with Valentine Holmes. I don't understand the Dugan purchase unless he was to be a centre with Holmes @ FB.

[Scubby]

1 minute ago, Farmduck said:

I don't know what the Sharks are thinking. Considering the Maloney swap I guess they're thinking Moylan at 6, Dugan at 1, maybe swapping with Valentine Holmes. I don't understand the Dugan purchase unless he was to be a centre with Holmes @ FB.

It was a weird deal and very short term thinking. I know Maloney appears to be a lucky charm as teams do seem to get to GFs under him, but he is 30+ and Moylan could be anything in the game over the next few years.

[Farmduck]

Of course there is a guy at Souths called Greg English or something. He's only 30 so he might be able to play FB if they're desperate.

[Scubby]

3 minutes ago, Farmduck said:

Of course there is a guy at Souths called Greg English or something. He's only 30 so he might be able to play FB if they're desperate.

They (Souths) need him desperately but father time seems to be hitting him hard.

[rhinos78]

3 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

Cherry Evans and Pearce are both 28 and Norman is 26. Austraia will be weaker after Thrston and Cronk if any of these get selected as they would have supplanted the two already if they were better than them.

Clearly is different though as he is only 20. There is a reasonable argument to say that he is well ahead of where Cronk and Thurston were at the same stage of their development. There is no reason why he couldn't go on to be as good (if not better!) than both of them.

I agree cleary is well ahead of where both thurston and cronk were at the same stage of there careers but it dosnt necessarily translate to ending up as good as them,i think he'l be the best of the bunch i mentioned when alls said and done,but dont think he'l be as good as cronk is now for a long time yet,if ever.  So think they'l be weaker at 7 regardless of who they pick,for a few years atleast.

[Scubby]

Whoever they pick in the spine they won't have a decade of winning, winning, winning behind them. You could have spine in The Ashes series in 2019 that has never been played more than a handful of tests never mind having beaten England/GB.

[Dunbar]

10 minutes ago, rhinos78 said:

I agree cleary is well ahead of where both thurston and cronk were at the same stage of there careers but it dosnt necessarily translate to ending up as good as them,i think he'l be the best of the bunch i mentioned when alls said and done,but dont think he'l be as good as cronk is now for a long time yet,if ever.  So think they'l be weaker at 7 regardless of who they pick,for a few years atleast.

I agree that Clearly is not necessarily going to be better Cronk but everything we know about him so far suggests he can be.

After Sterling we got Stuart

After Stuart we got Langer

After Langer we got Johns

After Jonhs we got Cronk

And plenty more as well

There is always another great in development because of the talent pool and the development process Australia has. In my view this is Cleary but he could fall away and it could be somebody else. And they may end up being even better than anyone named above.

The point is we won't win the 2021 World Cup by hoping Australia get worse.

[rhinos78]

9 minutes ago, Farmduck said:

I don't know what the Sharks are thinking. Considering the Maloney swap I guess they're thinking Moylan at 6, Dugan at 1, maybe swapping with Valentine Holmes. I don't understand the Dugan purchase unless he was to be a centre with Holmes @ FB.

I hope they go with moylen at 6...As a NSW fan i like the idea of Cleary and Moylen being the state 6+7 for years to come.

1.james Tedesco

2.Tom Trbojavic

3.Dylan Walker

4.Latrell Mitchell

5.Alex Johnston

6.Matt Moylen

7.Nathan Cleary

8.David Klemmer

9.Jayden Braily (on your advice)

10.Aaron woods (vc)

11.Boyd Cordner (c)

12.Tyson Frizell

13.Bryce Cartwright

14.Connor Watson

15.Shannon Boyd

16.Daniel Saifiti

17.Angus Chrichton 

Probably missed loads but im loving the potential in that NSW team for a couple of years down the road. No one older than 26 currently.

[bobbruce]

I think they'll go 

1. Moylan

6. Munster

7. Clearly

9. Hunt

That's if Smith packs in but I can see him going on for a couple of years yet. 

[Scubby]

36 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

I agree that Clearly is not necessarily going to be better Cronk but everything we know about him so far suggests he can be.

After Sterling we got Stuart

After Stuart we got Langer

After Langer we got Johns

After Jonhs we got Cronk

And plenty more as well

There is always another great in development because of the talent pool and the development process Australia has. In my view this is Cleary but he could fall away and it could be somebody else. And they may end up being even better than anyone named above.

The point is we won't win the 2021 World Cup by hoping Australia get worse.

What is different is that Stuart and Langer were battling for the same shirt. Johns and Langer were playing at the top level at the same time.

Thurston, Cronk and Smith have been the 6, 7 and 9 for a decade. Both at Queensland and Australia. To put that into context, that period would cover before the 1986 Kangaroo tour right through to the 1995 World Cup final. That takes you from Peter Sterling and Wally Lewis right through to Fittler and Johns - including Stuart been and gone. Amazing and a massive whole to fill.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, londonrlfan said:

Unfortunately he'll be terrorising us for the next decade or so 

Hopefully for the kiwis though.

[rhinos78]

25 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

I agree that Clearly is not necessarily going to be better Cronk but everything we know about him so far suggests he can be.

After Sterling we got Stuart

After Stuart we got Langer

After Langer we got Johns

After Jonhs we got Cronk

And plenty more as well

There is always another great in development because of the talent pool and the development process Australia has. In my view this is Cleary but he could fall away and it could be somebody else. And they may end up being even better than anyone named above.

The point is we won't win the 2021 World Cup by hoping Australia get worse.

Dont think anyones said we'r relying on australia to be worse to beat them. Regardless of who they put out,we still need to improve to be on a consistant,relatively even footing with them because theyv got unbelievable talent coming out of there eyeballs. 

The point is, if theyr losing 3 of the best players ever from that team yesterday,all of which play in the spine of the team, all of which happen to play there club rugby together ,which is another huge advantage. Its near enough certain that australia are going to be a poorer team without them,for the forseable future atleast. Even if they could replace the players talent for talent ,theyr not going to have hundreds of games togethers worth of cohesion to go along with the talent.  If they do get worse,ofcourse it enhances our chances against them, providing we get our bit right aswel.

[Dunbar]

22 minutes ago, Scubby said:

What is different is that Stuart and Langer were battling for the same shirt. Johns and Langer were playing at the top level at the same time.

Thurston, Cronk and Smith have been the 6, 7 and 9 for a decade. Both at Queensland and Australia. To put that into context, that period would cover before the 1986 Kangaroo tour right through to the 1995 World Cup final. That takes you from Peter Sterling and Wally Lewis right through to Fittler and Johns - including Stuart been and gone. Amazing and a massive whole to fill.

 

7 minutes ago, rhinos78 said:

Dont think anyones said we'r relying on australia to be worse to beat them. Regardless of who they put out,we still need to improve to be on a consistant,relatively even footing with them because theyv got unbelievable talent coming out of there eyeballs. 

The point is, if theyr losing 3 of the best players ever from that team yesterday,all of which play in the spine of the team, all of which happen to play there club rugby together ,which is another huge advantage. Its near enough certain that australia are going to be a poorer team without them,for the forseable future atleast. Even if they could replace the players talent for talent ,theyr not going to have hundreds of games togethers worth of cohesion to go along with the talent.  If they do get worse,ofcourse it enhances our chances against them, providing we get our bit right aswel.

Yes, I agree with both of these points. Australia will always have top class players and I see Cleary as the next great half back... but I don't see a 6, 7 & 9 combination he quality of Thurston, Cronk and Smith on the horizon. 

[DavidM]

2 hours ago, Farmduck said:

I don't know what the Sharks are thinking. Considering the Maloney swap I guess they're thinking Moylan at 6, Dugan at 1, maybe swapping with Valentine Holmes. I don't understand the Dugan purchase unless he was to be a centre with Holmes @ FB.

Who knows what goes on in Dugan’s head ? Dragons rescued his career then he walks out to play fullback with no guarantees at cronulla . They’ve took on a fair bit of baggage with their quality signings 

[Scubby]

I think none of us can agree on a spine tells us everything about the loss those guys will be. My guess is that for the 2018 test it will be 

Boyd

Maloney

Morgan

Smith

Inglis probably into the centres if fit. It is if Smith quits the whole dynamic will change. I think he may hang on at least 2 more years if healthy.