When judging any of our forwards over the last couple of seasons we should keep in mind that the dummy half service has been somewhere hovering between poor and absolutely rubbish. Prior to that time a lot of our forwards who didn't have great acceleration were able to dominate. Among them both Graham and Tolman were highly rated by everyone. A lot of people who now fling shit at Tolman are among those who used to cry foul that Tolman had been overlooked for too long for origin selection. Most people would agree that Lichaa doesn't give quick service from dummy half and as a result of that, opposition defenses have been able to rush up on our forwards before they get the ball. For a guy like Klemmer who does have slightly better acceleration he's been able to keep making some decent running metres despite poor service.
I understand that people are getting excited about Lichaa potentially doing some good things with his running game. But he still needs to improve his service a lot to be considered a worthy hooker in my opinion. And if he can't learn to time his passes prior to the 2018 season I'd prefer he gets moved back to the bench or the lower grades. Tolman is not the dud attacker that people label him, nor was Graham as he displayed in his world cup games. It's just that to see the best of any of our forwards they need to get well timed passes so they can hit their full pace by the time they get the ball.
I agree. But im confident lichaa can come good. He was always considered a great talent coming through the grades, so hopefully he comes good next year.
As for Tolman, i really dont understand how much hate he gets either. If we are all willing to give lichaa a pass for next year, among other players, then surely tolman gets one too??
Our whole team was one dimensional last year. But what do you expect, hey were all instructed to play like robots.
Tolman has enough footballing ability and experience to be able to change up his game next year. He hasnt lasted this long in the game by chance. If Pay changes the structures, and has our forwards running good lines and decoys, and encourages an offload, then theres no reason he cant be a different player next year.
Given so mamy people think Tolman is a shit prop, perhaps he was meant to be a lock all along lol.