Opinion Our 13 moving forward

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Dogs4eva13

Previously James Cochrane
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Ciro had a good thing going with Mann and Hayward at 13. However with Mann gone I am not sure Hayward should start he provides good impact when he comes on and even against Manly you could see the tide change and our attack getting crisper when he came on. Salmon on the other hand was fairly poor last night. Also Curran has been awesome and I think we need him on from the start. So the question is should we start Curran as our 13 or who should it be moving forward?
 
We are stuck with Salmon starting, Hayward and Curran coming off bench.

The issue was not trialling Hutchison at lock.

The make focus now is making sure it works... Just need Salmon to engage the line more before passing and its sorted. I suspect Mann's talk on field was more important than we thought, was noticeable when Hayes came on and added that energy in coms.
 
A Salmon and Haywood combination at lock is non threatening to the opposition, injecting Hutchinson there won't fix that. Curran is preferably on the field when King is not, I can't see Curran starting at 13. I said before the game that I would prefer one more big forward on the bench and use Curran/Hayes/Morrin/ Hayward at lock, then Hayes would likely start there which isn't ideal but I would prefer him to Salmon. The only options in NSW Cup are Fifita, Patolo, Hopoi or Todd. Fifita has been average in the few games he's played, Patolo struggles to last 10 minutes at NRL level without getting Injured and Todd has played about 2 games in the last 10 weeks, Hopoi I still needs to develop. It is a massive weakness the lack of reasonable big middle forwards though Mann was not big.
 
dawso047 said:
A Salmon and Haywood combination at lock is non threatening to the opposition, injecting Hutchinson there won't fix that. Curran is preferably on the field when King is not, I can't see Curran starting at 13. I said before the game that I would prefer one more big forward on the bench and use Curran/Hayes/Morrin/ Hayward at lock, then Hayes would likely start there which isn't ideal but I would prefer him to Salmon. The only options in NSW Cup are Fifita, Patolo, Hopoi or Todd. Fifita has been average in the few games he's played, Patolo struggles to last 10 minutes at NRL level without getting Injured and Todd has played about 2 games in the last 10 weeks, Hopoi I still needs to develop. It is a massive weakness the lack of reasonable big middle forwards though Mann was not big.
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It's a big problem. Defensively Mann hits like a truck in the middle. Last time Mann was out for a while we got smashed by the Roosters and won a tight one against Sharks. Manly went through the front door with even that fat slob Nathan Brown making meters. Unfortunately Hayward, Hutchinson and Salmon just don't have the same skills with line speed and hitting ability.

In attack, Mann engages the defensive line and is a threat. This means he will probably get smashed most of the time, but THIS makes room for others such as Burton, Tracey, Kikau and Sexton. Very selfless and courageous thing to do. Anyone with any self preservation will not do this, and anyone who doesn't probably doesn't have it between the ears and skills to pass the ball well enough. The only other person that can do this well is Yeo.

For now, I think the loose forward role needs to go back to a defensively minded one and not as an attacking first receiver. The only person that can do this is Preston. He must play 80 and during the game, he can move from the edge into the middle and Hayes then can run on his edge. We lose his attacking prowess, but that means that larger packs won't steam roll us down the middle. If our objective is to get into a grind, then we must control the ruck. We have no chance to win if we don't control the ruck.

Like you mentioned, Curran at the moment is on for King. Curran could play at loose forward if we bring a prop onto the bench like Underhill, Farmer, DSF or Todd. They don't have to set the world on fire, just tackle hard and run hard.
 
KLil said:
We are stuck with Salmon starting, Hayward and Curran coming off bench.

The issue was not trialling Hutchison at lock.

The make focus now is making sure it works... Just need Salmon to engage the line more before passing and its sorted. I suspect Mann's talk on field was more important than we thought, was noticeable when Hayes came on and added that energy in coms.
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Curran has been great but I have never really seen him get us over the advantage line. He is not an impact forward with the mongrel we need to dominate. I'm not saying he hasn't been great for our team but we really need another few impact forwards. Sam Hughes really needs to step up!
 
KLil said:
We are stuck with Salmon starting, Hayward and Curran coming off bench.

The issue was not trialling Hutchison at lock.

The make focus now is making sure it works... Just need Salmon to engage the line more before passing and its sorted. I suspect Mann's talk on field was more important than we thought, was noticeable when Hayes came on and added that energy in coms.
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Hutch should be lock this week, not CCs son.
 
KLil said:
I think that boat has passed.. I wish he trialled it earlier in the season.

Especially now if they sit Burt's out.
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I see Hutch as a lock that CC tried to turn into a half.

But you're right, we all know he will play his son at lock for 80 mins.
 
images
 
ASSASSIN said:
I see Hutch as a lock that CC tried to turn into a half.

But you're right, we all know he will play his son at lock for 80 mins.
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I swear I was THAT CLOSE to telling Ciro to try the bloke at lock when Mann broke his hand... I FULL BUCKLED!
 
KLil said:
I swear I was THAT CLOSE to telling Ciro to try the bloke at lock when Mann broke his hand... I FULL BUCKLED!
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Should of said it habibeh, what's the worse he could say?
 
ASSASSIN said:
I see Hutch as a lock that CC tried to turn into a half.

But you're right, we all know he will play his son at lock for 80 mins.
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One as bad as the other really hutch defence is pretty piss poor
 
We need Curran to offer impact off the bench, imo.

I’d give Hutch a go, tbh. But it’s moot, anyway. We all know Ciro is sticking with salmon.
 
Flanagun said:
We need Curran to offer impact off the bench, imo.

I’d give Hutch a go, tbh. But it’s moot, anyway. We all know Ciro is sticking with salmon.
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Critta 5/8 you heard it here first
 
Dogs4eva13 said:
Ciro had a good thing going with Mann and Hayward at 13. However with Mann gone I am not sure Hayward should start he provides good impact when he comes on and even against Manly you could see the tide change and our attack getting crisper when he came on. Salmon on the other hand was fairly poor last night. Also Curran has been awesome and I think we need him on from the start. So the question is should we start Curran as our 13 or who should it be moving forward?
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Ideally you want some "punch" from your 13 . . .Curran can give that. We don't need him to start as a prop now
 
We did fine the games Hayward started at lock probably the way to go
 
If we weren't complacent before the Manly game, it set in as soon as we scored that early try. We missed Mann and Critta in the moments after that try, but it was a whole team thing, not just who was at lock. We were mentally off and its now a matter of whether it's 'the game we had to have' or we've hit the wall.

We need Curren on the bench for front row rotation, but I'd prefer Hayes to start at lock over Salmon. Haywards not a starter for me, but he does a good job off the bench.
 
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