2012 team

[BDAVEY]

Gurus...whats ya EWF best/run on team for 2012...abit losted as to who we got wanted toi get and losted

[James]

1. Pek Cowan
2. Nathan Charles
3. Salesi Ma'afu
4. Sam Wykes
5. Nathan Sharpe
6. Richard Brown
7. David Pocock
8. Ben McCalman

9. Justin Turner*
10. James Stannard
11. Nick Cummins
12. Rory Sidey**
13. Winston Stanley
14. Napolioni Nagala
15. Cameron Shepherd

16. Ben Whittaker
17. Kieran Longbottom
18. Lachie McCaffrey***
19. Matt Hodgson
20. Brett Sheehan
21. Kyle Godwin
22. Pat Dellit

Pack pretty much speaks for itself.
* Turner is a bit more zippy and provides faster service than Sheehan. Stannard would do better with the faster ball that Turner provides. Although perhaps it would be better for Turner to come on in the final 20 to give us the impetus to finish strongly.
** I liked Rory Sidey at 12 at the end of last season. He scored a fair few tries and always presented himself as a running option for Stannard. He definitely deserves another shot at it.
*** I'd really like to see McCaffrey get some game time. I've put him on the bench at 18 so if Wykes or Sharpie need subbing, McCalman will come into the second row. I hope Wykes has been working on his line-out skills.

[GIGS20]

McCaffrey won't see much game time with Toby Lynn in the team James, other than that, I like the cut of your jib.

I think the locks and backrow will see a bit of rotation/horses for courses this season, why wouldn't you with the names we've got in the organisation.

Locks (or people who can play lock)
Sharpie
Wykesey
Benny Mac
Toby Lynn
Phoenix Battye

Backrows
Bam
Hodgeo
Benny Mac
Brown Dog
Lachie McCaffrey

So that's seven definite starters to fill five slots. If we want to go with traditional locks against say the Yarpies, we'd go with Sharpie and Lynn. If we want to be more dynamic, we could put Wykesey in there for a splitting the difference kind of guy or Benny Mac to lose a couple of cm in the lineout, but replace it with amazing workrate.

Backrow would be similar, we could play Ben at 8 against the stronger teams where we need to concentrate on the tight, but for the games where the loose becomes more important, we could put brownie, Hodgeo and bam at the back, you never know, Toby Lynn might get good enough with game time for Sharpie to not have to play 80 minutes every week! That would be something!

We might even want to play really tall with sharpie and Lynn locking and Wykes playing 6 with Ben at 8, you could happily run two backrowers on the bench and not worry about a spare lock, or even carry more backs.

[Tazzmania]

It is great to have depth and be able to form opinions on who will play where.

We seem to have depth in most departments except the flyhalf and a reliable kicker.

James I like the team you have put forward, and I assume that Shep will be first kicker and Stannard second option, both will have to play as I think those are the only kickers we have, Sheehan would have to come into the starting line up as another back up kicker but also for his mongrel, Turner is better off against a tiring side later in the game.

Our league buys seemed to suggest that Richard was looking to have a more beefy midfield, while not sure how and where he is going to blood them. I suspect Stanely may be 12 with Dellit at 13 and Sidey on the wing in place of Cummins, who seemed to drop off a bit towards the end of last year.

[GIGS20]

Looking at the bodies, I'd say Cummins is our beefiest winger

[GIGS20]

Oops, second beefiest, forgot about Nalaga

[jono]

Sheehan is handy with the boot.
Remember because he has the wilkinson stance
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[sandgroperrugby]

1. Pek Cowan
2. Nathan Charles
3. Salesi Ma'afu
4. Sam Wykes
5. Nathan Sharpe
6. Richard Brown
7. David Pocock
8. Ben McCalman
9. Brett Sheehan
10. James Stannard
11. Napolioni Nagala
12. Winston Stanley
13. Pat Dellit
14. Nick Cummins
15. Cameron Shepherd

16. Ben Whittaker
17. Kieran Longbottom
18. Toby Lynn
19. Matt Hodgson
20. Justin Turner
21. Kyle Godwin
22. Rory Sidey

IMHO I think that this would be the team that I would put on the park. All people selected have proven performance at this level, although the new boys need to get a run but at this stage are of unknown quality at this level.

Nagala after watching highlights looks better at 11. He looks more of a Digby type player, you could watch both of their highlight reels and see nearly the same kinds of plays involving them. Plus he has a huge right arm fend.

Sheehan needs to be on the field if only for his leadership of the backs.

[BDAVEY]

agree here SG .... really worried about a kicker I hope Sheps has been practising.... if we dont get a gud kicker the season looks shakey... such a important aspect these days. I think Toby will get the the 4 ahead of Sam Sam can cover for a loosey too

I vote for penalities and coversions to be 1 points and tries 6.

[Burgs]

1. Pek Cowan
2. Ben Whittaker
3. Salesi Ma'afu
4. Toby Lynn
5. Nathan Sharpe
6. Richard Brown
7. David Pocock
8. Ben McCalman

9. Brett Sheehan (Ninth forward to help cover #10 defensively and leadership)
10. Late recruit (Otherwise Chukka)
11. Napolioni Nagala
12. Winston Stanley
13. Pat Dellit
14. Nick Cummins
15. Cameron Shepherd

16. Nathan Charles
17. Kieran Longbottom
18. Sam Wykes
19. Matt Hodgson
20. James Stannard (Justin Turner depending on #10, happier easing Turner back into it after injury)
21. Ben Seymour
22. Rory Sidey/Samu Wara

I believe you have to earn the right to play expansively and so I always lean towards the harder grinding players to start if given a near 50/50 call. Then when the match starts to open up the more free running type of player can really go to town. It goes against my "traditionalist" views but these days it is a 22 man Squad sport so it is your best 22 combination, not just your best XV I believe. You often see teams with strong starting XV's and no bench go well until the 60 and then have no one of quality left to turn to when the fuel runs out. Part of defending a lead, which we have sucked at, is having a bench you can trust.
As for kicker, Shep has been our best kicker since the team was formed so hopefully he will be the number one go to now.

[Buddha Handy]

1. Pek Cowan
2. Nathan Charles
3. Salesi Ma'afu
4. Sam Wykes
5. Nathan Sharpe
6. Richard Brown
7. David Pocock
8. Ben McCalman
9. Brett Sheehan
10. James Stannard
11. Napolioni Nagala
12. Winston Stanley
13. Pat Dellit
14. Nick Cummins
15. Cameron Shepherd

16. Ben Whittaker
17. Kieran Longbottom
18. Toby Lynn
19. Matt Hodgson
20. Justin Turner
21. Kyle Godwin
22. Rory Sidey

This would be my team as well. Still seems harsh to have Hodgson on the bench but someone has to be there. Looking forward to a big season from Browny.

Hopefully one or two of Rapana, Tupou or Wara could surprise us as well and we still have Alfi Mafi so plenty of depth there

[kipper_mckinnon]

On looking at the different permutations, I can't help thinking that the forwards look very strong (especially likes Gigs' example of rotating locks and back row), but I'm just not that excited by the backs.

Hope to be proved wrong in the next couple of months !!!!

[James]

Our league buys seemed to suggest that Richard was looking to have a more beefy midfield, while not sure how and where he is going to blood them.

Clever selections from Graham. Tupou was a union schoolboys rep and apparently pretty amazing too as an outside centre. If we can hold onto him longer term that would be great because he is young, massive and talented. Rapana is also supposedly pretty talented and comes with the advantage of just having finished a religious mission to the UK so he shouldn't be carrying any injuries. He made the NRL U20 team of the year I think back in whenever it was he last played.

[GIGS20]

On looking at the different permutations, I can't help thinking that the forwards look very strong (especially likes Gigs' example of rotating locks and back row), but I'm just not that excited by the backs.

Hope to be proved wrong in the next couple of months !!!!

Conversely Kipper, I like the look of our backline, particularly if we give Chucky the 10. I'm f#€king sick of useless primadonnas sucking up all our salary and returning nothing but mediocrity and dissention. I LIKE the fact that we have a workmanlike backline (not that Nalaga was workmanlike in France) it stops complacency, which has been a real issue since 2007, firstly our game plan seemed to be "give it to Giteau and Drew" once that was over, we reverted directly to "give it to rabbit" those times produced a whole lot of shitty performances which failed to live up to our potential. I thought that Chucky did more in three games at 10 than all the superstars did in their whol careers, and I'll share what I think the secret was........everybody else knew that Chucky wasn't a ridiculous superstar who was more worried about his brand and making a name for himself, he was a normal human who needed the help of a team to get the job done. Chuck knows it and gives the ball when it's needed, the rest of the team knows it and does everything within them to run the gaps and give Chuck something worthwhile to pass to......it's simple team logic, and it might just mean we meet our potential this year (granted, on paper that potential might be lower, but at least we'll be satisfied!)