Surprising bench?

[cf2 is back]

Last year Des' first choice 17 had King and Perry as starting props with a bench of Guluvao (or Cross), Kite, Rose and Bailey.

That meant we usually had 3 props on the bench with one utility and Ballin playing 80.

Given that it seems quite a surprise that Des has selected a bench with just one prop Rose, with the rest of the bench being Seu Seu (dummy half), Buhrer and Robinson (both back row). We do have Guluvao in the starting side for Rodney so perhaps that will help but I hope it doesn't leave us short of go forward.

Not a criticism by any means just an observation, and I was very interested to hear that Des singled out Buhrer as the player to watch this year so his impact could be vital. I also hope Mauro has kicked on as he's only been used in previous years as a stop gap during origin or injury time and hadn't shown a lot but I heard had a great game in the NZ trial.

For mine it's going to be vital to blood young guys like Lussick and Cunningham but of course it's early days.

 

[homebrandjesus]

I think Robinson is a prop.
Big Joe could definitely play Prop, its strange he's playing in the second row - Maybe hes acting as a third on field Prop for the softening up period, then Buhrer comes in as the zippy, workaholic tackle machine.

I like that as a strategy

 

[Duff]

I don't see the sense in having both Seu Seu & Buhrer on the bench. I think Buhrer could cover for Ballin to have a couple of breathers & that would open up a spot for Robinson or Cunningham.

Vic Mauro plays a similar game to Joe so you can pretty much count them both as props which gives us 5.

 

[Fro]

I suspect that we will be playing an uptempo type of game, Des may have a whole knew method in store for us.

whether it works or not remains to be seen. speed OR size, difficult to use both.

 

[Jatz Crackers]

Will we make use of the whole bench ? I would hope so.

 

[Darren]

Ferris Buhrer better get a run, is Des going to sit off him and Mauro??

 

[Fluffy]

im very dissapointed cunningham hasnt been biven a run, went well in the trials and has put on a lot of size since playing for Aus u19 last year

 

[Garts]

He will get a run this season. 

 

[Fluffy]

maybe next week even

 

[WAMF]

im very dissapointed cunningham hasnt been biven a run, went well in the trials and has put on a lot of size since playing for Aus u19 last year

I thought Mauro went very well. Some good signs.
Kingy will be outed for 3-4 weeks (he's been suspended for knee lifting before from memory) and Cunningham will hopefully be brought in at some stage of the season but Cross, Moujalli and maybe even Jr Palau are probably ahead of him.

 

[Jatz Crackers]

I thought Mauro went very well. Some good signs.
Kingy will be outed for 3-4 weeks (he's been suspended for knee lifting before from memory) and Cunningham will hopefully be brought in at some stage of the season but Cross, Moujalli and maybe even Jr Palau are probably ahead of him.

Wasnt it Kite for knee lifting.

 

[Fluffy]

Kite i can remeber but king i cannot, could be wrong though

 

[Ryan]

King got penalised for knee lifting.
Kite is the one they target for it.

NRL involved = 15 weeks.

 

[WAMF]

[quote author=WAMF link=topic=186798.msg322324#msg322324 date=1299927758]
I thought Mauro went very well. Some good signs.
Kingy will be outed for 3-4 weeks (he's been suspended for knee lifting before from memory) and Cunningham will hopefully be brought in at some stage of the season but Cross, Moujalli and maybe even Jr Palau are probably ahead of him.

Wasnt it Kite for knee lifting.
[/quote]
I think King got pinged in the 07 GF for lifting his knee.

 

[Cameron]

correct wamf

king should get 12 weeks for not doing more damage to that bastard smith

 

[WAMF]

Found this on Dallas Johnson's wiki page. lol

"Johnson was a key member of Melbourne's (stripped) Premiership winning team of 2007, despite being concussed due to an illegal knee lift by Manly's Jason King."

 

[Jatz Crackers]

We should have taken out Smith in the 1st 15 mins tonight.

 

[Masked Eagle]

We should have taken out Smith in the 1st 15 mins tonight.

Yep.  They wouldn't have created any trouble for us if it wasn't for him  ... that and he's a #*(@