I'll complete this assuming Cribb does CPL Cricket. List of blokes that will move forward this season, not necessarily rookies but FGers who will become gun etc. 1. 2. Charlie Staines 3. Bradman Best 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. Sitili Tupouniua 13. 14. 15. 16. 17.
Charlie Staines Start with an obvious selection, gets his chance at the wing spot vacated by Mansour. Moves like a greyhound, quick off the mark and has the lateral movement and acrobatic skill to finish with the best of them. Played his junior footy at the back so hes not inept ballplaying, but his asset is pure finishing ability, reads the game well from the glimpse we got last season and hes just incredibly athletically gifted. If the Panthers run it back and move forward again he will score a motza of meat pies.
Sitili Topouniua This cunt is a weapon in waiting, great mover both laterally in defence and in terms of good short feet at the line as he hits holes outside the half. Has shown already he has a solid motor in terms of ability to play long minutes and more than capable of putting his shoulder in defensively. With Cordner essentially punch drunk now he should soak up that position in the season ahead and make a name for himself.
Bradman Best The centre position has become more and more irrelevant but with the increased fatigue of 6 again and removing scrums for ball over the sideline brings them back into it a bit which i can get around. Best is built like a brick shithouse and has the confidence and game awareness to lay down hard ball running ability to generally give himself a sniff on the back of an overs play or solid enough handling skills to get his winger decent ball. He's the kind of player i see making a transition to backrow as he bulks and do absolute bits as a hole running backrower with solid ball skills but right now if KP fires down the left edge he will be a massive benificiary.
I reckon Ben Turbo will get some game time this year and be huge for Manly. As far as Broncos go: After a good showing in Origin last year I think Coates will grow confidence in his size and will have better awareness this season. Also Riki is a machine hopefully he can stay on the park.
"Hoping" is a good word here. Penrith could end up pretty fucked if he's not as good as they think he is given they've not only let go three experienced props and replaced them with only Eisenhuth, but also replaced Mansour with Staines on the wing which puts more pressure on the props to begin with.
Definitely worrying, he's almost certainly a step up from Tetavano though. I really like Moses Leota but I worry that he was a perfect fit for the role they had him in last year, I'm imagining it'll fall on Leniu to start with Leota off the pine.
My biggest issue with Tupouniua is he really struggles to get involved in games. Keary switching to right edge will hopefully fix some of that but he had plenty of games on the edges last year where he just wasn't sighted. Do worry though that he may turn into a Kikau where unless the play is directly set up for him he'll just go MIA.
Few players I think will 'breakout' so to speak. They're all at different levels but I think they'll exceed expectations this season for where they're at. Reimis Smith Emre Guler Sitili Topouniua (agreed) Jake Simpkin Harley Smith-Shields Daniel Alvaro Chanel Harris-Tevita Brian Kelly Jack Williams Connor Watson Paul Momirovski
I’m not sold on him being effective there defensively. But it definitely makes sense in the current landscape of the game. Klemmer, saifitis, Barnett and Frizell are big and no nonsense which should help him. I’m keen to see how it goes.
Gunna drop the team in case i bail out on all the write ups 1. Daine Laurie 2. Reimis Smith 3. Bradman Best 4. Zac Lomax 5. Charlie Staines 6. Braydon Trindall 7. Chanel Harris-Tevita 8. James Fisher-Harris 9. Jayden Brailey 10. Ben Murdoch-Masila 11. Jordan Riki 12. Sitili Touponiua 13. Keaon Kolamatagi 14. Connor Watson 15. Sam Mcintyre 16. Spencer Leniu 17. Jack Hetherington
I reckon JFH puts himself in the frame as at least a top 3 fronty in the comp this season. Especially with the responsibility of leading that pack