Player movements and rumours

If that's true, then can you explain to me why he played 6 Origins from 09-11?

 

I was using it as shorthand because I'm so weary of this argument. It's a load of shit. What was different about Tonga pre-2006 than post-2006? What could he do then that he couldn't or didn't do afterwards?

Unlike White, Tonga actually earnt his way back into Origin and upstaged Hodges (not a hard thing to do) when he did.

 

I can't even remember when the injury happened. I just remember him going through several years of nothingness before leaving the Dogs. I have his games from 2004 though - There's nothing in them that suggests the trajectory of his career took a sharp redirection because of that one injury. He's had an injury-plagued career which is always difficult to overcome. He just never really became the consistent, year after year, world class player that some of us thought he could've been. It happens. Doesn't mean it was because of injury.

As I tried to point out in an analysis of Tonga in 2009 to those saying he couldn't switch sides for Origin, he was one of the most versatile and technically efficient centres in the world. It was like a lucky dip whenever he got the ball because he could carry and fend with both hands, and he could step off both feet. I randomly picked a game of his against Souths to illustrate this. One ruck he'd carry in the left, fend with the right and step off the right. The next he might carry in the right, fend with the left and step off the left. He was the complete opposite of a Mark Gasnier who did the same thing 99 times out of 100. This sort of play was evident in Tonga's game and I think it's why Meninga trusted Tonga to make the switch, which he did, admirably. Didn't seem too hampered by an injury from 4 years ago.