North Queensland Cowboys v Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 1300SMILES Stadium, Saturday 6 September 2014 Kickoff 7:30pm Referees: Gerard Sutton, Gavin Badger; Sideline Officials: Steve Carrall, Michael Wise; Video Referees: Bernard Sutton, Luke Patten; 1. Michael Morgan 2. Kyle Feldt 3. Tautau Moga 4. Kane Linnett 5. Antonio Winterstein 6. Robert Lui 7. Johnathan Thurston 8. Matthew Scott 9. Rory Kostjasyn 10. Ashton Sims 11. Gavin Cooper 12. Tariq Sims 13. Jason Taumalolo 14. Ray Thompson 15. Scott Bolton 16. Glenn Hall 17. James Tamou 1. Brett Stewart 2. Jorge Taufua 3. Jamie Lyon 4. Steve Matai 5. Peta Hiku 6. Kieran Foran 7. Daly Cherry-Evans 8. Josh Starling 9. Matt Ballin 10. Brenton Lawrence 11. Anthony Watmough 12. Justin Horo 13. Tom Symonds 14. Jesse Sene-Lefao 15. Dunamis Lui 16. James Hasson 17. Jason King
Most teams have a backrower that could do a semi-servicable job shovelling the ball out of dummy half, but Manly don't (aside from Buhrer obv who is injured) so it'll be interesting how it plays out. Hodges obviously won't play 80 so like others I reckon they'll stick Littlejohn on the bench and cut a forward, but they could completely change the structure and basically have no designated dummy half on the field at times like Parra did a bit earlier in the season.
Surely they'll just cut one of the 3 props on the bench (either Hasson or Lui) and pick Littlejohn there. Forcing a Stewart or Foran into playing there in attack for periods will really, really hurt them and diminish the one advantage they have over other sides; their backline.
Why do they insist on having former players who battle to string a sentence together as sideline commentators?
The casual fan respects the opinions of former players a lot more even if they chat shit. I also think there's an element of those who matter thinking it's 'good for the game' to find former players gainful employment after playing retirement. Jobs for the boys.
Surely they can find them a job that plays to their strong suits. I'm sure there are plenty of former players who aren't so retarded to put on air.
