Haha. Yeah, in looking at his stats, his average metres over the past two years have dropped considerably from the ~85m he was previously averaging. His reduced mins may pay a part, but as a few have mentioned, that may be because the role in the team that Webby has given him is defence focussed...
Very comprehensive answer, thanks for taking the time! But I agree, I think Egan should start and it what I'd expect Egan will do - he has shown that he wants the best 13 guys on the field to start games.
Yeah, cohesion is incredibly important and those spine changes have not helped. I, like...
Yeah, this is a good analysis. I think we've got the edge at prop, personally. We have one of the two reigning Dally M props of the year in our rotation - there shouldn't be many sides that have a better prop rotation than us...
So you'd be happy with a Bunty 2.0? ;)
I would be - can't have a club full of superstars, you need some guys who are just going to put in and their best game is not far from their worst game.
Appreciate his minutes vary, but if Bunty's average run metres were 100m+ I think he'd get a lot less...
With this in mind, would you start Lussick so that Egan can ease into the game off the bench once their forwards tire a little? The downside being that you would have less time with Egan and AFB on the field at the same time, although AFB and Lussick have seemed to work ok together thus far.
He put an all-time commentator's curse on Egan Butcher earlier too... having a blinder!
Panthers are just too clinical... their middle pull in the defence and then their sweep plays (which Webby is having us emulate) are just superb.
The Bunker strikes again...
Mick Ennis (and most fans): "I'm starting to get a little confused as to what is and is not an obstruction now given what was pulled up in the first half."
How did the Bunker allow that Challenge - didn't To'o knock it into Young via his thumb? Panthers seem to be getting the rub of the green in a few calls... they play positive footy, so make their own luck I guess 🤷♂️
Thanks for sharing, and completely aligned with your thinking. Why limit a second NZ team's potential fan base to just the 1.2M folks in the South Island (or, worse, the 450k in Chch / 600k in the Canterbury region)?
I'm a Cantabrian and also Sydney based, but spent some time in Welly before...
@Makasene has covered off the key benefits of a South Island based team, so I won't rehash that. There are good financial and non-financial reasons for having a second NRL team based in NZ. However, I don't see what the numbers of fans has to do with the name of a franchise - these aren't...
But I think that is right - the Warriors don't officially represent NZ, they are a franchise that is NZ-based. Of course, the Warriors do represent a lot of us as New Zealand born/based rugby league fans as the only club currently based in New Zealand. As Worried2Death said, the fans can come...
Fair enough - but another consideration is that if the new team brings in fans from the lower North Island as well, some may travel at least once year and this would be a boost for the Christchurch / SI economy through tourism revenue. Better for rate payers in the longer term for the new club...
NRL.com says:
Egan is due back this round,
Charnze not due back until next round (Round 5); and
Niukore and Walker are both TBC.
I assume this is based off of information that the clubs are required to provide... but roll on TLT! Unsure if Taine has been cleared on not - Sam Walker was...
Why would you exclude Wellington? There are probably a lot of RL fans in the North Island that are south of the Bombays who aren't as enamoured by the Warriors as we (I'm also a proud Cantabrian) are.
Capewell played left for Brisbane, but has previously played on the right (e.g., at Cronulla). I'll admit that I thought the sensible move would be to keep Capewell on the left and play Ford on the right, as his game is more of a defensive / crash-type second rower (and he doesn't pass often)...