Re: Squad strength : Fri Nov 25, 2011 9:07 am  

Saddened! wrote:

...snip...

Who are you, and what have you done with Saddened?

It may only be one game, but Laffranchi was named at prop for the 2005 Grandfinal victory for West Tigers.

Re: Squad strength : Fri Nov 25, 2011 9:34 am  

Offside Monkey wrote:

Who are you, and what have you done with Saddened?

It may only be one game, but Laffranchi was named at prop for the 2005 Grandfinal victory for West Tigers.

Paul Wellens played on the wing in an international versus Australia once too.

Laffranchi is the kind of player you can throw into the front row in an emergency, but he's going to have to bang on some timber to survive there all season.

Re: Squad strength : Fri Nov 25, 2011 1:20 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

Paul Wellens played on the wing in an international versus Australia once too.

Laffranchi is the kind of player you can throw into the front row in an emergency, but he's going to have to bang on some timber to survive there all season.

Touche, but he obvisouly can do it and I, like others, am tempted to believe he'll fit the "heavy" 13 role well.

Re: Squad strength : Fri Nov 25, 2011 2:49 pm  

Offside Monkey wrote:

Touche, but he obvisouly can do it and I, like others, am tempted to believe he'll fit the "heavy" 13 role well.

Indeed he would. But what on earth happens when LMS and TP go off for a rest? Clough and Maggenis as the front row?

Re: Squad strength : Fri Nov 25, 2011 3:00 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

Indeed he would. But what on earth happens when LMS and TP go off for a rest? Clough and Maggenis as the front row?

Clough will do us proud this year. Hopefully Perry will make some minutes.

I could imagine Magennis going one way or the other this year - either coming back with extra beef and making an impression, or being completely overtaken by the likes of Forster.

Re: Squad strength : Fri Nov 25, 2011 3:42 pm  

I don't think we have replaced Graham, who would we replace him with.
Man for man we match other top teams, if not better them, with our pack depth.

Basically we've had Graham + 1 maybe 2, for the last few years.
Perry/Clough were injured for most of last year, TP also had a few weeks out at a time. Good friday was a prime example, we had 3 props, all started the match but at some point we had to rest graham and his +1, at that point Wigan came back into it as the 2nd rowers could not hold the line.

This year Megennis is a year better and CLough and Perry would be hard pushed luck wise to be out for as long simultaiously.

We have 4 true props plus Megennis, Sia and La Frank who can offer cover from the bench if we had 3 props out injured. With dixon, wilkin and flanaghan covering their roles in the back line.
That still leaves people like Flannery who is very decent cover struggling to get a bench spot.

As a pack we should not need to head into a game with less than 4 props even if one or 2 of them are the likes of sia or La frank.

I think having Graham, we just loaded more work on him because he could take it, rather than trying to balance the pack. Now we don't have that luxury so will have to hit each game with 4 fit props.

Re: Squad strength : Fri Nov 25, 2011 3:50 pm  

bewareshadows wrote:

I don't think we have replaced Graham, who would we replace him with.

We couldn't match his quality, but we could have signed someone to help bridge the gap.

Flower, Dudson, O'Hara, Bryant, McPherson, Hill, Moore, Chan, Cahill, Tonks, Lynch, Davies and Griffin have all moved clubs and are big forwards that would have made our 17 or added significantly to our squad depth at least. Yet the club claim no one was available?

Re: Squad strength : Fri Nov 25, 2011 3:54 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

Indeed he would. But what on earth happens when LMS and TP go off for a rest? Clough and Maggenis as the front row?

Hopefully Perry would be available as well. Like The Offside Monkey, I think Clough will have a massive year if he stays fit. I'm not convinced by Magennis as a prop, though. He strikes me as more of a back-rower, and he's certainly not physically ready to make a genuine impression in the front row at the minute. Forster's a bit of an unknown quantity, so we'll see what happens there.

Re: Squad strength : Fri Nov 25, 2011 4:23 pm  

I'd argue Saints have only three out an out props next year, in LMS, Perry and Clough. Puletua while he does a great job as a prop isn't as effective in that position as he is in the backrow. The fantastic offloads and barnstorming runs he used to produce have all more or less dried up. More than likely because he's running at similar sized individuals who he can't physically get the better of. Laffranchi is a backrower who'll no doubt play 13, acting as a third prop whilst still not really being one.

Wigan in contrast have five out and out props, in Mossop, Prescott, Fielden, Lima and Dudson (who I'm really looking forward to seeing play). There's also two young props who could fill in if needed, but are unlikely to get much game time unless we hit an injury crisis.

As for the backrow we've got Lockers, Hock, Hansen, Farrel, Flower, Tuson, Hughes and Burke (our very own Paul Gallen in the making)

And Finally not forgetting Wigan's secret weapon Lauaki! Who I'd imagine will flitter between rolls.

Wigan are anything but short in those two area's. Hopefully from a Wigan perspective Wane will rotate the squad next year, something Madge failed to do this year, that IMO cost us hugely towards the back end of the season.

If Wigan are short anyway it's in the centres, something we have in common with yourselves, and we're also short in some respect at halfback/hooker. We've got the numbers, but their untried youngsters. A lot will hinge on whether these young lads are able to step up and make an impression. But then again they are four time, consecutive GF winners.

Re: Squad strength : Fri Nov 25, 2011 6:34 pm  

I dont buy the TP poor form arguement. His poor form tend to cover the month and a half he did not play. When he did come back he was not 100%. But his contribution was enough to contribute to over turning the wigan pack twice and pushing leeds back till our twenty minute collapse.

Graham also was below par in those matches. Basically those two props carried our season and where busted by the end of it. LMS on the other hand got better as the season progressed. If we spell the props pproperly forty minutes each in twenty minute spells with La frank offering support at loose. The the likes of wilkin and sia runninf out wide maybe more effective and we wont have a prop with a busted back come end of season.

We really used graham to the extreme. But with the young props also injured for the entire season there was no chance to blood tyhese like our young backs