Shenton v Turner : Mon Jul 30, 2012 9:47 am  

Is it just me that thinks we've dropped a big one here? Shenton was much maligned by you lot on here. Despite that he's been selected as first choice centre throughout his spell with us. Sure he started his spell slowly, but was building up his performances nicely last season, culminating in an excellent hour in the Grand Final until his injury. That injury forced a repeat this season with him making a slow start as he rebuilt his confidence in his arm. But now I'd argue he's doing really well, solid and hard working defensively and looking very lively with the ball. We seem nicely balanced now with Shenton's pace and elusiveness on one side and Jones' neanderthal-esque crash ball play on the other side.

Turner on the other hand seems utter rubbish to me. Sure he's probably a bit quicker but he doesn't seem to be able to defend and has absolutely no form at all ahead of his move to Saints. I can't help but see the swap of Shenton for Turner as a downward step. One wonders if his move to Saints came about purely because McManus was impressed by his gallop down our left wing to score the winning try for Hull earlier in the season?

Re: Shenton v Turner : Mon Jul 30, 2012 9:51 am  

I don't see what shenton is suddenly doing that is much better than what he has been all season. Attacks seem to come to an end when shenton gets the ball. Turner isn't brilliant but I think have potential to be better than shenton.

Re: Shenton v Turner : Mon Jul 30, 2012 9:55 am  

Ashy wrote:

Attacks seem to come to an end when shenton gets the ball..

No, that's Wello

Re: Shenton v Turner : Mon Jul 30, 2012 10:01 am  

As I've just posted elsewhere, Shenton has come to life since securing his future elsewhere. For whatever reason I don't think he's ever been comfortable at Saints and I don't think we'd ever have got the best out of him. As for Turner, we'll have to wait and see. At least he'll be cheaper.

Re: Shenton v Turner : Mon Jul 30, 2012 10:16 am  

Shents is a good player who has struggled with injuries BUT we expected him to develop even further for the salary cap space he takes up.

Turner has the tools and if we can develop him will be a good signing without initially taking up as much salary cap space.

Its a punt. We have a lot of punts in the squad now.

Roby is the only genuine quality player now.

When we were winning we had 4 or 5 especially in key positions.

Is something we used to do a lot of pre the Newlove transfer and we have got away with it since Scully got injured and the class players left or retired.

We seem to have freed up a lot of salary cap space in the last few years.

I would have liked us to get someone like Ellis when he was available.

We have raw talent that can come through but we could do with even one or two signings of that quality to help that transition.

Re: Shenton v Turner : Mon Jul 30, 2012 10:35 am  

I'm still very, very happy with this bit of business.

Hull fans are queuing up to tell us how poor Turner is in D, but that stuff can be worked on, the crucial thing is he's a fantastic athlete with a load of raw potential and that's what we want from Saints threequarters. Shenton, as much as I like him and want him to succeed, is never going to have that bit of X-Factor needed. He can't bust a tackle or hurt someone in defence. The only thing he CAN do is potentially outrun the defence if someone puts him through a gap - which Turner can do as evidenced by outstripping our entire team (inc. Shenton) at Langtree Park earlier this season.

It's no contest tbh. Especially if, as people keep saying, Turner is on substantially less money.

[Chris71]

Re: Shenton v Turner : Mon Jul 30, 2012 10:48 am  

As a Hull fans Turner is a bit of an enigma, can be very good and also pretty poor, the latter more often than not.

He has ability in an attacking sense although its very hit and miss but his defence is shocking and his continual attempts and jumping out the line and poor defence cost us nearly everytime.

I think the fact he is moving back closer to home may help him but unless Brown has a master plan to get the best out of Turner and turn him into a consistant performer & improve his defence I think he will be no better than he is now.

As the OP mentions I do wonder if your clubs decision to sign him was somehow based on his performance against you at the start of the season in which he put in a good performance. Will be interesting indeed to see how he goes for you next season.

Re: Shenton v Turner : Mon Jul 30, 2012 11:18 am  

He's a downgrade on Shenton at this moment in time, fact. It's a gamble that may pay off or may fail spectacularly.

Re: Shenton v Turner : Mon Jul 30, 2012 11:35 am  

Northampton_Saint wrote:

He's a downgrade on Shenton at this moment in time, fact. It's a gamble that may pay off or may fail spectacularly.

He is. Shenton chipped in with some impressive plays of late.

However, given that we've resigned Meli, then we potentially have Meli at Centre and (if we can patch him up) Ade Gardner on the wing, which is a fairly potent option should Turner be less than convincing.

We also have the great white hope of Wheeler still knocking about somewhere.

Re: Shenton v Turner : Mon Jul 30, 2012 11:48 am  

Offside Monkey wrote:

He is. Shenton chipped in with some impressive plays of late.

However, given that we've resigned Meli, then we potentially have Meli at Centre and (if we can patch him up) Ade Gardner on the wing, which is a fairly potent option should Turner be less than convincing.

We also have the great white hope of Wheeler still knocking about somewhere.

Has Meli been confirmed yet? I'm counting no chickens until he has...

And I've been one of Wheeler's biggest advocates for years but have frankly given up on him now. There's clearly something just not right with the lad's makeup somewhere. He's been relatively injury-free this year for once and should have been a stand out in such a weak league but has just completely disappeared it seems. Very disappointing.