Re: Tom Johnstone : Tue Mar 30, 2021 9:26 pm  

At the moment, I’d go with:
FB - Tomkins
RW - Makinson
RC - Hardaker
LC - Farnworth
LW - Johnstone
HB - Lomax
HB - Williams
P - Walmsley
H - Clark
P - Thompson
SR - Whitehead
SR - Knowles
LF - Bateman

S - Watts
S - Burgess
S - Sutton
S - Ratchford

Re: Tom Johnstone : Tue Mar 30, 2021 10:14 pm  

SaleSlim wrote:

Farrell? Really? Good club man but not good enough at international level.

Comfortably the best back rower in SL for the last 5 years.

Re: Tom Johnstone : Wed Mar 31, 2021 1:24 am  

NSW wrote:

Comfortably the best back rower in SL for the last 5 years.

Plays for Wigan so he's instantly crap.

Re: Tom Johnstone : Wed Mar 31, 2021 1:25 am  

nottinghamtiger wrote:

At the moment, I’d go with:
FB - Tomkins
RW - Makinson
RC - Hardaker
LC - Farnworth
LW - Johnstone
HB - Lomax
HB - Williams
P - Walmsley
H - Clark
P - Thompson
SR - Whitehead
SR - Knowles
LF - Bateman

S - Watts
S - Burgess
S - Sutton
S - Ratchford

I have Faz over Knowles and Roby at 9 (still our best) and then I'm not much different.

Re: Tom Johnstone : Wed Mar 31, 2021 7:32 am  

Egg Chasing wrote:

I have Faz over Knowles and Roby at 9 (still our best) and then I'm not much different.

Yes, I was debating between those two!

The position I think is most difficult is hooker. We’ve so many options and all of them are different ‘types’ of player.
Roby is consistent and never has a bad game - but does he have the spark to trouble the best defence in the world or does he just become someone who distributes the ball?
Clark has the unpredictability and the ability to run from the ruck. That will worry defences and if they play massive forwards, he’ll exploit that.
McShane offers something different again. He can run from the ruck, but he’s like an extra pivot too. He’s the most dangerous of our options when it comes to playing in the opposition’s 20.
Then we have Hodgson. Talismanic for Canberra, but I’ve not seen him have one good game for England.
All are great players. I think it comes down to what we want from our hooker, rather than who is “the best”.

Re: Tom Johnstone : Wed Mar 31, 2021 8:11 am  

1. S.Tomkins
2. Makinson
3. Farnworth
4. Gildart
5. Johnstone
6. Williams
7. Gale
8. Walmsley
9. Roby
10. T.Burgess
11. Bateman
12. Farrell
13. Thompson

14. Clark
15. Copper
16. Sutton
17. Whitehead

Reserves: Connor, Percival, Lomax, Watts, Philbin, Hodgson, Currie

[Bullseye]

Re: Tom Johnstone : Wed Mar 31, 2021 8:19 am  

We're well off at hooker. I'd go with Roby, Clark and McShane. Hodgson is good when he's on song but he sometimes overplays and this disrupts things. Even Canberra fans were saying that last season until he got injured. He's done it a bit this season too. It's a difficult one as he has a great kicking game and whe he's on song he's great around the ruck.

Roby seems to go on forever and if he's on form he should get in. I like Clark for his athleticism and speed and McShane has a bit of everything.

I'd just go with the three most in form and fit by the end of the season. All would be good enough.

Re: Tom Johnstone : Wed Mar 31, 2021 8:48 am  

Bullseye wrote:

We're well off at hooker. I'd go with Roby, Clark and McShane. Hodgson is good when he's on song but he sometimes overplays and this disrupts things. Even Canberra fans were saying that last season until he got injured. He's done it a bit this season too. It's a difficult one as he has a great kicking game and whe he's on song he's great around the ruck.

Roby seems to go on forever and if he's on form he should get in. I like Clark for his athleticism and speed and McShane has a bit of everything.

I'd just go with the three most in form and fit by the end of the season. All would be good enough.

McShane is a great plater to have in the squad and could give us some different attacking options.
However, if both are fit, I'd go with Roby as starting 9, with Clark off the bench

Re: Tom Johnstone : Wed Mar 31, 2021 9:30 am  

wrencat1873 wrote:

McShane is a great plater to have in the squad and could give us some different attacking options.
However, if both are fit, I'd go with Roby as starting 9, with Clark off the bench

McShane also has the advantage of doing 80 minutes.
That gives us another bench spot and probably two extra interchanges. In the big games, that's quite an advantage.

Re: Tom Johnstone : Wed Mar 31, 2021 10:32 am  

nottinghamtiger wrote:

I think there is a pack that can compete, but lose any through injury and we are replacing them with players who are nowhere near as good.

That exact same line has been peddled on this forum, every year, since its inception and every year since RLFANS inception our pack has been mullered by the aussies with the exception of about 3 games.