Re: Surprising players : Mon Oct 03, 2022 6:32 pm  

Spookisback wrote:

The opposite of disappointing players… this is about players who arrived at the club with no fanfare of expectation .. but who surprised you and became a favourite

Three for me:

New Years 1984 saw a young scrum half debut (I think at Leigh)

Nigel Bell

A few years later a young Aussie full back trialled after playing ( I think) at Ackworth

Chris Perry

2004 and an influx of players including a journeyman from Widnes, debuted at full back and looked awful

Jason Demetriou

Yes, definitely at Leigh, Spooki. I was there. What a player!!!

[PopTart]

Re: Surprising players : Mon Oct 03, 2022 7:30 pm  

Redscat wrote:

Yes, definitely at Leigh, Spooki. I was there. What a player!!!

Me too

Re: Surprising players : Fri Oct 07, 2022 12:54 pm  

James Stosic - never heard of him before he came to Trin, great bit of business to bring him over. Not very tall, but incredibly wide like Kurt Sorenson and Les Boyd! Pity his visa wasn't stamped the season after....

Re: Surprising players : Sat Oct 08, 2022 9:22 am  

Mary Millington wrote:

James Stosic - never heard of him before he came to Trin, great bit of business to bring him over. Not very tall, but incredibly wide like Kurt Sorenson and Les Boyd! Pity his visa wasn't stamped the season after....

I really rated Stosic, a steady player who worked hard and gave good go forward. His ability to regularly find his front was great!

Re: Surprising players : Sat Oct 08, 2022 9:26 am  

Jesper_Parnevik wrote:

I really rated Stosic, a steady player who worked hard and gave good go forward. His ability to regularly find his front was great!

He’s definitely the kind we should look for.

We will often be on the back foot in big games, we need a resilient pack with a great work rate rather than a fancy one.

I believe with our backs if we can hold the line in a game we can go on to win it, but then that is basic RL.

Re: Surprising players : Sat Oct 08, 2022 9:43 am  

vastman wrote:

He’s definitely the kind we should look for.

We will often be on the back foot in big games, we need a resilient pack with a great work rate rather than a fancy one.

I believe with our backs if we can hold the line in a game we can go on to win it, but then that is basic RL.

I agree, and I think players like Stosic would thrive in this era. He was good for us in 2009 but he’d be a sought after player now. He’s in the mould of current Props. Good completion with little errors, can tackle, keeps going at 100% whatever the scoreboard and can find his front for easy PTB’s.

Re: Surprising players : Sat Oct 08, 2022 9:58 am  

Jesper_Parnevik wrote:

I really rated Stosic, a steady player who worked hard and gave good go forward. His ability to regularly find his front was great!

He was one of the best import forwards we’ve had in the last 20 years imo, I’d love to have seen him partnered by Adam Watene they’d have been a great starting front row.

Re: Surprising players : Sat Oct 08, 2022 11:18 am  

Jesper_Parnevik wrote:

I agree, and I think players like Stosic would thrive in this era. He was good for us in 2009 but he’d be a sought after player now. He’s in the mould of current Props. Good completion with little errors, can tackle, keeps going at 100% whatever the scoreboard and can find his front for easy PTB’s.

For all I loved Fifita and would still sign him purely as a game breaker, technically he wasn’t a great prop. A coaches nightmare and dream all in one. His PTB was poor, he didn’t run direct when he should have done on many occasions and so on.

This is not a hatchet job just being honest, but Daves strong points far outweighed his weak points. What I’m suggesting is trying to replace a maverick one off like Dave is folly, or at least for now, we need tough, no nonsense, resilient workers.

Applegarth made no bones about it, hard direct forward play, with great defence from 1-13. When we’ve stopped the opposition we then attack out wide. Basic but still the best game plan ever devised imho.

Your Stosics give you that platform, we have two in Whitbread and Battye if he’d just concentrate on being a prop, Bowden looks similar. So this guy or similar will do fine.

Re: Surprising players : Sat Oct 08, 2022 1:31 pm  

Hang on a minute, when I called Applegarths coaching method basic a few weeks ago and long before he was given the HC job you amongst others went out of your way to criticise me even though much of my post was positive. Now it’s OK to call his coaching basic is it?

By the way Battye isn’t fit to lace Stosics boots, they are in no way similar at all!

[PopTart]

Re: Surprising players : Sat Oct 08, 2022 2:56 pm  

vastman wrote:

For all I loved Fifita and would still sign him purely as a game breaker, technically he wasn’t a great prop. A coaches nightmare and dream all in one. His PTB was poor, he didn’t run direct when he should have done on many occasions and so on.

This is not a hatchet job just being honest, but Daves strong points far outweighed his weak points. What I’m suggesting is trying to replace a maverick one off like Dave is folly, or at least for now, we need tough, no nonsense, resilient workers.

Applegarth made no bones about it, hard direct forward play, with great defence from 1-13. When we’ve stopped the opposition we then attack out wide. Basic but still the best game plan ever devised imho.

Your Stosics give you that platform, we have two in Whitbread and Battye if he’d just concentrate on being a prop, Bowden looks similar. So this guy or similar will do fine.

If Fifita makes more average metres than mist other props ( certainly more than ours) why does it matter if he doesn't run straight. Only a fool runs straight at defenders if you can run at gaps.
But he's a one off so I agree you can't swap like for like.

And as said, Whitbread isn't a bad comparison to Stosic, but Battye isn't the same quality at all.