Re: Rumour Mill Westerman : Tue Jun 08, 2021 10:42 am  

Personally i think Wane's back 3 will be Farrell, Whitehead and Bateman at loose, but i wouldn't rule out Sutton or the excellent Morgan Knowles.

The one thing that might count in Westy's favour is his ball playing skills and that was a tactic that Wane used a lot at Wigan with O'Loughlin.

Re: Rumour Mill Westerman : Tue Jun 08, 2021 11:42 am  

Morgan Knowles is a good shout, as is McMeeken in the form he's in right now and as a wildcard Ethan Harvard, who Wane will be well aware of thru his pie knowledge

Re: Rumour Mill Westerman : Tue Jun 08, 2021 12:35 pm  

Not to be too pessimistic or put a downer on the thread but it’s irrelevant who we play there, don’t think we have any chance of matching the Aussies, the gap for me over the last 2/3 years has just got even wider between us. A lot of NRL teams would beat our national team not taking into account their national side.

Re: Rumour Mill Westerman : Tue Jun 08, 2021 2:33 pm  

steve1g wrote:

Morgan Knowles is a good shout, as is McMeeken in the form he's in right now and as a wildcard Ethan Harvard, who Wane will be well aware of thru his pie knowledge

Knowles yes, McMeeken having a good season but no, not at that level.

Re: Rumour Mill Westerman : Tue Jun 08, 2021 3:05 pm  

McMeeken every day of the week for me, the complete back rower

Re: Rumour Mill Westerman : Tue Jun 08, 2021 3:13 pm  

bellycouldtackle wrote:

McMeeken every day of the week for me, the complete back rower

One decent half-season? A bit to go yet.

Re: Rumour Mill Westerman : Tue Jun 08, 2021 3:15 pm  

bellycouldtackle wrote:

McMeeken every day of the week for me, the complete back rower

Penalty machine, overrated and massively inconsistent, turns up when he fancies it and throws silly offloads to the floor every opportunity he gets, never really got the hype myself.

If he was anywhere near the England squad I would be surprised.

[PopTart]

Re: Rumour Mill Westerman : Tue Jun 08, 2021 3:18 pm  

vastman wrote:

Elliot played centre at Bradford then converted to SR I think. He was an excellent centre when I saw him.

He is an excellent SR, I did not say he wasn't?

There is still just about a difference between a SR and a real LF, though Westy is one of the few left.

Whitehead would be in my SR selection, however, I'd say Westerman is a better LF IMO.

I agree. I edited my post to say that I hadn't understood when I first read your post as you were following on from another.

[PopTart]

Re: Rumour Mill Westerman : Tue Jun 08, 2021 3:25 pm  

bellycouldtackle wrote:

McMeeken every day of the week for me, the complete back rower

He's not consistent enough. He can have a good game but not often and not at international level.

Whitehead and Bateman are guaranteed. It just depends whether we have a 13 or not. Its not a terrible mistake to play Bateman there but it would be better to have him in SR with Whitehead and have an actual 13 play.
Westerman would work well but I think Wane will think he is not tested at the higher level. The form he is showing with us is partly because he has a free reign. He won't have that at International level.

I think someone like Knowles or Josh Jones will get in but if Westerman were younger, and had been on this form for longer, he'd be the better option.

Re: Rumour Mill Westerman : Tue Jun 08, 2021 7:13 pm  

Westerman appears to have been instructed to "Play his own game" for Wakefield. So whether he could respond to the demands, tactics and wishes of such a strong coach as SW and produce similar results is another matter.