Yippee try yay wrote:
I guess skillful is down to opinion, I would say fonua being able to catch and pass in the air or come up with a crazy offload is skillful, same with Carlos he's great at poking through the line and offloading inside.
I think going forward our backs are in decent shape with Scott and Wynne looking promising and some good youngsters waiting for a chance, Houghtons replacement is vital, the club need to get this one right, we've seen how the likes of Roby, Clark and Mcshane dictate so much of their clubs attacking play.
We definitely need another prop to help Sao and Satae, hopefully Taylor will be back firing soon.
I see skilfull as being a player that can pass well 99% of the time, so the receiver doesn't have to 'reach' whatever direction that is and do so at the right time so the pass isn't intercepted or is a 'hospital' pass, can draw the tacklers in. Someone who can sell a dummy, can read defences or read the attack, is able to position themselves both in attack/defence such that they gain an advantage through skill/using their brain not just physicality.
Richard Whiting was one of the best regards this in modern times for us, wasn't amazing physically compared to some but had a great skillset, a clever rugby brain and had a great work ethic to boot, that to me is a skillful player.
All players have some 'skill', the mere act of playing the game demonstrates that at any level, but if we are to define 'full of skill' AKA skillfull, our most skilfull player is Connor, Albert Kelly had a lot of skill, the likes of Tuimavave, Sneyd, Reynolds have a more varied skillset than others in the team but aside from Connor I don't see our backline being that skillful over and above other teams in the way I perceive it to be. it's an opinion of course.
I hope Taylor does come back firing all cylinders, but in my head I'm worried that he's past his peak and he's going to struggle to get back to anywhere near his 2016/17 form when he was an absolute beast, as was Watts and Bowden wasn't far behind. Hoping to be wrong but whether it was the efforts in the past where he took a lot on that have taken its toll, an injury that hasn't truly gone away or whatever, even when he was fit, the last 1.5 years he seems to be a level below where he was.
Being objective and with no sentiment, as the likes of Wigan are, we seriously need to be more ruthless when considering players that are going to stymie youth development or are on the slide, too often we've kept hold of players a year or two too long and that's cost us performance wise whilst stopping youngsters developing and worse they simply leave the club.
I hope Hodgson can get the balance right, whilst injuries dictate to a degree who plays as with Wynne now, we need to look longer term and not jump to sign externally which is usualy at greater cost for a shorter term perceived gain, it's always a balancing act of wanting to get the best team in the here and now, but it's primarily long term youth development that wins more silverware over time in the current salary cap system.
