Yeah probably. I think the only spots in question are 9, 14, 16, 17 but hard to argue the guys named there in the article aren't front runners. The Jensen / Te Kura / Taupau spot will be really interesting.
It sounds like there could be more that are still a bit up in the air.
4. Mariner vs Shiba
11/12. Riki vs Gos vs Piakura
Jensen vs Kobe for spots in the starting middle
I think Taupau is a bit further down the list, but Madge may go with him early in the season for experience and BTK later in the year after he's warmed up against Qcup, similar to Kevvie last year with Willison. One thing that might go against Taupau is his offloading. To me Madge seems like a high completion rate kind of guy, and Taupau was still throwing out those unsighted offloads. That might just be too much of a risk for Madge to take when he wants his bench to do a certain job for him.
The ball playing from BTK on the weekend has me very tempted to consider him though... he'll bring a fair bit to the team when he gets brought in... completely different body shape, good ball playing, offload, etc. building a decent little package for himself. I'm happy for him to spend time in Qcup though.. last year was probably lined up as his big Qcup development year, but then he missed half of it.
He has played 34 Qcup games already though (feel like that has snuck up), so maybe a bit of time down there and be primed and ready to come into the team over the origin period and potentially become a mainstay from that point onwards. That has ramifications on whether to retain Jensen or not, which is an interesting plot twist and whether he's happy to be the next man up from that point on.
Current jostling for positions:
1. Walsh
2. Arthars (right)
3. Staggs
4. Mariner / Shiba
5. Cobbo (left)
6. Bhunt
7. Reynolds
8. Patty / Jensen / Willison
9. Paix / Billy
10. Haas
11. Gos / Piakura
12. Riki / Piakura
13. Kobe / Patty
14. Billy / Smoothy
15. Willison
16. Jensen / BTK / Taupau
17. Piakura / Gos / Riki
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