Re: Round 9 - Eels vs. Broncos - Pre-Match Discussion
Trade Hodges? WTF? The equal 2nd best centre in the world?
I would forget about signing a half anyway. We need a ball playing FB to replace Norman. IMO, if our halves do their job, we have an even chance of winning any game. And we have shown that so far more or less, but with our roster, it's more than ever a question of timing.
That's why I am so pi**ed off we took the silly moral high ground and lost Dugan who would have made an ideal FB for the team we have.
As I see it, none of our halves, including Hunt, have anywhere near the speed and/or strength to play the kind of game DCE, Pearce, Carney, Reynolds etc play. They just can't cut it attacking the line, more so since we SUCK at support play, or running wide to get around the defence to set up a play since they are too slow.
For mine Wallace and Prince have 2 basic jobs: kicking game obviously, and setting up our our outside runners, either on the edges, like Prince did with Gillett a few games ago, or with Wallace setting up the 2nd man play on the left which, in our game plan seems to need Norman coming into the line - and which so far only works when Norman gets his timing right AND Reed stands deep enough to at least have a decent chance to run and pass before the defence is up in a line to kill the move - as Souths did.
That's why Hodges is so important to the right side attack. He can get around his man. Prince is too slow now to do that. His job is to set up Gillett to run a hole or get it to Hodges with enough time for Hodges to create space.
If we stand flat against the Eels as we did v Souths on the left, forget it and once again, it will be left up to Hodges to win the game for us.
How sad is that. We are, more than less, a one man outfit
