VOTE What should Oates’ long term position be?

[Wolfie]

Wing. I still think he can be a really good back rower, problem at brisbane is we have two great back rowers in the making in Fifita and TPJ.

 

[Alec]

How about halfback?

 

[simplythebest]

I put back row purely for the fact that back rowers don't have to catch bombs.
Although I can definitely see him dropping a lot of short balls if he played on the edge.

 

[Super Freak]

Wing.

End thread.

 

[winslow_wong]

Oates' only problem on the wing is having 2 sets of feet. If he actually manages to hold onto the ball, he's as good in attack as any.

In his defence he’s rarely dropped the ball in a try scoring situation. It’s the kick returns where his hands turn to butter.

 

[K-Style]

I am a big fan of Corey but sadly I think he should be moved on. Expensive wingers are a luxury and his money could buy a competent halfback. We have solid backup for the wing in Herbie, Perese and Coates.

Coates was as effective as Isaako at defending the right wing. If like to see the other two sooner than later but not at the expense of Oates. Theres so many bigger problems in this team than Oates. We've been handing out big dollar contracts like lollies so it's easy to understand why he might have held out for more. If we lose him we lose the only player in our back line with proven ability to run over the top of anyone. Judging Oates on this season alone is pretty useless as we failed hard to get the ball beyond Boyd/Shiba. Shiba can barely hold the ball let alone draw and pass. Fix all the other problems we have then we can look at Oates. Start with why we let so many tries in via the right wing and a non existent captain.

 

[Sirlee oldman]

Coates was as effective as Isaako at defending the right wing. If like to see the other two sooner than later but not at the expense of Oates. Theres so many bigger problems in this team than Oates. We've been handing out big dollar contracts like lollies so it's easy to understand why he might have held out for more. If we lose him we lose the only player in our back line with proven ability to run over the top of anyone. Judging Oates on this season alone is pretty useless as we failed hard to get the ball beyond Boyd/Shiba. Shiba can barely hold the ball let alone draw and pass. Fix all the other problems we have then we can look at Oates. Start with why we let so many tries in via the right wing and a non existent captain.

I’m not having a go at his form. I just think we can get a reasonable performance from a $100k player on the wing and put the rest of Oates money towards a halfback. Then we might be able to keep Bird.

 

[Old Mate]

I’m not having a go at his form. I just think we can get a reasonable performance from a $100k player on the wing and put the rest of Oates money towards a halfback. Then we might be able to keep Bird.

Bird has shown far less than Oates in the last few years.

 

[Sirlee oldman]

Bird has shown far less than Oates in the last few years.

But Oates is off contract and if we move Bird on we will be paying a lot of money for him to play somewhere else. Plus Bird can play fullback and if Milford goes back to 5/8 then we’ll need one.