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Lewis Dodd saint Helen’s half to the rabbitohs

Pplspoet said:
I think the middle forwards stuff is a tad overblown. A problem, but a symptom of some of our coaching struggles to an extent.

Murray is your lock and you have good depth behind him. He’s elite.

You have Arrow and Tatola. No issues there, those guys are good to go. And also top tier (just get them on the park - they have 16 and 18 games out of 32 the last 2 seasons).

They’re 100% going to replace Burgess. There is cash there to do that from him leaving. Probably from ESL.

That leaves one prop spot in the top 17 to fill.

The depth isn’t too bad with Moale, Mitchell, and Havili.

I’d tip Bennett to punt Keppie and pull some of the middles magic he did with Nichols and Sele.

Whether it’s converting a Koloamatangi or Host, or picking up someone we all roll our eyes at in the offseason.

I would hope they address the real issue in 2025, our edges. I.e the reason Arrow (and if you want to get creative, Koloamatangi or Host), haven’t been able to boost our middles/depth.

We have a log jam of left side backs talent (Mitchell, Wighton, Cody, Gray, Dodd).

Duncan, Wighton and Murray could feasibly end up our backrow. That’s not as far fetched as it may sound. Fletcher is an option there at some point in 2025 if he can get healthy too with the right guidance. Kolo and lastly Host too.

I wouldn’t be suprised if they pick up a fringe guy with upside there either for the edges as well. Perhaps at the expense of Chee Kam if they feel they’ve seen enough.
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Be careful Poet, there’s some positivity in there about Host. You’ll be set upon as he’s one of the demonised “cutters”. 😆😆
 
Manikato said:
How do you sign a halfback when you don't have a coach, unproven at NRL level as well.
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Quite simply, they need one.

Hawkins is not up to it
illias, according to many, isn’t up to it and has just had a severe injury. Question mark over his ability to bounce back.
Cody in his last year
Gray is a 5/8th

so they went to market to fill a gap that desperately needs to be filled.
alternatives?
 
Agree. This isn't a period of halfback plenty.

VERY few teams are going to buy a sure thing half back and Dodd is a reasonable gamble.

Reynolds, DCE, Townsend, Hunt and Johnson will be gone before we know it.

That leaves only really Cleary, Hynes, Hughes, Walker, maybe Fogarty (who is 30), Moses, and maybe Luai as top flight halfbacks at clubs. 7 out of 17.

That means in the next few years, 10 teams will be at least window shopping for a 7 solution.

There aren't 10 gun 7's coming through the development system, and even if they were, that takes time.

Getting the best young half from ESL is a very reasonable dice to roll, and arguably well timed. He'll be 23 next season, so coming into that second phase of maturity, prior to a likely peak.

The left side thing is concerning, but again, it's a very tough market to shop for in that position.
 
Heads up that St Helens are playing tonight at midnight and Dodd makes his return to the team from injury at half back.

It will be on fox sports league
 
It looks to me that Dodd excels running off 2nd phase so hopefully our new coach has noticed this and will have our forwards offloading. Not holding my breath though.
 
Sonic Star said:
Heads up that St Helens are playing tonight at midnight and Dodd makes his return to the team from injury at half back.

It will be on fox sports league
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Thanks for that. Have set to record
 
Stayed up like a sucker for this one. I havent seen Lewis Dodd play prior to today.

I think if we (we being the NRL not Souths) are going to Super League for a half of his standard/skillset, we have bigger problems here.

He wasn’t bad. He did some ok things - kicked ok at times, he looks busy in attack, popped up on both sides and straightened well. He didnt really run the footy.
He had a kick early on charged down and they scored a few tackles later.

Defensively he got steamrolled which led to a try and later on he got sucked in on a decent play and they turned the centre under to score.

He certainly looked like a guy that will be ranking a 7 at best as opposed to throwing up 8-10 type games. He looked very Aiden Sezer like I guess (for the sake of an NRL comparison).

If you were picking a half from todays game, Mikey Lewis (Hull KR 7) looked 5x the player. Morgan Knowles looked the pick of the forwards, he’d be a good get.

Delaney got maybe 20-25 minutes. He looked very raw but likely. Decent build, but he wouldnt be a replacement for Tom next year and no way a starting front rower but he is only 20 thats to be expected I guess.
 
Bully said:
Stayed up like a sucker for this one. I havent seen Lewis Dodd play prior to today.

I think if we (we being the NRL not Souths) are going to Super League for a half of his standard/skillset, we have bigger problems here.

He wasn’t bad. He did some ok things - kicked ok at times, he looks busy in attack, popped up on both sides and straightened well. He didnt really run the footy.
He had a kick early on charged down and they scored a few tackles later.

Defensively he got steamrolled which led to a try and later on he got sucked in on a decent play and they turned the centre under to score.

He certainly looked like a guy that will be ranking a 7 at best as opposed to throwing up 8-10 type games. He looked very Aiden Sezer like I guess (for the sake of an NRL comparison).

If you were picking a half from todays game, Mikey Lewis (Hull KR 7) looked 5x the player. Morgan Knowles looked the pick of the forwards, he’d be a good get.

Delaney got maybe 20-25 minutes. He looked very raw but likely. Decent build, but he wouldnt be a replacement for Tom next year and no way a starting front rower but he is only 20 thats to be expected I guess.
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Oh well. Maybe too early to ride him off but seeing its the same recruitment team that has made every other decision it wouldnt sunrise me he is a dud. I did ask a few weeks ago why they are still signing players. They should have been sacked.
 
I think he has just come back from injury today? Not sure what exactly and I’m sure he has more to his game but they were my initial thoughts. Others may see it differently.

Commentators did mention his signing will be announced today supposedly.
 
Agree with Bully from what I watched based on this one game.

The other half back looked more impressive.

Hull played very well though, they were under dogs but they controlled that game
 
Mikey Lewis would be a good signing for an NRL club. He’s a bit unpredictable and has a good running game.
Morgan Knowles and Matty Lees are strong aggressive forwards who would add steel to any pack they played in
 
Amazing, looking at the table - after 10 games, 6 teams at the top have the same number of points and one is just 2 points behind.

Though when I say 10 games, table-topping Wigan have played 9 and will most likely win their game in hand.

The London Broncos have lost all 10 games.
 
You need to watch ESL as a slightly more talented NSW Cup.

The whole game over there has lost a lot of physicality and is pure speed-based.

Hard to identify singular talents within those game structures; training would probably tell you more.

The fact that the best player in the entire competition is Bevan French tells you plenty.

You just don't know if they'll turn out over here to be a Josh Hodgson or a Ryan Hall...
 
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