It is a rapid fire turnaround for both the Eels and The Tip Sheet this week as the Monday game flows straight into Team List Tuesday. Sixties and Forty20 scramble to get everything ready for Round 15 as Parramatta head back home to host the Raiders on Saturday night. Under 19s Origin squads are starting to filter through as well and the Eels have representation in both the men and women’s showcase matches.
The State of Origin squads for Game 2 have been locked in and the boys review the changes for both NSW and QLD as the code heads to Melbourne. From there it is the latest happenings in the competition as injuries, signings and everything in between take shape heading past the halfway point of the season.
For line recruitment priorities are:
1. Standard setting elite middle (eg Yeo, pending age)
2. A rep quality outside back (Farnworth)
3. Another 2 genuine, experienced first grade middle (Paseka, Leniu as examples – not sure if Paseka is off contract, but he’s a good quality middle that will do a job and add some go forward )
4. A full top 30 to start the foreseeable seasons – this nonsense of keeping space to be opportunistic to me is dumb. A bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush. We can’t keep battling on with a lack of options every year when the team is struck with injury and/or form issues.
Personally I wouldn’t go near Burton. With all due respect (and I know the origin selection implies otherwise) but he’s not quite a centre, not quite a 5/8. We need specialists, not utilities. While hes a good player, the teams capabilities won’t lift to their potential with people who aren’t experts in their roles.
With respect people are nuts if they say they wouldn’t pay at least some ‘overs’ to sign Matt Burton. And yes he would come over as a running 6. He would compliment Moses very well in my opinion and he’s an origin player. How on earth is he not light years better and more established than what we’ve been trotting out in the halves at times over the past couple of years? In my opinion Burton is consistently one of the bulldogs best in a severely dysfunctional attacking unit since they put Galvin to 7 and got rid of their only established Hooker. He’s a big body, he tackles well and has a massive boot as well. Just don’t understand why people say we shouldn’t sign Burton – sorry we have totally screwed up in regard to retaining and recruiting 6’s over the past few years with Talagi, Brown and the failure to sign Galvin (who is an out and out 6 not a 7) and we have to make a move in this position to compliment Moses. Burton immediately improves our team substantially.
Yer have to agree re Burton he will take all eyes off Moses and he actually is the perfect half to match up with Mitch.
Lorenzo is not progressing anywhere near enough to be considered for 27 he needs time to grow his game Joash will also be a better player in the long run but I don’t think we have unlimited time on our hands we 100% need some more experience in the spine and we can’t continue to pin it all on Mitch.
At the moment teams just stack up on Moses because they know everything has to come from him. Having two half threats is a whole different beast I think he would elevate us massively.