SQUAD v EELS

[King Salvo]

Coach Robinson will rile me up if the Hutchinator is replaced at 7.

[Chook2]

Gus is lucky to come straight back in
I think walker will and should come back into 7 with either hutch or smith as 14
also brown to come ok bench for baker
worry with Egan butcher

any news on Watson, Whyte? Seems sitili is out for the year but not word yet

[Rooster1908]

Coach Robinson will rile me up if the Hutchinator is replaced at 7.

Hope not . keep xalm we have seen what happens when you get riled up

[RoosterBooster]

Have we not learned anything on here, Walker and Keary don’t work as a combo. Both have poor long kicking games and both are poor game managers.
You don’t always need a team of superstars, more the right combinations. On paper Walker over Hutch is a no brainer, but the reality is Hutch is a better partners to either Walker or Keary

[mightyrooster]

Will be interesting to see if Walker makes the final cut. Also I’ll say it again, does the Klown have it written in his employment contract that he must adjudicate in one way or another all Roosters games!

[Bates]

Have we not learned anything on here, Walker and Keary don’t work as a combo. Both have poor long kicking games and both are poor game managers.
You don’t always need a team of superstars, more the right combinations. On paper Walker over Hutch is a no brainer, but the reality is Hutch is a better partners to either Walker or Keary

Has Hutch (at 7) performed well against a top 4 team?

Walker Keary combo worked well at the back end of last season.

[Jacks Fur Coat]

Thc cavalry has arrived, we look poised to finish the season strongly now.

Is it too little, too late though?

Klein appointment will upset Teddy. He is sick to death of trying to talk sense to this peanut.

(Posted this in wrong thread before...)

[Rooster_6]

Looking forward to the battle of the forwards.

No Moses for them is a big out.

[nayfo]

Coach Robinson will rile me up if the Hutchinator is replaced at 7.

Although I don’t have a fan boy love affection for Hutch like you do, I do however agree he has been playing very well recently and deserves his spot at 7 but are you saying you prefer Hutch over Walker at 7?

Or just this game until Walker finds some fitness?

[Chook2]

Have we not learned anything on here, Walker and Keary don’t work as a combo. Both have poor long kicking games and both are poor game managers.
You don’t always need a team of superstars, more the right combinations. On paper Walker over Hutch is a no brainer, but the reality is Hutch is a better partners to either Walker or Keary

Hutch come on only a week ago people were saying he was the worst player to ever play nrl
now he is a king

walker and Keary are fine they just need to play in their right position, right side of the field, need some good size backrowers running off them and control the short kicking game and cross field kicks
if we nail our wingers on or in their opposition goal line we could score 3 - 4 tries a game just because of their height

[Bates]

The Eels are playing with zero confidence.

Roosters 20+

[Vasco]

Coach Robinson will rile me up if the Hutchinator is replaced at 7.

I can't see it happening this week.

[Bates]

I'd go with

6. Kez - Finding form
7. Walker - Thanks for keeping my seat warm Hutch.
9. Sandon Smith - What's his nickname?
14. Cheese - Impact when required.

[King Salvo]

Although I don’t have a fan boy love affection for Hutch like you do, I do however agree he has been playing very well recently and deserves his spot at 7 but are you saying you prefer Hutch over Walker at 7?

Or just this game until Walker finds some fitness?

I support all the players and coaching staff equally

The Hutchinator was a gun half through the juniors and into the early seniors period

NSW Under 20's 2014 and 2015 - 5/8 - Mitchell Moses (2014) and Jackson Hastings (2015) the halfback

Junior Kangaroos 2014 and 2015 - 5/8 - Keeping a fellow called Cameron Munster out of the side.

The ACL took longer to recovery from - both mentally and physically - The Dragons sending him packing to England when under contract didn't help.

You don't need to be the quickest half around to have a career at the top level - quick between the ears is more of an asset.

People do forget that the Hutchinator playing 5/8 in 2021 allowed Walker to just be a running half and not have to take on the game management type role.

Folk on here go a tad wee bit over the top in their adoration of Sam Walker though - I remember Phil Blake being the next big thing - Sam Walker is no Phil Blake at this stage of his career

It's often said 6 and 7 are just numbers but traditionally the 7 has been the organising half and 6 the running half - neither Keary or Walker are organising halves and neither have particularly strong distance kicking games either.

The question then is what is the best halves pairing from the list below - taking into account the role requirements of the halves - i.e game management/ running game / kicking game / defence

first player 5/8 and second player 7

1. Keary / Walker
2. Walker/Keary
3. Keary/Hutchinator
4. Hutchinator/Keary
5. Walker/Hutchinator
6. Hutchinator/Walker

One thing that is also missing from the old days is fullbacks who can kick - seems to be a lost art form mostly and seemingly never to be resurrected

Tedesco has a fair boot on him judging by his line drop outs when he goes long - 50 metres plus.

Why can't he take some of the general field kicks and lighten the workload of whoever the halves combo will be.

It was very rare to see hookers kick or even run from dummy not so long ago - nowadays that's a basic skills requirement of your dummy halves.

[Headless Chook]

Keary and Walker can work together. It did the back end of last season and with Toops and Joseph back on our flanks they can work again. We were able to paper over the cracks of their limited l;ong kicking game because our back 5 were so good at getting our sets rolling and with Toops out injured for so long and Suali'i in the centres/injured/suspended we missed this big time.