What are people thinking about the matchday 23 this year?
The biggest points of contention for me are 13,14,11 and 4,5,6,8.
Ideally, I'd like:
1. Robertson
2. Latu
3. Kepu
4. Simmons
5. Hanigan
6. Dempsey
7. Hooper
8. Holloway
9. Gordon
10. Foley
11. TQN
12. Beale
13. Simone / Foketi
14. Newsome
15. Folau
16. Ryan
17. Roach
18. ?
19. Palmer
20. Staniforth
21. Phipps
22. Mason
23. Kellaway
I also wouldn't mind seeing TQN trialled at 13 after that Barbarians performance.
The Hanigan / Dempsey dilemma at 6 is made all the worse by the fact that Hanigan doesn't offer much starch in the 2nd row, but then again, neither do Staniforth or Simmons.
I understand there's a lot of hype about Staniforth, and his NRC fans often quote his insane work rate but, personally, I don't care if a player has 24 carries a game if they're for an aggregated 3 metres.
I want to see a bit more impact from him, and hopefully off the bench him and Palmer can provide that. Once they get subbed, the backrow barndance can begin as Hanigan can play 6, Dempsey can play 7 or 8 etc.
I'd also like to see Foley given some rest games this season to freshen him up as he's played an insane amount of footy this year and hasn't played to his best form. Mason is a quality player, and there's no better apprenticeship that he could have than under Beale.