General Pick Your Team 2016 Rnd 10 - Warriors vs Panthers

[6 Again]

while I see why you would select him there is one troubling thing that you overlook

Vatuvei and Maumalo play the same position - Left Wing

Neither is a 'right sided player' if you look at their running style, ball carrying arm etc

in addition... two defensively inept, cumbersome giants on the wing would do my head in...

For me it is one or the other

In defense of Maumalo he's been working hard on his defensive issues this season and looks to have made some improvement in that area. He's played a lot of his career as a back rower and we've also seen him on the right wing be effective carrying the ball in either hand, if he was an out an out left winger like Manu I could understand him being pigeon holed to that position. I think he'd be fine outside Ayshford and he's a far better option than Jonno Wright in attack.

I'm nervous in defense whenever Manu plays as I'm sure we all are but I think Maumalo's improved in that area since he made his debut.

 

[ToiletDuck]

He's played a lot of his career as a back rower

Which is why I can't understand Maumalo not continuing to play in the backrow...an area where we lack attacking punch, compounded by the fact that he just isn't a natural winger. We're trying to make him our Corey Oates or something.

 

[Billyspleen75]

Is this a Panthers "home" game or ours?

And are we taking a game to Taranaki or is Isaac Luke just really bad at geography?

Yea, we're taking the Raiders game to New Plymouth in 2 weekends

 

[6 Again]

Which is why I can't understand Maumalo not continuing to play in the backrow...an area where we lack attacking punch, compounded by the fact that he just isn't a natural winger. We're trying to make him our Corey Oates or something.

Makes me wonder what Sticky's plans for him were when he tried to sign him to the Raiders, you'd have to think he's proved himself as a winger now with max potential.

 

[ToiletDuck]

Makes me wonder what Sticky's plans for him were when he tried to sign him to the Raiders, you'd have to think he's proved himself as a winger now with max potential.

He's trying to atone for Bill Tupou.

 

[6 Again]

He's trying to atone for Bill Tupou.

He already has, he signed Jordan Rapana.

 

[Marshthedarsh]

I have a side I think will be picked, which is basically what I'd like to be picked - but injuries will have their say so it's hard to guess which it will be...

 

[Jordan G]

Makes me wonder what Sticky's plans for him were when he tried to sign him to the Raiders, you'd have to think he's proved himself as a winger now with max potential.

In what way? Watched the Residents game on the weekend. Maumalo played well, but still looked nothing like a winger.

 

[6 Again]

In what way? Watched the Residents game on the weekend. Maumalo played well, but still looked nothing like a winger.

Well if the number one role of a winger is the ability to finish of back line plays by scoring tries, I think he's more than proved he can do that. Add to that he's tall which helps him under the high ball and his carries are strong because he's not afraid of contact having been a back rower.

He's received plenty of good press lately for his performances, Sticky want's him, I don't know what were really debating here. Am I alone in picking Ken Maumalo, could he really be that bad of a replacement for Jonno Wright??

 

[Jay M]

Amen to this - I watched him do fuck all at the nines and then couldn't believe some of the crazy talk that started getting posted on here about how brilliant he was. Just didn't strike me as being even close to a first grader.

Did you see him against the Dogs? he looked pretty good a couple of weeks back...

 

[Gizzyfan]

As far as outside backs go Allwood impressed me for one incident. Take a look when Fai Fai Loa scored he made a decision, came in off the wing, and absolutely smashed Dugan who stayed down. I thought he might have been in strife for that. That sort of mindset works for me.

 

[eudebrito]

As far as outside backs go Allwood impressed me for one incident. Take a look when Fai Fai Loa scored he made a decision, came in off the wing, and absolutely smashed Dugan who stayed down. I thought he might have been in strife for that. That sort of mindset works for me.

He blindsided Aiden Tolman in the rd 26 game against the bulldogs last year, sent him to the blood bin, got a bit of niggle in him.

Back to the team naming, number 6 will be the most interesting, the reserves and juniors are playing in penrith so i don't know what the point in an 8 man bench would be when half of them will be on a plane to sydney come friday.

Don't want to see the peoples champ involved after he shelled made errors and couldn't finish some chances a fortnight ago either.

 

[Danpatmac]

Well if the number one role of a winger is the ability to finish of back line plays by scoring tries, I think he's more than proved he can do that. Add to that he's tall which helps him under the high ball and his carries are strong because he's not afraid of contact having been a back rower.

He's received plenty of good press lately for his performances, Sticky want's him, I don't know what were really debating here. Am I alone in picking Ken Maumalo, could he really be that bad of a replacement for Jonno Wright??

he is another who is terribly slow to turn and chase, especially when playing on the right... im just done with wingers who are essentially forwards

 

[Mr Brownstone]

Did you see him against the Dogs? he looked pretty good a couple of weeks back...

Nope, however Maumolo's looking good in that grade so I think you have to be careful extrapolating performance from one level up into the next. Understand you can only play what's in front of you however if he did make the top grade then I would expect Aidan Kirk type performances from him.

Look my view isn't gospel - Ayshford has clearly done far better than I envisaged. However I found the talk from some about Wells during the nines to be grossly exaggerated and probably agenda driven.

 

[Lord Gnome of Howick MBE]

According to the local news down there the game has almost sold out.

 

[6 Again]

he is another who is terribly slow to turn and chase, especially when playing on the right... im just done with wingers who are essentially forwards

I can understand where your coming from and in part I tend to agree.

When other players and coaches are interviewed when they play us they almost unanimously refer to the "Big Warriors forward pack" but these days it's far from the truth, it's just a stereotype, we haven't had a consistently dominant forward pack since the days of Wiki, Price and Campion. We hardly have a meter eating back row and lock combination, we have mostly young and inconsistent props and compounding that we have a hooker and halves combination who don't play well behind a pack that can't get forward and our territorial kicking game isn't good enough to consistently get us out of trouble.

Despite Manu's defensive deficiencies our forwards really miss his carries when he's not there, I'm throwing Maumalo in there too because he can provide a similar role to Manu and our forward pack will benefit from it, besides he's a better finisher than Wright.

If our forwards didn't need the forward momentum of our back three I'd probably keep Fusitua anyway but loose Manu and Maumalo and have Allwood an Wells or something but to me it's about generating good go forward to give us our best chance.

 

[Jordan G]

Well if the number one role of a winger is the ability to finish of back line plays by scoring tries, I think he's more than proved he can do that. Add to that he's tall which helps him under the high ball and his carries are strong because he's not afraid of contact having been a back rower.

He's received plenty of good press lately for his performances, Sticky want's him, I don't know what were really debating here. Am I alone in picking Ken Maumalo, could he really be that bad of a replacement for Jonno Wright??

Neither are ideal, but at least Wright is a winger and is better defensively. Maumalo isn't a winger.

The tries he scored on the weekend would have been scored by any wing/backrower/prop as they were pretty much catch the ball and fall over the line.

There was a runaway try in the second half where the backrower took off and Maumalo couldn't get up there in support. He's slower than Manu is now, let alone when Manu was in his prime.TBh I'm not sure he's faster than Wright, and I've seen Wright come up with far better finishing than Maumalo.

For a one off game where there's no other options, meh, but long term he's not a winger and any attempts to turn him into one are just doing his development more harm than good.

 

[way2sharp]

As far as outside backs go Allwood impressed me for one incident. Take a look when Fai Fai Loa scored he made a decision, came in off the wing, and absolutely smashed Dugan who stayed down. I thought he might have been in strife for that. That sort of mindset works for me.

This forum goes nuts when Manu does it.

 

[way2sharp]

Problem is if Maumalo is a backrower there is a lot of traffic in front of him and our FG incumbents all play 80 minutes.
Players get blooded on the wing because there is more time and they can get used to the pace of FG without being a huge risk.

 

[Jay M]

Nope, however Maumolo's looking good in that grade so I think you have to be careful extrapolating performance from one level up into the next. Understand you can only play what's in front of you however if he did make the top grade then I would expect Aidan Kirk type performances from him.

Look my view isn't gospel - Ayshford has clearly done far better than I envisaged. However I found the talk from some about Wells during the nines to be grossly exaggerated and probably agenda driven.

He looked simply outstanding in that game. But yes, you can only play what's in front of you and they were playing the winless, bottom of the table bulldogs side... and he was running behind a pack featuring Matulino, Lisone, Vete, Thompson, Sao...

I didn't think he was great in the nines. But I've seen a couple of decent games from him in the ISP. Wells has some skills and some talent. No idea if it translates to first grade or not, either now, or ever. But then again, a few weeks ago, I didn't think Fusitua would have matured as much as he has either...

I have my doubts if we'll see him this season. Our 2nd tier cap must be pretty close to tapped out. But I wouldn't mind seeing him get a shot in front of the likes of Wright...

A lot of the team naming this week will be based on injuries and who is available. I don't think we'll see Wells no matter who is available or not. Unfortunately Maumalo will be named in first grade before him and the kid is not a winger... back three will be made up from Fusitua, Lolohea (hope he's playing five eighth though myself), Wright, Manu, Allwood (unless Allwood or Wright are at centre if Kata is rubbed out).