After Benchy, another senior player must be dropped.

@tig_prmz said:
lawrence obviously isnt as effective as he used to be

if this thread popped up last year or early this year, i would've understood your concerns but especially after his past few performances- he in no way deserves to be dropped.

That just about sums it up.
 
I'd like to see more plays run for Lawrence, imo he's a player that is suffering because he isn't being used to his strength. I'd love to see Anasta or Brooks going to the line and hitting Lawrence on the chest, the kid can run an angle and hit a hole he just needs someone to orchestrate it. He's never been the fleet footed elusive type of centre and his days of standing up his opponent seem to be past him, he's a runner! but not the type of throw him the ball and see how he goes runner like Simona.
 
Lawrence is playing pretty good footy at the moment.

He is not an excitement machine but is very effective.

The OP is just plain wrong IMO.
 
Your on drugs buddy if you would prefer Lulia. Let's face it, Lawrence has been playing solid, without setting the house on fire. It's all good and well to just start dropping players but who exactly would you replace him with? Its not like we have any better centres running around in the lower grades, and please don't say Lulia is better, he is not half the player Lawrence is, was or has been!
 
I would of liked Lawrence on the Wing but he has lost speed, if he can regain some speed I would have him there with Nofo shifting to centre.
 
Being completely honest, Lawrence's form (by his own admission) has been down over the past 3 years. However, I would rank him easily as the 2nd best centre at the WT. Maybe he will one day get back to his old form, and yes, lately he is starting to improve significantly.

However, lets discuss the best centre we have. Simona is everything you want in a centre and he is only getting better. Since he has been put on the right edge he has been very quiet. Maybe he will be able to adjust eventually but it really pisses me off that Lawrence gets the nod at left side over Simona. I'm not saying we should drop Lawrence, but until he surpasses Simona in level of form, I would prefer to see Simona there.

If the time did come that Lawrence was to move on (for whatever reason), we would have to immediately side a right side centre. As I said before, Simona deserves the left side spot so we would need the likes of Blake Ferguson (don't care what you think of him, I rate him highly).
 
We have a young inexperienced side - lets get rid of all the experienced players we have.

People want to get rid of Rowdy, Anasta, Fulton - why not Robbie.

Lawrence is playing better than he has for three years and getting better (he is not on anywhere near the money you guys are talking about). Replace him with Lulia - are you serious?

He is also playing better than Simona at the moment. Nofo is not an NRL centre - mark my words.

Get off Rowdy's back - maybe when the halves get it together (we are patient) they can set him up.
 
Watching Lawrence play the last couple of years sadden me a lot. He was one of the best centres in the world when we signed him to the current contract. Then that hip injury destroyed him, I think it changed his running style which led to the run of hamstring injuries he has had. Every game he played I showed up just hoping the old Chris was going to break out and show himself, I would have preferred to see that then win some weeks. I just wanted to see the devastating centre return.

Now the last few weeks Chris has been one of our better players, he is not the same player he was but maybe he is learning how to play and impact a game within the skills he now has. There is no way I would be dropping him with the way he has played the last couple of weeks and hopefully he continues to refine and improve his game. There was even one point last week where I thought I saw a little bit of speed and evasiveness from him. Is he currently a player worth $600 000 a season? no, but he was a player at that level when he signed his contract. Let him play out his contract and access him at its completion.
 
Lawrence has shown steady improvement this year and deserves his spot in the side, I'd rate him our best centre on current form though agree that Simona promises more. I agree with Tiger, we should be using him to run angles close to the line, he's hard to stop from short range.
 
What the hell has Simona done wrong for people to be bagging him in this thread? He has looked very sharp and defended well in all his matches after a very late start to the season.
 
@cochise said:
Watching Lawrence play the last couple of years sadden me a lot. He was one of the best centres in the world when we signed him to the current contract. Then that hip injury destroyed him, I think it changed his running style which led to the run of hamstring injuries he has had. Every game he played I showed up just hoping the old Chris was going to break out and show himself, I would have preferred to see that then win some weeks. I just wanted to see the devastating centre return.

Yeah it upsets me watching Lawrence, he's shown such determination to stay in the first grade side, but the body is pretty high mileage now. He didn't get an easing in period through the grades, it was straight into first grade as a teenager. He's been taking hits at NRL level his entire adult life.

Injuries have robbed Chrissie of his speed and his lateral movement. He can't out step or outrun the defence any more, so now he seem to be going to plan C and bulking up to smash through and it's starting to show some promise. Logically that would suggests a transition to the back row if we had any decent outside backs waiting in the wings. We don't so Lawrence retains the number 4.

I get the impression that Lawrence's rehab is still a work in progress, so we might see a bit more speed throughout the season. He's getting sniffs of linebreaks all the time, and just that extra yard of pace would give him time to link up with the support play or make a run himself.
 
@Goose said:
Lawrence is playing pretty good footy at the moment.

He is not an excitement machine but is very effective.

The OP is just plain wrong IMO.

This is my thoughts as well. He isn't an elusive centre but he can do a good job for us. His defence is pretty solid and if he gets put into a hole I think he can finish off a try for us. I also think he can set up his winger.
 
Did I just read some one would prefer Lulia at centre instead of Lawrence? I did just read that right? April Fools has long since past so i can only assume that its a serious comment or trolling…
 
Lawrence is playing solid footy with glimpses of old form. And with our very young backline his experience cannot be underestimated.

Also for the OP to rate a combo of Lulia/Simona as preferable seems a bit strange. What has Lulia shown this year that Lawrence hasn't bettered?
 
Lawrence is playing ok at the moment. Playing better than Simona?

I think not.

We need a couple of centers for next year. Top priority. We have just about every other position covered.
 
Those of you supporting Chris Lawrence, we're 10 minutes into this game against the sharks and he's missed one easy 1 on 1 tackle and then made a regulation knock on in an attacking position.

He'll make more missed tackles cause his defense is poor and makes too many errors!

You guys have no idea if you think he has good defense. It's more like a turnstile. And his attack? Still as a wooden plank!
 
I thought he had a really good game. Yes he stuffed up at the start but he came good. I can see him becoming a weapon again so long as he gets quality players around him.
 
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