Idea on how to play Galvin & Latu
- Thread starter The Chad
- Start date
old_man_tiger
Well-known member
Latu is an out and out half. I don't care what number they wear but I prefer him and Luai orchestrating the play, and Galvin and Bula give a double threat on sweep plays, pushing up on either side of the forwards for offloads, and even become better decoys as these two will attract a lot of attention.
Jolls
Well-known member
Bird trained all off season as fullback and made a positive start there before being shuffled to centre to make room for Ben Barba - similar situation to us I expect - just not being a halves dilemma. Bird has been a victim of his own skill set whcih has found him filling gaps for the majority of his career.
No other team, that I am aware of, has executed what is proposed. The closest is QLD SOO running three halves at the expense of a specialist hooker to get some momentum off the back of a dominant pack. In this case there was not the requirement for the subtelty of skill set of a specialist hooker, the track was pretty firm and the change was made late in the half when the specialst had worn down the defence and they were open for exploitation by a quick half. Saints certainly used Hunt in this fashion, but played him the 80, under Hook. so he was in effect a specialist in the hooker position - just played it a little different too Api for example. They were at the bottom of the table with us for a number of reasons, wasting Hunt at 9 during the week to week grind of club footy was probably one of them.
While what is proposed would beworkable the key issues that need to be considered are the second and third order effect fo such as move. How would the balance be maintained in attack; does the other centre float as well to enable it or is the double sweep only used on one side? As I mentioned previously this sin't something that can be done in a week. Potentially in attack you could have Galvin playing a short fullback and Bula a deep fullback with Galvin sweeping in centre on right side plays and floating on left. The balance and thinking required, under duress, are the unanswered questions.
My personal view is that it is too complicated and you would simply play Galvin at centre and the double sweep would be a left side play that we pull out of the bag as required. It would keep the defence on its toes and if they try to match Galvin's movements would potentially fall apart later in the game due to fitness issues or confusion in their defensive structures.
Tigerstigerstigers
Well-known member
I think Luke luuali is in the team to stay. With one of him, Skelton and surava shifting to centres . (Unless we have an injury at fullback or wing , then it sorts itself out). That being the case , I can’t see latu or Galvin shifting to centres.
Why can’t latu play a Yeo style role with Galvin right and Romey both centre and left similar to the panthers structure last season.
Latu can defend wide swapping around with bird who plays second row off the bench
Why can’t latu play a Yeo style role with Galvin right and Romey both centre and left similar to the panthers structure last season.
Latu can defend wide swapping around with bird who plays second row off the bench
Jolls
Well-known member
That is the Wade Graham/Yeo option and would be workable. The iddue really being the risk given we already can't dominate the ruck with bigger bodies at 13.
That isn't what was proposed though. The concept was a left and right 5/8 in Latu and Galvin with Romey directing the play and floating from side to side.
Tigerstigerstigers
Well-known member
I think our issue in the middle is we need another aggressive big bopper that sees Twal a fringe first grader. On the edge we need another second rower to push Seyfarth to the bench. Would love to get big Nelson to come in until Kit is ready .. to me he looks a season off being a regular but will get there
I agree. Their bench killed ours. We were forced into having only 2 forwards on the bench. When Fainu went down, we only had Hunt to cover the rest of the forwards. Our forwards were gassed, and we lost that game in the last 15 minutes due to fatigue. The Warriors are a very big and strong side and we did well to keep them to 2 points difference.
Would love to see it if Latu progresses as most think.
If Galvin is happy to do so what you suggest and we can offer him good money we are on a winner... but don't forget he'll be offered BIG money by other clubs to stay in the halves.
BlackWhiteGold
Well-known member
The ideal scenario for us long-term is Galvin commits and continues to progress in the halves with Romey.
Latu transitions into our starting lock as he builds his fitness & strength. His size is no problem as he can easily add a few more kegs of muscle in pre-season & he is reportedly an excellent wrestler on the mat. IMO he can become one of the best locks in the game with the assets he has and still warrant good $$$.
I actually think there is a way to do it without changing too much of the structure but just swapping a couple of positions at various stages of the game.
Someone has already mentioned it so I won’t take the credit but I think the answer lies within the positional flexibility of Bird. Given that it is because Bird was played at centre vs the Wahs that we even got a look in at Latu in the middle.
There is one casualty and that is TDS once Api regains full match fitness and it could effectively work by having Bird come on as he usually does around the 20 min mark and playing through the middle. At some point probably not around the same time as TDS currently comes on for Api but maybe about 5mins or so into the second half I would move Bird out to right backrow and bring Seyfarth into prop making way for Latu to come in as the Middle forward / half.
Someone has already mentioned it so I won’t take the credit but I think the answer lies within the positional flexibility of Bird. Given that it is because Bird was played at centre vs the Wahs that we even got a look in at Latu in the middle.
There is one casualty and that is TDS once Api regains full match fitness and it could effectively work by having Bird come on as he usually does around the 20 min mark and playing through the middle. At some point probably not around the same time as TDS currently comes on for Api but maybe about 5mins or so into the second half I would move Bird out to right backrow and bring Seyfarth into prop making way for Latu to come in as the Middle forward / half.
Kelce68
Well-known member
Why?
He's on good coin. He's in a system with his brothers who are all getting game time and are being paid well. in 4 years, he'll be 23, just coming into his early prime years and Luai will be wrapping up his contract (if not before). He's happy and he (hopefully) will have a position to carve out moving forward. That may be in the halves after all if Galvin grows out of the position, or, who's to say he can't reinvent the lock position ala Yeo?
But most importantly, how many of the best players of the last 25 years were above a positional change?
- Thurston played 5/8th to accommodate Cronk in the best Origin side of all time.
- Johns played hooker to accommodate Kimmorley.
- Cam Smith played halfback for numerous occasions when needed for Melbourne.
- Turbo has moved to centre at rep level and is a fair chance for Manly moving forward.
- Carrigan has moved to prop despite being a (mostly) career-lock.
Fittler, Daley, Stuart, the list goes on.
All these players and more have history of playing multiple positions and, more specifically, playing out of their 'best' position to suit the team, either at club or representative level.
I'm not saying the risk of Latu moving on isn't considerable if we manage to lock Galvin in long-term, but it would be FAR from stupid for Latu to stay from his perspective, there is still plenty of positives from his perspective.
Betterdays22
Well-known member
I think Latu and Luai would actually compliment each other really well in the halves... I love how Latu consistently straightens up the attack.
Galvin is more suited to centre than Latu. I beat the centre drum when he first debuted. If it was going to happen it should of happened then, but there is no chance in hell it happens now.
orange&black
Well-known member
I think i heard Benji say that Latu was too good for reggies and they are working on how they fit Latu, Galvin and Luai into the team. He admits that they have some fine tuning to do in this regard so I am sure they are onto it. Early days, so I’m just letting the guys who know more than me work on the best solution.
I think the same could be said of Galvin, especially when he fills out
Kelce68
Well-known member
You can most definitely manufacture a centre.
I reckon it’s highly likely that’s how the club ideally sees it moving forward, it would be very interesting to know what Latu’s thoughts would be on that scenario?
It’s a very tricky situation as Latu is no doubt the classiest and most damaging ball runner of all 3, so you could say that’s why he would be so well suited to playing 13, but in his mind he might be thinking why am I the one pushed out of the halves?
The other issue is the fitness levels which is where Latu reportedly struggles, therefore that will likely need a lot of improvement before he’s capable of playing anymore than 30-40 strong minutes as a 13 defending in the middle. I think we really need to somehow protect him from doing too much defending to allow his sharpness in attack to flourish.
Could a possibility of Bird being named to play as a centre, we continue with a bigger body such as Twal playing 13 for the first 20 minutes, but then bring Latu on to play 13 in attack, but protect him by pushing him wider when defending and possibly bringing Bird in from the centres to defend at 13 work?
I know it sounds like a lot of mucking about and may not work for that reason, but if trying to fit Latu into our team on a regular basis and ideally not allow him to get too fatigued from a high defensive workload, that’s the best scenario I can think of.
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tig_prmz
Well-known member
Latu is more skillful, but Galvin is fitter and to me a lot more competitive.
I am not sure who will gel more with Luai though.
I am not sure who will gel more with Luai though.
old_man_tiger
Well-known member
Will come down to pay and ego and numbers on jerseys are relevant to both. Actually whacking 13 on Luai probably solves it but I hate giving in to kids. I prefer we have a new number system, we play a 7, 6 and 6.5
So where is Galvin playing ????
