Jolls
Well-known member
It is well documented that I was not a fan of AD to 7. No need to highlight my reasoning again.
It is hard to compare apples with apples when one half contender is demonstrating his skills playing agaisnt FG and the other against reggies/fringies. This was a trial game so the obvious move for me was to run Jock and Luia for 20 minutes against the same Penrith FG side in the first half to get a good feel for the strenghts and weaknesses in a like for like situation. I don't care what they did with AD - sit him on the pine or shuffled him to 13 - but it was a missed opportunity by the dude with the clipboard.
The fact that Benji chose to get reps into AD with one set of players and Jock with the other is a clear indication that his mind is already made up on the starting 7, 6 combination.
Jock will get his chance on the big stage, he has shown that he has the game management skills and kicking game to be successful for us in FG so he is not going to let us down. The biggest difference will be how unsettling this is on the rest of the team - Jock does not pose the same running threat - he is all about providing time and space for his outside backs. Given he will be predominanatly on the right edge this would be the perfect foil for Toa as AD tends to cramp him in attack.
I agree that we should temper our enthusiasm for Jock (and several others based on reading the posts here); but, he is FG ready and I think his style is probably a better fit to start the season. Shame we didn't get to see the apples and apples comparison to put the discussion to bed.
