Sitili Tupouniua

[milanja]

Making a lot of tackles as a second rower doesn't hold much weight in the modern day game. You have to offer a lot more than that.

At the moment he ranks as follows amongst 2nd rowers;

Avg errors - 8th
Avg penalties conceded - 7th
Avg ineffective tackles - 3rd
Avg linebreaks conceded - 17th

His attacking stats leave a lot to be desired too;
Toral try involvements per game - 0.1
Avg linebreaks per game - 0.2
Avg run metres per game - 81

It's not so much about Tupouniua being close to take Crichton's position as it is Crichton's position now being under a lot of pressure. Like I said Tupouniua had an opportunity to put that pressure on but didn't do enough when he got the chance.

Personally I think when we get to full strength if Crichton hasn't improved then Aubusson takes his position. He gives you better defence, makes far less errors, gives away less penalties and would give us a negligible output in attack.

Agree, we didn’t buy Angus to be a tackling machine, many players are able to do that. With good reason he was dropped from origin, shouldn’t have been there from the start, because coming off the bench, his impact is zero.

value for money, so far, he is the dud buy of 2019.

[Jacks Fur Coat]

Agree, we didn’t buy Angus to be a tackling machine, many players are able to do that. With good reason he was dropped from origin, shouldn’t have been there from the start, because coming off the bench, his impact is zero.

value for money, so far, he is the dud buy of 2019.

Dribble.

He hasn't personally reached the same high attacking standards since his breakout year, granted incl. last season.

But his effort and commitment is strong which is what you want to see. Our whole team hasn't been brilliant in attack yet but that should come.

Judge him at years end. Too early for this dud buy of the year crap.

[Johnny Tobin]

He is making lots of tackles because he is protecting Cronk. I thought we would get more in attack though.

[milanja]

Dribble.

He hasn't personally reached the same high attacking standards since his breakout year, granted incl. last season.

But his effort and commitment is strong which is what you want to see. Our whole team hasn't been brilliant in attack yet but that should come.

Judge him at years end. Too early for this dud buy of the year crap.

Not saying he is a dud buy, if he was on 400k he would be fine.

Hope he comes good too, but he was hyped up big time when he came to us, value for money, he would be close to the bottom of the 17, probably ahead of Morris and hall in that regard, but 3 times the salary.

[Easts75]

Not saying he is a dud buy, if he was on 400k he would be fine.

Hope he comes good too, but he was hyped up big time when he came to us, value for money, he would be close to the bottom of the 17, probably ahead of Morris and hall in that regard, but 3 times the salary.

Pretty fair assessment.
I was a big fan of his signing and definitely hope he comes good. He isn't on 'solid players 'money, making a lot of tackles doesn't quite cut it. With the salary cap they talk about how the trick is to get value of money out of every player. Even if a player was on 1mil per season he can still provide great value. At this moment of the season, Crichton is very very poor value

[Kingbilly]

Neither of our second rowers are attacking weapons.
AC's job in our team is different to his job in the vermin, our game is different and we are premiers.

Defence is more important that attack

[Chookies74]

I'm one of few who is prepared to say he's going well.I don't care what anyone else is seeing, I'm seeing him hitting hard in D and is covering massive ground on the inside. I don't give a crap that he's not streaming through holes from some other team a few years ago. I reckon he's doing what Trent wants him to, remember, Maubs doesn't do many hitups, and neither does Lattrell. Trust in Trent, he'll unleash him at the right time.
Don't forget his great try on Anzac day, perfect line, flat chat, carried merge to the line. He'll score one of those later in the year when it counts, and the opposition are not expecting it.

Sitili is a pup. Give him time, he looks a great prospect, he's no 80 minute backrower .....yet.

[Rooster_6]

Neither of our second rowers are attacking weapons.
AC's job in our team is different to his job in the vermin, our game is different and we are premiers.

Defence is more important that attack

Disagree. Don't think we spent 700k for a player to play a defensive role, we could have just stuck with Aubbo for a 3rd of the price and better defender if that's what we wanted.

Robbo wants another point of attack, I think it's a bit of a cop out to say he's been bought for other reasons.

Crichton showed the potential in 2017... that's what he was bought for. Not his defence which is pretty average.

[Tommy Smith]

Angus is a strong defender. Certainly better than merely "average".

And again, pur entire right edge has been dormant all season. Look what Joey Manu did with more football.

Once we get some combinations back with the halves and hooker I'm sure we'll see the right edge click into overdrive.

[The Skeez]

Tupouniua still plays like a rugby player,
slowly learning to graft like a league player

good’un

[Easts75]

Neither of our second rowers are attacking weapons.
AC's job in our team is different to his job in the vermin, our game is different and we are premiers.

Defence is more important that attack

Well, could have kept Matterson for around 150k or even more per season less !!
There is no denying or covering the fact Crichton has been well below par for a player on that money

[Johnny Brass]

My big concern with Crichton has been him giving penalties away when he has made tackles , he was probably used to being able to hang on for that half second longer at the rabbits when your not afforded that luxury with the roosters . Quite a few times he has been caught napping at marker as well and the dummy half has taken off and caught him unawares. I'm sure Robbo has been on to him about that and will tighten up in the back end of the year .

[Thirteen]

I think with Tupouniua he still needs to work on his involvement. Being a middle forward he just doesn't take enough carries, that will come with time as he starts to feel more like he belongs in the team but at the moment he seems happy to let the more senior players take the carries.

He had a chance to push for Crichtons spot in the Panthers game but was underwhelming - as most of the team were to be honest.

Played on the wrong side of the field. A lot to ask of a rookie.

[Headless Chook]

Sitili will be our long-term replacement for JWH. I can see him transitioning to the front row quite nicely as he fills out

[Jacks Fur Coat]

Sitili will be our long-term replacement for JWH. I can see him transitioning to the front row quite nicely as he fills out

I'd prefer him to be an edge runner, where he can be quite devastating.