How to bring back Friend?

[Thirteen]

Be very surprised if Collins is ahead of Butcher.

Me too.

[Thirteen]

I can’t believe I am saying this but I prefer to play out the season with Verrills.

Shock! Can’t believe you think so either.
We both know it won’t happen. Friend’s experience
is too valuable.

[Thirteen]

Radley is the best lock we have.

Asking him to play back up dummy half would be mind boggling.

So you think we need to carry Sam V on the bench?

[Rooster1908]

I can’t believe I am saying this but I prefer to play out the season with Verrills.

Cant believe I actually agree with that , Jake is a Roosters legend but with so little game time its just not worth the risk

[Rooster1908]

So you think we need to carry Sam V on the bench?

We cant afford to loose a hooker and have Radley fill in ,we loose to much at lock to move him.

[Tommy Smith]

Be very surprised if Collins is ahead of Butcher.

I knew I was forgetting someone Butcher, too. One of my faves. We have such good forward depth it's easy to overlook certain players sometimes!

Nat will take Verrill's spot. But if Friend is back then Robbo will be tempted to carry Sammy I'm sure.

[Tommy Smith]

On a side note, Verrills hasn't thrown one forward pass from dummy half. Jake throws at least 2 or 3 a game and is lucky that only 1 tends to get pulled up.

If he's super rusty then his selection could be a disaster.

[dice]

Radley is the best lock we have.

Asking him to play back up dummy half would be mind boggling.

Radley is back up dummy half every week. It doesn't mean Radley plays there. It means we don't waste a bench spot in a game of attrition.

[Johnny Tobin]

Be very surprised if Collins is ahead of Butcher.

What about being ahead of Tets?

[Johnny Tobin]

Shock! Can’t believe you think so either.
We both know it won’t happen. Friend’s experience
is too valuable.

Big risk. We can’t carry Verrills on the bench as back up.

[Rooster_6]

So you think we need to carry Sam V on the bench?

I think he's a must if we bring back Friend.

The drop off in quality from Friend to Radley is significant and could be the deciding factor in a tight game. I've also made numerous previous posts on how crucial I think Radley's distribution at lock is to our attack.

I also think Verrills could offer a lot coming on the field against tired legs either side of half time.

JWH, SST & Radley should all be playing 50-60mins. If we play 3 middles on the bench and one utility then we are asking those middles to split 60-90 minutes between the three of them... that's already very limited minutes for Liu/Crichton/Tetevano/Butcher/Collins (whoever the 3 are). Adding another forward to that bench would add nothing.

[Rooster_6]

Radley is back up dummy half every week. It doesn't mean Radley plays there. It means we don't waste a bench spot in a game of attrition.

Since when has been playing a dummy half/utility on the bench become a waste of a bench spot?

Jake Friend cost us a game through his fatigue in regular season footy, to suggest he should go 80 minutes in finals footy is insane.

[Salvatori Grubber]

Radley is the best lock we have.

Asking him to play back up dummy half would be mind boggling.

Yep - Radley one of the first picked these days.

[Arties Pie]

We lose too much with Radley at DH, it's just not his position and his DH service is very average. For mine it would be start Jake with Sam off the bench.

[NorfolkStreetKid]

I don't think Friend will be back this season.