For the record, no matter who you nominate to replace Flanagan, im in full agreement.

Anyone. Even Stimson

I am interested in team selection and reserve grade now, becuase I think that they can made a difference.

Reserve grade winning with 2 in the bin for 10 mjns (11 men for a while ) and less posession. You don't win that kind of game without fighting spirit.

Topine topped the tackle count and he was probably right in the middle of that.

All indications from Twitter are more good players coming. When asked a question like - Can Dogs fsns expect good news? Gus typically replies - Yep

Having fixed fullback, halfback and right side defence are the problems that currently need fixing.

Sacking players is trickier than we might think, the club has to treat players fairly and give them a decent go. Quietly moving them on when off contract is the easy way. Player swap is the other easy way.

If/when we drop Flanno some sections of the media will be a flame with mock outrage. I recon Gus and Potter will do what they think is best, the media will not influence them.

Let the media go off. Flanagan has more the 50 first grade games now, so it's hard to suggest anyone's rushing to judgement. 20 of those games were under an elite coach in a strong team and he was punted.  the only thing that confuses me, and he persisted for a long time, is what Robinson saw in him.

Flanagan has 1 or 2 ripper games for cronulla where he did it all and including goal kicking, was the difference in winning some games for them.

Roosters pounced on him thinking he can produce the same form on a more consistent basis. Problem is, roosters play a similar forwards game to us and Manly. Flanno looked ok while the team was rolling forward but as soon as their forwards were matched and needed something different from the halfback, Flanno couldn't produce, so he was made scapegoat and they punted him.

At our club, he looks even worse as we don't roll forward at all with flat footed players receiving the ball and defences in our faces.

Most halfbacks would struggle in our team but 1 dimensional and pre-meditated players like Flanno are found out even quicker.

There is more to it than that.

The left side where Burton operates has no more go forward. Burton has built a combination with Fox and is building a combination with Schoupp and RFM. If anything Burton is more heavily marked.

When Averillo was in the centres on the right he didn't get many good early passes from Flanagan. Granted Wardell isn't the most potent ball runner, but our right side has looked clunky and disjointed most of the season.

In terms of linebreaks and trys off passes and kicks, it has been *tumbleweeds* except when Duffty has provided a good pass or run.

When it comes to general play kicking Flanagan is average at best and mostly ineffective especially on yardage kicks.

He defends well, tries hard and has good energy and involvement. But the end result isn't much, I am not seeing much improvement and our right side isn't firing.

In terms of how he plays halfback, where he stands, how he thinks, when he runs, how he runs, when he passes, how he passes, I don't see a lot that I like.

When the Roosters punted Flanno, I did feel sorry for him and he wasn't that bad at the Roosters.

I put last season down to low confidence and our team not being an easy side to play in.

But this year when he came back in we had a better side and he has had plenty of opportunities.

I feel with the benefit of hindsight that Averillo and Wakeham deserved more chances.

But mostly I feel none of these 3 are the answer at halfback.

Averillo is possibly a good fullback, Wakeham might be a good 14.

Flanno it is 7 or nothing.

What I have seen of Hayward, which is only reserve grade highlights, I like everything.

When he passes and kicks and the execution of those passes and kicks, maybe the good ones are making the highlights, but the good ones are try assists.

Team named and Lumelume is my pick for surprise debut this week.

Met Big Willie and Bobcat today at a Clontarf Academy training session at NSWRL Headquarters… I didn’t realise  I was such a fanboy… Gushing would  be an understatement… I’m pretty sure I told Bobcat I loved him…
Got a sweet photo, and as fate had it, happened to be wearing my 2004 jersey…
Note to self as I sit here nursing a sore shoulder and ribs, I’m not 20 anymore, and white line fever stays with you forever…

Am I wrong or is this the same team that got belted by Panthers reserves last week. FMD.

TPJ on extended bench but that looks the only change…

I recon Lumelume is a good chance probably to replace Allan.

Potters MO seems to be have a few possible guys on the extended bench and making 1-2 changes per week.

If you and Bobcat do get married, I want a wedding invite, I'll help Willie make the punch, but I suspect that he has that covered.

Competition  for coaches  heating  up. Where are we at?

Wakeham is easily my pick.
He has that unpredictable eyes-up footy ability.
And we desperately need it as we are far too predictable in many of the things we do.

Wakeham has the skills and the instincts, he probably needs to lift involvement, discipline and composure.

Watch the NSW cup highlights for last game, I think the long pass for the first try is Hayward.

It was on the left, and a lot of his good passes / kicks previously were on the left.

That is the only potential problem with my preferred Hayward/Burton combo, if both are left sided players.

Generally we want the best passer playing on his preferred side, but I have not idea how adaptable both are.

One game Hayward kicked for 2 tries scored by Casey and Casey caught one kick at waist level 1-2 metres from the try line in open space.

A try assist is good when no one touches the try scorer before they score.

Burton is also coming up with great kicks, but passing still needs work.

I think Kikau will dramatically change how good Burton looks. Both will make Mahoney look great too. 

These commentators are d!ckheads. They are calling a pass flat and play on and it was forward for all money.

NSW have had two disallowed tries and ATM I think they are well on top even though they are behind at H/T.

QLDER ...... NSW will never have QLD spirit! Now to get shit faced on a carton of Barbed Wire

NSW didn't get it together, QLD better in attack and defence.

I thought NSW would come out hard in the second half.. how wrong was I, the caginas looked rattled and played like a team coming last in the comp..... oh sh!t that's us. We were just given a vision of how our team would be under Fittler and why we should not entertain the idea of him becoming our head coach.

Can’t agree more. Fittler is a dud. But to be fair to Qld they won the ruck because their forwards dominated. We should have offered Cardigan more money. He is one of the best props in the game. 

I would question why Murrary didn't start.

But the NSW players failed to adapt to the slow ruck, threw too many passes and didn't match QLD for energy and workrate.

Next game will tell if Freddy can coach, he needs to react to the loss. Getting Latrell back would help.

Cook and the Panthers halves showed their limitations with a slow ruck. The halves need to be deeper and the passing more precise. Cook in particular needs fast play the balls or his game is largely neutalised,

QLD were smart enough to know that the ref was having trouble finding the whistle.

Thurston would be effective with a slow ruck, very few modern halves are.

I hope the refs ref the NRLol like they did the origin… My favourite new rule this week is redhead contact’ ‘it was just a tap’, I assume this is the opposite of ‘with force’

I think Freddy is 0-5 without Turbo…

The Mock would be 1000-0 with Turbo.

No Latrell and Turbo made a big difference.

But I also think that the QLD pack clearly won the forwards battle and QLD won the ruck.

The QLD hooker roatation also worked well.

The game never changes. 

I personally thought Harry Grant made a huge difference to them gaining good ground over the ad line. His passes are flat and sometimes forward (not called) but he brings his players onto the ball. Mind you, they are already running up as the ball is played so he is hitting them at speed. His unpredictability is a key weapon out of dummy half, something our club chose not to go with for at least a decade.

QLD was very impressive. Always been a huge fan of Lindsay Collins and he was great, but I was mightily impressed with how well Carrigan and Cotter went. 

QLD halves completely outplayed NSW. A good example was DCE getting the ball at right centre spot on last tackle late in the game and instead of kicking to the left wing which was an easier kick, he knew it was a low percentage play (Tupou and Crighton) so he went with the harder kick but to To'o knowing that they can pin him 5m from his line even if the didn't get lucky with the chip. 

Munster was obviously brilliant and unpredictable but DCEs controlled intent to target weakness just turned the screws on NSW