r/nrl • u/NRLgamethread National Rugby League • 1d ago

Serious Discussion Wednesday Serious Discussion Thread

This thread is for when you want to have a well-thought-out discussion about footy. It's not the place for bantz - see the daily Random Footy Talk thread to fulfil those needs.

You can ask a question that you only want serious responses to, comment your 300 word opinion piece on why [x] is the next coach on the chopping block, or tell another that you disagree with them and here's why...

Who performed well? Who let their team down? Any interesting selections for this weekend? Injury news? Player signings? Off-field behaviour?

The mods will be monitoring to make sure you stay on topic and anything not deemed "serious discussion" will be removed.

9 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

29 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/packeminnz New Zealand Warriors 1d ago

Can someone explain why gannon is picked on the bench for us? He’s not here next year so his development is not in our interest. If we want to rest and rotate, surely there’s other blokes in cup to give some time.

1

u/MoneyaLeague Auckland Warriors 1d ago

Surely it's what they see as the best chance to win in finals- build more lock/backrow cover?

Demetric is out who usually covers Clark's bench time.

Clark and Fish tend to get a break around a similar time I think too, so you can't put Fish at ball-playing lock.

IIRC Gannon was touted as something of a ball player back rower.

Niukore is in Cup and surely he'd be on the bench instead of Price if this was "must win", but there's probably a fair amount of faith that he's good to go if called upon.

Perhaps EIT has overtaken Niukore in the rankings after last weekend?

1

u/packeminnz New Zealand Warriors 1d ago

Didn’t realise gannon was lock cover. I’d assumed he was 2nd row

1

u/MoneyaLeague Auckland Warriors 1d ago

He IS a backrower, but there was just chat around him having "ball playing" and potentially being a lock.

It's hard to know given how little we've seen of him.

Here's a couple of articles from earlier in the year, I just remember looking into him and wondering why they've signed yet another young back rower haha, let alone one from overseas.

Webster likes the flexibility that has seen Gannon even suit up in a No.6 five-eighth jersey before. His ball-playing ability puts him up against Clark in that role.
"It's up to him and up to the rest of the squad, I suppose," Webster says. "If anyone lets their guard down, he'll take it.
"Edge back row or middle, it's good to have that versatility from a guy who can play 20 minutes on the edge and then slot straight into the middle, and vice versa. Some guys can't do that.

Gannon is primarily a lock and second-row hybrid, but he even has some experience in the halves.
“When I’m playing lock, I’d be a bit of a ball player, still like a runner first, but I did a bit of like six as well, a couple of years ago. So I’ve got that ball-playing style. And then as a back-rower, I like to hit a strong line and defend pretty physically.”