The game against the Sharks was by far the gutsiest effort form the Warriors in quite some time. The effort and commitment shown by the boys made me very proud to be a fan. Sadly that stoic effort has been largely overshadowed by Andrew McFadden's strange decision to bench Tuimoala Lolohea in favour of Jonathan Wright.
If its one thing that has most fans perplexed about McFadden its his selections and contradictory explanations for making them. That's patently obvious when it comes to Lolohea with some of the strange options the coach has taken with him.
McFadden dropped Jeff Robson and played Tuimoala Lolohea in the halves saying "We've always seen Tui as moving into the halves at some stage". That beggared belief as he should have been playing there from the get go. The same game our supposed 5/8 messiah makes his return Roger Tuivasa-Sheck gets injured so Tui is shuffled to fullback and remains there except when injured.
While injured David Fusitua plays fullback and does well enough that he becomes a must have in the team. He takes over Lolohea's former role at wing and cements his spot there.
Fast forward to Saturdays game and now Fusitua is better at fullback then Lolohea and Wright is better at wing because Lolohea hasn't been training there.
Hmmmm, that doesn't make sense.
If that was the case then Lolohea should have been dropped. Reserve Grade is where you send players to brush up on skills. Having him on the bench against arguably the biggest pack in the comp when another forward member would have been the smarter choice was stupid. Rookie error.
"The other reason is David Fusitua, in his two showings at fullback previous to this game, has done a really good job and we just felt that we probably looked a touch better particularly defensively with David at fullback," said McFadden.
So why didn't Tuimoala go back to 5/8 where he was always meant to play or back to wing? Another case of stupidity if you knew Fusitua was a better fullback just like you knew Lolohea was a better 5/8.
McFadden then went on to say that "Tui hasn't had a lot of practice on the wing".
Now I know you're talking absolute nonsense. He spent most of the preseason training at centre/wing as well as the first few rounds. Then all of a sudden without having 'a lot of practice' at 5/8 he's our 'long term' future there. Then without having 'a lot of practice' at fullback he's our first choice replacement for Tuivasa-Sheck. Now he's not fit to play wing but Wright is? Give me a break!
If Lolohea isn't meeting KPI's drop him. Simple as that. You make the team weaker by carrying a specialist back on the bench which is why no other coach in the whole NRL does it. Ever.
I concede that there is most likely a lot more to it but the way it was handled and the way McFadden has tried to explain it suggests to me that he thinks the average Warriors fan isn't smart enough to see the contradictions in his comments or else he just makes it up as he goes.
If you cant tell us the truth just be like Wayne Bennett or Des Hasler and don't say anything at all. We fans don't need to know everything and some things are best left in house. There are some of us that aren't stupid enough to swallow bullshit and you lose respect once you start lying or contradicting yourself.
As Ivan Cleary once said when asked why Krisnan Inu had been dropped, "He knows what he's done".
-P.McLeodRIP2015
*First posted on www.nzwarriors.com
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Sack the asshole who hired him.
ReplyDeleteWho would you replace him with?
ReplyDelete