Blues vs. Chiefs
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I think it's safe to say that Melani was a Feeney pick last year.
I'm not a fan of the SBW-Moala midfield. Stylistically, they could be as bad a match as it gets. With a pairing like this, all I expect is individualism. Unless someone upskills or changes their playing style, this combination has little room to grow into anything.
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@KiwiMurph said in Blues vs. Chiefs:
Maybe it will be a late switch like Matt Todd last week and Perofeta will end up starting.
Excellent to see Perofeta on the bench. Hope he gets some real decent minutes at 10. I quite like the idea of Nock, Perofeta and Faiane off the bench in the last 30 or so - that has potential. All 3 players should be involved in all the of the remaining Blues games this year.
On the other hand Collins is starting and Nanai isn't even in the 23 - ridiculous.
Hopefully the rain stays away and its another classic NZ derby.
There has to be more than playing ability behind his sporadic selection. It is glaringly obvious what he can bring to the field. No coach is blind enough to not see that.
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@Crucial said in Blues vs. Chiefs:
@KiwiMurph said in Blues vs. Chiefs:
Maybe it will be a late switch like Matt Todd last week and Perofeta will end up starting.
Excellent to see Perofeta on the bench. Hope he gets some real decent minutes at 10. I quite like the idea of Nock, Perofeta and Faiane off the bench in the last 30 or so - that has potential. All 3 players should be involved in all the of the remaining Blues games this year.
On the other hand Collins is starting and Nanai isn't even in the 23 - ridiculous.
Hopefully the rain stays away and its another classic NZ derby.
There has to be more than playing ability behind his sporadic selection. It is glaringly obvious what he can bring to the field. No coach is blind enough to not see that.
T has been quite poor with team selections for two seasons now, so I'm not sure if there's anything more to this than that.
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@Dice seems to have his favorites and cant see beyond this unless forced to with injury...see Scrafton as an example.
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@Dice said in Blues vs. Chiefs:
@Crucial said in Blues vs. Chiefs:
@KiwiMurph said in Blues vs. Chiefs:
Maybe it will be a late switch like Matt Todd last week and Perofeta will end up starting.
Excellent to see Perofeta on the bench. Hope he gets some real decent minutes at 10. I quite like the idea of Nock, Perofeta and Faiane off the bench in the last 30 or so - that has potential. All 3 players should be involved in all the of the remaining Blues games this year.
On the other hand Collins is starting and Nanai isn't even in the 23 - ridiculous.
Hopefully the rain stays away and its another classic NZ derby.
There has to be more than playing ability behind his sporadic selection. It is glaringly obvious what he can bring to the field. No coach is blind enough to not see that.
T has been quite poor with team selections for two seasons now, so I'm not sure if there's anything more to this than that.
Yep, he has poor selections across multiple positions so it's not just Nanai.
Without injuries we'd still be playing some of them.
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@taniwharugby He certainly does and it's holding us back. How Michael Collins has gained the starting fullback spot back is beyond me as has already been said on here. He'll probably manage to somehow fit Tupou back in the team before the end of season.
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I hear T reads the Fern and bases his selection policy on Blues fan reactions....
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@ACT-Crusader said in Blues vs. Chiefs:
I hear T reads the Fern and bases his selection policy on Blues fan reactions....
Wasn't that Blackadder's selection policy for the Crusaders?
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@taniwharugby said in Blues vs. Chiefs:
@Dice seems to have his favorites and cant see beyond this unless forced to with injury...see Scrafton as an example.
I just don't get this way of thinking when your job is on the line. I'm not going to say he's a bad coach yet, but bad coaches do tend to make things unnecessarily harder for themselves.
When you lack that blue chip 1st 5, nailing your selections is so much more important.
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The fact that Nanai is not even on the bench makes me wonder if it's less about what Umaga sees in Collins and more what be doesn't see in Nanai. Was he a regular selection under Kirwan or was he in and out then too?
As far as I'm concerned, Nanai should also be competing with Reiko on the wing because he's that good in that position too.
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Suprised he's kept Kara Pryor on the bench ahead of one of his and Jackson's lovechild Murphy Taramai.
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@Dice said in Blues vs. Chiefs:
@ACT-Crusader said in Blues vs. Chiefs:
I hear T reads the Fern and bases his selection policy on Blues fan reactions....
Wasn't that Blackadder's selection policy for the Crusaders?
If only he listened to the soundness of the more astute Crusader fans on here, it might have got him a super title or two....
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@Milk said in Blues vs. Chiefs:
The fact that Nanai is not even on the bench makes me wonder if it's less about what Umaga sees in Collins and more what be doesn't see in Nanai. Was he a regular selection under Kirwan or was he in and out then too?
In 2014 Nanai was the Blues Development player of the year (he dominated the Singapore 10s which the Blues won). In 2015 (Kirwan's last year) he was named on the wing for quite a few games and showed sparks.
In 2016 he initially was out of the mix but carved up vs the Chiefs in Hamilton as a late injury replacement for Visinia and then in the last 4 or so games of the season got a crack as starting fullback and was the Blues most dangerous back (bear in mind at this time he didnt have much support as the Blues didn't have Rieko who was with 7s and Moala was mostly injured from the AB-Wales Dunedin game).
I think Tana is obsessed with Collins organisational skills, communication and vision. The problem is Collins has been shown up time and time again in the big games for a lack of athletic ability and skillset. I don't see that changing tonight. I'd like to see Perofeta come on at 10 off the bench but then that likely means Collins will play the full 80 which isn't ideal either.
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@ACT-Crusader said in Blues vs. Chiefs:
@Dice said in Blues vs. Chiefs:
@ACT-Crusader said in Blues vs. Chiefs:
I hear T reads the Fern and bases his selection policy on Blues fan reactions....
Wasn't that Blackadder's selection policy for the Crusaders?
If only he listened to the soundness of the more astute Crusader fans on here, it might have got him a super title or two....
I'd think he'd be in Bath a lot sooner if he did that...
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About the only thing that I can think that makes much sense is that Tana thinks he's got a surplus of big ball runners and a shortage of smaller, nippy skillful guys who can create gaps for the big guys to run into.
That's probably true as far as it goes.
So he's looking for Collins to be a sort of Damien McKenzie figure who can help to break up defences.
Problem with the theory is that Collins isn't DMac.
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@Chris-B. said in Blues vs. Chiefs:
About the only thing that I can think that makes much sense is that Tana thinks he's got a surplus of big ball runners and a shortage of smaller, nippy skillful guys who can create gaps for the big guys to run into.
That's probably true as far as it goes.
That's why TJ Faiane should be receiving more game time. He's actually a genuine natural midfielder with vision and distribution skills. I wish Tana had the guts to make the call to start with Faiane in the midfield rather than the default position of chucking ABs in there when it is clear they dont mesh/click.
