Totally agree.As I've said,if he'd had a few better forwards around him he would have been even better.You certainly couldn't question his work ethic or the way he tried to lead by example.

Merrins a very good player, I'm not disputing that. Just not the miracle player and on here label him as. Also thought it was pretty poor the way he left in the end.
Segayaro seems to have been demonised for this!
Merrin also been pulled up for his fitness at St George and is even bigger now!!

Not even close to a miracle player but quality for me nonetheless.Don't know the ins and outs of why he left but if personal problems arise then I suppose the club has to try to do the right thing. We've been unlucky with merrin and ava.

Whats a miracle player????

And why would you expect miracles from a middle????

You would not expect miracles from a middle , but you would from a Marquee , hence probably why a middle should not be a Marquee

What's a middle

Don't get me started on middles.

Last time I played we had 2 props,
A hooker
Two second row forwards,
And a loose forward.
All very clear, where you could explain the structure to a newcomer.
We need to keep lazy, Ozzy terms away from the game. Just confusing.....

Most sensible post for months.

Merrin carried that pack almost single handedly for much of the season. Without him I’d think we’d likely have been relegated.

Middles is fine. They play down the middle. They defend the middle third. What's wrong with the term. It's no worse than three quarters

Take your point and it makes total sense,but I reckon when your team needs to sign a prop (like ava, peacock, kylie etc) and you sign thompson/king it seems to me that lots of players who are quite different are all being lumped together.

I only use middles because most others do , i do not particularly like the term , but there are no longer 2 props and a loose forward as the loose forward is now nearly always a 3rd prop

Fair point mate. Sorry to be so pedantic. Just a term that really annoys me as per previous reasons...

Funnily enough, the Aussies have started to transition back to having a ball player at 13 with the new rules. Having too many big guys was catching a few teams out last year. Theres even talk of Benji Marshall coming off the bench for Souths and playing 13 on Friday morning. Then you have hybrid guys like Radley and Brown who are the new mould for 13s. They run strong lines but can play too... you know, a bit like the SL had 5+ years ago