Quote: Noel Cleal "I see what you are saying, I bit negative but you do have a point.
I think (being positive) that he has enough skill to be worth a place in the team at 6,7,9 or 1 even on the wing at a push. With McDonnell you would believe he would be good cover on the wing also. Ask yourself on Friday if you had a choice would you rather have Dawson on the wing or McDonnell. At present we have 1 Fullback, 2 wingers and 2 halfbacks(plus Wilkin) that you would actually trust to get the job done in a big game. Not having flexible players that can cover the back line has lead us to having Wilkin at 7 and LMS at centre.
On the back of a couple of games at Full back he has shown he has a lot of potential to be a ball player. I am not saying give him the 7 shirt for 2016, but what 22 year old would you give that responsibility? Long was a ball runner at that age and players like Darren Lockyer did not mature into pivots until later in their careers.
My point is don't view him as an Aussie import, view him as a quality young player that the club could invest in to be a key player for the next 12 years. So in a sense we are agreeing with each other.'"
I understand what you are saying. But given that we won't know whether Lomax or McDonnell will full recover from two terrible injuries - can we really afford to take a speculative punt on a third unless we're absolutely SURE he's going to be a valuable edition?
Bear in mind that Lomax is likely to be on a pretty hefty wedge and I doubt McDonnell is playing for chump change, either.
It's a really tricky situation because I like Quinlan. He's got exceptional hands. Perhaps the best I've seen since Jamie Lyon's. You only have to look at the way he carries the ball on his fingertips, delays the pass until the absolute final moment. Time seems to slow down for players with good hands - as evidenced in the two tries Quinlan set up in successive games when he somehow managed to keep several defenders in two minds until support arrived.
However at this moment in time and lacking enough knowledge of Quinlan's absolute value, I think both Lomax & McDonnell (if fully fit) are the better bet at fullback. Which means we'd be signing a player without any kind of clue where his future lies.
We've got risk piled upon risk piled upon risk here.
