Hunting season has started on Meli, then.

Feck me, he's not even touched a ball yet.

He's played in 2 friendlies and already managed to drop a ball within 20m off his own line against Widnes off a bomb. As far as i'm concerned he doesn't need to touch a ball, i've had enough of watching him gift points to the opposition from the past few seasons really. If he has sorted out his problems over the off season (which I doubt) and turns out to be a miraculous player, I vow to eat my socks.

Question for you. Who would you rather have? Meli, or Penny?

As much as I don't rate Meli, he's a million times better than Penny.

2.7 points per game for a non kicker is good going, it's marginally better than 2 tries every three games. That's a good return over 139 games.

I agree, i'm not saying he isn't a good tryscorer. The point I was making was that Foster would potentially add more points to the total than Meli. Also that Meli has a habbit of giving away soft try's to the opposition.

Thats a ridiculous comparison. You cant compare the points for a kicker and a none kicker.
Last season Meli scored 21 tries in 20 games. 1.05 per game.
Foster scored 7 tries in 11 games. 0.64 per game.

Meli makes mistakes but he scores the tries. Foster should be in the team ahead of Gardner though.

Meli for all his sins is a fantastic finisher and a genuine threat from 5m.

Foster isn't a threat at all. No pace, no footwork, no strength. In fact the only thing going for him is his nice hair. He can't kick goals and he'll never be anything other than an average SL winger. Perhaps if we had Jamie Lyon or Paul Newlove on his inside it would be okay, but we don't.

You have missed my point completely. The fact that one is a kicker and one is a non kicker is irrelevant in this comparison. I was comparing the points that each player contributes per game, not the points contributed due to trys scored.

What a daft comparison. Using that comparison Ste Tyrer would rate above Greg Inglis.

I was comparing the points they contributed per game. Not the standard or ability of the player. Just that having Foster in the team as a goalkicker would contribute more points than having Meli.

But how many tries did each of them concede? I'm sure working that out would balance things out a little! Seriously, though, Meli is an incredibly experienced winger built like a brick poohouse: he should be scoring lots of tries. Foster played at centre in the youth teams, is a skinny thing who only started playing first grade halfway through last season. Can't really compare the two.

Personally, as is well documented on here, I would ditch Meli for Foster just because Meli is a defensive liability but successive Aussie coaches don't share my view so I guess Gardner could be in for the drop this weekend if neither Lomax nor Eastmond is up to kicking duties.

I'll take Foster and raise you a Sean Day