Quote PopTart="PopTart"Dave shouldn't be compared to Andrew imo.
Big Dave needs to compare to Watts, Thompson, Walmsley and now Burgess.
Before his injury he was dominating the league but he's been quickly forgotten by the rest after missing the end of the season. It's a chance for him to get that back.
Playing for Wakefield allows him to be a bit more creative and off the cuff than the others on the list and also be a leader, but only as a "follow me" leader. I would not make him team captain. That's a different skill altogether.'"
Tbh when you watch Andrew, he plays so similar to Dave it's hard not to, the way he goes to the line, then steps and runs across looking for that gap before trying to bust the line is uncanny even for twins, to also the way he how quick he gets up and plays the ball. Leaving the twins thing to one side, Dave plays in a fair bit less structured way than Andrew, who imo is much more of a traditional prop if you like. for example how many times have you seen Andrew making a bid for fame up the wing, or making a try for himself with a little kick through. As you rightly say, he's allowed to play his own game in SL under CC and maybe it's why he's succeeded here and less so in the NRL, where it's all about structure. I also thinks he's developed greatly in the time he's been with us, in a way he's been a late bloomer and thrived because he's got out of his brothers shadow. Personally along with Thompson and Watts he's the best prop in the league. As you also say hopefully he comes back hungry to get back to where he was pre injury last season, or dominate even more all season, if that's possible.
On Tom, as others have said I'll be looking away when he first stretches his legs, or goes for a flying finish. I've had the same injury as him many years ago and it's one thing to recover and go through all the hard yards in the gym and the mind, gradually learning to trust it more and more as you go through all the hours and days of pain. To have it happen to you again though is a massive test of your body and especially mind. As a player all he can do is stay positive, be around positive people and just get his head down and do what the trainers tell you, then it's all about trusting the knee again when you're on the field and that's the key, just as long as as his operation went well, as it appears to have and his ligaments have fully mended, it's all a bit of a head test. When it happened to me, for a month or so after I came back, if I felt any twinge anywhere, or had to get the foot down, it was there in the back of my mind, like a little voice. I found myself consciously not really going for it the way I knew I could, often looking for the pass rather than taking players on, but eventually after I got a number of games into me, it starts to slip out of your mind. I wouldn't be surprised if Tom's the same, it may take him a few games or even more to truly get confident again, but the main thing is he hopefully he does. Ateotd he's still so young and got such a long career ahead of him and from what we've seen of him so far in his career, he's shown mental toughness, so fingers crossed.
As for the team, we just need to keep most of our best players on the field, playing like we know they can and not get hit with loads of long term injuries again and i think everything else will look after itself & we'll do OK, top half of the table.