Quote: lummy "The obvious answer is the coach yes, what Powell has done with these players.........
However, no one has mentioned that Cas have regular half backs who although not big names by any stretch are more than capable of leading a side around with a first class kicking game too. Both their regular halves, Sneyd and Finn are a country mile better than our young bucks (currently!)
So, if these 2 were in our side would we also be transformed? Impossible to answer but I think we'd have won a number of games we've lost with these two 'unknowns'.
Comes down to recruitment to me, rather than the coach. Just my opinion.'"
I first read this post yesterday, and I just can't come to terms with it being more about recruitment than coaching with the players in question. 'Not big names' is actually understating it a bit IMO, they've got a relative rookie (like ours, arguably with a less notable pedigree) and a (pretty much) career lower-league player playing very well consistently at the top end of SL, whereas we have 2 former aussie schoolboys who at times just look lost. It's not like Cas went out and signed up 2 career-proven top-level players, they identified 2 relatively obscure players who suited their needs and the coach did the rest.
I'd accept the point that it was mainly recruitment if our 2 halfbacks were playing at or near their best regularly and it still wasn't good enough, but that is obviously not the case. On occasions we've seen what both are capable of (and IMO there still possibly is what we need in there, it's just a question of whether we will bring it out of them quickly enough), it's just that we don't get it often enough.
Rankin and Miller may well prove not good enough for where we want to be, but IMO they should be doing a damn sight better than they are showing now regardless, and it's not all down to them.