Thoughts? seriousaboutrl.com/4/post/2014/1 ... -xiii.html

Thoughts? seriousaboutrl.com/4/post/2014/1 ... -xiii.html

Was Sam Burgess that good at bradford to be worthy of a place ?

Sorry just read the above post

only time for a quick look but 1st thoughts are
1. sculthorpe would be in my team at 13
2. too many british players in the team (i'll have a think about some more overseas players who have been missed)
3. my wings would be ryan hall and big les - pat richards as another option

Monaghan, Hape and Farrell would not be in for me.

I'd personally swap Hape for Gidley.

ok so the challenge is to pick a team to beat that one

1. wellens
2. richards
3. gidley
4. newlove
5. hall
6. harris
7. dobson (no really)
8. fielden
9. lowes
10. fairleigh
11. ellis
12. joynt
13. sculthorpe

Dobsons defence was terrible and McGuire's overrated.

Tommy Martyn should be there for me.

First thing that struck me when I thought about it is how Saints were the (considerably) dominant source of players I thought about, and not mainly Bradford and Leeds, as I might have expected.

Similar thoughts to others, really:

- I'd personally say Sculthorpe over Farrell;
- Burgess didn't do that much over here, he hit his heights in Aus (Joynt, Ellis, or even Farrell ahead of him);
- Definitely no Monaghan, it's actually tough to narrow from the several I can quickly think of that I thought were better (Hall, Vaikona, Albert, Dallas, Carney, Robinson);
- Hape and McGuire debatable;
- Possibly controversial, but Morley is another whose best was abroad IMO. In his prime, Fielden was arguably more dominant in SL, and Anderson is another to consider.

Still thinking about wingers, but there are plenty better than Monaghan as carl suggests

Sculthorpe over Farrell at 13

Maybe Farrell or Ellis instead of Burgess in the back row

Senior in place of Hape

Tommy Martyn in place of McGuire every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

there is an argument surely that Ellis best rugby was abroad as well?

For me, the 1st name on that team sheet would be jamie lyon. Outstanding. What about Paul Wellens? Kris radlinski? it's an hard one this.

i don't really focus on the forwards that much but the names thrown about generally will make a good set. If Ben Galea okayed longer over here he could have his name thrown in as well. Class act.

Stuart Fielden during his Bradford days was unplayable especially 2005/06. His WCC game against West Tigers was probably the best performance by a prop ive seen. Nice Hat trick for his efforts too.

Ellis n Morley might of had their very best in oz but were outstanding before heading out hence being head hunted at a time English kids didn't go across

before going overseas ellis was in the dream team 3 seasons running

Arguably, but he was Wakefield's talisman and a key part of the Leeds side in his 4 years there, playing in 3 Grand Finals (winning 2). That's pretty impressive, IMO. Burgess only actually played 76 games in SL, Ellis is approaching 250. I wouldn't necessarily go with Ellis, but IMO he's got more of a case than Burgess.

With Morley it's admittedly a bit more controversial as I said, but IMO I think his NRL reputation has overshadowed what he's done here a bit. He was only ever part of a successful SL side when he parachuted into the dominant Bulls team for the last half a dozen games, and were it not for a lot very generous refereeing since his return he should have spent a hell of a lot more time in the stands. In terms of what they did in SL, I'd say Fielden achieved/performed more.