Scott Taylor

Quote: General Zod. "Ah. Instead of posting about George Griffin, you choose to bring up a 4 year old post - you're still a parasite I see.

On the odd occasion Clinton turned up to play, he was our best front rower - for instance his performance at Wakefield was a major part of us winning the game. Poor players don't win NRL GF's or play for Australia and four years ago (yes four years ago) he appeared to be the right signing for the club.

Unfortunately, despite his talent, I don't think he actually had any real passion or desire for the game and simply looked at it as a job - I told him this at the Rovers POTY dinner and he was gracious for my honesty.

Anyway, back on topic.

George Griffin,; if we can't sign another front-rower, I think maybe we should get him to put some weight on and play in the middle.'"

You're presenting an upbeat view of Rovers player Griffin. I'm presenting previously documented opinions of yours which show your views to be flawed/Rovers-biased. Your follow-up on Clinton provides a bit more insight on this. 3 years ago, such were his performances, you said you'd take him over any prop in the world (Rovers were being linked with him, but I'm sure this was entirely coincidental). He rocks up at Rovers and spectacularly fails to deliver over a 3 year period, steals a living, if you will. You then say it's because he doesn't have any passion for the game itself. How could he have been at the top of your list of world props to bring in if he wasn't really bothered about the game? Perhaps some of his underdelivery was that he was underwhelmed with the Rovers set-up, or perhaps he shares the same views on your chairman as @mase21, Willie Mason, since his loss of performance coincided entirely with his tenure at Rovers. Neither of us know, but based on the correlations before us, to attribute his lack of interest in RL per se could be construed as Rovers-biased.

There are, of course, further examples.
You predicted Tom Briscoe's lack of top class outside back attributes meant that by 2012 he'd be probably be a back-rower. The reality is that he (unlike Offiah-esque Fox) is still in and around the international squad and some NRL clubs are likely to be in for him next year. Not, I'd imagine, as a back-rower
You said that Tommy Lee's has a far more complete skill set than Danny Houghton. The reality is that Houghton is England Knights captain, at hooker, and player's player of the year at FC for the second year running.

The point is, this is not the nodding dogs forum where you can pick any aspect of what Rovers are doing and fabricate an apologetic post-rationalisation without challenge. You launch a rather laboured justification of the under-30s only approach, which could be summarised as lower age = fewer injuries. The missing challenges to this are:
Rovers have a squad of under 30s because they can't/don't want to pay the market rate for, or can't attract, big names.
Your long term absentees this year included sub 30 year olds such as Welham, Cox, Green, Lovegrove.
The top teams have a very significant proportion of over 30s
The best of your young players may choose to use Rovers as simply a stepping stone to Wigan, Leeds..

Anyway, Griffin. Heard good things about him. Sounds like a 2013 breakthrough player.