Bullsfab! wrote:
Wouldn't care if he went to Sydney, a prop isn't a prop when he has no ball handling skills. Once burgess learns to pass, offload and not put together a short spell strewn with dropped balls then he can be considered a credible option. I'd have Langley as our 4th prop and bring in a new powerful front rower. Let burgess and crossely go to a lower division and get experience and game time.
I think we have to be careful not to overstate Tom's contribution, or more to the point, our expectations of what his contribution should be. He's still very much the junior, an apprentice prop if you want, his main job is still to improve his game and his mistakes have to be looked at as experiences from which he will learn.
Right now he's doing OK, he makes inroads into defences and takes some pulling down; the other things will hopefully come with experience. There are few who enter SL at 18 as fully fledged first teamers and Tom still has lots of time to grow into the position, but he's not yet a full member of the front row and won't yet be expected to to do a full stint, so without a new signing I'd guess someone else will fill in.