: Mon Apr 20, 2009 9:26 am
mr. chairman wrote:
cant understand some of the criticism young Morty is taking , Ian is the last line of defense and it would be nice if the guys in front of him did their share of tackling as well , the lad is quality and with the right team and coach would be a sensation . what people forget is that hes a kid learning his trade and if he was my player i would be thankfully i had a great kicker and try scorer in my team , maybe he was thrown in too early but to be honest did you have anyone else until Stuart came , Stuart could mentor Ian and until the team sorts itself out i would put Stuart at full back and bring Ian off the bench to play full back for a while
I think he's a terrific prospect too, Keith. He has some excellent natural attributes and good coaching should see him develop into an outstanding player. For some reason, there were those who didn't like Turley either, despite his regular 300-400 points a season! (oh for someone to score 300 points for us now!)
Curiously, the comment about Ian standing behind the tryline reminded me of Stuart, in his first season. He used to stand right on the tryline, always made the tackle, but it was too late, as the attacker just fell over the line. However, someone (Millward?) obviously had a word with him, as he started to position himself away from the tryline and made some outstanding, try-saving tackles.
Frankly, I was disappointed when we re-signed Stuart, purely because I thought that might mean Ian missing out. In my opinion, Stuart is wasted at centre, where we don't/can't get him into the game. So, what's wrong with playing Stuart at full-back, and Ian on the wing? In many ways, wing is like full back, and both could be devastating, backing up breaks/half-breaks - if we could unearth someone to make those breaks!!
