Respected ... Greg Inglis, Manu Vatuvei and Billy Slater are among the elite. Source: AAP
How ruthless would you be as an Aussie choosing an Anzacs 17? Would more than one Kiwi make the cut?
While former Kangaroos Peter Sterling, Mark Gasnier and Ben Ikin were tempted to fill their sides with green and gold, each managed to get a sprinkling of New Zealand reps in their squads of 17.
Sterling in particular struggled with the task, at first admitting that he would find it tough to find a spot in the Australian team for any Kiwis other than Sonny Bill Williams.
But after deeper analysis, the legendary halfback managed to be more generous with his allocation of Anzacs jumpers to players from across the ditch.
Here are the sides picked by Sterling, Gasnier and Ikin, with an explanation from each of the former internationals on how they came up with their final selections.
Would your Anzacs 17 resemble the sides picked by Peter Sterling, Mark Gasnier and Ben Ikin? Choose your team by clicking here!
PETER STERLING
Billy Slater, Brett Morris, Justin Hodges, Greg Inglis, Manu Vatuvei, Johnathan Thurston, Cooper Cronk, Matt Scott, Cameron Smith, James Tamou, Paul Gallen, Sam Thaiday, Sonny Bill Williams. Interchange: Ben Matulino, Nate Myles, Kieran Foran, Greg Bird.
Anyone would love to coach this side. It would be the easiest coaching gig that there possibly is because all you'd be hoping to do is make sure you don't make them play worse. They could have a captain-coach. We don't need a coach, put a captain-coach in. Cameron Smith can captain-coach. And because it's such a good team, there were a few guys who were unlucky to miss out. I would have loved to have squeezed Anthony Watmough in, he's been in great form this season, as he has the past few seasons. You know, it's very difficult - I'm a huge Luke Lewis fan as well - for utility players on the bench, but I couldn't go past Greg Bird. Nate Myles, well, he'd be in any side I named. Kieran Foran's probably unlucky. I haven't got many Kiwis in the side but I've said since he came into the top grade that Kieran Foran is the best young player in the NRL, so I would have liked to have found a spot for him. The guy in this side I really want to give a rap to is Sonny Bill Williams. He was one of the first players picked and that's saying something coming back into the game after five years away. The thing I've loved about Sonny since he's come back - I know what ability he has and we've seen the talent and all those sorts of things but it's the little difficult parts of the game where he's been really impressive - the things he hasn't had to do in five years, like getting off the ground, getting back in the line, coming back 10, doing that six times in a row, and that's where he's excelled.
MARK GASNIER
Billy Slater, Jason Nightingale, Justin Hodges, Greg Inglis, Brett Morris, Cooper Cronk, Johnathan Thurston, Jessie Bromwich, Cameron Smith, James Tamou, Greg Bird, Sonny Bill Williams, Paul Gallen. Interchange: Ben Matulino, Anthony Watmough, Kieran Foran, Tohu Harris.
This was really tough to pick because there's so many good players out there. Nate Myles was the biggest one I would have liked to have found a spot for. It was out of him and Anthony Watmough to have on the bench. Myles has been in such good form, but as has Anthony Watmough so it was a flip of the coin there. The halves pairing wasn't an easy choice, I actually deliberated on that for a while. Obviously Johnathan Thurston goes in but I just like the way Kieran Foran's been playing down at Manly - I think he and Daly Cherry-Evans have been leading the way in the halves. But then I started to think how good Melbourne have been and how good Cooper Cronk's been going. I think he just deserves the spot for what he's done at the end of last year and the start of this year. People might look at the wingers and think I've made some odd choices but I think the wingers I've got, outside those centres, you need finishers, not necessarily guys who can create and those two are ever-reliable in defence as well. I think people choose their teams based on how they want them to play. And yes, if I had a team like that I'd want them to play in a certain way.
BEN IKIN
Billy Slater, Manu Vatuvei, Greg Inglis, Justin Hodges, Brett Morris, Jonathan Thurston, Cooper Cronk, Matt Scott, Cameron Smith, Ben Matulino, Simon Mannering, Paul Gallen, Sonny-Bill Williams. Interchange: Issac Luke, Greg Bird, James Tamou, Sam Thaiday.
The team's Aussie dominated but to me, that doesn't mean the Kangaroos are a way better side than the Kiwis. When you sit down and choose these kinds of sides you'll normally go on individual merits. But good footy teams, it doesn't matter if it's Queensland, Australia, Melbourne Storm or South Sydney Rabbitohs: good teams are more than just the sum of their individual parts. I'm a massive Greg Bird fan, so I would have liked to have got Greg Bird into the team but with Sonny Bill Williams back in league I reckon you probably had to find a spot for him in the starting side. Manu Vatuvei's rocks or diamonds so I wasn't 100 per cent sure about selecting him but I love watching him play, so I decided to give him a go. Thurston and Cronk are stand-outs in the halves. Cooper Cronk seems to win man of the match just about every game he plays and he's just gone up to another level in the last six to 12 months. He is at the top of his game and Johnathan Thurston is close to being the best player in the world so, even though Benji was injured, so I didn't consider him, he wouldn't have made the starting side in front of those guys. The backline is just so talented, and even though Inglis has been superb at club level as a fullback, I think picking Billy Slater to fill the No.1 jersey was still an easy selection. Inglis is the second best outside back in the competition at the moment... behind Slater.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Anzac side: Aussies have their say
Dengan url
http://ikhlasngeblog.blogspot.com/2013/04/anzac-side-aussies-have-their-say.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Anzac side: Aussies have their say
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Anzac side: Aussies have their say
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar