Highlanders 2021

[Steven Harris]

@Duluth yes he was , went off the rails and went to Melbourne where Dale McLeod pulled him back to Northland ..McLeod also coached him at club level in Christchurch., had Northland held onto Macleod , Alaimalo and Fletcher Smith would have gone to Northland, both played in the same Christchurch club team ..Smith traveled up to Whangarei to check out the facilities, but decided against it when McLeod moved on

[macmanus]

1. Lienert-Brown
   Johnstone
   De Groot
2. Coltman
   Dixon?
   Jackson
3. Tokolahi
   Ainsley
   Thwaites ?
4. Parix2, MSR
5. Dickson, Whetton?
6. Frizell
7. Lentjes, Harmon
8. MMT, TBN, Himeno
9. Smith, Hammington, Fakatava
10. Ioane, Hunt
11. Nareki, Gregory
12. Tomkinsom, Umaga-Jensen
13. Collins, Paea
14. Punivai, Garden-Bachop, NMS. Gilbert??
15. Alaimalo, Koroi.

[Kiwiwomble]

@macmanus its not bad on paper, we've let Ash Dixon go though

[Kiwiwomble]

cant help but think Sio would be better on the wing, less chance to take someone head off and his tendency is to run wide, even 13 i think, push wide to meet up with the wing.....i just dont know in what way he's a 12

I think collins 12 and sio 13 worked well

[family man]

@Kiwiwomble no way? Surely not

[Kiwiwomble]

@family-man no confirmation of a contract renewal at least...and i think you would announce if your captain was staying

[Kiwiwomble]

Jack Whetton off to the Tahs next season, good for him. Thought he played well for us this year so would have been happy to see him stay

[Stargazer]

Tony Brown didn't really announce new signings on The Breakdwon. He talked about Fetuli Paea as a new signing, and the importance of the experience of some players, Aaron Smith in particular. I hoped for new names.

Interesting how he also mentioned that they were talking to a player, only to find out other coaches were also talking to him. I have the distinct feeling that this was about Fakatava, but his name wasn't mentioned.

[Chris B.]

@Stargazer said in Highlanders 2021:

Tony Brown didn't really announce new signings on The Breakdwon. He talked about Fetuli Paea as a new signing, and the importance of the experience of some players, Aaron Smith in particular.

Wasn't there some talk about the Highlanders signing Liam Squire? I wondered whether that was part of his reference to experience?

[Stargazer]

@Chris-B Maybe. Or the re-signing of Ash Dixon.

[ARHS]

Did he say just 2 Abs now? Smith and Ioane. What about Frizzell and Coltman? Did I mishear or misinterpret?

[Stargazer]

@ARHS I'd say Smith and Frizell. Ioane isn't an AB at the moment, neither is Coltman.

[ARHS]

@Stargazer. Aha. Explained. The ad hoc comment after referred to Ioane. So that was what confused me

[Kiwiwomble]

Think I just saw in the socials we went after aj lam, could that be who he was talking about?

[Stargazer]

@Kiwiwomble Yep, I posted that in the Blues thread.

[Yeetyaah]

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Shane Christie has brought in as defence coach.

[Kiwiwomble]

@Yeetyaah bit of a random one, thought we'd be downsizing the staff if anything, would be good to see a more hard hitting defensive line

looks like we've recruited in the loosies, think we can expect a forward heavy bench again this season and always running with one of our loosies out in the back line on defense

[Bovidae]

A cunning plan to further tap into the Ta$man connection, and future player signings.

[Kiwiwomble]

@Bovidae im wondering about a rebrand

the "Makopies" and black and white flying shark

[Kiwiwomble]

after posting that I realized how sick that sounds!