NRL Offseason Octopus - Danger Dane's A Rabbit
Apparently Dane Nielsen is Dylan Walker's replacement? That's a bit like saying that Dale Copley is a like-for-like replacement for Michael Jennings as Nielsen hasn't proven himself to be much chop since leaving Melbourne. Nielsen has been picked off the scrapheap after having his contract torn up by St George, which followed a very mediocre stint with the Warriors with South Sydney in desperate need of plugging a hole at centre.
I have seen a few headlines over-state Nielsen's ability right now and that I guess comes from the 'former State Of Origin' tag that follows Nielsen around. Right now, Nielsen would struggle to even get an honourable mention in the top-20 NRL centres and even when Nielsen was riding high with Melbourne, his best asset was his defence, not blistering speed, hot footwork or strength/power.
In other words, Nielsen is a very limited player.
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The Rabbitohs are in a bit of a sticky spot though, they missed out on James Roberts (apparently they were close) and needed some sort of NRL-calibre centre to fill the void left by Walker's departure. The fact that they chased Roberts hard would suggest that the Bunnies have a bit of cash to spend, even with Sam Burgess' arrival but Nielsen is a bargain and you'd have to imagine that this was the Rabbitohs' last chance to bolster their centre stocks.
Nielsen could very well start for the Bunnies and he would go alright as a solid centre, holding down one edge while Kirisome Auva'a offers a far more dangerous attacking threat on the other edge. In theory Nielsen offers experience, a cool head and a solid defensive game but we haven't really seen that, especially as my opinion of Nielsen has been slightly scorned by his time at the Warriors.
Alternatively, Nielsen could be a good guy to have around a young group of centres who are trying to establish themselves in the NRL. Hymel Hunt went from the Gold Coast to Melbourne for last season and joins the Rabbitohs in search of greater opportunity, while Aaron Gray is also a possible centre option after impressing on the wing for the Rabbits. Nielsen's biggest competition to start at centre along withe Auva'a though is Bryson Goodwin who has impressed over the past few seasons, this is where I struggle to see Nieslen getting the start as Goodwin has a great job-doing record for coach Michael Maguire.
The best Rabbitohs backline should look like: Inglis, Johnston, Auva'a, Goodwin, Gray, Keary, Reynolds.
Signing Nielsen isn't a bad move though. Nielsen would have been cheap and he'll be a solid option to call on when injury/suspension come calling.
I'm not too sure what to make about this Luke Keary situation, nor do I really care. Russell Crowe doesn't coach the Rabbitohs and the man who does will certainly know how important Keary is to the Bunnies chances this season.
The other ongoing story at the moment is Joseph Tapine's situation with Newcastle and Canberra ... and Nathan Brown, the Knights' coach who has apparently said that Tapine will play reserve grade for the Knights if he signs with Canberra for 2017. First and foremost, Tapine is a kiwi and to have two clubs chasing him hard shows what a talent Tapine is despite a small sample size in the NRL.
Newcastle would have invested a lot of time and effort in Tapine, so it would be a bummer for them to see Tapine leave a rebuilding Knights team which is an obvious reason for coach Brown to be upset, it doesn't quite warrant threats of reserve grade though. We can safely assume that Canberra are offering Tapine a fair amount of money as they are luring him away from Newcastle and as we all know, money's very important.
Personally, I see more upside in the Raiders than I do in the Knights at the moment so that combined with an upgraded salary for Tapine has me leaning towards Tapine scoping up this Canberra deal; I don't see Brown's threats coming to fruition. Think of the 2015 Canberra Raiders and how their signings turned out to be some of the best in the NRL (Blake Austin, Sisa Waga, Iosia Soliola), throw in Joey Leilua who also joined from the Knights and Aidan Sezer who joins from the Titans and the Raiders' recruitment is only trending one way.
I've got the Raiders as a team to watch out for over the next few years and if were young Tapine, I'd be saying 'fuck it' and making that move.
The Penrith Panthers named their NRL Nines squad and I'm going to be posting each squad and a few notes on our Facebook page. Then I'll update a thingy-ma-jig in our glorious pages for your information, keep in mind that I'm a hardcore ruthless kiwi mofo, so all my notes have a kiwi tinge, I'm sorry if you don't like Aotearoa.