It's not the size, it's what you do with it that counts

Is that what your mrs keeps telling you ?

I was waiting for that. I'm surprised it took so long

I can't believe YOU of all people would write such nonsense. Our back three only have to drop one high ball and you're practically hysterical.

Francis Meli, anyone?

And Lomax (a player you've repeatedly trashed) is not exactly safe under the high ball, either.

You can be small and be safe under the high ball you know, give the lad chance.

Hey, you don't need to convince me. It's the likes of Saddened and co. who throw hissy fits each time Swift, Dawson et al. drop a howler.



That said, I'd still think about shifting him from full-back. Not because he's likely to drop one high ball in two. I just think we are desperately short of pace and/or acceleration in the halves.

Preccy did OK, he was about an inch taller than Quinlan, my concern would be tackling a big winger like Ryan Hall.

Hall doesn't really leave his wing unless he's taking a drive out from his own 20m. Hopefully our defensive line would be doing their job and not letting him run at Quinland when he's at fullback.



All players drop the ball (barring Wellens) at least once in their career, I just hope if he has a poor debut people don't get on his back and write him off. He'll need everyone to get behind him.

One thing I did notice, even if it's only off a highlights video which I never like to judge a player, is that during it he was a player who was ball handling and passing it out but he also backed up very well. I think he'll thrive running off the likes of Savelio.

With regard to his handling skills and hi willingness to back up, I should think that KC will soon knock that out of him. Saints thrive on the drive. If that fails then our complete lack of skill is exposed.

Didn't affect McDonnell. He backed up more times than a DAT drive.

Full backs very rarely contest a high ball anyway.

Yeah, but there's a difference between not contesting a ball kicked toward the wings and not contesting one down your throat. There have been times this season when the likes of Matt Bowen couldn't have missed it by a wider margin if they'd run the opposite way.

Fullbacks very rarely have to contest kicks, and if so they generally get a run up, which is why height is less important than for wingers. This is an area of the game that is pressured a lot more in Aus, so Quinlan will be fine. Fullbacks often have to catch kicks obviously, but there's absolutely no indication there'd be any dramas here. Since when was height really that important for a fullback anyway?


5'10 Billy Slater doesn't seem to have struggled with contested kicks because of his height.

I don't think height is a problem providing your confident of taking the high balls and prepared to put your body on the line.

For all we know, he might have a giant leap on him. We will have to wait and see.

Having just watched a bit more video of him, a few observations:
1) He's definitely more of a fullback than halfback. Decent step, okay enough passing game, while he doesn't seem to have much in the way in terms of organisation or long kicking game.
2) He should suit our structure pretty well. He looks most comfortable out the back of a second man play which is what we've lacked with Makinson/McDonnell/Percival at fullback. He catches the ball off his chest, is comfortable hitting the face ball to the wing on both sides, and he's got a decent grubber which will stop opposition wingers flying up.
3) He doesn't look particularly fast. I'd imagine this will mean Swift will do more kick returns, as he did when Wellens was at fullback. With Lomax at fullback, Swift averaged 8 carries a match. With Wello/Hohaia there, he averaged 16.

He does look good "out the back" and I think that's important for a modern day fullback. His support play is very good also which we need as Mcdonnell shown how important it is to have a player who backs up well.

I'm looking forward to seeing him play.

Agreed , but he's not been here that long, give him time.

It's probably the most important part of modern day fullback play to be honest. Almost every attacking set now by most teams is engineered to try and get the fullback on an edge with a 3 on 2, with the fullback picking the right option. This is particularly true with the fact our biggest strength is our backrow which should cause lots of defenders to make wrong decisions. Curious to see how he goes but seems like a decent signing given the circumstances.

He looks fast enough to me from those videos.

I'm not saying he's slow, just that for a back he isn't particularly quick.

I need a better report than that. Lomax is very slow. Wellens wasn't registered as moving as per the speed trap machines used in training

How does he rate against those?

It did take him a while to sign, so he can't be that quick!!

I'd imagine he'll be faster than Lomax and Wello, but slower than Swift/Makinson/Percy. We'll see

Looks quick off the mark.