mildlyinterested wrote:at this stage both are worth having a look at over nagle and kearney
I'd be interested in reviewing [John] Madigan, not so much in [Jerry] Sexton.
To be frank, Nagle has been a disappointment. I thought that there might be a bit of untapped ability there, but if there was, it hasn't manifested itself. Sounds harsh, but he's just unable to give us the parts of play that we would like from the player in his position with enough frequency – just the basic parts, not the Fardy extras. Contact wins at the breakdown, gainlines with carries, big hits at the tackle, lineout steals. He just doesn't do enough, often enough.
It's hard to be pessimistic though – we're massively loaded with talent at the U19-U20 age group in Cormac Daly [U20], Jack Dunne [U20], Ryan Baird [U19] and Charlie Ryan [U19]. It's a real glut of teenagers who are legitimately 198-201cm and 110kg+, and who can play.
If you look a little way down the line things will open up - determine Nagle's contract at the end of this season, and that opens up a spot. Give Mick Kearney another season [as a tighthead lock, he offers more of what we need than Nagle] and if he doesn't make good progress by the end of next season, determine that contract too - you get either an in-form Kearney or another opening. Give Fardy another one-year deal after his current contract ends at the conclusion of the 2018-19 season [bringing him up to June 2020, when he'll be about to turn 36] and then another spot opens up ...
After a pretty long dry spell – Dev [b. 1986] to Molony [b.1994] – we appear to have all of a sudden hit a motherlode of locks. It's going to be really interesting to see how it pans out.