Dirty George to captain Brumbies

George Smith is probably the best choice, but not far ahead of Al Campbell and Mark Gerrard. His courage and commitment to what he does is such that anyone who shirks in defence or attack will know that he is letting the team down. A bit like the sainted Brett Robinson from the early days – not the biggest (but probably the smartest) and always one of the first to the tackle, the breakdown and to run the ball into the heat of the opposition. Inspirational.

It will be a tough year, at least until things settle down a bit. Time for those whose gifts can lift a team to show how they do it – Gerrard, Ashley-Cooper, Huxley, Tawake, Smith, Campbell, Shepherdson, Henderson. Time for others, like Salvi, both Faingaas, Wallace-Harrison and Lealiifano, to show how much more they have when they dig deep, because they obviously have great natural ability. Time to give Phibbs a real chance to set the attack. Time for new talent to emerge.

I just wish I had more confidence in Laurie Fisher than his record permits. Nick Scrivener’s performance with the Vikings in the late lamented ARC was hardly a cause for confidence either. I’d be more relaxed with anyone else, apart from Ewen McKenzie who was a total dud with a billion dollar team. What about one of the more successful ARC people?

Great to see George getting some more kudos.

BTW – Has anyone received their Brumbies season membership package yet? I renewed mine like mid last year, and have yet to get anything. Brumbies are about a month away, and I’m getting nervous…

hard to know how we are going to go this season. I’ve enjoyed some of the leaner years where new talent came up, like Jim Williams and Graeme Bond as prime examples.

For me, the waratahs are our mortal enemies. The crusaders are more like respected adversaries – no robbie deans this year? wonder if that will make a difference to them.