TEAM OF THE DECADE - the locks - VOTE NOW

[BartMan]

The locks for the 2000-2009 All Black team of the decade, get in their and fill your boots - three votes. Pick your top pair, and your bench man. Only two miss out, choose wisely again, grasshoppers...

[Red Beard]

Why wasnt Robbo there Bart? Troy Flavell for fucks sake.

[Voltron]

I would like to abstain from voting til you add Robinson please

[BartMan]

read the front page bit - just not enough tests for Robbo to qualify.

[Voltron]

Fair enough. Have to add that i think good is good regardless of number of games but i guess you gotta draw the line somewhere.

[BartMan]

yeah, otherwise you would have to list all the other, ahhh, less gifted All Black locks over that time. Bradley Mika, Greg Rawlinson to name but two...

You have to draw a line in the sand somewhere...!!

[MN5]

KR would have qualified if he'd played more games, no doubting that in my mind. Quite a few guys of the 00's who simply didn't play much and when they did never stood out.

I was always a huge fan of Norm Maxwell, for a relatively scrawny guy he sure made his presence felt although I suspect he'll be one of those old men who creaks and clicks a shitload as he stands up and sits back down again. His body must be well and truly rooted. I read somewhere that he had some kind of muscle imbalance which prevented him from being quick ? he sure was no speedster even for a lock but he would have been fit as a fiddle and as the cliche goes would have had a huge heart. Stu Forster had a huge heart, so did Alan Langer....are all tiny footy players issued them at birth ? hmmmmmmm

Troy Flavell was summed up pretty nicely there Bart, had all the potential to be even better than BBBT if you ask me. I suspect you'll do a similar write up on his good buddy Ron Cribb when you get to doing the number 8s ( if he even makes the shortlist ! )

[LAKiwi]

Cribb would fall into the Keith hole - of not having played enough tests wouldn't he??

[LAKiwi]

I think this thread would be interesting if you had Keith there - He would (IMHO) get more votes than Flavell and Maxwell and might even push those other three.

[BartMan]

I would vote for him ahead of probably all the contenders myserlf, and pair him up with Ali Williams, for a the grafter / loose lock combination. And you have the additional advantage that Robbo was a genuine lineout forward as well as being the hard bastard hard worker that Brad Thorn is. So you get a real lock for your money! Just not enough caps - near enough to 1 game a year just does not qualify!

[LAKiwi]

Yeah, I suppose in today's age of 13 or so tests a year - it makes Robbo look like he only played one year (with only 12 caps).
Likewse - I would also have voted for him.