McGregor had the whole team playing like chumps! Except de Belin. I think Hunt has been good but to look at it from the point of cold, hard logic, you and Red V01 are right. Star playmakers are supposed win you games, not win Dally M awards.
Look we all have our views. I have coached teams when we were playing poorly and being flogged every week because our forwards were too small and our playmaker was on his pat malone trying his hardest to create something when he had no more than 2 seconds thinking time no room to move. Hunt reminds me of those years we were rebuilding. Then I can remember that same playmaker who's pack was making the advantage line consistently and he had 4 seconds to look up and an alternative playmaker on the other side of the ruck. Low and beholds after running last for the previous 2 years we make the GF in year 3. Not bad, so what I am saying is that if you are the only target for your opponent defence and you have no structure in attack that allows you options, being kick, short pass, cut out pass bodies in motion you can get the impression as you have that your one and only playmaker is no good. You can see his creative ability when he plays for Qld because he is 1 of 3 playmakers the difference is chalk and cheese. Idolise no I don't, think he is doing the best he can under the current circumstances, well yes I do.
Agree
Disagree
Not at all. I'm not sure about the long-term future for Suli in the centres. Not very mobile. But for this year before he was injured, he was pretty good. I believe he's out for the rest of the season now.
I know. I just did. What do you mean?
That's true. Both Hunt and Amone could have gotten much more help from the forwards.
And therein lies our issue. It is my view speaking from experience albeit not NRL level it doesn't matter. If you don't have a pack that has 2 big boppers consistently making that advantage line, a ball playing forward who can consistently offload, and a top shelf defender your playmakers no matter how good they are will be made look 2nd raters.
Suli has been a standout in my view.
Fair point. I still maintain, tho that he is not a natural organiser like the best we have had in our game. Also remember he is not playing in his club position for the Maroons and naturally he will shine more when he has play making help from blokes that know what structure is.
We have one of them. Need a couple more. But lack the other items you named.
Same here. Can see him tearing into the defensive line as a forward.
I rate JDB as one of the best tacklers in the NRL the stats back me up his technique is flawless. He has made 624 tackles in 19 games this season and missed only 28. I wished we had just 1 more of him in the pack.
Also runs for a lot of metres even though his job is to be a link man a lot of the time.
That is where I would eventually like to see him in a few seasons time. He's about 6 foot tall and 110 kg so he could go into the second row but 1st he needs to be able to catch and hold the ball and tackle with both shoulders. The offload would come naturally. He just has a few too many errors in his game at the moment.
Agree avg 95m a game but if he was playing his preferred position of lock he would be consistently making the 100m+
I'd like to see Amone working with that time with his running skills not sure Benny having it will make much difference to our attacking structure..
Rava as an interchange forward could work as well. Big enough, runs and tackles hard, a little slow for a winger.
We do whether we can afford him is another issue