Brooks played best in 2022 outside Hastings. Wakeham has some attributes that are probably better than Hastings (goal kicking, speed).
sheens was pretty clear in the presser than wakeham will keep his spot and he was very careful about how he spoke about noffa. Given how public sheens/Benji are in their suppprt of brooks it seems wakeham brooks pairing is a lock for next week.
@tiger5150 all I was referring to with wakeham was he came on fresh that's all, see how he goes next week if he starts. Hope he plays well next week if he gets a run in the halves.
@tucker just not as biased as some, the AD crew are pretty quiet tonight on the other forum
Mate I think you are missing the important point that it is not a competition. They were BOTH terrible. The fact that one was slightly worse than the other doesnt make the other better. Neither deserve a position in the halves of a first grade RL team. QED. Lack of options likely to save Brooks but its hardly praise.
@tigertownsfs in the presser when asked about nofo he didn't want to go into it, that probably says nofo getting replaced probably not planned ?
Do not want to see Douhihie in the halves next week so let's see how wakeham and Brooks go. As for AD it looks like a stint at fullback for him when you hear the presser
@avocadoontoast very biased Avo $0 really ?
@avocadoontoast lol Russell's please... Mate a few on there are AD number 1 ticket holders...
Just dint have the hate fie the bloke that others have, due to not playing finals he sure cops it.
I am sure there are many AD fans on this and other forums (Im not one of them). AD had a very poor game. You will notice that no one is claiming that he had a good game, defending him or deflecting blame from him. Thats how it usually works.
On the other hand Luke Brooks also had a very poor game........
@tiger5150 round 1 Brooks was terrible about a 1/10, round 2 about a 4/10 and today about a 5/10. The improvement came when he moved to 6 and wakeham came on. I agree with plenty on here he is not a 7 but for people to say not first grade standard is not right in my opinion. Is he a world beater no he is not but he is a decent 6 for us at the moment in 2023.
@the-last-ronin as a 6 I think he has something to offer the team at the right price point
Let him play that 6 role this year and see how he goes.
@dirty-reds I think 600k to 700k is minimum for a half in 2024. AD is on 650k or so as an example.
If you land Moses for 1.4 million and Brooks for 600k that is 2 million tied up in your halves
How much do you think Brandon Wakeham is getting? Jock Madden? There is no "minimum", its a market and Brooks or any other player is only worth what a club is willing to pay. Name a rival club that is lining up to sign Luke Brooks right now? Who would be more likely to get a contract right now, Wakeham or Brooks? He cant just name his price and this idea that isaac moses and brooks are just waiting on the right term length from the Tigers is laughable. If Brooks has any offer on the table from the Tigers right now, he should be signing it tonight, because his market is evaporating quickly.
This is probably a cooked take, but AD and brooks remind me of a poor man’s benji.
From memory, benji used to bomb plenty of tries or produce some absolute brain explosions in games. Passes flying over peoples heads, kicks out on the full, etc. The only times we were consistently successful was when we had a stabilising half in prince and lui next to him, and a defensive unit that could cover his mistakes. This allowed him to make the plays that would break a game open in our favour more often than not.
Both brooks and douehi have the ability to come up with a solo try or neat try assist (obviously nowhere near the extent as benji), but it’s usually mixed in with plenty of trash.
My point is that you can get away with rocks and diamonds players, as long as we aren’t carrying both of them at the same time. I don’t think it matters who gets dropped next week, as long as one of them does. Based on today, AD gets dropped. But who knows, you might see brooks playing off the bench as a utility?
@tiger5150 round 1 Brooks was terrible about a 1/10, round 2 about a 4/10 and today about a 5/10. The improvement came when he moved to 6 and wakeham came on. I agree with plenty on here he is not a 7 but for people to say not first grade standard is not right in my opinion. Is he a world beater no he is not but he is a decent 6 for us at the moment in 2023.
I know Brooks cops it a lot from supporters however you’ve gone the complete opposite way today and are excessively defending him.
By your own admission he’s been a 1, 4 and 5 out of 10 this year. That’s 3 poor performances. If we want to be successful that is not the type of player we should be taking about resigning for multiple years. Let him prove himself and then offer him a contract.
@the-last-ronin as a 6 I think he has something to offer the team at the right price point
Let him play that 6 role this year and see how he goes.
he has played 6 all of this year and most of last year.
@tiger5150 round 1 Brooks was terrible about a 1/10, round 2 about a 4/10 and today about a 5/10. The improvement came when he moved to 6 and wakeham came on. I agree with plenty on here he is not a 7 but for people to say not first grade standard is not right in my opinion. Is he a world beater no he is not but he is a decent 6 for us at the moment in 2023.
No, he simply is not. he played 6 all of today and both rounds this year as well as all of last year when Hastings was playing. He passed it a foot behind AJ, he took a hit up on the last 20m out, he kicked it dead, he hit Wakeham on the shoulder. His defence was poor by his standards today. He was not first grade standard today at all.
@the-last-ronin fair call a bit overly defensive of the guy today, apologies to @Tiger1510, @Avo and @mike slightly biased from me today 5/10 probably still is not acceptable
@tiger5150 mate your preaching to the choir . But AD is worse than brooks . All 3 games this year he’s had 1 good run . At least brooks has done…. Something .
Ur geez he’s horrendous at game management .
On a positive note I did predict the team would click today . I just didn’t think Brandon Wakeham would be the catalyst .
but hey , the Dolphins are undefeated with O’Sullivan as their half . And as the commentary team said today , coming up he wasn’t even in Wakehams stratosphere .
I will say this about Brandon . I know for a fact his home life is settled .
I won’t go into how I know this but he did have some serious family issues for years .
And he was very much supporting all of them .
