We must have been watching a different game, I was at the ground, because I thought Wakeham had a reasonable game. On the other hand Brooks was poo, killed the attack on multiple occasions.@tiger5150 Wakeham is on 10% of Brooks salary but is charged with doing 90% of the kicking because Brooks can't handle ANY responsibility in games. He wasn't signed to play first grade, he was signed as a back up half. It's not his job to step up when we need something to happen, it's the absolute loser on $1.1m a year that has no ticker at all. As soon as any pressure is applied the guy completely goes to water.
He is a parasite on this club and his performances are indefensible. I am sick of seeing him stink it up every week while his teammates have a dig, and i'm tired of seeing that senile idiot defend him every week. I'm done talking about him, and i'm just about done wasting my time supporting this club.
All of that is true................and it is also true that as poor as Brooks was, Wakeham was worse. it doesnt matter who gets paid more. They are both in the squad and the best gets picked. I would be rapt if Wakeham had a great game and outplayed Brooks and enabled us to drop Brooks, but he just didnt. He was worse than Brooks and that is the problem.
Obviously Sheens is trialing Laurie as 6. If you drop the worst half its a Brooks / Laurie combination getting picked.
After seeing Laurie in the haves in KOE, I’d rather have Laurie and Wakeham in the halves.
@tiger5150 Bula looked great and we you see he was confident being around the group.
Its a great back three. Naden is a great centre, our pack is awesome........fill in the gaps.
Bula looked very calm and comfortable and that is really a very good sign given how few games he has played at fullback in his career. He has the attributes that you can’t coach (speed, power, anticipation) and the areas he is deficient in are more to do with time and experience. Pole is equally an extremely impressive player to have emerged in the last dozen games or so, his speed in offence is far and away the best in the pack, he just covers so much ground in hit ups and has footwork and can find his front. Stephano is also starting to come good after a slow start. A quiet game from Tupou but did lots of hard runs early in the set and even Staines puts in a heap of effort getting out of our end and obviously has polish and speed to make the most of the opportunity out wide. I also am really starting to enjoy watching Toa, he has nice footwork at the line and his hands and defense has improved a lot this year.
In general just really really good signs I think across the park. Wakeham and Brooks however are diabolical and show nothing in attack, no structure, no correct choices in broken play, no plan. We have so much money in the cap we will find a 7 somewhere, it’s just a shame it won’t be this season. The very promising part is that we don’t have huge gaps in our starting 17, just a couple of massively important ones.
1. Bula
2. Tupou
3. Naden
4. Toa
5. Staines
6.
7.
8. klemmer
9. api
10. stephano
11. Bateman
12. papi
13.
14.
15. Pole
16. joffa
17.
We must have been watching a different game, I was at the ground, because I thought Wakeham had a reasonable game. In the other hand Brooks was poo, killed the attack on multiple occasions.@tiger5150 Wakeham is on 10% of Brooks salary but is charged with doing 90% of the kicking because Brooks can't handle ANY responsibility in games. He wasn't signed to play first grade, he was signed as a back up half. It's not his job to step up when we need something to happen, it's the absolute loser on $1.1m a year that has no ticker at all. As soon as any pressure is applied the guy completely goes to water.
He is a parasite on this club and his performances are indefensible. I am sick of seeing him stink it up every week while his teammates have a dig, and i'm tired of seeing that senile idiot defend him every week. I'm done talking about him, and i'm just about done wasting my time supporting this club.
All of that is true................and it is also true that as poor as Brooks was, Wakeham was worse. it doesnt matter who gets paid more. They are both in the squad and the best gets picked. I would be rapt if Wakeham had a great game and outplayed Brooks and enabled us to drop Brooks, but he just didnt. He was worse than Brooks and that is the problem.
Obviously Sheens is trialing Laurie as 6. If you drop the worst half its a Brooks / Laurie combination getting picked.
After seeing Laurie in the haves in KOE, I’d rather have Laurie and Wakeham in the halves.
They were both poor IMO, wakeham had a couple of very bad passes and pointless stop and pass inside. Brooks had a great pass for our first try, a good kick in goal, but they were both below what we need. Brooks/Wakeham, Brooks Laurie, Wakeham/Laurie, none of them fill me with any confidence, none of them are getting us to the 8 in any year and only Wakeham is under contract for next year.
Bula looked very calm and comfortable and that is really a very good sign given how few games he has played at fullback in his career. He has the attributes that you can’t coach (speed, power, anticipation) and the areas he is deficient in are more to do with time and experience. Pole is equally an extremely impressive player to have emerged in the last dozen games or so, his speed in offence is far and away the best in the pack, he just covers so much ground in hit ups and has footwork and can find his front. Stephano is also starting to come good after a slow start. A quiet game from Tupou but did lots of hard runs early in the set and even Staines puts in a heap of effort getting out of our end and obviously has polish and speed to make the most of the opportunity out wide. I also am really starting to enjoy watching Toa, he has nice footwork at the line and his hands and defense has improved a lot this year.
In general just really really good signs I think across the park. Wakeham and Brooks however are diabolical and show nothing in attack, no structure, no correct choices in broken play, no plan. We have so much money in the cap we will find a 7 somewhere, it’s just a shame it won’t be this season. The very promising part is that we don’t have huge gaps in our starting 17, just a couple of massively important ones.
Good summary IMO
At least Wakeham has some passion
https://twitter.com/michaelchammas/status/1650081227540697088?s=46&t=t1bv1_SDgHKFtu6weJloAg
We broke Tommy Turbo. Manly’s run is finished.
It’s funny watching the replay, the wrap around play is basically just a way to get Api into first receiver (pass to forward, pass back to Api wider) because we have no actual first receiver (halfback). It’s comical how thin we are at 7, just a disgusting decision to let Hastings go a year early.
I wonder whether we would be better off:
9. Simpkins
7. Api
6. Brooks/wakeham/Laurie
i know it’s a joke about Farah doing it in the past but we actually have a decent backup 9 whereas our 7 options are putrid. Api put in a cross field kick that was actually pretty good and he has a short kicking game.
At least Wakeham has some passion
https://twitter.com/michaelchammas/status/1650081227540697088?s=46&t=t1bv1_SDgHKFtu6weJloAg
Passion is one word for it....
if that report is true and it stems from Wakeham sticking it to Fainu for a miss when we point our nose in front, with 16mins to go, when we havent won a game all year, then Wakeham is a moron who deserves what he gets and winners are grinners so you are going to get it so have the self respect to cop it and walk back to the shed.
It’s funny watching the replay, the wrap around play is basically just a way to get Api into first receiver (pass to forward, pass back to Api wider) because we have no actual first receiver (halfback). It’s comical how thin we are at 7, just a disgusting decision to let Hastings go a year early.
I also think the continual run arounds were a set up for that play when they didnt do it and send Joffa over and he SHOULD HAVE scored.
On a separate note, like every game except the Brisbane game, we had so many opportunities to win that game. Papali'i passes to Bula rather going himself, Joffa just fall to the ground... a few others
This game was so similar to the rest of the season. On the front foot early but can’t score any points despite a heap of opportunities. Allow the opposition to a score an easy try with minimal fuss. Grind around and somehow get back into the game to suddenly go back to playing poor footy and let the opposition have the win.
I’m trying to avoid stating the same thing every week but our halves are poor and the cupboard is bare. Wakeham, Brooks, Laurie appear to be our only options, which is scary.
Sheens has mentioned different players coming in after round 10 but I’m not really sure who he means.
wakeham had a couple of very bad passes
Wakeham has very poor pass selection and it’s easy to read what he is going to do.
