I posted the exact same thing on another site, Brooks out, Wakeham in, Laurie out, Stains in and Tupou to wing, or Kenny if fit, but that will fix the majority of issues quite quicklyCan’t believe what I’m reading. For the first time in at least a decade we have a proper pack, with depth, and we are screaming for them to punch forward more………….and people are calling for a90kg halfback to play lock or 2rf?
Brooks plays 6, 7, or reggies
the least impact is to keep playing a middle at lock and just bring in wakeham for brooks. Just let the forward pack roll up field and defend with strength and have an actual halfback run the offence. Leave douhie to chime in and run when he needs to but also allow Api to work with wakeham (Fiji connection) to get our forwards playing through the middle more before we spin it wide.
I personally would also ditch Laurie for Staines and bring in Tupou to the wing but I honestly think that change to 7 fixes 75% of our problem.
@851 Douihie is the one that is not a 6 and shouldn't be in the halves. Wakeham will not be replacing Brooks barring injury. If the club is wanting Brooks as a 6 in 2024 then keep him there in 2023 and bring up wakeham to play 7.
Brooks certainly not a centre and I would hope Sheens doesn't even think about playing him there good grief
@851 yes all Brooks fault on Sunday was it ?
@tiger5150 agree 6 or 7 or not I'm the team. He is not a lock or a centre.
If they have no intention of re-signing him in 2024 then drop the guy, otherwise if we are in the market for a 7 then keep him at 6 the entire year
@loganr21 back row ? no chance
what about Douhie he is big enough to play in the forwards just can't tackle, he could play lock if he could tackle and do what Sheens wanted Hastings to do at 13 and run and ball play
@851 Douihie is the one that is not a 6 and shouldn't be in the halves. Wakeham will not be replacing Brooks barring injury. If the club is wanting Brooks as a 6 in 2024 then keep him there in 2023 and bring up wakeham to play 7.
Brooks certainly not a centre and I would hope Sheens doesn't even think about playing him there good grief
He's more of a centre than he is a halfback
Why does Brooks get to stay in the halves, he has proven nothing, if anything I would be looking to swap him right now with any club offering a 1, 6 or 7@tiger2win good points I would move Brooks to 6 and keep him there all year. That may mean promoting eakeham but go and buy Moses or Williams etc for 2024
As for Doueihi he either plays centre or can look elsewhere
Try and move on a player e.g nofo or Maumalo so we can promote Bula and throw him in at fullback along with tupou on the wing
100%. I posted yesterday our record with Brooks in the team and it's terrible. 2 wins since August 2021. He's not a halfback and I don't think he's a 5/8 either.
He's not the only one to blame but he's part of our problem, not the solution.
Such a crazy stat.... 2 wins in 19 months and hes our big hope at halfback lol....
@avocadoontoast reserve grade is nrl standard now ? it was not for Jock Madden, reserve grade is reserve grade.
Brooks was playing so wide the first 2 games basically as a 6 anyway. Not his fault we lost on Sunday, he is obviously being coached to play the wide 6 role the first 2 games
@avocadoontoast reserve grade is nrl standard now ? it was not for Jock Madden, reserve grade is reserve grade.
Brooks was playing so wide the first 2 games basically as a 6 anyway. Not his fault we lost on Sunday, he is obviously being coached to play the wide 6 role the first 2 games
Brooks would struggle in reserve grade, he's currently nowhere near nrl standard. If Wakeham plays on Sunday we probably win. We needed someone to lead us and Brooks failed to step up yet again. In the 2nd trial Wakeham looked good, even in the first half against their nrl squad.
Brooks is just a non winner.
@avocadoontoast again the second trial had Canberra reserve graders for part of the game. I am not going to speculate that a reserve grade halfback (playing against reserve grade players) would have won the game on Sunday.
As I have said previously which you simply don't acknowledge by Brooks is the 40/20 the tackling and the line break he made. Or when brooks went across field looking dor runners and nobody was there wiling. Brooks was not the reason we lost on Sunday.
If you want to be critical of the drop ball he made in round 1 then sure go for it he didn't play well in round 1 but round 2 he was the only one likely
I understand the talk of Brooks to 6 to a degree - anywhere that isn't the main & controlling playmaker.
Thing is, he's not even the best 6 at the club currently. Doueihi is struggling, but all the dangerous moments we've had have been down his side over the first two games. As per the podcast, Brooks is running towards the corner flag and rendering the fairly potent men outside him (Papali'i, Naden and Staines) as irrelevant, given they've got zero room.
I put most of our attacking issues down to the coaching team, but the personnel have to wear some of the blame as well.
