Barba vs Boyd

[Ari Gold]

It's painful when a club you support takes a gamble on somebody and it backfires... (Hi Steve Nash)

I don't mind the club gambling on a player. Every club gambles, whether it is by gambling on a player or deciding not to, there are risks and consequences to every decision. Like all good decision making related to gambling though, it's about risk vs reward, and I just don't see Boyd ever being dominant enough to offer the kind of reward that you need to justify such a risk.

 

[xratedrattice]

Woah.. someone who actually has the same perspective as me, that's a nice change.

I can see Boyd putting in some nice little grubbers and cut out passes to Vidot & Copley, at a much more consistent rate than Barba did as well.

well that was a nice suprise i was expecting to be labelled idiotic :)

and don't get me wrong i still think the boyd money could of been spent better on a giant front rower, but in saging that i do believe he has alot to offer us and it isn't the end of the world if he plays fullback, for all we know barba may of played there and had the same sort of year as this one and we would of all been crying out for a bew fullback, as much as we can put barba's form down to the injury and weight gain he still did alot of annoying things that had nothing to do with that like constant drop balls and kicking the ball instead of picking it up... if nothing else at least with boyd we will give away less sets at our line from terrible bomb diffusal, you might find with the constant threat of milford and hunt breaking the line boyd may be able to fly under the radar and just insert himself in set plays when needed, without the pressure of being the guy to come up with something out of nothing.

 

[Unbreakable]

There are risks to Boyd, in so many ways, that we just don't need to take.

Let's compare that to Ben Barba.

* Several major ankle injuries in 2013 which lead to off-season ankle surgery, form hasn't been the same since.

* History of major gambling issues.

* History of binge drinking.

* History of depression.

* Multiple off-field incidents not played out in the public spectrum.

Boy we're really making a tough call here, Barba is clearly the safer option.

 

[Ari Gold]

Let's compare that to Ben Barba.



Boy we're really making a tough call here, Barba is clearly the safer option.

Everything you posted is very true. The problem is when we signed Barba, we didn't have Barba already at the club. When we sign Boyd, we will. Boyd is a risky luxury that I don't think the salary cap allows you to afford.

 

[Charmamba]

Let's compare that to Ben Barba.



Boy we're really making a tough call here, Barba is clearly the safer option.

So is it the injury or the off field incidents that are the reason for Barbas form? His second half of 2014 would suggest it was the injury but can't be sure..


Boyd, it's clearly the off-field stuff and that's a concern.

 

[vertigo]

Got redirected to page 1 of this thread and read through it thinking it was current lol.

40 pages of redundancy.

 

[broncos4life]

Accepting that Boyd's poor form at Newcastle his entire Knights stint is down to depression and that this fully explains it, it in no way alleviates it. We don't know if Boyd is mentally good right now and we certainly don't know if he's likely to lapse back into a bad state once again. Whilst you'd hope that it'll be good for Darius moving forward you can't turn a blind eye to it when building a roster and managing a cap.

There are risks to Boyd, in so many ways, that we just don't need to take.

There is just as many risks, if not more to pinning our hopes to barba

 

[Ari Gold]

There is just as many risks, if not more to pinning our hopes to barba

Unless Barba leaves the club after signing Boyd then Boyd is a much riskier proposition.

 

[Unbreakable]

Unless Barba leaves the club after signing Boyd then Boyd is a much riskier proposition.

How so?

 

[Ari Gold]

How so?

Here are some other scenarios that could play out:

+ Jayden Nikorima plays well but can't get a bench gig because Barba plays there. He goes somewhere else and becomes a star.
+ Kodi Nikorima sees Barba and Boyd at the club and decides he has no chance. He goes somewhere else and becomes a star (I personally doubt it and don't rate him, but it's not impossible).
+ Ash Taylor plays well but can't get into first grade. He goes somewhere else and becomes a star.
+ A very good player becomes available. We find ourselves needing his services but are unable to buy him because we have both Barba and Boyd on the payroll.
+ One of our young players becomes a star. He gets big money offers and we find ourselves unable to compete because we have money tied up in both Barba and Boyd. The same could be true of one of our good players coming off contract.
+ WB feels obliged to play Barba from the bench, or thinks it is best. We end up finding ourselves a forward light in key games and lose due to our insistence on playing Barba in the 17 because he's Ben Barba.

So yes, whilst Boyd and Barba both have risks as individuals, the risk of having them both becomes increased. However, I don't think you really get much of a reward by having both Boyd and Barba both at the club. At the very best you have a high quality back up fullback, but with other options at the club it's a miniscule reward for what I perceive to be a massive risk.

And whilst I dislike Boyd, were it him already at our club and Barba the rumoured signing, I'd be equally against it. And if we have to sign Boyd, I'd much rather let Barba go than keep both. Keeping both is a big risk that offers no reward IMO.

 

[Unbreakable]

Jesus.. how many things unrelated to Boyd could you fit into one post..

Jayden just turned 18, we've got plenty of time to retain him, Kodi isn't as good as Boyd or Barba, Ash Taylor plays in the halves, it's very unlikely an elite prop (Only thing we need) becomes available, we have most of our young talent signed for the next couple of years (By then Barba will be long gone), Bennett won't be obliged to play Barba off the bench at all, if he doesn't do anything good, he'll be in ISC within a month.

Glad that's sorted.

 

[Bucking Beads]

Boyd clearly gives the better gobby

 

[vertigo]

Can we lock this thread now?

Boyd confirmed signed and fullback.

 

[Ari Gold]

Jayden is signed til the end of 2015. The fact he's just turned 18, 28 or 88 does not change the fact we have one year to retain him.

We also need more than just an elite prop. A reliable, experienced prop is also a possible requirement after losing Hannant and Kennedy. It's more than plausible we'd miss out on signing one due to a lack of cap space.

And anything salary cap related is related to Boyd, as he takes a decent percentage of it to play a position where we already had strong candidates.

 

[Unbreakable]

Jayden is signed til the end of 2015. The fact he's just turned 18, 28 or 88 does not change the fact we have one year to retain him.

You really think he's going to leave the Broncos to go and play U20's somewhere else? He's good and shows heaps of potential, but to think that he's even remotely close to a guaranteed first grade starting gig anywhere is blasphemy, he's a good 2-3 years off.

We also need more than just an elite prop. A reliable, experienced prop is also a possible requirement after losing Hannant and Kennedy. It's more than plausible we'd miss out on signing one due to a lack of cap space.

There's a salary cap for a reason bro, most teams can't just assemble 17 elite players of their choosing (Except maybe the Roosters..), we've got a fucking phenomenal squad for next season, if we can acquire one more first grade calibre prop before the start of 2015 we're looking really good, much better than anything under Anthony Griffin. Stop being so knit picky because it's a small reason to take a shot at Boyd.

And anything salary cap related is related to Boyd, as he takes a decent percentage of it to play a position where we already had strong candidates.

We haven't got strong candidates at all.. what are you talking about? Hoffman is gone and Barba played the worst football of any marquee fullback signing ever last season.. we had to move him from the position to get him more involved because he was so useless, where are all these strong candidates of which you speak?

 

[Big Pete]

Can we lock this thread now?

Boyd confirmed signed and fullback.

Fair point.

We'll keep this thread open since the idea of Barba v Boyd, or Boyd v any of the other prospects is still an ongoing point of discussion although hopefully with the news, it will eventually drop down the page naturally.

We also stress that members direct their mod related requests or questions to Staff Chat, PM or notify us via Reports.

 

[Ari Gold]

You really think he's going to leave the Broncos to go and play U20's somewhere else? He's good and shows heaps of potential, but to think that he's even remotely close to a guaranteed first grade starting gig anywhere is blasphemy, he's a good 2-3 years off.

I never said he was guaranteed to get a first grade gig anywhere. What I said was that he wouldn't get one here and go searching for it. It may or may not happen, but I view his potential loss to be a massive concern that is not justified by having Boyd and Barba.

There's a salary cap for a reason bro, most teams can't just assemble 17 elite players of their choosing (Except maybe the Roosters..), we've got a fucking phenomenal squad for next season, if we can acquire one more first grade calibre prop before the start of 2015 we're looking really good, much better than anything under Anthony Griffin. Stop being so knit picky because it's a small reason to take a shot at Boyd.

Of course we are better than we were under Griffin. We'd probably look better if Broncoman were our coach. And the fact we can't just assemble elite players everywhere is precisely why I don't see the point in paying good money to have two quality fullbacks when you only field one.

We haven't got strong candidates at all.. what are you talking about? Hoffman is gone and Barba played the worst football of any marquee fullback signing ever last season.. we had to move him from the position to get him more involved because he was so useless, where are all these strong candidates of which you speak?

We had to move Barba because Hoffman was so useless. And Barba was no less useless than Boyd. I think Boyd is a better fullback on average, but not by a huge amount. Barba won a Dally M playing fullback. How is that not a strong candidate? Milford is also a fine fullback and has so far played his best football there. If he goes badly this year and Ash Taylor comes good, can we now move Milf to fullback and play Taylor and Hunt in the halves? No, we can't.

It's a lot of risks and potentially bad things to happen when the prize is a fullback who is only better than Barba by a small amount.

 

[Unbreakable]

I swear I've had this exact same conversation at least 50 times on this forum, whatever, he's officially signed on Wednesday, you guys can begin getting salty now.