Dave Taylor

[ningnangnong]

Right then, what do you all make of him?

He doesn't seem to have the same 'aura' he had last year. I noticed a few people critical of him in the match thread.

I thought he was excellent last week against Canberra, but last night other than that intercept he wasn't really in the game.

I can't help but wonder if the way he was treated last season by WB/coaches has something to do with it. He was awesome last season, but would then get dropped for two or three games, losing any foundations he had to build consistency.

I'm not having a dig at WB, though i can't help but feel the way he was in and out of the team last year has had an adverse effect on him. Even the beginning of this year he was nowhere to be seen, although that may have been down to a lack of fitness.

It's obvious he has massive potential, it's just a matter of unleashing it.

I really hope he can retain his place in the team for the rest of the season, because in my opinion, to improve he needs to be playing.

 

[Chumba]

He does have mountains of potential, but that's just a word.

I see him as either lazy or unfit... he was great in one game last year and had a handfull of good moments in other games, but he is a long way off being anything special. He drops the ball, falls off tackles and really just seems to go missing. He's slow getting up to play the ball or get off the player he's just tackled and that's early in the game when he has just come on. I hope he grows into the hyped up thing everyones talking about, but thats yet to be seen.

 

[Fozz]

I can't help but wonder if the way he was treated last season by WB/coaches has something to do with it. He was awesome last season, but would then get dropped for two or three games, losing any foundations he had to build consistency.

Yep, I think that is the problem. He obviously wants to keep playing first grade so he tries too hard to do something special and keep his spot rather than trying to have a solid game and cementing his spot on that basis. He is probably a bit unfit but I'm sure that can be fixed.

 

[mick]

Lazy lazy lazy lazy lazy!

Seems like Taylor has spent the last 12 months reading the hype, and believing it. Even after a stint in the Qld Cup!

He needs a rocket, because he has the talent to be one of the premier forwards in the game IMO.

 

[Kaz]

Is he fit, he looked knackered after that run.

I thought they were going to give him oxygen, he was puffing so much.

 

[Professor47]

As been echoed by everyone, fitness, fitness, fitness.

He might even have to shed a few kilos by the looks of it, If you have the size you have to have the motor to run it, I don't think he does yet, and naturally you overweight doesn't help either.

 

[Major JW Hochstetter]

We need to keep in mind that Taylor is fresh out of nappies and still growing physically and mentally as a footballer, which needs to be taken into consideration when assessing his progress at this stage of his career. His great potential has already been identified (which may currently be to his detrement), but from a realistic point of view a footballer's natural progression suggests he has at least a few seasons ahead of him before that potential is realised consitently enough to make the sort of impact we'd want out of him as a top notch first grade prop.

To play a very young prop, who is still growing, in spurts throughout the season is going to bring about frequent occassions where he'll put in sub-standard, sometimes woeful performances - often not through a lack of trying, but also the issue of a "boom", hyped-up youngster getting their head in order.

Given the above, we must expect a decent level of shyteness in Taylor's game from time to time, and probably more often than not.

This isn't to say that Bennett's method of nursing youngsters into first grade is wrong, indeed he has the runs on the board to completely silence any critic in this area. But given the hype surrounding Taylor, and Bennett's strict plan of gradually building a youngster's first grade experience no matter what level of hype or potential they have, means Taylor may be trying way too hard at every opportunity to live up to his reputation and thus not approaching the game in the manner he should. The result - the odd moment of skillful brilliance with many, many instances of attacking errors, ineffective tackles, poor defensive reads, and so on. Which then leads to decreased levels of confidence, laziness and frustration.

A full season or two of playing first grade every week from the bench should see his game gradually blossom and mature, but until then we need to take the good with the bad with Taylor, knowing that we should have ourselves an exciting talent for the long-term (barring any onset of Meyers-Carlaw Disease).

As fans we need to be patient with this one.

 

[m1c]

One thing i have noticed with him is that he struggles with his timing. I reckon on 80% of his hit ups he gets the ball flat footed or way in front or behind him. I dont know if its a communication problem he has with Ennis/Marsh or if he just needs to work on his timing, but when he gets a head of steam up there is no harder player in the game to tackle front on. I'd like to see more of that

 

[ningnangnong]

One thing i have noticed with him is that he struggles with his timing. I reckon on 80% of his hit ups he gets the ball flat footed or way in front or behind him. I dont know if its a communication problem he has with Ennis/Marsh or if he just needs to work on his timing, but when he gets a head of steam up there is no harder player in the game to tackle front on. I'd like to see more of that

Yeh noticed that a few times last night.

Tended to get caught flat footed a bit on the edge of the ruck. If he can run onto that ball at full steam, he'll be breaking the line with ease.

Some of the blame must be attributed to whoever is passing though IMO.

 

[ethos]

He also seems a bit hesistant on the field.

It's as if he's not quite sure whether to go for either the fancy offload or solid hit up. Seems to be worried about making mistakes and, once you start thinking about mistakes, the first thing you do is screw up.

I think he just needs to loosen up a bit and really enjoy playing footy again. When he was carving up last year he really looked like he was having fun (post-try celebration against the Titans for starters), he doesn't have that same spark about him this season.

But whether this is a coaching thing or not I'm not sure. However, Bennett does have a bit of a history of clamping down on any on-field exuberance..

 

[Jeza23]

I second the sentiments of JW.

We need to be patient with Dave and take the good performances with the bad. He has a massive amount of potential, but I think some of us are forgetting that he has still only played a handful of first grade games.

With experience comes more consistent performances. I also agree with you ethos, he needs to just think about having fun instead of trying too hard to impress his team mates and Wayne. If he does this I believe he will be more than handy for the rest of this year!

 

[nopatience101]

i think the flare has been coached out of him to a degree to reduce errors but i dont think was intentional rather he doesnt want to risk a drop ball, he just needs time to find a happy medium...... although his fitness does have ??? on it.....

 

[Flutterby]

"Potential don't win premierships" (Jack Gibson)

 

[NPK]

"Potential don't win premierships" (Jack Gibson)

Jack ain't no good at grammar hey? [icon_razz1

 

[rnabokov]

One thing i have noticed with him is that he struggles with his timing. I reckon on 80% of his hit ups he gets the ball flat footed or way in front or behind him. I dont know if its a communication problem he has with Ennis/Marsh or if he just needs to work on his timing, but when he gets a head of steam up there is no harder player in the game to tackle front on. I'd like to see more of that

Yeh noticed that a few times last night.

Tended to get caught flat footed a bit on the edge of the ruck. If he can run onto that ball at full steam, he'll be breaking the line with ease.

Some of the blame must be attributed to whoever is passing though IMO.

I think you've nailed it - as well as the fitness issued referred to above.

Taylor looks bigger than I can remember, and his big run last night only to be brought down by a prop, I think, tells me he seems to have lost a lot of the speed a lot of us seemed to focus on last year.

He may still be young and growing, but it needs to be in the right places!

 

[Flutterby]

"Potential don't win premierships" (Jack Gibson)

Jack ain't no good at grammar hey? [icon_razz1

No he wasn't particularly good at grammar - but he generally got his message through icon_smile

 

[ningnangnong]

One thing i have noticed with him is that he struggles with his timing. I reckon on 80% of his hit ups he gets the ball flat footed or way in front or behind him. I dont know if its a communication problem he has with Ennis/Marsh or if he just needs to work on his timing, but when he gets a head of steam up there is no harder player in the game to tackle front on. I'd like to see more of that

Yeh noticed that a few times last night.

Tended to get caught flat footed a bit on the edge of the ruck. If he can run onto that ball at full steam, he'll be breaking the line with ease.

Some of the blame must be attributed to whoever is passing though IMO.

I think you've nailed it - as well as the fitness issued referred to above.

Taylor looks bigger than I can remember, and his big run last night only to be brought down by a prop, I think, tells me he seems to have lost a lot of the speed a lot of us seemed to focus on last year.

He may still be young and growing, but it needs to be in the right places!

Yeh agreed.

If he had of taken that intercept last year, i'm certain he would've gone all the way to score.

I'd rather he kept the 'flair' area of his game because i think we lack something like that in the forwards.

Thaiday is about our only forward who i would deem explosive, but even he hasn't been playing his best lately.

If Taylor is confident he can get an offload away, he should go for it. If he's confident he should throw a cutout pass or something like that, he should go for it.

He's well capable of it IMO, and we need a forward like that. If i was WB, i would be supporting him and encouraging big Dave to be eccentric in his game.

 

[Prince Langer]

I think it is simple and the same problem was seen with Carlaw.
Taylor is a running forward. He needs to get the ball when he is on the burst and one on one with a defender. 90% of the time he will either break the line or get an offload away. Play him on the edge of the ruck and having him hit the line at speed, he and Carrol done it last year against the Tigers with great effect.
Playing him as a battering ram will see him stay a run of the mill fringe player.