Unbreakable
International Rep
Contributor
- May 21, 2013
- 19,691
- 20,912
Haven't commented on the game or read any comments on the game, so I'll lay my thoughts out.
Firstly, the good. Haas, Carrigan & Farnworth. Pretty much our best 3 players week-in and week-out at the moment. Palasia was good when in the middle, but when he shifted to the edge he turned to shit. Several defensive mistakes, killed most of our attacking plays down that right edge by darting back in-field rather than keeping the ball moving out to Staggs. Obviously needs to stay in the middle, regardless of injuries. I'd sooner have Walters out on an edge than Palasia.
Now, the bad. The spine was terrible. Turpin hasn't got a clue, there was 3-4 occasions I counted where Reynolds was waiting for the ball on the right with numbers and he decided to go left to Kelly. He also refuses to run the ball unless the defense literally isn't near him. He's quickly becoming the Ben Simmons of the NRL. Teams don't guard Ben Simmons from the 3-point line, because they know he's never going to shoot them, it's the same with Turpin at hooker, teams are happy to be lazy at marker because they know Turpin sure as shit isn't going to make a linebreak. Reynolds & Kelly were both bad, especially Kelly. Willing to chalk it up as a bad game for Reynolds, but Kelly needs to show significantly more than that. He's in the team as a running, off-the-cuff Five-Eighth. That's not how he's playing, Billy Walters did a significantly better job in that role in Round 1 than Kelly is doing. For Niu it's pretty simple, he's not fit enough. Been saying it for 24 months, he needs to lose weight, and lots of it, a minimum 5kg off before I'd even consider him for the Fullback position. Cobbo is further away than I expected, he's still a kid, needs a good 12 months playing 80 minutes at Fullback in Queensland Cup. Oates when attempting to run on that linebreak was embarrassing, he's moving like Ryan James out there, I think we're going to have to move on sooner rather than later unfortunately. Speaking of Ryan James, get him out of the side please, I've never seen someone have such little impact on runs than him, he's clearly just had too many injuries in his career to have a positive influence with ball in hands. Capewell is due some criticism as well, didn't defend well, didn't have any impact on the game at all, was looking remarkably like Alex Glenn out there today. Staggs is in the same boat as Niu, needs to lose some weight. If he's so unfit that he's exhausted after taking 2 hit-ups per half, something has to change. I wish he had the same mentality is Herbie. Starting to wonder if we'll see Staggs playing 2nd row before too long, he seems to have lost a step of speed, and has certainlity lost any of the lateral movement that he had pre-ACL. Looking like a massive mistake of a contract.
I wholeheartedly endorse any calls for Herbie to shift to Fullback. We haven't had anyone fit enough to play the position for 80 minutes since Darius Boyd 2015-17. That's 5 years of unfit, or unwilling fullbacks. Enough is enough, put someone in the position who is hungry for work, and has the fitness to back it up.
This is the line-up I'd be comfortable seeing in Round 4, assuming Jordan Riki is fit.
1. Herbie Farnworth
2. Jordan Pereira
3. Brenko Lee
4. Kotoni Staggs
5. David Mead
6. Billy Walters
7. Adam Reynolds (c)
8. Pat Carrigan
9. Cory Paix
10. Payne Haas
11. Kurt Capewell
12. Jordan Riki
13. Kobe Hetherington
14. Tyson Gamble
15. Tom Flegler
16. Keenan Palasia
17. Teui Robati
Firstly, the good. Haas, Carrigan & Farnworth. Pretty much our best 3 players week-in and week-out at the moment. Palasia was good when in the middle, but when he shifted to the edge he turned to shit. Several defensive mistakes, killed most of our attacking plays down that right edge by darting back in-field rather than keeping the ball moving out to Staggs. Obviously needs to stay in the middle, regardless of injuries. I'd sooner have Walters out on an edge than Palasia.
Now, the bad. The spine was terrible. Turpin hasn't got a clue, there was 3-4 occasions I counted where Reynolds was waiting for the ball on the right with numbers and he decided to go left to Kelly. He also refuses to run the ball unless the defense literally isn't near him. He's quickly becoming the Ben Simmons of the NRL. Teams don't guard Ben Simmons from the 3-point line, because they know he's never going to shoot them, it's the same with Turpin at hooker, teams are happy to be lazy at marker because they know Turpin sure as shit isn't going to make a linebreak. Reynolds & Kelly were both bad, especially Kelly. Willing to chalk it up as a bad game for Reynolds, but Kelly needs to show significantly more than that. He's in the team as a running, off-the-cuff Five-Eighth. That's not how he's playing, Billy Walters did a significantly better job in that role in Round 1 than Kelly is doing. For Niu it's pretty simple, he's not fit enough. Been saying it for 24 months, he needs to lose weight, and lots of it, a minimum 5kg off before I'd even consider him for the Fullback position. Cobbo is further away than I expected, he's still a kid, needs a good 12 months playing 80 minutes at Fullback in Queensland Cup. Oates when attempting to run on that linebreak was embarrassing, he's moving like Ryan James out there, I think we're going to have to move on sooner rather than later unfortunately. Speaking of Ryan James, get him out of the side please, I've never seen someone have such little impact on runs than him, he's clearly just had too many injuries in his career to have a positive influence with ball in hands. Capewell is due some criticism as well, didn't defend well, didn't have any impact on the game at all, was looking remarkably like Alex Glenn out there today. Staggs is in the same boat as Niu, needs to lose some weight. If he's so unfit that he's exhausted after taking 2 hit-ups per half, something has to change. I wish he had the same mentality is Herbie. Starting to wonder if we'll see Staggs playing 2nd row before too long, he seems to have lost a step of speed, and has certainlity lost any of the lateral movement that he had pre-ACL. Looking like a massive mistake of a contract.
I wholeheartedly endorse any calls for Herbie to shift to Fullback. We haven't had anyone fit enough to play the position for 80 minutes since Darius Boyd 2015-17. That's 5 years of unfit, or unwilling fullbacks. Enough is enough, put someone in the position who is hungry for work, and has the fitness to back it up.
This is the line-up I'd be comfortable seeing in Round 4, assuming Jordan Riki is fit.
1. Herbie Farnworth
2. Jordan Pereira
3. Brenko Lee
4. Kotoni Staggs
5. David Mead
6. Billy Walters
7. Adam Reynolds (c)
8. Pat Carrigan
9. Cory Paix
10. Payne Haas
11. Kurt Capewell
12. Jordan Riki
13. Kobe Hetherington
14. Tyson Gamble
15. Tom Flegler
16. Keenan Palasia
17. Teui Robati
