Tesi Niu

[theshed]

Have they not finished calculated the Brain Farts figures?

Gonna be some tough nights at the office coming up against Cleary then Burton. Shutter at the thought.

 

[holdzy]

Gonna be some tough nights at the office coming up against Cleary then Burton. Shutter at the thought.

Totally. Every trick in the book and then a high bomb.

 

[theshed]

He is a massive target in our team now. Tesi is probably our best ball player at fullback, which Reynolds needs in the spine, but his running isn't that great and he seems to have no game awareness.

He has also now been exposed for two glaring weaknesses that teams will now exploit relentlessly.

His troubles under the high ball started against the dogs... he attempted to catch that towering bomb off Burton and his confidence has been shot ever since. Literally everyone has struggled under Burton's bombs to date but he has gone completely into his shell because of it. Now teams can just stand at the 45m line and put up a torp bomb knowing that they're every chance to compete for it and get it back. Basically offering up an attacking chance on every single set of the game... the team shouldn't have to deal with that.

His goal line defence has been absolutely exposed tonight as well. The same happened with Walsh last year where a team would look for him on the line within the 5m and just target him. It's a soft try but they're all worth the same amount and you just cannot be giving teams an obvious option to expose each week.

He needs to go back to qcup now simply because he will be a liability and his confidence will continue to be rocked every week in NRL.

How the hell is he going to go next week with Cleary putting up torps and then Burton again the following week.

He actually needs to be dropped for his own good.

Whichever one is the best defensively out of Herbie, Cobbo and Mead should be our fullback for a few weeks

Meads injured and with the next 2 games’ kickers it would be the worst possible time to bring Cobbo into the role.

 

[Sproj]

You absolutely give him two more games. There were some real signs of life tonight, I was overall pretty impressed but not ignorant of the glaring problems.

I feel like I just saw something, I’m not sure what. Even if I’m wrong, I agree now is not the time to bring in a new fullback with Cleary and Burton incoming.

That was an Isaako-like game, maybe he will do what Jamayne never did and kick on, maybe he won’t but for now, he’s definitely earned two more games in my opinion.

And I do find it funny that in thread and on here @Huge is bagging him a lot when he is basically a carbon copy of Isaako just younger and hopefully able to fix the glaring issues Isaako never did.

 

[BroncsFan]

Meads injured and with the next 2 games’ kickers it would be the worst possible time to bring Cobbo into the role.

so Herbie it is.

It's not great for anyone to be coming into fullback with the next two games coming up and I probably would've wanted Mead only because of his experience.

You don't want to send a rookie in there to be instantly rattled against two of the biggest kickers in the comp, but I don't necessarily see how we can go with Tesi... he'll be a dear in headlights out there

 

[Nashy]

You absolutely give him two more games. There were some real signs of life tonight, I was overall pretty impressed but not ignorant of the glaring problems.

I feel like I just saw something, I’m not sure what. Even if I’m wrong, I agree now is not the time to bring in a new fullback with Cleary and Burton incoming.

That was an Isaako-like game, maybe he will do what Jamayne never did and kick on, maybe he won’t but for now, he’s definitely earned two more games in my opinion.

And I do find it funny that in thread and on here @Huge is bagging him a lot when he is basically a carbon copy of Isaako just younger and hopefully able to fix the glaring issues Isaako never did.

You can't tell him the past weeks are okay by continuing to give him game time. He's had more than enough chances in an absolutely critical position. He needs to learn how to play footy in another grade, not NRL.

 

[gUt]

All he had to do was take 1 step forward and commit to stopping that Walker try.

 

[Sproj]

You can't tell him the past weeks are okay by continuing to give him game time. He's had more than enough chances in an absolutely critical position. He needs to learn how to play footy in another grade, not NRL.

Yeah it’s my opinion, I’m totally ok and understanding if people disagree. He has some big issues but you can’t ignore some of the great stuff he did either, I’m just trying to be balanced.

And for the record, I’d go Herbie without thinking twice but Kevvie won’t do it, so there’s no point really hypothesising about it.

 

[theshed]

so Herbie it is.

It's not great for anyone to be coming into fullback with the next two games coming up and I probably would've wanted Mead only because of his experience.

You don't want to send a rookie in there to be instantly rattled against two of the biggest kickers in the comp, but I don't necessarily see how we can go with Tesi... he'll be a dear in headlights out there

I’m not against the Herbie idea but our left side defence has been pretty solid and attack has been good too. I’d prefer to keep letting those combinations form because they’re starting to look first grade standard. I would probably give Niu the next 2 games but really we’re just buying time for Cobbo to hit a run of confident form.

I’ve said since the start I’d persist with the team until round 7-10 and I think I stand by that.

 

[007]

He was useless as a first grade fullback before, hes even more useless now after being on show tonight. Game set match his first grade career is done long term.

Herbie to FB, Branko to centre.

 

[Broncapz]

I've never seen the forum agree on anything like this before.

 

[winslow_wong]

He was useless as a first grade fullback before, hes even more useless now after being on show tonight. Game set match his first grade career is done long term.

Herbie to FB, Branko to centre.

I remember the first time I watched him play fullback he somehow bombed a 3 on 1 overlap. First impressions last.

 

[ningnangnong]

All he had to do was take 1 step forward and commit to stopping that Walker try.

This really pissed me off.

When the replay was shown, it showed the play before the try and he was on his heels, completely stagnant. Whenever the play is that close to the line, your fullback needs to be on his toes, ready to go. They need to use their knowledge and awareness to anticipate where the play will go or how it will develop.

Tesi doesn't. He stands still, has a breath, then on the next play, he's not even on the line, he's still partly in-goal. It's incredibly poor defending.

 

[007]

This really pissed me off.

When the replay was shown, it showed the play before the try and he was on his heels, completely stagnant. Whenever the play is that close to the line, your fullback needs to be on his toes, ready to go. They need to use their knowledge and awareness to anticipate where the play will go or how it will develop.

Tesi doesn't. He stands still, has a breath, then on the next play, he's not even on the line, he's still partly in-goal. It's incredibly poor defending.

The guy has near zero football brain cells. Good for park footy and thats it.

 

[NSW stables]

Tesi v (Tedesco):
1 try assist (0)
17 runs (22)
200 run metres (167)
10 tackle breaks (1)
2 line break assists (1)
0 tackles lol (0)
4 missed tackles (1)
“0” errors (1)

This is the exact reason you cannot rely on stats as an assessment of a player's performance.

It does not take into account:
-Him running in front of players during "support play" (which cost us a try, and he did on several other occasions during the match.
-Letting bombs or kicks bounce (one bouncing back to the roosters and them getting 6 again, although not counted as his error on the stats, really, it was his error.
-Being out of position for their kicks behind the line, one leading to a try.
-Weak goal line defence (i accept manu may have out muscled him, but he should have been able to get under and stop walker).
-Out of position and saved by a payne hass tackle.
-penalty placing the roosters in an attacking position leading to their try.

His tackle breaks were because he ran around in circles, they did not amount to anything. His larger metres were because the roosters kept kicking to him because he can't catch balls on the full and his positioning is shit. Running from a kick you should usually make 15-20 metres, so I would be concerned if he didnt have high metres.

My concern is because we did not get hammered, kevie will not change anything.

 

[Skathen]

Problem for us has been what it has been for literally years, we have poor options in the spine.

In the fullback role, we had Boyd, who blew his hammy and was never the same. We gave Isaako a shot and he shat the bed. We gave Tesi a shot and he's had some good games (like Isaako did early) but in my view, your fullback can't be rocks and diamonds.

Tonight, Teddy was off his game (by his standards). But was by no means a mess at the back.

A fullback is an extremely important tactical position. You've gotta be highly motivated to make sure you're always going to be position. You need to be directing defence, watching the ball players, where the ball is likely to go. It's a very technical role to do a decent job and to do it well, requires someone with talents upstairs as well as physically.

Isaako and Nui have the physical talent. They lack the brains to be a good fullback and I don't think you can really coach that. By the time these kids are hitting this level, they kind of either get it, or they don't.

Attack is important too - but I feel that Isaako and Nui only really "get" attack. They get criticised for their positioning, ball catching, ball watching and just generally being sloppy - every time the opposition team is inside our 20, I have to hold my breath on the last - even when they miraculously are in position because 50/50 they won't catch it when it counts.

I don't pretend to have a solution - I certainly don't think it's Cobbo. He might get there, one day. But a kid running the back is not where he needs to be right now. If he wants to be FB - go play ISC for a year or two. Get some solid skills and experience and we'll accommodate if he makes the grade.

Herbie - never got a fair crack - I think he was named in one game then due to another injury got moved? So who knows. He actually seems clever enough to succeed back there, but probably knows it's likely a poisoned chalice and doesn't want it in the event he fails while he's going for a pay rise.

Mead is realistically the only person who I feel is safe at the back - but he's a safe pick, not an exciting one or even a long term option.

Recruitment options are pretty trash at the moment - I don't think there's an easy fix to this problem.

 

[Sproj]

I watched the second half and made some big errors at crucial moments for sure. He was also in just about everything attack wise and for the first time in a long time, our attack looked good, really good.

His defensive positioning was poor and he should have stopped Walker and been watching for the kicks through close to the line but he won’t be the only one caught out this week.

The reality is though, he was in positions to stop tries last night (and failed) that he didn’t even go for previously. That is a small sign of improvement. We don’t have a lot of fullback options, so stick with him for another couple of weeks, let’s see if he builds on what was overall a pretty decent game despite the negatives.

 

[theshed]

I watched the second half and made some big errors at crucial moments for sure. He was also in just about everything attack wise and for the first time in a long time, our attack looked good, really good.

His defensive positioning was poor and he should have stopped Walker and been watching for the kicks through close to the line but he won’t be the only one caught out this week.

The reality is though, he was in positions to stop tries last night (and failed) that he didn’t even go for previously. That is a small sign of improvement. We don’t have a lot of fullback options, so stick with him for another couple of weeks, let’s see if he builds on what was overall a pretty decent game despite the negatives.

He was no worse in defence than Drinkwater, that’s for sure.