NEWS The alarming decline of Milford's biggest weapon

[Unbreakable]

I'm seeing far too many excuses in favour of Milford honestly.

Needs a dominant Halfback who can do 90% of the kicking and game management at a high level.
Needs a dominant Forward pack to get the team in optimal field position every set.
Needs a dominant Hooker who can get the team on the front foot every set.
Needs Kevin Walters as the halves coach.

It would be nice if we had all of those things, alas, we don't. (Partially because we're paying him so much..) With the amount we're paying him he should be dominating regardless.

 

[Jason Simmons]

So everyone complaining about Milford pay packet would've been happy to see him go to Melbourne then?

No.

But I would have liked to see the difference in his apparent attitude towards diet / training / conditioning / performance at Melbourne compared to here...

Do we need to look past Kasiano? Funny how we don’t see many excuses about ‘genes’ in Melbourne...

 

[Fernando]

Playmaker vs dominant half argument aside the times when he does run he looks slow. He looks nothing like the Raiders or 2015 Milford. The quality of his running game has dropped off which is a worry because he is 23, not 33. I don’t think he’s a more dangerous half than someone like Cody Walker right now

 

[pagey]

No, because they have the perfect halves partner for him (Croft), Milford would've been the best Five-Eighth in the world at Melbourne, I have no questions.

People scoffed at names like Josh McCrone, Sam Williams & Chad Townsend being thrown around last year, guess what, if any of them were our 7 then Milford could play his natural game and I'm almost 100% certain we'd be a better team for it.

As @Porthoz has been saying today, we're trying to turn Milford in to Lockyer, he isn't Lockyer, not even close, he's a dynamic runner of the football who we've tried to mould in to something he's clearly not.

He still needs to learn these aspects of the game, even if he is the best at them. No use being a great runner if you don't know the best time to run !!! Every player should be learning and trying to be the best they can.

 

[Porthoz]

I'm seeing far too many excuses in favour of Milford honestly.

Needs a dominant Halfback who can do 90% of the kicking and game management at a high level.
Needs a dominant Forward pack to get the team in optimal field position every set.
Needs a dominant Hooker who can get the team on the front foot every set.
Needs Kevin Walters as the halves coach.

It would be nice if we had all of those things, alas, we don't. (Partially because we're paying him so much..) With the amount we're paying him he should be dominating regardless.

And there we go... again. Sigh

You're a brilliant psychiatrist and I'm gonna pay you a million dollars because of it.
Now go perform brain surgery while giving psychiatry consults, and regardless of the nerve damage to your hands, you better dominate at it with the amount I'm paying you!

Managing people is a complex job without a doubt. The first step to make it easier, is to utilise each individual's best skills by giving them the right job and tasks. Don't put the fucking accountant in a car going door to door selling your product, the sales guy fixing appliances and the sparky doing the books... unless you want to sabotage your business of course.

 

[Unbreakable]

And there we go... again. Sigh

You're a brilliant psychiatrist and I'm gonna pay you a million dollars because of it.
Now go perform brain surgery while giving psychiatry consults, and regardless of the nerve damage to your hands, you better dominate at it with the amount I'm paying you!

Managing people is a complex job without a doubt. The first step to make it easier, is to utilise each individual's best skills by giving them the right job and tasks. Don't put the fucking accountant in a car going door to door selling your product, the sales guy fixing appliances and the sparky doing the books... unless you want to sabotage your business of course.

You completely missed my point, but ok.

I'm not saying he should start playing like a million dollar Halfback with great game management, I'm saying he should start playing like a million dollar Five-Eighth that you know.. runs the football.. and scores tries..

 

[Porthoz]

He still needs to learn these aspects of the game, even if he is the best at them. No use being a great runner if you don't know the best time to run !!! Every player should be learning and trying to be the best they can.

Of course he must keep evolving and try to learn as much as he can, emphasis on the CAN part. He definitely used to know when to run, because he did it out of instinct, and was superb at it.

Now he's trying to steer his team around, plan ahead, kick for position, etc... instead of just following the ball around waiting for an offload, a gap in the defense, or any other opportunity to apply his lethal skills. You might argue that's not worth a million bucks, but the market says otherwise.

You have exceptional guys like Locky, Johns or Thurston, who excel at almost everything, but they are very rare. Milford isn't one of those, because to put it really bluntly... he simply lacks the necessary intelligence for it IMO.

On the other hand, you have players who do have the footy intelligence, but will never have the physical ability and talent to do the things a Milford, RTS or SJ can do, like Peter Wallace, Ash Taylor or even the maximum exponent called Cooper Cronk. And although the latter is the perfect example of intelligence in service of sports (alongside his mate Cameron Smith), he wouldn't have become the player he is without a flawless work ethic.

 

[Porthoz]

You completely missed my point, but ok.

I'm not saying he should start playing like a million dollar Halfback with great game management, I'm saying he should start playing like a million dollar Five-Eighth that you know.. runs the football.. and scores tries..

Yeah, tell that to Wayne...

 

[Alec]

Before last year, I wouldn't have thought it was possible. But the transformation of Morgan last year makes me think it's possible. I don't want to argue about the Cowboys or their opposition, I just thought Morgan completely changed his game and was playing as an organiser. Before that, he looked like he had less ball playing smarts in him than Milford. I think it's just willingness to learn, and yes, your footy brain too. Again, I must have said it like 100 times by now, but this is why I have some faith in Kodi again. He really looks like he wants to learn and can admit his mistakes when he makes them. He just needs to develop some balls too. Milford hasn't looked that way yet, but with all the talk how he's changed, I hope I'm very wrong about him and he can develop too.

 

[Sproj]

Before last year, I wouldn't have thought it was possible. But the transformation of Morgan last year makes me think it's possible. I don't want to argue about the Cowboys or their opposition, I just thought Morgan completely changed his game and was playing as an organiser. Before that, he looked like he had less ball playing smarts in him than Milford. I think it's just willingness to learn, and yes, your footy brain too. Again, I must have said it like 100 times by now, but this is why I have some faith in Kodi again. He really looks like he wants to learn and can admit his mistakes when he makes them. He just needs to develop some balls too. Milford hasn't looked that way yet, but with all the talk how he's changed, I hope I'm very wrong about him and he can develop too.

Even without Scott available, Morgan also had something Milf doesn't, a forward pack that goes forward. Now through back in JT, Scott and add McLean, that side will be nigh unstoppable once they are match fit.

I know I have been bagging Milf a lot but very much in his defense, he doesn't have a forward pack that can do what the Cows do. He also doesn't seem to have a coach who is willing to change the way the side plays to match his (or their) strengths. If Milf was given the freedom to roam (like Morgan was allowed to do) and if he had a forward pack allowed to play to their strengths (ball-playing, spreading it from side-to-side and playing a bit of ad-lib), he could really do a Morgan and become something.

I'm not sure which coach is to blame for this lack of improvement, depends on who is responsible for attack. That said, whoever is responsible for strength and conditioning has some explaining to do. Not one player looked match ready.

 

[Maroon4life]

Talk about a storm in a teacup. The media has moved from attacking Lodge to attacking Milford.

Did he have a good game? Definitely not. We need to remember our forwards were completely dominated outside TPJ and Lodge, and we had very ordinary service out the whole game. Macca was very rusty, and Thaiday quite obviously isn't a hooker.

When you factor in the poor completion rate and subsequent lack of possession is it any wonder he had a poor game? Is anyone really surprised by that based on the game? I'm certainly not.

After the Cowboys we have a pretty soft schedule - and that's going to be the best indicator of how he and Nikorima are going. Get some confidence and form and then they will hopefully be ready for the bigger teams at the back end of the season.

You make good points but the crtiticism of Milford is a continuation from the last season and a half, not this singular game. There’s been games where our forwards have been on top and Milford has produced SFA.

 

[Maroon4life]

I'm seeing far too many excuses in favour of Milford honestly.

Needs a dominant Halfback who can do 90% of the kicking and game management at a high level.
Needs a dominant Forward pack to get the team in optimal field position every set.
Needs a dominant Hooker who can get the team on the front foot every set.
Needs Kevin Walters as the halves coach.

It would be nice if we had all of those things, alas, we don't. (Partially because we're paying him so much..) With the amount we're paying him he should be dominating regardless.

Incredibly well said, some are still romanticised by his 2015 season and it was great, but he’s not doing charity work, he’s not worth a 4th of what we’re paying him currently.

 

[Maroon4life]

And there we go... again. Sigh

You're a brilliant psychiatrist and I'm gonna pay you a million dollars because of it.
Now go perform brain surgery while giving psychiatry consults, and regardless of the nerve damage to your hands, you better dominate at it with the amount I'm paying you!

Managing people is a complex job without a doubt. The first step to make it easier, is to utilise each individual's best skills by giving them the right job and tasks. Don't put the fucking accountant in a car going door to door selling your product, the sales guy fixing appliances and the sparky doing the books... unless you want to sabotage your business of course.

Using this analogy are you saying the coaching and recruitment staff at the club have made some bad judgement calls on who to buy & let go?

 

[Sproj]

Using this analogy are you saying the coaching and recruitment staff at the club have made some bad judgement calls on who to buy & let go?

I can't speak for @Porthoz but I certainly think that and have said so for years now. Some of the recruitment and retention decisions are just mind-boggling. It hasn't gotten any better since overlooking JT all those years ago simply because he was too small.

 

[Porthoz]

Using this analogy are you saying the coaching and recruitment staff at the club have made some bad judgement calls on who to buy & let go?

Absolutely! That's where it starts, but not where it ends... as the mistakes are being compounded by not using the people we do have to their best ability imo.

 

[Maroon4life]

I can't speak for @Porthoz but I certainly think that and have said so for years now. Some of the recruitment and retention decisions are just mind-boggling. It hasn't gotten any better since overlooking JT all those years ago simply because he was too small.

Yeah I agree, can also see Porthoz’s point as well but if Porthoz is correct and so is basically every other competent NRL commentator that we needed a more conventional halfback to allow Milford to play his best game does that mean our coaching/recruitment staff have left us screwed for a few more years yet?

I can see the milf/nik combo absolutely demolishing a few teams this year, it will happen as both are extremely talented, but those games are probably going too be lost under a great many other games where they are just shown up as a non viable halves combination.

 

[pagey]

Of course he must keep evolving and try to learn as much as he can, emphasis on the CAN part. He definitely used to know when to run, because he did it out of instinct, and was superb at it.

Now he's trying to steer his team around, plan ahead, kick for position, etc... instead of just following the ball around waiting for an offload, a gap in the defense, or any other opportunity to apply his lethal skills. You might argue that's not worth a million bucks, but the market says otherwise.

You have exceptional guys like Locky, Johns or Thurston, who excel at almost everything, but they are very rare. Milford isn't one of those, because to put it really bluntly... he simply lacks the necessary intelligence for it IMO.

On the other hand, you have players who do have the footy intelligence, but will never have the physical ability and talent to do the things a Milford, RTS or SJ can do, like Peter Wallace, Ash Taylor or even the maximum exponent called Cooper Cronk. And although the latter is the perfect example of intelligence in service of sports (alongside his mate Cameron Smith), he wouldn't have become the player he is without a flawless work ethic.

Sorry but i can't agree that a hole or backup runner can have a place in a important position. Also that he can't add to his arsenal, as a runner he should be studying defensive structures and weaknesses in defensivelines of teams.
I also believe we play way to flat for him , he needs space.

 

[Foordy]

The simple solution

1. Milford
2. Isaako
3. Roberts
4. Boyd (his legs aren’t doing him any favours)
5. Kahu/Oates
6. Bird (will give the left edge confidence in def)
7. Niko

Bird at 5/8 won't solve our halves problems ... it is essentially trading one running half for another and we would still lack game management, organisation and a quality kicking game.