Thoughts on Random Players

[Big Pete]

It's the off-season, I'm bored so here's what I propose...

Every week, I'll list 5 players and you can say whatever you want to say about them.

They can be current or past players.

Let's begin...

Greg Eastwood

Kevin Gordon

Danny Buderus

Justin O'Neil

Luke Keary

 

[Morkel]

Greg Eastwood
A player that fluctuates wildly. Is a bit over-rated on BHQ. Has a couple of excellent performances but then is invisible for 12 months.

Kevin Gordon
A servicable winger. Good finisher but others little else. He'll get the ball down, but he needs others to make the room and set him up.

Danny Buderus
I missed his earlier years, so I've only really seen him since Smith has been #1.

Justin O'Neil
Typical Storm expat.

Luke Keary
Massively over-rated. Commentators and Souths fans drool whenever they speak of him, but I don't see it. Tough little nugget, but has been the beneficiary of a dominant pack.

 

[Financeguy]

Greg Eastwood
Seems to be a bit of a fan favorite for the Dogs. I think he offers great impact off the bench, can punch the line in attack and has a little bit more skill and footwork than the average bench forward. Very handy player

Kevin Gordon
Solid NRL winger at best, a dime a dozen winger. If there is 1 team i struggle to watch it is the Titans, to me he is forgettable as the rest of their side.

Danny Buderus
A very very good hooker who had the fortune to have many years playing with a great halfback and a fullback who had a few very good years (O'Davis). Smart footballer who achieved through discipline and hard work as opposed to pure natural talent.

Justin O'Neil
Another dime a dozen first grader which make up the majority of teams player rosters. Never going to be spoken about as a great player but on his day can do a job. Kind of player that will never quite cement a spot in a side as better players will come along.

Luke Keary
I think he has had a decent start to his NRL career. Wouldnt say he is overrated as i havent seen any comments other than there is a lot of hope and potential there which i would find hard to disagree with. One thing i have noted though, he has a fair amount of grubbiness to his game, not quite Josh Reynolds level but it is there and i hope he does not become a Reynolds/Ennis type player.

 

[subsbligh]

Not to derail your topic - but it's interesting to see a common thread (and I'm guilty of it too) of discounting a player's worth because of the opportunities or squad they've played in.

My first thought was Buderus played with Johns, would have struggled with anyone else.

Gordon - a class above say, Maranta, in finishing but he's lost a bit his pace.
O'Neil - I honestly can't tell him, Neilsen and Chambers apart when I turn my minds eye to them.
Keary - not as good as Hunt, Johnson or maybe even Brooks in the young halves stakes. Will be interesting to see how he goes next year with a full season at 6.
Eastwood - meh. Seemed to be one of the "pioneers" of big man footwork at the line. Now he's more like a serviceable 25 minute interchange forward

 

[Morkel]

Not to derail your topic - but it's interesting to see a common thread (and I'm guilty of it too) of discounting a player's worth because of the opportunities or squad they've played in.

You have to remember that I also choose to see certain players that way because they play for a team I don't like (see also Cordner, Guerra, etc). Seriously though, I haven't seen anything in Keary to be load-blowing like the media.

 

[Ari Gold]

I think Buderus at his prime was very Cooper Cronkish. Joey just as lucky to work with Danny IMO.

Still, think his return to NRL was a mistake.

Justin O'Neill is meh. So is Gordon.

Keary I've yet to form an opinion on.

Eastwood under rated. Can be a real game breaker, but doesn't really do enough for his talents.

 

[Alec]

Buderus was brilliant. Amazing defender, superb service, good support play and a natural leader. What modern hookers should aim to be like instead of Cam...because Cam is impossible to replicate to a similar degree, while Bedsey was just a classic hooker.

 

[Broncoman]

Eastwood - I rate him. Not the most mobile player but he is a very useful attacking player. Can bust the line, take an intercept, back up in support and put his teammate into space

Gordon - Is a solid winger with great speed but if you deny him any space to move he isn't as effective.

Buderus - One of the best hookers to play the game and the second best behind Smith. Never let his club, state or country down.

O'Neill - Typical Storm player

Keary - Has plenty of potential and is a player of the future but still needs to work on his defence as it's a bit dodgy.

 

[mitch222]

Greg Eastwood - Sort of in an area of being known to be lazy then bang he is a star. Drifts in and out of games but can be the game breaker your side needs when things are tight. I think Hasler has gotten some decent return from him this year to limit his minutes for high impact. He can scoot for a big boy to.

Kevin Gordon - Is it just me or does this guy look like a phillipino hooker with his haircuts :laugh:. Decent finisher but that's about it. Will be a career winger all his life. Just doesn't have enough talent to make it centre or another position.

Danny Buderus - Played a couple years to many for my liking and diminished his outstanding career a little bit. He was a very good hooker who was eventually usurped by Smith and thus moved to England. A lot of Newcastle fans rate him just as high as Johns with regards to producing results for the team.

Justin O'Neil - A benefit of the storms big 3 system. Cronk, Slater & Smith make quite a few of these blokes look really good and he is one of them. He would struggle if he moved to another team. His defence leaves a bit to be desired as well.

Luke Keary - Highly overrated. I like what he does with some thing but Reynolds clearly carries him with regards to doing a majority of the playmaking and organisation of the forwards. If Reynolds leaves the Rabbits, this kid will crumble.

 

[Unbreakable]

Greg Eastwood, if didn't play his entire career 10kg's overweight he probably would've been the most versatile lock the game had ever seen, with great skill and awesome off-loading ability, nevertheless, he's very lazy.

Kevin Gordon, decent finisher, good speed, solid under the high ball... Nothing absurdly good about him, just a very solid first grade winger.

Danny Buderus, in his prime was the best hooker in the game, an awesome player, really tough as well, shame he ruined his legacy by going to England and then coming back at like 36.

Justin O'Neil, really average player, similar to Kevin Gordon except made to look good by the Storm

Luke Keary, not sure yet, he has the skill set to be a really handy Five-Eighth, but I'm not buying in to him being the best up and coming halve in the game, long way to go yet for him.

 

[Cult]

Greg Eastwood - Before these new signing I would have taken him back in an instant. Always does something that almost turns the game around when playing against us, the prick.. Way faster than he looks. Would be hard to tackle.

Kevin Gordon - Typical Gold Coast back, fast and can find the line with space. Don't give him space and he's average.

Danny Buderus - Did the job well. Defensively and with the ball. Won a Dally M according to Wikipedia. Must have been much better than I remember.

Justin O'Neil - Fortunate enough to be on the back end of the Big 3. Otherwise nobody would know who he is.

Luke Keary - Will stand out to everyone because of the Origin debate surrounding him. I don't think he's overrated though. Someone brought up Luke Brooks before and said Keary hasn't been as good. Keary was the half for the team who won the GF and played well. Brooks has sorta just... been there? I don't get it.

 

[Alec]

Keary is definitely no Brooks in terms of talent in a youngster, but I think he has heaps of potential. Would challenge for a QLD jersey if is somehow allowed to play.

 

[Cult]

Keary is definitely no Brooks in terms of talent in a youngster, but I think he has heaps of potential. Would challenge for a QLD jersey if is somehow allowed to play.

Not as far as what they have done in under 20s but Brooks hasn't been that great in the NRL.

 

[Broncoman]

Greg Eastwood - Before these new signing I would have taken him back in an instant. Always does something that almost turns the game around when playing against us, the prick.. Way faster than he looks. Would be hard to tackle.

Kevin Gordon - Typical Gold Coast back, fast and can find the line with space. Don't give him space and he's average.

Danny Buderus - Did the job well. Defensively and with the ball. Won a Dally M according to Wikipedia. Must have been much better than I remember.

Justin O'Neil - Fortunate enough to be on the back end of the Big 3. Otherwise nobody would know who he is.

Luke Keary - Will stand out to everyone because of the Origin debate surrounding him. I don't think he's overrated though. Someone brought up Luke Brooks before and said Keary hasn't been as good. Keary was the half for the team who won the GF and played well. Brooks has sorta just... been there? I don't get it.

Buderus won the Dally M in 2004

 

[Big Pete]

Good contributions so far.

Greg Eastwood - was my favourite prospect when he first came along in 2006. Didn't look like much of an athlete, but had all the footy sense in the world and could virtually play any position on the field. First memory of him was in Round 1 06. That was a horrible afternoon of football for the club in general, but his performance for Toowoomba was one of the only highlights and it was so good, he was called up to play against the Sharks.

Took him awhile to make an impact but once he got into the groove of things, he really was one of the best rookies that year. One of my favourite memories of him was against the Warriors in Auckland when he came onto replacing Tame Tupou on the wing. Like Gillett against the Cowboys circa 2010, he adapted ridiculously well and combined with Berro to score one of the best Broncos tries that year going 70 odd to seal a really tough game.

Then for whatever reason, he just disappeared. I couldn't believe we were playing Carlaw ahead of him until I found out years later he committed some sort of driving offense and was one of the few players punished.

Despite that hiccup, I saw him as the future of the Broncos and I was feeling very confident we'd be able to win premiership #7 with the likes of him, Hannant, Thaiday & even Parker who was beginning to come into his own.

But he just never kicked on.

Sure, every now and then he'd have this awesome game, vs Cronulla 2008 comes to mind, but there were so many times where I hardly knew he was on the field that I virtually stopped caring and when he left to avoid Benton, I didn't view it as a huge loss.

Course, the driving offense comes back to bite him, so the Dogs snap him up in pretty shady circumstances and he goes onto play his best season for them. I was filthy about that - if the deal had have fallen through, why was he able to go to the Dogs so easily? And where was that sort of form for the Broncos? Otherwise, it was a good season and I thought they really missed him when he left in 2010.

Then he comes back in 2011 and I'm expecting pretty big things...and he's back to his old ways. The odd good play, mixed with a lot of nothingness. He sort of floats in and out until 2014 where I think he's been one of the form players of the past couple of months and a key contributor to both the Bulldogs and Kiwis success.

I actually hope he keeps it up. I like watching Eastwood when he's at his best, I just wish he had have lived up to my vision of being the Broncos Jason Smith. He could have meant so much more to our game.

Kevin Gordon - It's long been forgotten, but when the Titans first emerged, I actually found them to be a pretty likeable club. The likes of Preston Campbell & Luke Bailey were great ambassadors for the game and I always had a soft spot for the likes of Scott Prince, Mat Rogers, Nathan Friend & Anthony Laffranchi. When Gordon first emerged, I saw him as proof positive that the Gold Coast were going to be a successful addition to the code because here they were developing this North NSW talent that had genuine ability and could score a try.

I think his contributions to the Titans campaigns in 2009-10 are largely underrated. Whenever the Titans were in the attacking zone, Prince to Gordon was a go to play and at times, very hard to stop.

When he suffered that injury in 2011, I thought it was a tough blow not only for himself but the Titans. They missed his work out-wide and I don't think he's been quite the same player since.

Still, he's done relatively well to be a handy club winger. My only problem with him is that in this day and age, I don't think you can afford to have two smallish speedsters like him and Mead on your flanks. Somebody has to be the Vatuvei and help get the sets off to a good start, especially when the Titans are so reliant on their forwards. While I think it'd be a sad day for the Titans, I reckon in the interest of both parties, a change in clubs for either Mead or Gordon would do wonders for both parties.

 

[Porthoz]

Danny Buderus
I missed his earlier years, so I've only really seen him since Smith has been #1.

 

[Renegade]

Greg Eastwood - fat

EDIT: Inappropriate

Danny Buderus - captained nsw to three straight series losses. loser

EDIT: Inappropriate

Luke Keary - overrated circlejerk

thank u for reading my random thoughts

 

[theshed]

I haven watched heaps of keary but one thing I noticed is he throws 400 dummies a game and rarely actually passes. I don't think I've ever seen one of them fool someone either. I respect such a small guy taking on the line though.