Re: Player Awards Today (9th) : Mon Sep 10, 2012 9:17 am  

I picked Roby for player of year and Josh Jones for Young player of the year.

Would not pick Makinson for young player of the year as i feel he has been average at best. He needs to cut down his error rate, which is far higher than the much maligned Meli. He also needs to read play better so he learns to sniff out trys, and be more of a threat from kick returns by improving his evasion skills, at present he appears to be very much a straight line runner rather than having a step, swerve and change of pace.


Josh Jones is hard to pick faults with. Somewhat surprisingly for one so young 18/19, he has been defensively and offensively strong. He has been a real handful for even the better SL teams. Arguably he is already amongst the best centres in SL.

Re: Player Awards Today (9th) : Mon Sep 10, 2012 9:52 am  

Saddened! wrote:

On Wello, why has his new deal not been announced yet? Does anyone know?

With luck they changed there mind and he's off for a glorious end to career at the mighty Salford

Re: Player Awards Today (9th) : Mon Sep 10, 2012 9:56 am  

Saddened! wrote:

Those who have the backbone to stand up for humanity and fight for what they believe in will always carry the torch of righteousness into battle.

On Wello, why has his new deal not been announced yet? Does anyone know?

McManus has issued a new contract , Wellens has just been slow in returning it.

Re: Player Awards Today (9th) : Mon Sep 10, 2012 10:03 am  

Gerry Mander wrote:

McManus has issued a new contract , Wellens has just been slow in returning it.

Interesting comments from DA on Twitter last night. Basically stating that FB's are one of the most important aspects of the team now, with the best clubs in Oz utilising the best FB's.

Re: Player Awards Today (9th) : Mon Sep 10, 2012 10:31 am  

The Chair Maker wrote:

I picked Roby for player of year and Josh Jones for Young player of the year.

Would not pick Makinson for young player of the year as i feel he has been average at best. He needs to cut down his error rate, which is far higher than the much maligned Meli. He also needs to read play better so he learns to sniff out trys, and be more of a threat from kick returns by improving his evasion skills, at present he appears to be very much a straight line runner rather than having a step, swerve and change of pace.


Josh Jones is hard to pick faults with. Somewhat surprisingly for one so young 18/19, he has been defensively and offensively strong. He has been a real handful for even the better SL teams. Arguably he is already amongst the best centres in SL.

Absolutely spot on. You'd need to be self-deluded or have an acute case of myopia to think that Makinson deserves young player of the year over Jones. Makinson has consistently been a disappointment with ball in hand this season and has started to add defensive frailties to his CV of late to boot. Jones on the other hand has come from nowhere at the age of 18 and has made the #4 shirt his own with great defence and the kind of threat going forward that Makinson only very, very occasionally hints at having. A no brainer any way you look at it.

Re: Player Awards Today (9th) : Mon Sep 10, 2012 10:48 am  

Carlos Alberto wrote:

:lol:

Interesting comments from DA on Twitter last night. Basically stating that FB's are one of the most important aspects of the team now, with the best clubs in Oz utilising the best FB's.

Indeed. It's why players like Greg Inglis and Sam Tomkins, already established in other positions, were moved there. It's arguably now the key attacking position certainly, due to how unpredictable it is. If you know the opposition has a world class halfback, you can plan for that, you know where he'll be and you know what he'll be looking to do. You can't do that with a world class fullback as they could join the line anywhere, from pretty much any angle and from deep at speed. How a fullback returns the ball is pretty important as well. If he gets you on the front foot it can be worth 30-40m over 5 tackles. If he returns it and gets buried 2m after he picks it up, your second and third carries are pretty much dead in the water as there is no momentum.

It's certainly not the position you want to be carrying players in.

Re: Player Awards Today (9th) : Mon Sep 10, 2012 11:47 am  

The Chair Maker wrote:

Would not pick Makinson for young player of the year as i feel he has been average at best. He needs to cut down his error rate, which is far higher than the much maligned Meli. He also needs to read play better so he learns to sniff out trys, and be more of a threat from kick returns by improving his evasion skills, at present he appears to be very much a straight line runner rather than having a step, swerve and change of pace.

What a lot of tosh.

Re: Player Awards Today (9th) : Mon Sep 10, 2012 11:56 am  

The Chair Maker wrote:

Would not pick Makinson for young player of the year as i feel he has been average at best. He needs to cut down his error rate, which is far higher than the much maligned Meli. He also needs to read play better so he learns to sniff out trys, and be more of a threat from kick returns by improving his evasion skills, at present he appears to be very much a straight line runner rather than having a step, swerve and change of pace.

I thought his mid season form was good, he looked more of a handful coming out of his own half and very good under the kicks, culminating in a good showing at wigan.
Also, since Shenton's revival, he's had some decent runs with the ball along the touchline. Tries against Hull away and Wakefield at home stick in my mind.
He had a real dip in form later on, were kick were getting away from him, but he's shown numerous qulaity finishes close to the corner flag.

The fact Jones hasn't even been a talking point shows how accomplished he's been though, in a position that many would say is more difficult for a youngster to step into. He'd have got my vote.

I see Swift picked up and award. I hope we see him kick on next year.

Whilst we're on young players, what do people know about Dominic Speakman? He's gone on tour with England as a hooker, but has also been a half back. Does he have first team potential?

Re: Player Awards Today (9th) : Mon Sep 10, 2012 5:38 pm  

The Chair Maker wrote:

Would not pick Makinson for young player of the year as i feel he has been average at best. He needs to cut down his error rate, which is far higher than the much maligned Meli. He also needs to read play better so he learns to sniff out trys, and be more of a threat from kick returns by improving his evasion skills, at present he appears to be very much a straight line runner rather than having a step, swerve and change of pace.

Agree, his weakness is reading the play, its frustrating at times and this should be coached into him as part of his development.
Many times on his kick returns he runs across field and ends up being gang tackled, the play the ball becomes slow and the defence is set.
At the moment he,s not a good option for full back and feel he may kept on the wing for a few seasons, unless injuries in the team changes things.

Re: Player Awards Today (9th) : Mon Sep 10, 2012 8:14 pm  

Gerry Mander wrote:

McManus has issued a new contract , Wellens has just been slow in returning it.

Very droll.