Re: Welcome to St Helens Travis Burns : Tue Sep 23, 2014 2:55 pm  

Offside Monkey wrote:

Last time I saw him play (I think), he kicked a 40-20 an then set up a try from the resulting set.

He's a standoff, he seems to be pretty good at everything, rather than one facet dominating his game.
He's a firey competitor, which we need (I think that translate into him being a half decent defender). He's an actual half back so, unlike this year, if walsh gets injured, we're not relying on the likes of Wilkin or Hohaia to be our main playmaker. Burns will take the main role with (presumably) Lance slotting in alongside in a much more comfortable circumstance. The fact he'sgot a kicking game will also stop the oppo stacking all their pressure on Walsh on the last play.

Whether he'll be Man of Steel or win us the GF and CC I don't know, but we'll certainly be better than we are currently.

I'm very pleased with his signing and like you have stated he will bring some great attributes that will complement our squad. Solid defender, good kicking game and a natural half back. Having natural playmakers at 6 and 7 next year will reap benefits for the club. Good signing in my opinion. Look at Blake Green at HKR, injury prone wasn't a consistent performer there in my opinion, signed for Wigan and has become one of the best 6's in the league. Too many people are castigating our signings before giving them a chance to shine.

Re: Welcome to St Helens Travis Burns : Tue Sep 23, 2014 3:02 pm  

Very happy with the Burns signing. Having two specialist halves who know each other so well is something I'm quite looking forward to. As for our team next year, I'd go with:
Lomax
Makinson
Turner
Percival
Swift
Burns
Walsh
Amor
Roby
Walmsley
Vea
Jones
Wilkin

Hohaia
Masoe
LMS
Flanagan

Plenty decent backup with Wello, Dawson, Richards, Greenwood, Savelio, Thompson, etc. Still hoping for another forward to come in though.

Re: Welcome to St Helens Travis Burns : Tue Sep 23, 2014 3:09 pm  

St. Rughead wrote:

Very happy with the Burns signing. Having two specialist halves who know each other so well is something I'm quite looking forward to. As for our team next year, I'd go with:
Lomax
Makinson
Turner
Percival
Swift
Burns
Walsh
Amor
Roby
Walmsley
Vea
Jones
Wilkin

Hohaia
Masoe
LMS
Flanagan

Plenty decent backup with Wello, Dawson, Richards, Greenwood, Savelio, Thompson, etc. Still hoping for another forward to come in though.

Id probably start with Flanagan and have Jones coming off the bench. Apart from that Id be happy for us to go with that...

Re: Welcome to St Helens Travis Burns : Tue Sep 23, 2014 3:23 pm  

Offside Monkey wrote:

Last time I saw him play (I think), he kicked a 40-20 an then set up a try from the resulting set.

He's a standoff, he seems to be pretty good at everything, rather than one facet dominating his game.
He's a firey competitor, which we need (I think that translate into him being a half decent defender). He's an actual half back so, unlike this year, if walsh gets injured, we're not relying on the likes of Wilkin or Hohaia to be our main playmaker. Burns will take the main role with (presumably) Lance slotting in alongside in a much more comfortable circumstance. The fact he'sgot a kicking game will also stop the oppo stacking all their pressure on Walsh on the last play.

Whether he'll be Man of Steel or win us the GF and CC I don't know, but we'll certainly be better than we are currently. He got selected for the Exiles in front of Blake Green of Wigan, which should stand for something.

Just to throw a couple of stats in there too to see how he compares to other stand offs in SL (I didn't include Green as he has missed a fair chunk of the season):

Tries - Burns 3 Brough 3 Brown 12 Sneyd 6
Try Assists - Burns 21 Brough 31 Brown 24 Sneyd 30
40/20 - Burns 4 Brough 9 Brown 1 Sneyd 1
Tackle Busts - Burns 78 Brough 58 Brown 31 Sneyd 56
Clean Breaks - Burns 9 Brough 11 Brown 7 Sneyd 11
Offloads - Burns 38 Brough 20 Brown 14 Sneyd 11

Playing for the worst side out of the 4 in question, the stats don't look bad at all.

Re: Welcome to St Helens Travis Burns : Tue Sep 23, 2014 3:35 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

He's awful is what he is. Shouldn't be at the club.

On a good day, Turner's a great player. he just seems to puntucate them with horrors, much like LMS, much like Saints.

As Percy has developed, he seems more and more like our star centre. I think its much more likely that Turner will play centre and Jones will(should) play 13. Jones at 13 should be able to combine the high defensive workload that you need somewhere in your back row with a dynamic pseudo centre attacking game outwide - in a similar manner to when Darren Smith was here. Leaving the other two back row slots to be filled by bigger lads.

I'd go
Lomax
Swift Percival Turner Makinson
Burns Walsh
Amor Robes Walmsley
Vea LMS
Jones

Hohaia, Masoe, Thompson, Savelio/Greenwood/Richards/Flash/Wilkin/Any new signing

I've got to say that once you dilute Wilkin's versatility, he becomes a lot less valuable to us. He's too small and nice for a top club back row in the current game.

Re: Welcome to St Helens Travis Burns : Tue Sep 23, 2014 3:36 pm  

The Yellow Giraffe wrote:

Just to throw a couple of stats in there too to see how he compares to other stand offs in SL (I didn't include Green as he has missed a fair chunk of the season):

Tries - Burns 3 Brough 3 Brown 12 Sneyd 6
Try Assists - Burns 21 Brough 31 Brown 24 Sneyd 30
40/20 - Burns 4 Brough 9 Brown 1 Sneyd 1
Tackle Busts - Burns 78 Brough 58 Brown 31 Sneyd 56
Clean Breaks - Burns 9 Brough 11 Brown 7 Sneyd 11
Offloads - Burns 38 Brough 20 Brown 14 Sneyd 11

Playing for the worst side out of the 4 in question, the stats don't look bad at all.

They are alright. Looks like he's a back rower playing at halfback to me? Enormous tackle busts and offloads but fewer tries and assists than the other players.

Re: Welcome to St Helens Travis Burns : Tue Sep 23, 2014 3:38 pm  

The Yellow Giraffe wrote:

Just to throw a couple of stats in there too to see how he compares to other stand offs in SL (I didn't include Green as he has missed a fair chunk of the season):

Tries - Burns 3 Brough 3 Brown 12 Sneyd 6
Try Assists - Burns 21 Brough 31 Brown 24 Sneyd 30
40/20 - Burns 4 Brough 9 Brown 1 Sneyd 1
Tackle Busts - Burns 78 Brough 58 Brown 31 Sneyd 56
Clean Breaks - Burns 9 Brough 11 Brown 7 Sneyd 11
Offloads - Burns 38 Brough 20 Brown 14 Sneyd 11

Playing for the worst side out of the 4 in question, the stats don't look bad at all.

It would suggest he likes to take the line on, with his tackle busts and offloads suggesting he's confident in contact.

Re: Welcome to St Helens Travis Burns : Tue Sep 23, 2014 3:42 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

They are alright. Looks like he's a back rower playing at halfback to me? Enormous tackle busts and offloads but fewer tries and assists than the other players.

Lance Hohaia
8 tries
12 try assists
11 clean breaks
31 tackle busts
11 offloads
0 40-20 kicks

Re: Welcome to St Helens Travis Burns : Tue Sep 23, 2014 3:53 pm  

From 2006

Leon Pryce
10 tries
12 Try Assists
25 clean breaks
58 tackle busts
59 offloads
0 40-20 kicks

Re: Welcome to St Helens Travis Burns : Tue Sep 23, 2014 4:08 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

They are alright. Looks like he's a back rower playing at halfback to me? Enormous tackle busts and offloads but fewer tries and assists than the other players.

There's literally no pleasing you is there?