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hounddog
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+x+x+x+x+x+x+xCredit to Flanagan, his defence was outstanding last night and has been since he came back. Read somewhere he went 20 from 20 and some of them were vital against big blokes. Cooper Cronk said once the best way for players, particularly halves, to get their confidence back was just to concentrate on getting their defence right and everything will come off the back of it. Hope he’s right. Yeah he's been good in defence but that's not a ticket for him to be off the hook in attack. He atrocious. Im hoping Gus is only playing him to increase his value and plans to find a halfback for next year. The issue I have is the Averillo - Burton problem. Clearly Avo is a better 5/8th than he is a centre and clearly Burton is a better centre than a 5/8th. Burton obviously wants the bigger bucks that come with a halves contract but how far can we kid ourselves that he's not? Marki, with that "Burton is a better centre" comment, your credibility is flung straight out the window. Penriff just used him as a makeshift centre last year because they wouldn't release him early. The thing is he killed it for them and as a result a lot of people think he'd be better at centre. He played most of his juniors at half and has never experienced extended periods of yhe position in first grade. Averillo is a good utility and would make a handy 14. Plus if the Dogs forced him to play centre I very much doubt he would his activate contract option for 2024. I know ODF. Im just worried he just doesn't get involved in attack like a 5/8th should. Even Flanno at least positions himself in the middle of the park and he is shit. Burton simply plants himself in the left centre spot. JMK is not smart enough to find him and pass to him, and he just keeps looking for forwards. If Burton wants to get himself an upgraded deal, he needs to get his hands on the ball more and to do so, needs to move infield. At the moment, Averillo is 10 times the 5/8th that Burton is. I'd like to see him change this. I am seeing some improvement in the current players. We also have some very good young halves 1-3 years away from NRL. Winning the comp is probably the young halves. I think we should have a team good enough to make the 8 next season. Winning the comp is possibly from 2024 onward. Burton is improving, so is Flanagan, this season and next season are all about preparing for the future. I am happy if we avoid the spoon this year, the jigsaw is slowly coming together, but some of the pieces are in the lower grades. We don't want to rush players who might be our long term halves pairing. I am talking about Hayward and Rajab, who I hope will be the reserve grade halves pairing next season. We will then see how good they are, and how well they combine. I am not ruling out the current players improving, I expect to make the 8 next season. I am also not ruling out Burton or Averillo being a long term 5/8. We have a lot of good young players who can play multiple backline positions, like Averillo, Casey, Tola, Kiraz. We also need to see what the young gun from Fiji can do. After round 10 we can give some young players a few more opportunities to play NRL. HD, what you've table below is a fair plan. The issue I have however is that if you look at our trys from this year, you have the majority being from individual brilliance (JAC, JMK) or Luck trys (Wakeham, JMK etc) Not many are constructed trys. In fact the few constructed trys we have scored have generally included Dufty and yet this is a player that is not in the mix to be resigned. That's my concern. The club is still pining its hopes in discovering the next big thing but not dealing with the actual problem in attack. I honestly feel we need to make a big play at Ben Hunt. He should know his next contract will be for around 600-700k and he is definitely worth that coin, just not 1M. We need him to show the rest of our halves how to demand the ball, we need him to nurture them and we need him to captain the team. We are still building combinations. We have played the top five teams from last year. The attack will come once the defence is in order. The team needs confidence. Changing things does not help. Keeping our spine together does.
We will start ‘constructing try’s’ when we play equal opposition, have good combinations and aren’t worried about the opposition scoring easily. Agreed, we also had some good plays with forwards running off Flanno and tip ons. I also like Dufty getting involved a lot close to the ruck. We need to improve our passing speed, that will also give us more time to kick. Overall our attack has more variety, we just need to speed it up, improve the execution and have players running harder. Radley and Teddy carved us up in the 2nd half, we chewed up a lot of energy defending and didn't have much in the tank. Also Jacko normally plays 80 and makes a lot of tackles.
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dman2018
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I say Parra lose next 4 games going in to bye… then Dogs make it 6 losses in a row come rd 14…
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dman2018
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Anyone think Holbrook would’ve done a better job if he got the gig instead of TBagz???…
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hounddog
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+xAnyone think Holbrook would’ve done a better job if he got the gig instead of TBagz???… Hard to say, but probably no. TBaz does have the advantage of being able to get advice from Gus. We will see how this season pans out. There seems to be plenty of room for improvement, not fast, but getting a bit better each week. TBaz also probably needs to win 2 out of the next 3 to totally sure of keeping the gig. The Radiers game is a different kind of challenge, we might start favorite.
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dman2018
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+x+xAnyone think Holbrook would’ve done a better job if he got the gig instead of TBagz???… Hard to say, but probably no. TBaz does have the advantage of being able to get advice from Gus. We will see how this season pans out. There seems to be plenty of room for improvement, not fast, but getting a bit better each week. TBaz also probably needs to win 2 out of the next 3 to totally sure of keeping the gig. The Radiers game is a different kind of challenge, we might start favorite. Raiders $1.80 Dogs $2… or $1.90 Dogs -1.5… #gamblewithsponsorly…
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dman2018
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Group: Forum Members
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+x+xAnyone think Holbrook would’ve done a better job if he got the gig instead of TBagz???… Hard to say, but probably no. TBaz does have the advantage of being able to get advice from Gus. We will see how this season pans out. There seems to be plenty of room for improvement, not fast, but getting a bit better each week. TBaz also probably needs to win 2 out of the next 3 to totally sure of keeping the gig. The Radiers game is a different kind of challenge, we might start favorite. I’m on a no too… though at the time I’d have preferred him to TBaz… Gold Coast must infuriate their 22 fans…
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ODF
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Next week when JJ returns if he is rostered as the ball playing Lock then I'll concede TBaz is a stark raving lunatic and should be punted ASAP.
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dman2018
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Group: Forum Members
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+xNext week when JJ returns if he is rostered as the ball playing Lock then I'll concede TBaz is a stark raving lunatic and should be punted ASAP. It’s not as batshit crazy as Burton to centre… Dufty to hooker… sign Lachlan Coote… Tolman to hooker… Vote for Dib… Sign Munster fur fullback… shall I continue???…
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Marki
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+x+x+x+x+x+x+xCredit to Flanagan, his defence was outstanding last night and has been since he came back. Read somewhere he went 20 from 20 and some of them were vital against big blokes. Cooper Cronk said once the best way for players, particularly halves, to get their confidence back was just to concentrate on getting their defence right and everything will come off the back of it. Hope he’s right. Yeah he's been good in defence but that's not a ticket for him to be off the hook in attack. He atrocious. Im hoping Gus is only playing him to increase his value and plans to find a halfback for next year. The issue I have is the Averillo - Burton problem. Clearly Avo is a better 5/8th than he is a centre and clearly Burton is a better centre than a 5/8th. Burton obviously wants the bigger bucks that come with a halves contract but how far can we kid ourselves that he's not? Marki, with that "Burton is a better centre" comment, your credibility is flung straight out the window. Penriff just used him as a makeshift centre last year because they wouldn't release him early. The thing is he killed it for them and as a result a lot of people think he'd be better at centre. He played most of his juniors at half and has never experienced extended periods of yhe position in first grade. Averillo is a good utility and would make a handy 14. Plus if the Dogs forced him to play centre I very much doubt he would his activate contract option for 2024. I know ODF. Im just worried he just doesn't get involved in attack like a 5/8th should. Even Flanno at least positions himself in the middle of the park and he is shit. Burton simply plants himself in the left centre spot. JMK is not smart enough to find him and pass to him, and he just keeps looking for forwards. If Burton wants to get himself an upgraded deal, he needs to get his hands on the ball more and to do so, needs to move infield. At the moment, Averillo is 10 times the 5/8th that Burton is. I'd like to see him change this. I am seeing some improvement in the current players. We also have some very good young halves 1-3 years away from NRL. Winning the comp is probably the young halves. I think we should have a team good enough to make the 8 next season. Winning the comp is possibly from 2024 onward. Burton is improving, so is Flanagan, this season and next season are all about preparing for the future. I am happy if we avoid the spoon this year, the jigsaw is slowly coming together, but some of the pieces are in the lower grades. We don't want to rush players who might be our long term halves pairing. I am talking about Hayward and Rajab, who I hope will be the reserve grade halves pairing next season. We will then see how good they are, and how well they combine. I am not ruling out the current players improving, I expect to make the 8 next season. I am also not ruling out Burton or Averillo being a long term 5/8. We have a lot of good young players who can play multiple backline positions, like Averillo, Casey, Tola, Kiraz. We also need to see what the young gun from Fiji can do. After round 10 we can give some young players a few more opportunities to play NRL. HD, what you've table below is a fair plan. The issue I have however is that if you look at our trys from this year, you have the majority being from individual brilliance (JAC, JMK) or Luck trys (Wakeham, JMK etc) Not many are constructed trys. In fact the few constructed trys we have scored have generally included Dufty and yet this is a player that is not in the mix to be resigned. That's my concern. The club is still pining its hopes in discovering the next big thing but not dealing with the actual problem in attack. I honestly feel we need to make a big play at Ben Hunt. He should know his next contract will be for around 600-700k and he is definitely worth that coin, just not 1M. We need him to show the rest of our halves how to demand the ball, we need him to nurture them and we need him to captain the team. The next time Ben Hunt’s off contract he’ll be 34, he’s not a long term or even mid term solution and we can’t afford short term ones. As HD said we’ll have our kids looking to play NRL in ‘24 and we don’t want to be blocking their path. I’d take Ben Hunt now for two years but there is no now for two years. Gus is vey confident our long term half is in the club and I don’t think he’s meaning anyone who’s been tried so far, BBO maybe the possible exception but he needs to show something this year and next or be forever 14 if he stays. With Dragons having Amone and the other kids with big wraps, they might be open to an early release for Hunt. Worth a try to snare him 1 year earlier. If not Hunt, some other experienced half. The key issue or difference is that you are getting a Kimmorley or Stuart type of experienced half. Its not blocking any pathway. It's transitioning. Hayward still needs to first play first grade and find his feet before he can even be considered to take on the role. That's a 2 year process in itself. A club like ours having missed finals for 5 years now cant afford to put all eggs in 1 basket anymore. It needs a strategic transition. This is not 2003-04 with Thurston competing with young halves in Anasta and Sherwin and leaving (lets also not ignore the off field issues). It's more like 2009 with Kimmorley assisting the mercurial Ben Roberts and taking the heat off him.
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Marki
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Group: Forum Members
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+x+x+xCredit to Flanagan, his defence was outstanding last night and has been since he came back. Read somewhere he went 20 from 20 and some of them were vital against big blokes. Cooper Cronk said once the best way for players, particularly halves, to get their confidence back was just to concentrate on getting their defence right and everything will come off the back of it. Hope he’s right. Yeah he's been good in defence but that's not a ticket for him to be off the hook in attack. He atrocious. Im hoping Gus is only playing him to increase his value and plans to find a halfback for next year. The issue I have is the Averillo - Burton problem. Clearly Avo is a better 5/8th than he is a centre and clearly Burton is a better centre than a 5/8th. Burton obviously wants the bigger bucks that come with a halves contract but how far can we kid ourselves that he's not? I think you’re missing the point. Flanno is building a nice combination with Dufty and Burton. He is the link man to those two. He is digging into the line and passing. There is little more he should be currently doing with the game plan Baz us using. He is defending better than any half in the comp. Soon he will be able to play some off the cuff forty. But for now he should continue building combinations.
Burto is ten times the player Avo is. He is currently playing better than Avo ever has. And Burto has a much higher ceiling than any other half in the comp.
The main issue is the ball not getting to him early enough. That issue is being solved with Flanno improving the speed and time he is giving him by engaging the defence and taking the line on. And next year when we have a good hooker we will see much more room for him. JMK is slowing our attack ridiculously by not passing the ball quick enough. I disagree with Burton vs Avo comments. Averillo single handedly had shined in the team with a rubbish team around him. Burton hasn't even reached 50% of what Averillo did in '20 or even some games in '21. He might have potential, but he hasn't been close to reaching it. I was a big fan of his signing but im almost convinced now he is a better centre than a 5/8th and I know who is the better 5/8th at the club. In fact i reckon even Wakeham is better. But Burton's boot is a key ingredient to helping us out of trouble and offering an opportunity for an opposition mistake from the bomb. He can still kick, just has to do it from the centres. IMO persisting with Burton at 5/8th is a potential risk and could really screw up the rebuild.
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hounddog
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+xNext week when JJ returns if he is rostered as the ball playing Lock then I'll concede TBaz is a stark raving lunatic and should be punted ASAP. Let's just give it a few weeks and see how things go. Baz needs to win a certain amount of games this season to keep the gig. Either way we will have a good squad next season.
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Marki
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Group: Forum Members
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+x+x+x+x+x+x+xCredit to Flanagan, his defence was outstanding last night and has been since he came back. Read somewhere he went 20 from 20 and some of them were vital against big blokes. Cooper Cronk said once the best way for players, particularly halves, to get their confidence back was just to concentrate on getting their defence right and everything will come off the back of it. Hope he’s right. Yeah he's been good in defence but that's not a ticket for him to be off the hook in attack. He atrocious. Im hoping Gus is only playing him to increase his value and plans to find a halfback for next year. The issue I have is the Averillo - Burton problem. Clearly Avo is a better 5/8th than he is a centre and clearly Burton is a better centre than a 5/8th. Burton obviously wants the bigger bucks that come with a halves contract but how far can we kid ourselves that he's not? Marki, with that "Burton is a better centre" comment, your credibility is flung straight out the window. Penriff just used him as a makeshift centre last year because they wouldn't release him early. The thing is he killed it for them and as a result a lot of people think he'd be better at centre. He played most of his juniors at half and has never experienced extended periods of yhe position in first grade. Averillo is a good utility and would make a handy 14. Plus if the Dogs forced him to play centre I very much doubt he would his activate contract option for 2024. I know ODF. Im just worried he just doesn't get involved in attack like a 5/8th should. Even Flanno at least positions himself in the middle of the park and he is shit. Burton simply plants himself in the left centre spot. JMK is not smart enough to find him and pass to him, and he just keeps looking for forwards. If Burton wants to get himself an upgraded deal, he needs to get his hands on the ball more and to do so, needs to move infield. At the moment, Averillo is 10 times the 5/8th that Burton is. I'd like to see him change this. I am seeing some improvement in the current players. We also have some very good young halves 1-3 years away from NRL. Winning the comp is probably the young halves. I think we should have a team good enough to make the 8 next season. Winning the comp is possibly from 2024 onward. Burton is improving, so is Flanagan, this season and next season are all about preparing for the future. I am happy if we avoid the spoon this year, the jigsaw is slowly coming together, but some of the pieces are in the lower grades. We don't want to rush players who might be our long term halves pairing. I am talking about Hayward and Rajab, who I hope will be the reserve grade halves pairing next season. We will then see how good they are, and how well they combine. I am not ruling out the current players improving, I expect to make the 8 next season. I am also not ruling out Burton or Averillo being a long term 5/8. We have a lot of good young players who can play multiple backline positions, like Averillo, Casey, Tola, Kiraz. We also need to see what the young gun from Fiji can do. After round 10 we can give some young players a few more opportunities to play NRL. HD, what you've table below is a fair plan. The issue I have however is that if you look at our trys from this year, you have the majority being from individual brilliance (JAC, JMK) or Luck trys (Wakeham, JMK etc) Not many are constructed trys. In fact the few constructed trys we have scored have generally included Dufty and yet this is a player that is not in the mix to be resigned. That's my concern. The club is still pining its hopes in discovering the next big thing but not dealing with the actual problem in attack. I honestly feel we need to make a big play at Ben Hunt. He should know his next contract will be for around 600-700k and he is definitely worth that coin, just not 1M. We need him to show the rest of our halves how to demand the ball, we need him to nurture them and we need him to captain the team. We are still building combinations. We have played the top five teams from last year. The attack will come once the defence is in order. The team needs confidence. Changing things does not help. Keeping our spine together does.
We will start ‘constructing try’s’ when we play equal opposition, have good combinations and aren’t worried about the opposition scoring easily. I don't think we can flick a switch mate. We have serious structural issues in our attack. It's taken 3 coaches to try to fix it and nothing has happened. But we shall wait and see...
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hounddog
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 9.9K,
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+x+x+x+x+x+x+x+xCredit to Flanagan, his defence was outstanding last night and has been since he came back. Read somewhere he went 20 from 20 and some of them were vital against big blokes. Cooper Cronk said once the best way for players, particularly halves, to get their confidence back was just to concentrate on getting their defence right and everything will come off the back of it. Hope he’s right. Yeah he's been good in defence but that's not a ticket for him to be off the hook in attack. He atrocious. Im hoping Gus is only playing him to increase his value and plans to find a halfback for next year. The issue I have is the Averillo - Burton problem. Clearly Avo is a better 5/8th than he is a centre and clearly Burton is a better centre than a 5/8th. Burton obviously wants the bigger bucks that come with a halves contract but how far can we kid ourselves that he's not? Marki, with that "Burton is a better centre" comment, your credibility is flung straight out the window. Penriff just used him as a makeshift centre last year because they wouldn't release him early. The thing is he killed it for them and as a result a lot of people think he'd be better at centre. He played most of his juniors at half and has never experienced extended periods of yhe position in first grade. Averillo is a good utility and would make a handy 14. Plus if the Dogs forced him to play centre I very much doubt he would his activate contract option for 2024. I know ODF. Im just worried he just doesn't get involved in attack like a 5/8th should. Even Flanno at least positions himself in the middle of the park and he is shit. Burton simply plants himself in the left centre spot. JMK is not smart enough to find him and pass to him, and he just keeps looking for forwards. If Burton wants to get himself an upgraded deal, he needs to get his hands on the ball more and to do so, needs to move infield. At the moment, Averillo is 10 times the 5/8th that Burton is. I'd like to see him change this. I am seeing some improvement in the current players. We also have some very good young halves 1-3 years away from NRL. Winning the comp is probably the young halves. I think we should have a team good enough to make the 8 next season. Winning the comp is possibly from 2024 onward. Burton is improving, so is Flanagan, this season and next season are all about preparing for the future. I am happy if we avoid the spoon this year, the jigsaw is slowly coming together, but some of the pieces are in the lower grades. We don't want to rush players who might be our long term halves pairing. I am talking about Hayward and Rajab, who I hope will be the reserve grade halves pairing next season. We will then see how good they are, and how well they combine. I am not ruling out the current players improving, I expect to make the 8 next season. I am also not ruling out Burton or Averillo being a long term 5/8. We have a lot of good young players who can play multiple backline positions, like Averillo, Casey, Tola, Kiraz. We also need to see what the young gun from Fiji can do. After round 10 we can give some young players a few more opportunities to play NRL. HD, what you've table below is a fair plan. The issue I have however is that if you look at our trys from this year, you have the majority being from individual brilliance (JAC, JMK) or Luck trys (Wakeham, JMK etc) Not many are constructed trys. In fact the few constructed trys we have scored have generally included Dufty and yet this is a player that is not in the mix to be resigned. That's my concern. The club is still pining its hopes in discovering the next big thing but not dealing with the actual problem in attack. I honestly feel we need to make a big play at Ben Hunt. He should know his next contract will be for around 600-700k and he is definitely worth that coin, just not 1M. We need him to show the rest of our halves how to demand the ball, we need him to nurture them and we need him to captain the team. We are still building combinations. We have played the top five teams from last year. The attack will come once the defence is in order. The team needs confidence. Changing things does not help. Keeping our spine together does.
We will start ‘constructing try’s’ when we play equal opposition, have good combinations and aren’t worried about the opposition scoring easily. I don't think we can flick a switch mate. We have serious structural issues in our attack. It's taken 3 coaches to try to fix it and nothing has happened. But we shall wait and see... Not flick a switch, but hopefully improve slowly.
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Marki
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+xAnyone think Holbrook would’ve done a better job if he got the gig instead of TBagz???… I think their records speaks for themselves TBH
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dman2018
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Group: Forum Members
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+x+xAnyone think Holbrook would’ve done a better job if he got the gig instead of TBagz???… I think their records speaks for themselves TBH Spoken word records???…
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hounddog
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Group: Forum Members
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+x+x+x+xCredit to Flanagan, his defence was outstanding last night and has been since he came back. Read somewhere he went 20 from 20 and some of them were vital against big blokes. Cooper Cronk said once the best way for players, particularly halves, to get their confidence back was just to concentrate on getting their defence right and everything will come off the back of it. Hope he’s right. Yeah he's been good in defence but that's not a ticket for him to be off the hook in attack. He atrocious. Im hoping Gus is only playing him to increase his value and plans to find a halfback for next year. The issue I have is the Averillo - Burton problem. Clearly Avo is a better 5/8th than he is a centre and clearly Burton is a better centre than a 5/8th. Burton obviously wants the bigger bucks that come with a halves contract but how far can we kid ourselves that he's not? I think you’re missing the point. Flanno is building a nice combination with Dufty and Burton. He is the link man to those two. He is digging into the line and passing. There is little more he should be currently doing with the game plan Baz us using. He is defending better than any half in the comp. Soon he will be able to play some off the cuff forty. But for now he should continue building combinations.
Burto is ten times the player Avo is. He is currently playing better than Avo ever has. And Burto has a much higher ceiling than any other half in the comp.
The main issue is the ball not getting to him early enough. That issue is being solved with Flanno improving the speed and time he is giving him by engaging the defence and taking the line on. And next year when we have a good hooker we will see much more room for him. JMK is slowing our attack ridiculously by not passing the ball quick enough. I disagree with Burton vs Avo comments. Averillo single handedly had shined in the team with a rubbish team around him. Burton hasn't even reached 50% of what Averillo did in '20 or even some games in '21. He might have potential, but he hasn't been close to reaching it. I was a big fan of his signing but im almost convinced now he is a better centre than a 5/8th and I know who is the better 5/8th at the club. In fact i reckon even Wakeham is better. But Burton's boot is a key ingredient to helping us out of trouble and offering an opportunity for an opposition mistake from the bomb. He can still kick, just has to do it from the centres. IMO persisting with Burton at 5/8th is a potential risk and could really screw up the rebuild. Any issue we can see, Gus can see, even if Baz can't. IMO Averillo has more natural playmaking skills, but Burton is improving. Burton's long kicking and bombs are excellent. With a really good half, either option is fine.
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dman2018
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 8.7K,
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+x+x+x+x+x+x+x+xCredit to Flanagan, his defence was outstanding last night and has been since he came back. Read somewhere he went 20 from 20 and some of them were vital against big blokes. Cooper Cronk said once the best way for players, particularly halves, to get their confidence back was just to concentrate on getting their defence right and everything will come off the back of it. Hope he’s right. Yeah he's been good in defence but that's not a ticket for him to be off the hook in attack. He atrocious. Im hoping Gus is only playing him to increase his value and plans to find a halfback for next year. The issue I have is the Averillo - Burton problem. Clearly Avo is a better 5/8th than he is a centre and clearly Burton is a better centre than a 5/8th. Burton obviously wants the bigger bucks that come with a halves contract but how far can we kid ourselves that he's not? Marki, with that "Burton is a better centre" comment, your credibility is flung straight out the window. Penriff just used him as a makeshift centre last year because they wouldn't release him early. The thing is he killed it for them and as a result a lot of people think he'd be better at centre. He played most of his juniors at half and has never experienced extended periods of yhe position in first grade. Averillo is a good utility and would make a handy 14. Plus if the Dogs forced him to play centre I very much doubt he would his activate contract option for 2024. I know ODF. Im just worried he just doesn't get involved in attack like a 5/8th should. Even Flanno at least positions himself in the middle of the park and he is shit. Burton simply plants himself in the left centre spot. JMK is not smart enough to find him and pass to him, and he just keeps looking for forwards. If Burton wants to get himself an upgraded deal, he needs to get his hands on the ball more and to do so, needs to move infield. At the moment, Averillo is 10 times the 5/8th that Burton is. I'd like to see him change this. I am seeing some improvement in the current players. We also have some very good young halves 1-3 years away from NRL. Winning the comp is probably the young halves. I think we should have a team good enough to make the 8 next season. Winning the comp is possibly from 2024 onward. Burton is improving, so is Flanagan, this season and next season are all about preparing for the future. I am happy if we avoid the spoon this year, the jigsaw is slowly coming together, but some of the pieces are in the lower grades. We don't want to rush players who might be our long term halves pairing. I am talking about Hayward and Rajab, who I hope will be the reserve grade halves pairing next season. We will then see how good they are, and how well they combine. I am not ruling out the current players improving, I expect to make the 8 next season. I am also not ruling out Burton or Averillo being a long term 5/8. We have a lot of good young players who can play multiple backline positions, like Averillo, Casey, Tola, Kiraz. We also need to see what the young gun from Fiji can do. After round 10 we can give some young players a few more opportunities to play NRL. HD, what you've table below is a fair plan. The issue I have however is that if you look at our trys from this year, you have the majority being from individual brilliance (JAC, JMK) or Luck trys (Wakeham, JMK etc) Not many are constructed trys. In fact the few constructed trys we have scored have generally included Dufty and yet this is a player that is not in the mix to be resigned. That's my concern. The club is still pining its hopes in discovering the next big thing but not dealing with the actual problem in attack. I honestly feel we need to make a big play at Ben Hunt. He should know his next contract will be for around 600-700k and he is definitely worth that coin, just not 1M. We need him to show the rest of our halves how to demand the ball, we need him to nurture them and we need him to captain the team. The next time Ben Hunt’s off contract he’ll be 34, he’s not a long term or even mid term solution and we can’t afford short term ones. As HD said we’ll have our kids looking to play NRL in ‘24 and we don’t want to be blocking their path. I’d take Ben Hunt now for two years but there is no now for two years. Gus is vey confident our long term half is in the club and I don’t think he’s meaning anyone who’s been tried so far, BBO maybe the possible exception but he needs to show something this year and next or be forever 14 if he stays. This is not 2003-04 with Thurston competing with young halves in Anasta and Sherwin and leaving (lets also not ignore the off field issues). It's more like 2009 with Kimmorley assisting the mercurial Ben Roberts and taking the heat off him. How fondly I remember the Ben Roberta era… Thema were the days my friend… Thema were the days… May have been a very different story if Roberta’s had off field issues… Very different… must say I’m surprised Villi isn’t Establisheding a Orana Tomato to the Dogs redemption story as yet…
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hounddog
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+x+x+x+x+x+x+x+x+xCredit to Flanagan, his defence was outstanding last night and has been since he came back. Read somewhere he went 20 from 20 and some of them were vital against big blokes. Cooper Cronk said once the best way for players, particularly halves, to get their confidence back was just to concentrate on getting their defence right and everything will come off the back of it. Hope he’s right. Yeah he's been good in defence but that's not a ticket for him to be off the hook in attack. He atrocious. Im hoping Gus is only playing him to increase his value and plans to find a halfback for next year. The issue I have is the Averillo - Burton problem. Clearly Avo is a better 5/8th than he is a centre and clearly Burton is a better centre than a 5/8th. Burton obviously wants the bigger bucks that come with a halves contract but how far can we kid ourselves that he's not? Marki, with that "Burton is a better centre" comment, your credibility is flung straight out the window. Penriff just used him as a makeshift centre last year because they wouldn't release him early. The thing is he killed it for them and as a result a lot of people think he'd be better at centre. He played most of his juniors at half and has never experienced extended periods of yhe position in first grade. Averillo is a good utility and would make a handy 14. Plus if the Dogs forced him to play centre I very much doubt he would his activate contract option for 2024. I know ODF. Im just worried he just doesn't get involved in attack like a 5/8th should. Even Flanno at least positions himself in the middle of the park and he is shit. Burton simply plants himself in the left centre spot. JMK is not smart enough to find him and pass to him, and he just keeps looking for forwards. If Burton wants to get himself an upgraded deal, he needs to get his hands on the ball more and to do so, needs to move infield. At the moment, Averillo is 10 times the 5/8th that Burton is. I'd like to see him change this. I am seeing some improvement in the current players. We also have some very good young halves 1-3 years away from NRL. Winning the comp is probably the young halves. I think we should have a team good enough to make the 8 next season. Winning the comp is possibly from 2024 onward. Burton is improving, so is Flanagan, this season and next season are all about preparing for the future. I am happy if we avoid the spoon this year, the jigsaw is slowly coming together, but some of the pieces are in the lower grades. We don't want to rush players who might be our long term halves pairing. I am talking about Hayward and Rajab, who I hope will be the reserve grade halves pairing next season. We will then see how good they are, and how well they combine. I am not ruling out the current players improving, I expect to make the 8 next season. I am also not ruling out Burton or Averillo being a long term 5/8. We have a lot of good young players who can play multiple backline positions, like Averillo, Casey, Tola, Kiraz. We also need to see what the young gun from Fiji can do. After round 10 we can give some young players a few more opportunities to play NRL. HD, what you've table below is a fair plan. The issue I have however is that if you look at our trys from this year, you have the majority being from individual brilliance (JAC, JMK) or Luck trys (Wakeham, JMK etc) Not many are constructed trys. In fact the few constructed trys we have scored have generally included Dufty and yet this is a player that is not in the mix to be resigned. That's my concern. The club is still pining its hopes in discovering the next big thing but not dealing with the actual problem in attack. I honestly feel we need to make a big play at Ben Hunt. He should know his next contract will be for around 600-700k and he is definitely worth that coin, just not 1M. We need him to show the rest of our halves how to demand the ball, we need him to nurture them and we need him to captain the team. The next time Ben Hunt’s off contract he’ll be 34, he’s not a long term or even mid term solution and we can’t afford short term ones. As HD said we’ll have our kids looking to play NRL in ‘24 and we don’t want to be blocking their path. I’d take Ben Hunt now for two years but there is no now for two years. Gus is vey confident our long term half is in the club and I don’t think he’s meaning anyone who’s been tried so far, BBO maybe the possible exception but he needs to show something this year and next or be forever 14 if he stays. This is not 2003-04 with Thurston competing with young halves in Anasta and Sherwin and leaving (lets also not ignore the off field issues). It's more like 2009 with Kimmorley assisting the mercurial Ben Roberts and taking the heat off him. How fondly I remember the Ben Roberta era… Thema were the days my friend… Thema were the days… May have been a very different story if Roberta’s had off field issues… Very different… must say I’m surprised Villi isn’t Establisheding a Orana Tomato to the Dogs redemption story as yet… Tomato is a legend.
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ODF
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+x+x+x+xCredit to Flanagan, his defence was outstanding last night and has been since he came back. Read somewhere he went 20 from 20 and some of them were vital against big blokes. Cooper Cronk said once the best way for players, particularly halves, to get their confidence back was just to concentrate on getting their defence right and everything will come off the back of it. Hope he’s right. Yeah he's been good in defence but that's not a ticket for him to be off the hook in attack. He atrocious. Im hoping Gus is only playing him to increase his value and plans to find a halfback for next year. The issue I have is the Averillo - Burton problem. Clearly Avo is a better 5/8th than he is a centre and clearly Burton is a better centre than a 5/8th. Burton obviously wants the bigger bucks that come with a halves contract but how far can we kid ourselves that he's not? I think you’re missing the point. Flanno is building a nice combination with Dufty and Burton. He is the link man to those two. He is digging into the line and passing. There is little more he should be currently doing with the game plan Baz us using. He is defending better than any half in the comp. Soon he will be able to play some off the cuff forty. But for now he should continue building combinations.
Burto is ten times the player Avo is. He is currently playing better than Avo ever has. And Burto has a much higher ceiling than any other half in the comp.
The main issue is the ball not getting to him early enough. That issue is being solved with Flanno improving the speed and time he is giving him by engaging the defence and taking the line on. And next year when we have a good hooker we will see much more room for him. JMK is slowing our attack ridiculously by not passing the ball quick enough. I disagree with Burton vs Avo comments. Averillo single handedly had shined in the team with a rubbish team around him. Burton hasn't even reached 50% of what Averillo did in '20 or even some games in '21. He might have potential, but he hasn't been close to reaching it. I was a big fan of his signing but im almost convinced now he is a better centre than a 5/8th and I know who is the better 5/8th at the club. In fact i reckon even Wakeham is better. But Burton's boot is a key ingredient to helping us out of trouble and offering an opportunity for an opposition mistake from the bomb. He can still kick, just has to do it from the centres. IMO persisting with Burton at 5/8th is a potential risk and could really screw up the rebuild. I'm glad you are not in charge.
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dman2018
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+x+x+x+x+xCredit to Flanagan, his defence was outstanding last night and has been since he came back. Read somewhere he went 20 from 20 and some of them were vital against big blokes. Cooper Cronk said once the best way for players, particularly halves, to get their confidence back was just to concentrate on getting their defence right and everything will come off the back of it. Hope he’s right. Yeah he's been good in defence but that's not a ticket for him to be off the hook in attack. He atrocious. Im hoping Gus is only playing him to increase his value and plans to find a halfback for next year. The issue I have is the Averillo - Burton problem. Clearly Avo is a better 5/8th than he is a centre and clearly Burton is a better centre than a 5/8th. Burton obviously wants the bigger bucks that come with a halves contract but how far can we kid ourselves that he's not? I think you’re missing the point. Flanno is building a nice combination with Dufty and Burton. He is the link man to those two. He is digging into the line and passing. There is little more he should be currently doing with the game plan Baz us using. He is defending better than any half in the comp. Soon he will be able to play some off the cuff forty. But for now he should continue building combinations.
Burto is ten times the player Avo is. He is currently playing better than Avo ever has. And Burto has a much higher ceiling than any other half in the comp.
The main issue is the ball not getting to him early enough. That issue is being solved with Flanno improving the speed and time he is giving him by engaging the defence and taking the line on. And next year when we have a good hooker we will see much more room for him. JMK is slowing our attack ridiculously by not passing the ball quick enough. I disagree with Burton vs Avo comments. Averillo single handedly had shined in the team with a rubbish team around him. Burton hasn't even reached 50% of what Averillo did in '20 or even some games in '21. He might have potential, but he hasn't been close to reaching it. I was a big fan of his signing but im almost convinced now he is a better centre than a 5/8th and I know who is the better 5/8th at the club. In fact i reckon even Wakeham is better. But Burton's boot is a key ingredient to helping us out of trouble and offering an opportunity for an opposition mistake from the bomb. He can still kick, just has to do it from the centres. IMO persisting with Burton at 5/8th is a potential risk and could really screw up the rebuild. I'm glad you are not in charge. Burtos manager just called and asked to thank Marki for adding $200K to his next contract as a 5/8…
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hounddog
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Schoupp just needs to run the right lines and Burton needs to throw the right pass to him., basically put a hard running Schoupp into a gap, keep practicing until they can do it.
That one play is a far better option than a slow looping pass to JAC.
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Marki
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+xSchoupp just needs to run the right lines and Burton needs to throw the right pass to him., basically put a hard running Schoupp into a gap, keep practicing until they can do it. That one play is a far better option than a slow looping pass to JAC. The whole team needs to practice running into the ball and take a leaf out of our reserve grade team. We are so bad at this it's not funny. It looks like we've never trained before. We get tackled near the tryline on the wing and then we throw dummy half passes 10-15m back to standing start players. We do 2 passes and lose 20m only to have defenders in our face or unable to take advantage of any small gaps in defence because we arent on the move. Someone please fix this. Please.
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Marki
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+x+xSchoupp just needs to run the right lines and Burton needs to throw the right pass to him., basically put a hard running Schoupp into a gap, keep practicing until they can do it. That one play is a far better option than a slow looping pass to JAC. The whole team needs to practice running into the ball and take a leaf out of our reserve grade team. We are so bad at this it's not funny. It looks like we've never trained before. We get tackled near the tryline on the wing and then we throw dummy half passes 10-15m back to standing start players. We do 2 passes and lose 20m only to have defenders in our face or unable to take advantage of any small gaps in defence because we arent on the move. Someone please fix this. Please. I know you guys may not agree with the following, but it's the reason why Katoa was actually better for us at dummy half than JMK. He intentionally passed the ball in front of players to lead them onto the ball. It resulted in more spilt balls that it look like poor dummy half passing, but it wasn't the problem. The problem was the runners not running onto the pass. JMK passes at the players. It means they have to check their run (particularly on longer passes) and completely takes away their momentum. The only players that are better at this in the current team are Wakeham and maybe BBO. Wakeham at first receiver is my choice for halfback for this season. His defence is good gor his size but we gain far more from him in attack and than Flanno and i think that is key for a team struggling to score points
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hounddog
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+x+x+xSchoupp just needs to run the right lines and Burton needs to throw the right pass to him., basically put a hard running Schoupp into a gap, keep practicing until they can do it. That one play is a far better option than a slow looping pass to JAC. The whole team needs to practice running into the ball and take a leaf out of our reserve grade team. We are so bad at this it's not funny. It looks like we've never trained before. We get tackled near the tryline on the wing and then we throw dummy half passes 10-15m back to standing start players. We do 2 passes and lose 20m only to have defenders in our face or unable to take advantage of any small gaps in defence because we arent on the move. Someone please fix this. Please. I know you guys may not agree with the following, but it's the reason why Katoa was actually better for us at dummy half than JMK. He intentionally passed the ball in front of players to lead them onto the ball. It resulted in more spilt balls that it look like poor dummy half passing, but it wasn't the problem. The problem was the runners not running onto the pass. JMK passes at the players. It means they have to check their run (particularly on longer passes) and completely takes away their momentum. The only players that are better at this in the current team are Wakeham and maybe BBO. Wakeham at first receiver is my choice for halfback for this season. His defence is good gor his size but we gain far more from him in attack and than Flanno and i think that is key for a team struggling to score points Wakeham is currently out injured, we shouldn't change the squad at this stage, just try to execute what we are doing better and add a bit more variety. Some coaching should help all of our halves, Thurston was the best at what we need to do, at least view footage of how he used to play. When players are relaxed and confident their vision and instincts will guide them mostly resulting in the right play. When we don't have that, keep rehearsing the sets and try to improve execution. Cronk is the shinning example of a guy who wasn't a natural who learned to become a great half. If Mathew Johns was available, I would get him to run a few sessions with our halves.
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hounddog
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I think that if Cook was a better option than JMK we would have tried him by now.
I thought that in the trial the passing from Cook has better.
But looking at the reserve grade stats, errors, penalties and 6-agains from Cook were significant.
Sometimes when the team is losing the battle the hooker is under a lot of pressure in defence, so sometimes stats are not the whole story.
We are not getting much out of playing BBO in 14 for 7 mins, but we might not have another hooking option for reserve grade.
When Wakeham returns he is a better 14, playing him a lock for a few minutes would be an interesting experiment.
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ODF
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I just watched Annersley attempting to justify why the knock on leading to Tedescos try was not reviewed by the bunker. He said "the bunker didn't see it, they just picked it up on the broadcast replay and it was too far back in the play to review it". That is just making lame excuses for piss poor refereeing OR covering up corruption. As a person who in my job has to make safety observations and audits daily, I have always been told that "the standard you walk past, is the standard you accept" and for Annersley to endorse this sort if substandard rubbish from his officials then he accepts incompetence. It's time for the NRLol to start clearing out their 'deadwood'........ starting at the top!
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Marki
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+xI just watched Annersley attempting to justify why the knock on leading to Tedescos try was not reviewed by the bunker. He said "the bunker didn't see it, they just picked it up on the broadcast replay and it was too far back in the play to review it". That is just making lame excuses for piss poor refereeing OR covering up corruption. As a person who in my job has to make safety observations and audits daily, I have always been told that "the standard you walk past, is the standard you accept" and for Annersley to endorse this sort if substandard rubbish from his officials then he accepts incompetence. It's time for the NRLol to start clearing out their 'deadwood'........ starting at the top! I wasnt at the game and I watched it live on TV. At no stage did I see the knock on, and watching it again on replay, there is no way the touches could see it either. The only person that COULD have seen it, was the ref, but even then, it was tight as the ball was lost into a player and it wasn't a dropped ball on the ground. I guess the question is whether the Bunker should go back to it given it was on the previous play. That's the only real question here. Technically under the current rules, they cant. They can only go back for foul play.
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ODF
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Marki I was at the game and cummins is a substandard ref. His decisions were way off all night. He held back the Dogs 12 metres all game, and I doubt the chooks were onside for any of our play the balls because they were way in front of cummins before the ball cleared the ruck. JMK is slow but he's not that slow. There were numerous knock ons, dropped balls and forward passes that were conveniently missed. I know referees aren't perfect but there was too much missed or overlooked to be coincidental.
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Marki
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+xMarki I was at the game and cummins is a substandard ref. His decisions were way off all night. He held back the Dogs 12 metres all game, and I doubt the chooks were onside for any of our play the balls because they were way in front of cummins before the ball cleared the ruck. JMK is slow but he's not that slow. There were numerous knock ons, dropped balls and forward passes that were conveniently missed. I know referees aren't perfect but there was too much missed or overlooked to be coincidental. I must admit, I have noticed on many occasions, opposition teams start the rushing defence as soon as our ball is played in the ruck, and by the time our hookers pass the ball, the defence has already advanced 2-3m. By the time out flat footed players catch the dummy half 3-5m behind the ruck, the defence is just about at the previous ruck. When we do the same (start our rush at the play the ball), we tend to get penalised, especially when the home crowd makes some noise. I wish the club took this to the NRL refs and asked what is the rule and why is it policed on us while others get away with it.
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Mick O
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+x+x+x+xCredit to Flanagan, his defence was outstanding last night and has been since he came back. Read somewhere he went 20 from 20 and some of them were vital against big blokes. Cooper Cronk said once the best way for players, particularly halves, to get their confidence back was just to concentrate on getting their defence right and everything will come off the back of it. Hope he’s right. Yeah he's been good in defence but that's not a ticket for him to be off the hook in attack. He atrocious. Im hoping Gus is only playing him to increase his value and plans to find a halfback for next year. The issue I have is the Averillo - Burton problem. Clearly Avo is a better 5/8th than he is a centre and clearly Burton is a better centre than a 5/8th. Burton obviously wants the bigger bucks that come with a halves contract but how far can we kid ourselves that he's not? I think you’re missing the point. Flanno is building a nice combination with Dufty and Burton. He is the link man to those two. He is digging into the line and passing. There is little more he should be currently doing with the game plan Baz us using. He is defending better than any half in the comp. Soon he will be able to play some off the cuff forty. But for now he should continue building combinations.
Burto is ten times the player Avo is. He is currently playing better than Avo ever has. And Burto has a much higher ceiling than any other half in the comp.
The main issue is the ball not getting to him early enough. That issue is being solved with Flanno improving the speed and time he is giving him by engaging the defence and taking the line on. And next year when we have a good hooker we will see much more room for him. JMK is slowing our attack ridiculously by not passing the ball quick enough. I disagree with Burton vs Avo comments. Averillo single handedly had shined in the team with a rubbish team around him. Burton hasn't even reached 50% of what Averillo did in '20 or even some games in '21. He might have potential, but he hasn't been close to reaching it. I was a big fan of his signing but im almost convinced now he is a better centre than a 5/8th and I know who is the better 5/8th at the club. In fact i reckon even Wakeham is better. But Burton's boot is a key ingredient to helping us out of trouble and offering an opportunity for an opposition mistake from the bomb. He can still kick, just has to do it from the centres. IMO persisting with Burton at 5/8th is a potential risk and could really screw up the rebuild. I think this comment will look stupid over the next four weeks when Burton is our best player.
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