Pearce and Maloney

[Guest]

I guess a lot comes down to what the coach wants and whether the halves execute his plans as instructed. We are not privy to this information to a large degree.
It seems to me we play a game which doesn't rely entirely on one member which isn't a bad thing at all.
I would however, think the score would have been greater if we had DCE or the likes playing for us... I just think Pearce doesn't have a vision or feel for the game. He is solid and has skills... Just doesn't have that X factor.

[Guest]

I think he makes some very valid points.

We're failing to control games.

And yet we are one win off first, have won six from our last seven and have the best for and against in the comp and are yet to have a bye.

Heaven help rugby league if we start controlling games.

[Chook Norris]

I guess a lot comes down to what the coach wants and whether the halves execute his plans as instructed. We are not privy to this information to a large degree.
It seems to me we play a game which doesn't rely entirely on one member which isn't a bad thing at all.
I would however, think the score would have been greater if we had DCE or the likes playing for us... I just think Pearce doesn't have a vision or feel for the game. He is solid and has skills... Just doesn't have that X factor.

Too right. Doesn't quite have the feel for what's in front of him. Like Gus said in the coverage there was one play where all he had to do was execute a movement through the hands but he ended up throwing a long wayward cut out pass and screwed up the scoring opportunity

[Guest]

Unfortunately I don't believe it's just Pearce and Maloney that are picking the wrong options in attack. The whole team seems a little off at the moment. Can't wait till they click cause we will be unstoppable

[roostersrule2]

Unfortunately I don't believe it's just Pearce and Maloney that are picking the wrong options in attack. The whole team seems a little off at the moment. Can't wait till they click cause we will be unstoppable

I think it may be against Newcastle next week. Even without our stars we will beat them very comfortably but I just feel that we'll click and absolutely annihilate them.

[ROC181]

Too right. Doesn't quite have the feel for what's in front of him. Like Gus said in the coverage there was one play where all he had to do was execute a movement through the hands but he ended up throwing a long wayward cut out pass and screwed up the scoring opportunity

And yet that opinion from Gus would be seen by some as being anti Easts...Funny that other fans on other forums whinge on about how the commentators are pro SBW and anything Roosters yet some here see it differently. I only choose to see it as commentary, nothing more, nothing less.

[Johnny Tobin]

Maloney's on fire. You can't say the same for Pearce.

I thought Pearce was terrible yesterday.

[Kingbilly]

Its good to see Maloney start to hit his straps, he has been poor up until the last few weeks, actually the whole team has been pretty messy.
Gus is always critical of who he bets against

[Vasco]

Pearce just has little composure.

Kicks out on the full, rushed passes and the odd dropped ball.

Maloney on the other hand plays like he has all day.

He was so composed setting up the last try.

[Bansai Pipeline]

And yet we are one win off first, have won six from our last seven and have the best for and against in the comp and are yet to have a bye.

Heaven help rugby league if we start controlling games.

We're way off the pace. If you can't see that, I can't help it.

[Johnny Tobin]

We are well of the pace but I think we will be minor premiers.

[Johnny.]

Pearce just has little composure.

Kicks out on the full, rushed passes and the odd dropped ball.

Maloney on the other hand plays like he has all day.

He was so composed setting up the last try.

While no-one will ever be Brad Fittler mark 2, he's awfully close.

And a walk up start as captain for my Fantasy side each week.

[Yak]

Geez some of you are harsh on Pearce. If your team makes 11 line breaks you are doing pretty well as a halfback in my opinion. I guarantee if we played split halves like a lot of other teams and not the traditional style halves combination like we do then you would all think Pearce was killing it.

You have to consider that he is playing a role. That role involves standing at first receiver for every set play, directing his block runners and making the right call on that first block play 4 defenders in. He does not throw the last pass and look like the hero because that is not his job. He needs to make sure the quality players around him are utilised maximally. SBW, Maloney, RTS are all strike weapons but not if Pearce doesn't do his job well.

Teams this year are trying to figure out how to stop the double lead runner play we run out to the left. Yesterday was the best a team has done at stopping it. And that is probably only because Sisa Waqa is probably the best up and in wing defender in the comp. Pearce always does his job of engaging the 4th defender in brilliantly, which means the half must take the inside lead runner and the centre either jams in on the outside lead runner (Cordner or recently Guerra) or he leaves that gap and covers out the back. If he takes the lead runner his winger better have shot up to collect the sweeper as soon as he receives the ball or the defence is toast. A growing trend against us this year is defensive centres jamming in on the second lead runner therefore correctly so Pearce doesn't get to throw the money ball and has to play Maloney or RTS out the back. Bam 3 on 1 try and Maloney is a hero when he simply played his part like Pearce did. In that scenario Pearce can only look impressive if he throws a cut out to Jennings which is nearly always a poor option as it gives the defence more time to slide in cover and it's a very tough angle of pass given the position of the runners and the winger jamming in.

Sure Pearce looked clunky once or twice in 80 mins with his kick out on the full and the pass that went to ground. But honestly people have to stop listening to the commentary team sometimes and make their own call. If you watch that play again going through the hands was the play but you'll notice SBW jogging in the back well behind where the pass needed to go. If SBW is up at the correct depth then Pearce's ball hits him on the chest. As it was he has a forward running block outside who was obviously not going to hands it and SKD at centre so the long pass was all he could do. The execution of the pass was poor but it was not the wrong option.

Just before the Pearce try which was a heads up piece of play, they run a very rushed double lead runner play to the left with RTS sweeping. Barely moving lead runners in Guerra and FPN somehow draw the defence so Pearce goes out the back to RTS who gets a 3 on 1 and fails to pass for a certain try. Next play RTS calls for it again and breaks a tackles draws a few in offloads to Friend and Pearce hits a nice hole to score. If RTS executes his role as Pearce did in that first play and we score then Pearce doesn't get his try and he probably cops an even bigger bagging on here.

It's just goes to show that we are a team of players who know their roles, sometimes players execute their roles well sometimes not. Yesterday Pearce (the halfback with several roles) played his role pretty well, Maloney played his role very well as did SBW. In the press conferences in games like this Robbo talks about execution being poor. Execution comes after decision making. Our decision making for most of the game yesterday was good and shows with the 11 line breaks, our execution was poor and shows in the conversion of those line breaks to only 6 tries.

Good on Pearce for not trying to pull off the miracle play and make himself look good. For a halfback he really doesn't make that many errors and his defence is superb. For those saying he is in terrible form, consider how Maloney was playing at the start of the year. Statistically he had the worst hands in the comp (worse than BJ) and was ineffectual in attack. Now look at him. Some people have very short memories.

[Johnny.]

My take is Maloney can step up but Pearce can't.

He is the best defensive centre, playing out of position, I've seen since Ritchie Barnett.

[Salvatori Grubber]

Post of the year by Yak.

Johnny clearly didn't read it before posting.