Jake Friend

[Arties Pie]

I get sick to death of hearing Oh Jake has to make SOOOO many tackles crap, if you take tackle assist's out of the number it wouldn't be that many at all (Half at the most) How many dominant or one on one tackles does he make ? He does CONTRIBUTE to alot of tackles as the big guys run at him as all big forwards do run at the smaller guys but that's pretty much it. His MAIN job is to be a good dummy half and in that he fails miserably. Jake is a Supercoach superstar.

[Arties Pie]

Yep and kicks goals better than anybody else in our team.

Friend is clueless at the moment. Go back to the previous week when it was 18all against Parra and he goes for the glory play trying to score from dummy half and loses the ball. Parra march downfield and score the match winner. He offers very little in attack and is another David Stagg in defence. I watched Garvey in the 20's Origin game and he wasn't anything inspiring either. I think we need to have a good look at Hastings as a possible 9.

Funny thing is I was slammed for making the same suggestion a few weeks ago.

[Guest]

Funny thing is I was slammed for making the same suggestion a few weeks ago.

Awwww ... do you want a tissue mate?

[Arties Pie]

Awwww ... do you want a tissue mate?

Yup sure do, so where is it?

[Tommy Smith]

I'm sorry but if you think HoJu would be a better no.9 than Jake Friend then yes, you are at least deluded.

He can certainly play a roll off the bench for 25min to give Jake a break (although I'd prefer someone nippy out of dummy half for that) but he isn't and never will be a better alternate hooking option than Friend.

[Arties Pie]

I'm sorry but if you think HoJu would be a better no.9 than Jake Friend then yes, you are at least deluded.

He can certainly play a roll off the bench for 25min to give Jake a break (although I'd prefer someone nippy out of dummy half for that) but he isn't and never will be a better alternate hooking option than Friend.

Opinions are like A**holes everyone has one although I could think the same about yours too as in you being delusional if you think friend is actually any good at anything other than being a tackle machine.

[chopstiks]

Friend is like Robbie Farah.. NOBODY knows what he's going to do.. and that's the fundamental problem for the coach and his teammates. look at his grubber into in-goal, poor sam moa had to chase it after realising what was happening, how can your own teammates not know. Friend's time is up please

[fletch]

Friend hasn't been the same since Paul Green left to become the Cowboys head coach, it was Green that spent countless hours with Friend and the results were there to be seen in 2013.

also didn't help that Friend was hitting the booze as hard as Pearce all offseason, not the kind of preparation you need from your captains.

its clear Robbo stuffed up by making Friend/Pearce captains, he had hoped it would mature them, it had the opposite effect, gave them the bullet proof feeling they could act however they wanted, Pearce in particular paid the ultimate price for his actions.

[Johnny Tobin]

Friend hasn't been the same since Paul Green left to become the Cowboys head coach, it was Green that spent countless hours with Friend and the results were there to be seen in 2013.

also didn't help that Friend was hitting the booze as hard as Pearce all offseason, not the kind of preparation you need from your captains.

its clear Robbo stuffed up by making Friend/Pearce captains, he had hoped it would mature them, it had the opposite effect, gave them the bullet proof feeling they could act however they wanted, Pearce in particular paid the ultimate price for his actions.

No, we did.

Our "culture" went to hell in an offseason.

[Guest]

Yes it is very sad. I have just about lost all my patience with Robbo with each pathetic performance by the team and certain individuals this year.

Where is Fred and how come he isn't calling for Robbo's head?

He is here

[2026]

Jakes role needs to be simplified.

Start by taking the captaincy away.

Focus on quality ball distribution. He needs to trust his halves and forget about being Mr clutch play.

[Cockadoodledoo]

Jakes role needs to be simplified.

Start by taking the captaincy away.

Focus on quality ball distribution. He needs to trust his halves and forget about being Mr clutch play.

I am a little bit pissed off at Johnny Tobin because I was going to use the same analogy last week in a thread and never got the time to write it. Jake pretty much thinks he has Cameron Smith's ability and as result like you said thinks he can make the clutch play's for the team. The sad fact is his ability is more like Kurt Sherlock's and the results are what we are getting. Third tackle kicks that no one is ready for, forward passes, intercept passes, drop balls trying to score tries.

[Cockadoodledoo]

It's OK to debate dropping Jake, but you need to consider who will do all the tackling if he's not in the side. I can't think of any takers in our current squad.

Criticise Jake all you like, but he's the one making tackle after tackle after tackle, while his team mates throw a half arsed arm out and grab no one.

If Jake wasn't in the team, we'd be conceding 50 points a game, not 30 ...

The guy is simply overburdened with responsibility this year and it's ground him down to the ground. I suspect he doesn't even want the sole captaincy but Robbo has left him with it because for a chunk of the season, there was no one else available while JWH and Cordner were injured. Remember it was Jake who was left doing the onfield babysitting of the young'uns in the early rounds when Pearce, JWH and Cords were all not out there.

As for Hastings at hooker, he's as slow or slower than Jake, is an average defender and his kicking game is little better than Jake's - so where's the benefit?

Apparently Hastings excelled last night where he currently belongs - in the NYC where attack rules and defence is an optional extra.

I would take 12 weeks of a fit Cordner at Captain than 26 weeks of Jake. With regards to his 50 tackles, half of those tackles would be made anyway if he wasn't there. He just leans in as the third man to help hold the player down. What Jake needs to understand is defence is only half the game, the other half is attack and as dummy half, he has to get it going and he can't. As to JWH, no one comes back from an ACL and just fires. Especially for a big man like Jared, it always takes at least 12 more months to get back close to a players best, so forget about him coming back to top form this season, it is not physically possible.

[Mickie Lane]

I know this thread is about Friend but I must say my favourite player JWH has lost his intimidating factor & so has Napa. I think that has a lot to do with Friends slip in form.

[Guest]

Friend hasn't been the same since Paul Green left to become the Cowboys head coach, it was Green that spent countless hours with Friend and the results were there to be seen in 2013.

also didn't help that Friend was hitting the booze as hard as Pearce all offseason, not the kind of preparation you need from your captains.

its clear Robbo stuffed up by making Friend/Pearce captains, he had hoped it would mature them, it had the opposite effect, gave them the bullet proof feeling they could act however they wanted, Pearce in particular paid the ultimate price for his actions.

Pretty strong statements you have made re Friends alcohol consumption in the off season.

If true our season was fxxxked even before Pearce was caught out as the culture was a booze filled one from the Co captains.