Late to the party..but these are my thoughts

[Geohood]

I did not get to see the game yesterday. I notice not one of our forwards made 100 metres and we missed 50 tackles..WTF..??

Good.

You missed a slow and painful 2 hour, commercial infested death... oh and one of the softest tries/non existent defence for a try that you would ever see..


And I honestly thought that we were going to smash them after we scored our first try and looked good at the start of the match.. Trust our team to do that to me lol..

[ism22]

How gAAAAAAAy is the name Peter Matautai BTW?
First time I heard it I thought they were just randomly calling a guy "Matty Utai"... then I realised it was actually his name (after many long minutes of wondering WTF he was anything like Utai, or why you'd say that granted Utai isn't exactly a football legend.)

[Vasco]

I did not get to see the game yesterday. I notice not one of our forwards made 100 metres and we missed 50 tackles..WTF..??

On some occasions the gaps were that big that tackles were impossible.

[Pass the Ball]

Why does Jake Friend make the most tackles each week. You can not fault his effort, but is it good for the team? It is not as if he ever hurts anyone in a tackle.

Is he just the only one prepared to get in there and tackle?

I am not in anyway having a go at Friend, just questioning why it is up to him to make so many week in week out..

[Rooster_6]

Why does Jake Friend make the most tackles each week. You can not fault his effort, but is it good for the team? It is not as if he ever hurts anyone in a tackle.

Is he just the only one prepared to get in there and tackle?

I am not in anyway having a go at Friend, just questioning why it is up to him to make so many week in week out..

Because a good workrate isn't valued at the Roosters and I mean right across the board to the supporters too. Just ask Fitzgibbon & Myles... they didn't meet the set quota for linebreaks and tries scored, unfortunately Friend might be heading down a similar path too.

We'll always chose the glamorous, explosive player before the hard worker and it's not just our defense we're ranked last in metres gained by quite some distance.

[Pass the Ball]

Because a good workrate isn't valued at the Roosters and I mean right across the board to the supporters too. Just ask Fitzgibbon & Myles... they didn't meet the set quota for linebreaks and tries scored, unfortunately Friend might be heading down a similar path too.

We'll always chose the glamorous, explosive player before the hard worker and it's not just our defense we're ranked last in metres gained by quite some distance.

I am not sure that I understand your response..

Is it good for the team that Friend makes 50+ tackles each week..??

[Kingbilly]

Because a good workrate isn't valued at the Roosters and I mean right across the board to the supporters too. Just ask Fitzgibbon & Myles... they didn't meet the set quota for linebreaks and tries scored, unfortunately Friend might be heading down a similar path too.

We'll always chose the glamorous, explosive player before the hard worker and it's not just our defense we're ranked last in metres gained by quite some distance.

Do you think thats really true, we have had plenty of hardworking players do very well at the Roosters, Ricketson, Fitzgibbon, Bonnetti.
In fact alot of out forwards were good hard workers 2000-2004.

I agree its something that doesn't look like a priority at the moment. Myles is working hard at times, where as other times he is not putting in. Maybe he is not being spelled enough

[Rooster_6]

I am not sure that I understand your response..

Is it good for the team that Friend makes 50+ tackles each week..??

It's good for the team to have a dummy half who can make a lot of tackles but not the amount he's making, if he was a lock then fair enough it's only going to affect his running game and you can sacrifice that knowing that your second rowers & props are going to remain a lot fresher. Similar to the role Shaun Fensom & Dallas Johnson play for their respective sides.

Friend is a dummy half though, he should be a massive part in our attack it makes no sense to fatigue one of your key attacking players to that extent. Take 10-20 tackles of Friend's tackle count each week and watch how good he goes, sure he goes looking for tackles but the question needs to be asked why no one else is?

All comes back down to balance and I think everyone agrees that we've been lacking it for quite some time.

[Rooster_6]

Do you think thats really true, we have had plenty of hardworking players do very well at the Roosters, Ricketson, Fitzgibbon, Bonnetti.
In fact alot of out forwards were good hard workers 2000-2004.

I agree its something that doesn't look like a priority at the moment. Myles is working hard at times, where as other times he is not putting in. Maybe he is not being spelled enough

Cusack, Catic, Payten they all worked hard from fringe players to starters. It was our most consistent period because you always knew what you were going to get from the players. With flair and creativity (FPN, Anasta, Symonds even Maubs to an extent) you're always bordering on excellence and epic failure.

Gus for all his insanity understands and has always respected the basics of Rugby League it wasn't until his re-emergence with Freddy in 2008 that we saw this sort of forward dominance and work rate again, I mean just have a look at the player stats of the opening rounds in 2008...

http://live.nrlstats.com/matches/nrl/match1293.html
http://live.nrlstats.com/matches/nrl/match1301.html
http://live.nrlstats.com/matches/nrl/match1311.html
http://live.nrlstats.com/matches/nrl/match1318.html

We're not even half way near that at the moment, sure we scored a shitload of tries from the boot but look at our 1,6,7,9.

An inexperienced Pearce & an uninspiring hooker rotation. Play that same game plan with a much more mature Pearce, Carney & Friend (with a lessened work load) and watch us go. It's not like we'd have to break the bank either... we've already got Ryles, Kennedy & Friend for starters. We could of held onto Myles if we wanted to and with some smart retention/recruitment we're already pretty much there.

That's just my take on it all anyway.

[Guest]

Cusack, Catic, Payten they all worked hard from fringe players to starters. It was our most consistent period because you always knew what you were going to get from the players. With flair and creativity (FPN, Anasta, Symonds even Maubs to an extent) you're always bordering on excellence and epic failure.

Gus for all his insanity understands and has always respected the basics of Rugby League it wasn't until his re-emergence with Freddy in 2008 that we saw this sort of forward dominance and work rate again, I mean just have a look at the player stats of the opening rounds in 2008...

http://live.nrlstats.com/matches/nrl/match1293.html
http://live.nrlstats.com/matches/nrl/match1301.html
http://live.nrlstats.com/matches/nrl/match1311.html
http://live.nrlstats.com/matches/nrl/match1318.html

We're not even half way near that at the moment, sure we scored a shitload of tries from the boot but look at our 1,6,7,9.

An inexperienced Pearce & an uninspiring hooker rotation. Play that same game plan with a much more mature Pearce, Carney & Friend (with a lessened work load) and watch us go. It's not like we'd have to break the bank either... we've already got Ryles, Kennedy & Friend for starters. We could of held onto Myles if we wanted to and with some smart retention/recruitment we're already pretty much there.

That's just my take on it all anyway.

Argh!!!! Stop Making Sense.