Jake Friend

[ism22]

Settle down BB. Cook has been the best hooker this year. Halfway through the season half the people on this sight wanted Friend gone.

TBH I don't think he was. We were all amazed in the early rounds when this young kid started doing dummy-half runs straight through the centre of everybody. This was mostly the result of the Burgess brothers being allowed to do surrender tackles without players being allowed to hold them longer as a result.

Jake Friend advised the refs and they adapted fairly quickly. Cook stopped making all of those gratuitous line breaks down the middle and we were the champions on the back of excellent defence.

Cook never defended. I repeat, he was just the beneficiary of a few simple tactics that weren't policed so well early on.

Jake should of been at least put on the bench his always been a work horse giving a 100%. His defense is outstanding so yes he makes mistakes in attack but never dies trying.

Nah then he would have had to play 5/8 when Keary was knocked out. Ben Hunt is by far the better 5/8.

The bigger issue was that the following players shouldn't have been selected:
1. Valentine Holmes
2. Daly Cherry-Evans
3. Jordan McLean
4. Felisi Kaufusi
5. Josh McGuire
6. Damien Cook
7. Aaron Woods
8. ***Mal Meninga***

This was Mal's first test as a coach and IMO he's failed big time. He picked an odd mixture of players and paid the price for it.

[SupermanSupportsEasts4Eva]

Going into the match I would have probably picked Cook at hooker as well. But the selections of DCE, Hunt and Gagai had me puzzled. Mal looking after his Qld mates again was my thinking.

GI's drinking session threw a spanner in the works for the centre position, but wouldn't the obvious replacement have been James Roberts with Turbo on the wing?

As for DCE if Morgan and Muster are available for the ANZAC test and Origin selection, I'd say that the rep career of the Manly #7 will be nonexistent for another few years.

IMO all of Nathan Cleary, BBQ Maloney, Pearce, Ash Taylor, and Adam Reynolds had better seasons than DCE. As such (even though some would have been massive bolters for the role) any of them would have been a better option for the halfback position last night.

One good origin 3 game shouldn't have been enough for DCE to be selected for an end of year test.

[Juggler]

GI’s bender def threw a spanner. We also don’t necessarily know who was not available due to minor operations etc.

I was never one who called for Jake’s head early in the year. If he maintains form, he should be qld’s hooker next year.

Cook was still one of Souffs most dangerous players in the semi. If anything he was guilty of whatJake did early on - try too hard. They are different sorts of players.

[NorfolkStreetKid]

Jake would have done a better job than Hunt, Hunt is fair dinkum useless in big games. He was a liability in both attack and defence. Adam Reynolds is far better in every aspect. The Kiwis picked a kid at hooker and he starred. Mitch Aubo would also have been a better choice on the bench. No I am not kidding. I don't rate Meninga as a coach. Sure he won plenty with QLD but without Smith, Cronk, Slater and Thurston they wouldn't have won a single series. I reckon Freddy will be the next Aussie coach. But the NRL have created a monster because it's hard to sack Meninga because of the bullshit Immortals crap.

[NorfolkStreetKid]

TBH I don't think he was. We were all amazed in the early rounds when this young kid started doing dummy-half runs straight through the centre of everybody. This was mostly the result of the Burgess brothers being allowed to do surrender tackles without players being allowed to hold them longer as a result.

Jake Friend advised the refs and they adapted fairly quickly. Cook stopped making all of those gratuitous line breaks down the middle and we were the champions on the back of excellent defence.

Cook never defended. I repeat, he was just the beneficiary of a few simple tactics that weren't policed so well early on.



Nah then he would have had to play 5/8 when Keary was knocked out. Ben Hunt is by far the better 5/8.

The bigger issue was that the following players shouldn't have been selected:
1. Valentine Holmes
2. Daly Cherry-Evans
3. Jordan McLean
4. Felisi Kaufusi
5. Josh McGuire
6. Damien Cook
7. Aaron Woods
8. ***Mal Meninga***

This was Mal's first test as a coach and IMO he's failed big time. He picked an odd mixture of players and paid the price for it.

Hunt is not better at any position than at least 10 other available players. I agree that McGuire is past his use by, Holmes deserved his spot but Cherry Evans, McLean, and Woods are lucky to be there.

[The Axe]

Imagine how good cook would be with a coach like Robbo who develops players....

souffs did not improve since mid point of season. Some coaches have limited box of tricks.

for all the shit I put on jake, I’d have his tenacity over cook in green and gold every day of the week.

also the nrl has afforded too much power to qld in every dept of the game including Australian selections

[Flipper Hands]

Why is the defensive side of a dummy half so undervalued. To the point where people on here couldn't see Friends value and he has now been overlooked for two inferior defenders at representative level in McCullough and Cook.

If the skill sets were reversed and Friend was as good an attacking player as he is currently a defensive player and Cook as good a defensive player as he is currently a attacking player would Cook still be picked?

Why is there such a heavy bias towards attacking ability over defensive ability when history shows us time and time again that defence wins big games.

At worst defence is 50% of the game and should be valued as such.

My theory is that this type of opinion comes from armchair experts who have never played "seriously", whether that be junior rep teams or all the way to first grade.

I spent considerable time on here defending Friend during his poor patch, gave up in the end.

That being said, Cook has been decent in defence all year, and probably did deserve the cap.

[bondi.boy]

Jake should of been at least put on the bench his always been a work horse giving a 100%. His defense is outstanding so yes he makes mistakes in attack but never dies trying.

During and after the Grand Final, commentators were singing his praises, very loudly.

[eddie]

I spent considerable time on here defending Friend during his poor patch, gave up in the end.

Well done. I spent a fair bit of time putting the boot in, and dont feel great about it.
To be fair his form was down for quite awhile, and I think he needed time off to recover from the injuries he was carrying.
But anyway, I deserve a big slap from one of those flipper hands.

[Mickie Lane]

Spot on guv'nor!

You dead set come up with some of the best members names.
"Smee" another ripper.

[Mickie Lane]

Maxy Walker defended Jake plenty, he was always trying to tell all the know alls that Jake wasnt the problem & that he is actually one of the Roosters best.
On the Australian side & T Turbo in the centres I cant work out why Chambers wasnt in the side with Fergusson on the wing.

[Smee]

You dead set come up with some of the best members names.
"Smee" another ripper.

It Smee again!

[zac]

I'm thinking Tonga might do Australia this weekend ...

[Tommy Smith]

Maxy Walker defended Jake plenty, he was always trying to tell all the know alls that Jake wasnt the problem & that he is actually one of the Roosters best.
On the Australian side & T Turbo in the centres I cant work out why Chambers wasnt in the side with Fergusson on the wing.

Fergo broke his leg in the GF.

[Headless Chook]

TBH I don't think he was. We were all amazed in the early rounds when this young kid started doing dummy-half runs straight through the centre of everybody. This was mostly the result of the Burgess brothers being allowed to do surrender tackles without players being allowed to hold them longer as a result.

Jake Friend advised the refs and they adapted fairly quickly. Cook stopped making all of those gratuitous line breaks down the middle and we were the champions on the back of excellent defence.

Cook never defended. I repeat, he was just the beneficiary of a few simple tactics that weren't policed so well early on.



Nah then he would have had to play 5/8 when Keary was knocked out. Ben Hunt is by far the better 5/8.

The bigger issue was that the following players shouldn't have been selected:
1. Valentine Holmes
2. Daly Cherry-Evans
3. Jordan McLean
4. Felisi Kaufusi
5. Josh McGuire
6. Damien Cook
7. Aaron Woods
8. ***Mal Meninga***

This was Mal's first test as a coach and IMO he's failed big time. He picked an odd mixture of players and paid the price for it.

You can't be serious with Val Holmes, Kafusi, Damien Cook and also saying that Meninga shouldn't be coach. Throw up some better options than those guys, in fact throw up better options for all the players you have highlighted. The only one I can agree with is Woods, who I think got picked because he's been there before with Meninga. You can't just say these guys shouldn't have been picked and not say who should have been there in front of them