Walker dropped

[Rooster_6]

The Robbo pile on is warranted until he proves otherwise. No he can’t control injuries. But I still have no idea why Walker was dropped, I thought he looked good in patches and it wasn’t worth unsettling so many positions & pre-season combo’s.

He isn’t getting hammered for no reason. He has a team full of guns, all which are well underperforming. We should be challenging for a minor premiership and be sitting pretty in the top four. But instead we are going to be chasing hard to make the top 8 (again).

If you’re happy with missing finals, or scraping in just to get bundled out in week 1 that’s fine but I had much higher expectations this year.

Amongst players to play halfback so far this year Walker ranks 23rd for try assists and 21st for Try contributions. His kicking game was really struggling but I thought his running game was a real stand-out. I wouldn't describe that as going good though.

I would've moved him back to 5/8 as I've said multiple times but I can also understand why Robinson dropped him to continue his development as a halfback. He needs to work on his blend of play, sadly injuries may mean he never gets that time as I imagine the plan was always to bring him back in before the finals.

[Bates]

Sam will more than likely sign a $1 mill plus a season deal with the Dolphins when his current contract expires. This has upset Robbo. He was hoping that the Keary Manu halves combo experiment would work but it has failed dismally to the point where most of the team has stopped performing. Short term Robbo has no option than play Walker at 7, Keary 6 move Manu back to the centres, JS to the wing and hope things get better.

[kakaruk]

Amongst players to play halfback so far this year Walker ranks 23rd for try assists and 21st for Try contributions. His kicking game was really struggling but I thought his running game was a real stand-out. I wouldn't describe that as going good though.

I would've moved him back to 5/8 as I've said multiple times but I can also understand why Robinson dropped him to continue his development as a halfback. He needs to work on his blend of play, sadly injuries may mean he never gets that time as I imagine the plan was always to bring him back in before the finals.

We all saw how Walker went at 5/8 in the great failed experiment last year even the guru eventually had to call a halt to it and move him back to 7 resulting in our having a great run home Unfortunately it cost the club a top 4 finish and a crack at another premiership. I very much doubt Robinson will play Sammy at 5/8 ever again but who knows this is the guy who plays hutch at center persists with Allen on the wing and Suallii in the centers even though he lets in at least 2 try's a game there because he is struggling in his D don't worry about bringing Sammy back for the finals i reckon were about done for the season. Lose a couple more and its all over and the only thing to look forward to is mad Monday.

[zac]

yes, robbo managing walker's development by giving him time in reserves happened before him and joey got injured but no one could say that it caused them to have injuries.
the coach has the right to call it as he sees it and he wasn't responsible for the injuries. if a coach wants to drop a future star because he thinks it's the best thing to do he's not going to change his mind because the future gun is therefore going to get injured playing in reserves. the idea's ridiculous

[Inflictor]

No one said the Coach was responsible for the injuries..

The point is if the player wasn’t wrongfully dropped ahead of other players playing worse than he wouldn’t of been in the position where he got injured..

Not saying an injury wouldn’t have occured elsewhere, but it wouldn’t have occurred that day..

Fairly simple to understand

WOW. You win the longest bow competition today.

FFS

[Lydon]

wow. You win the longest bow competition today.

Ffs

ffs

[zac]

No one said the Coach was responsible for the injuries..

The point is if the player wasn’t wrongfully dropped ahead of other players playing worse than he wouldn’t of been in the position where he got injured..

Not saying an injury wouldn’t have occured elsewhere, but it wouldn’t have occurred that day..

Fairly simple to understand

you should read what people have been writing. there have been threads devoted to robbo's responsibility for sammy getting injured because he dropped him.
it's probably true to say that if you change a big thing like sammy being dropped then it will have big consequences, that if sammy wasn't dropped he probably wouldn't have got injured, but you can't blame robbo for the injury. put it this way - if a coach wants to drop a player he's not going to change his mind because there's a better chance of him getting injured in reserves

[Lydon]

you should read what people have been writing. there have been threads devoted to robbo's responsibility for sammy getting injured because he dropped him.
it's probably true to say that if you change a big thing like sammy being dropped then it will have big consequences, that if sammy wasn't dropped he probably wouldn't have got injured, but you can't blame robbo for the injury. put it this way - if a coach wants to drop a player he's not going to change his mind because there's a better chance of him getting injured in reserves

Yes i agree with that..

[Rooster_6]

We all saw how Walker went at 5/8 in the great failed experiment last year even the guru eventually had to call a halt to it and move him back to 7 resulting in our having a great run home Unfortunately it cost the club a top 4 finish and a crack at another premiership. I very much doubt Robinson will play Sammy at 5/8 ever again but who knows this is the guy who plays hutch at center persists with Allen on the wing and Suallii in the centers even though he lets in at least 2 try's a game there because he is struggling in his D don't worry about bringing Sammy back for the finals i reckon were about done for the season. Lose a couple more and it’s all over and the only thing to look forward to is mad Monday.

Sam was fine at 5/8 last year, it was Keary’s inability to adapt as a halfback as to why the partnership failed and why Keary dropped his organisational responsibilities.

[Eggspert]

Amongst players to play halfback so far this year Walker ranks 23rd for try assists and 21st for Try contributions. His kicking game was really struggling but I thought his running game was a real stand-out. I wouldn't describe that as going good though.

I would've moved him back to 5/8 as I've said multiple times but I can also understand why Robinson dropped him to continue his development as a halfback. He needs to work on his blend of play, sadly injuries may mean he never gets that time as I imagine the plan was always to bring him back in before the finals.

After 50 odd first grade games & guiding us to 8 wins in a row & the team scoring plenty of points at the back end of last year I'd say Walkers development was coming along nicely.

To suggest Walker could be dropped & the team would cruise along into the finals & we would have the luxury of bringing him back is frankly ridiculous.

Without Walker the team will be watching the finals at home onTV.

[Rooster_Mark]

He needs to work on his blend of play, sadly injuries may mean he never gets that time as I imagine the plan was always to bring him back in before the finals.

He can't really do that in a third rate team that plays completely different to the our NRL team. We have a lot of problems with our attack, but it is clear that Walker isn't one of them. Every week we play like a team that has never met one another and that is on the coach. Watch Souths attack, with all their fluidity and watch our rabble run into each other when trying to spread the ball. Playing Radley as a ball player is where things unravel for us. He shifts our halves wider, especially Keary who run a diagonal line and our backline follows on the same angle. We have no one straightening up and we run out of room, with our Wingers ending up running for the sideline.

[Rooster_Mark]

Sam was fine at 5/8 last year, it was Keary’s inability to adapt as a halfback as to why the partnership failed and why Keary dropped his organisational responsibilities.

The solution was simple, let Keary go at last seasons end, heaps of desperate clubs would have been happy to pick him up at full freight, like the Tigers or Dragons and bring in a real halfback. Not screw over the kid who carried us in 2021 and should have been our future half for the next 10 years. It's probably the worst piece of man management that i have seen in the 55 years that i have been following the club. Only shading the stupidity of going public and saying that we would not let Suaalii leave early. It has pushed us in a corner and he has been exposed as an extremely average player and if we let him go, we lose credibility and if we keep him, we screw over our team.

[King Salvo]

Amongst players to play halfback so far this year Walker ranks 23rd for try assists and 21st for Try contributions. His kicking game was really struggling but I thought his running game was a real stand-out. I wouldn't describe that as going good though.

I would've moved him back to 5/8 as I've said multiple times but I can also understand why Robinson dropped him to continue his development as a halfback. He needs to work on his blend of play, sadly injuries may mean he never gets that time as I imagine the plan was always to bring him back in before the finals.

Sam Walker's running game fell away quite noticeably those last three games though - 7 runs vs Parra/ 5 runs vs Storm and 4 runs vs Sharks and up to near 6 for pass to run ratio KPI- Running halves need to be 2 and up to 3 max in the pass to run ratio KPI

2 try assists and 2 line breaks in 6 games is not the output expected of a running half in NRL or any level of Football one would say - That near 6 pass to run ratio clearly showed he lost confidence in that part of his game.

Sure the Spine was underperforming and Keary's was not killing it at the time and is still not killing it either with 6 line breaks and 7 try assists so far in 11 games but he has the runs on the board as they say over a far greater period of time.

2022 - Luke Keary - 22 Try Assists and 23 Line Break Assists (22 games ) - Sam Walker - 16 Try Assists and 11 Line Break Assists (25 games)

The extra targeting in D of Sam Walker certainly had an affect but you can't hide a player in D though and or compensate for a weaker defender by having other players assist - they have their own opposition offense players to concentrate on in D.

For Sam Walker to have a long NRL Career he certainly needs to bulk up as playing at 78 kg won't cut the mustard week in week out and he is no longer an unknown commodity as a player as other teams know and have worked out his strengths and weaknesses.

Steve Mortimer played at 78kgs to give a comparison

Not Sam Walkers's fault he didn't serve the required apprenticeship in lower grades and was fast tracked to NRL - the NSW Junior and Seniors pathways progressively prepares players for NRL and to be NRL ready better than the QLD versions.

Whether people like it or not structured football is what Coaches like as it simplifies the game plan and the role of each individual player in the team unit.

In saying that Sandon Smith must be under consideration to debut at some stage - like Tyler Moriarty (injured at the moment) both have come through the Roosters system (Central Coast Roosters/Sydney Roosters) from Andrew Johns Cup (Under 16's) to NSW Cup

Sandon Smith is a genuine organising half.

2022 (23 games)

• Line engaged - 213 (1)
• All Runs - 313 (3)
• Try assists - 23 (2)
• Line Break assists - 26 (1)
• Kicking Metres - 3rd
• Average Running Metres - 86

2023 (12 games) - played half / fullback and dummy half

• Line engaged - 133 (3)
• All Runs - 191 (8)
• Try Assists - 17 (1)
• Line Break Assists - 16 (1)
• Kicking metres - 5th
• Average Running Metres - 91

[Rooster_6]

The solution was simple, let Keary go at last seasons end, heaps of desperate clubs would have been happy to pick him up at full freight, like the Tigers or Dragons and bring in a real halfback. Not screw over the kid who carried us in 2021 and should have been our future half for the next 10 years. It's probably the worst piece of man management that i have seen in the 55 years that i have been following the club. Only shading the stupidity of going public and saying that we would not let Suaalii leave early. It has pushed us in a corner and he has been exposed as an extremely average player and if we let him go, we lose credibility and if we keep him, we screw over our team.

I certainly think Keary is the elephant in the room, even players like Thurston and Lockyer in their latter years developed into game managers and organisers for their side. Either Keary’s reluctance or inability to do so has made Walker’s progression into the side a lot harder and you’re right there’s probably a decision there that needs to be made as neither Keary or Walker are first grade standard organisers and both have mediocre long kicking games.

Individually I love both Keary and Walker as players but as a combo it just hasn’t worked.

[Eggspert]

you should read what people have been writing. there have been threads devoted to robbo's responsibility for sammy getting injured because he dropped him.
it's probably true to say that if you change a big thing like sammy being dropped then it will have big consequences, that if sammy wasn't dropped he probably wouldn't have got injured, but you can't blame robbo for the injury. put it this way - if a coach wants to drop a player he's not going to change his mind because there's a better chance of him getting injured in reserves

True you can't predict injuries.

But Robbo dropped him & he got injured in reserves & not 1st grade. That fact can't be changed.

Robbo's dropping decision & now the injury have had definite bad consequences for the team.

Nothing in Robbo's decisions have had positive consequences imo.