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Aitken

TRANSLATION

Juniors
Messages
1,910
I Don't think Aitken is a Centre. Maybe at Under 20's Level, But not in First Grade. He is as tough as they come this kid and Can score a try through sheer strength alone. Runs hard. I would love to see him on the Wing, More like a Josh Mansour type player who gets in does the work, and brings the ball back hard. Would be hard to stop 1 on 1 near the line.

Our problem is his Defence and Size in the Centres. He is not a Great reader In D and has been left wanting many times since he started Frist Grade.

Id Like to see him given a Crack at Fullback is he can catch a ball. Anywhere BUT Centres. Too slow. Too Small.

Nene would be a great Centre IMHO
 

BringTheNoise

Juniors
Messages
1,172
I Don't think Aitken is a Centre. Maybe at Under 20's Level, But not in First Grade. He is as tough as they come this kid and Can score a try through sheer strength alone. Runs hard. I would love to see him on the Wing, More like a Josh Mansour type player who gets in does the work, and brings the ball back hard. Would be hard to stop 1 on 1 near the line.

Our problem is his Defence and Size in the Centres. He is not a Great reader In D and has been left wanting many times since he started Frist Grade.

Id Like to see him given a Crack at Fullback is he can catch a ball. Anywhere BUT Centres. Too slow. Too Small.

Nene would be a great Centre IMHO

Too slow for centre but fast enough for fullback?
 

dragonssamy61

First Grade
Messages
5,549
I Don't think Aitken is a Centre. Maybe at Under 20's Level, But not in First Grade. He is as tough as they come this kid and Can score a try through sheer strength alone. Runs hard. I would love to see him on the Wing, More like a Josh Mansour type player who gets in does the work, and brings the ball back hard. Would be hard to stop 1 on 1 near the line.

Our problem is his Defence and Size in the Centres. He is not a Great reader In D and has been left wanting many times since he started Frist Grade.

Id Like to see him given a Crack at Fullback is he can catch a ball. Anywhere BUT Centres. Too slow. Too Small.

Nene would be a great Centre IMHO

Translation
I think nene to the centre is a great idea he's played there before.
I would have him a Milne as my centres.
I would play garrick on the wing fast good finisher.
I would play Atkins as a utility in the illawarra team and build him up so he can cover onthe bench second row and back line.
Like thommo dose in the nrl.
Also think he could play sum minutes at hooker. He defends well one on one but not so good with side to side movement. What do you think
 

hewi

Bench
Messages
3,740
After what happened to him last week you can bet the Shonkies will target his side of the field. Sunday could be make or break for him.
 

BankstownDragon

Juniors
Messages
295
Feel a little bad for even suggesting this but I don't think he will ever be good enough IMHO.

Defence positioning and timing is almost impossible to teach at this stage in his career. Top defensive centres just seem to have it in thier DNA.

He also isn't big enough to be a foward.

Cheers.
 

Belta

Juniors
Messages
1,124
I've mentioned a few times previously Aitken's speed of the mark and strong running is more siuted to him playing wing, possibly in place of Nighty, if not now the possibly in the future.
 

Belta

Juniors
Messages
1,124
Hewi said; "After what happened to him last week you can bet the Shonkies will target his side of the field. Sunday could be make or break for him"

Agree 100 percent, one thing we definitely know about the Shonkies is that they, as the Eels did last week have a very slick backline. Defensively the dragons have to improve dramatically, in how they read the opposition attack, every time the Eels spread it wide, players found overlaps, the parra boys had a field day...Nene and Aitken need to communicate, a few times they both went for the same player. I found it remarkable how they found it so hard to simply number up in defence, can only hope they have watched the video of the game and realised how poorly they executed this part of the game
 

BigBoss

Juniors
Messages
142
Sharks are going to direct all their traffic Aitken's way come Sunday. Could be quite scary tbh.

I feel his best position would be off the bench as a backrower/lock imo. He's a very physical type of player and runs hard and direct. Breaks plenty of tackles too. But he doesn't seem to have the speed or lateral movement/footwork to play centre sadly. If he doesn't know the basics on reading/shutting down a play in defense some of the greater sides out there will put more then a number on us.

Hopefully he proves us all wrong this weekend but I feel his future is in the backrow.
 

possm

Coach
Messages
15,587
I would love to see Aitken develop into a back rower.

I don't think he has the flair to be an elite centre
I too think Aitken should be trained to play in the back row. He is really not suited at centre, wing or fullback mainly because he does not have speed or elusiveness and crumbles under the high ball.
 

Rocket Rod

Juniors
Messages
562
I have no malice in saying this, but I for the life of me cannot see what Euan actually brings to the team.
I also cannot understand how Benji kept carrying on about the 'next big thing' in this kid and all the time Jack Bird was in the same team without any of the fanfare Benji was carrying on with about Euan.
So we let Bird flyaway and now if we want him back have to pay millions whilst we have now just extended Euan's contract for a further 3 years. WTF
The club's recruitment and retention need a kick up the arse!
 
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possm

Coach
Messages
15,587
I have no malice in saying this, but I for the life of me cannot see what Euan actually brings to the team.
I also cannot understand how Benji kept carrying on about the 'next big thing' in this kid and all the time Jack Bird was in the same team without any of the fanfare Benji was carrying on with about Euan.
So we let Bird flyaway and now if we want him back have to pay millions whilst we have now just extended Euan's contract for a further 3 years. WTF
The club's recruitment and retention need a kick up the arse!
Millward's white board
 

Blood Shot Eyes

First Grade
Messages
5,969
Its bloody frustrating being a helpless supporter on here and by helpless I mean watching MaCgregors selections and not being able to do anything about it...if the general concensus is Lafai is hopeless and Aitken has a lot of improving to do then WHY is Milne not playing and Mann is in and out .....know wonder we struggle it defies logic doesnt it
 

jak

Bench
Messages
3,060
Its bloody frustrating being a helpless supporter on here and by helpless I mean watching MaCgregors selections and not being able to do anything about it...if the general concensus is Lafai is hopeless and Aitken has a lot of improving to do then WHY is Milne not playing and Mann is in and out .....know wonder we struggle it defies logic doesnt it
how true.
 

possm

Coach
Messages
15,587
I'm afraid that we won't be a competitive team until our coaching staff are gone and a top grade coach and his staff take over.
 

mobels

Juniors
Messages
685
Its bloody frustrating being a helpless supporter on here and by helpless I mean watching MaCgregors selections and not being able to do anything about it...if the general concensus is Lafai is hopeless and Aitken has a lot of improving to do then WHY is Milne not playing and Mann is in and out .....know wonder we struggle it defies logic doesnt it
Tbh, before this season started and when he switched sides to accomodate Milne in the team i'd never seen anyone complaining about Aitken.In fact we had people mentioning how Aitken should be playing Origin in the near future

I agree with everyone that thus far of this year he's been terrible in defence,, however in his debut year and the first half of last season he was fine in defence (even getting comparisons to Matt Cooper as a great defensive centre).

I believe at the moment he's having confidence issues with his defence as seen last week, hopefully this week he'd be able to prove to everyone that his defence is up to scratch. If not he needs a short stint in NSW Cup to get his confidence up, because he is an absolutely devastating ball runner and frequently makes the most metres in the team.

Milne however should be put in the team in place for Lafai and nearing the end of the season Herbert should be blooded in on Nightingales wing. Mann is perfect as utility because he can cover every single position in the backline and every single successful team in the competition runs a utility back (Sharks, Storm, Cowboys, Roosters)
 

possm

Coach
Messages
15,587
Last season we blamed Benji for the confusion in defence on our right however, I noticed we were always short a defender and our outside backs were always too far infield. I'm sure Aitken was playing to Mary's impossible compressed defence instructions.
 

BennyV

Referee
Messages
22,441
Tbh, before this season started and when he switched sides to accomodate Milne in the team i'd never seen anyone complaining about Aitken.In fact we had people mentioning how Aitken should be playing Origin in the near future

I agree with everyone that thus far of this year he's been terrible in defence,, however in his debut year and the first half of last season he was fine in defence (even getting comparisons to Matt Cooper as a great defensive centre).

I believe at the moment he's having confidence issues with his defence as seen last week, hopefully this week he'd be able to prove to everyone that his defence is up to scratch. If not he needs a short stint in NSW Cup to get his confidence up, because he is an absolutely devastating ball runner and frequently makes the most metres in the team.

Milne however should be put in the team in place for Lafai and nearing the end of the season Herbert should be blooded in on Nightingales wing. Mann is perfect as utility because he can cover every single position in the backline and every single successful team in the competition runs a utility back (Sharks, Storm, Cowboys, Roosters)
Mid-late last season, many realists were starting to notice Aitken getting targeted in defence, particularly with regards to kicks (opposition centres and wingers were jumping over him to score and he had no idea how to stop it). This season, opposition coaches will have done their homework and wil be directing traffic his way all game, as his decision making and lateral movement is poor. The reason he was being talked up so highly as a defensive centre was his strength, his front-on tacking technique and TBH, the fact that he has a number of attacking flaws that people were looking to counter.

It took that long for opposition coaches to figure out, but now they have.

Aitken, unfortunately, I think will become the next Mitch Rein - burst onto the scene and was very promising, however once opposition coaches figured out his MO and weaknesses, he wont develop much else. Regardless of this, the club will stick by him and some of the loyalist fans will make excuses for his shortcomings on the back of him putting in a lot of effort, being all heart and the fact that he's a local junior. In reality, he probably could be a very good player but he has a lot of development to do and is currently holding better players back.
 

Dragonslayer

First Grade
Messages
7,678
Milne should have been in round 1. However, he hasn't been setting the NSW Cup on fire and is probably being overshadowed by Herbert ATM. Maybe its confidence, maybe he's just not getting the ball. So McGregor isn't going to displace Lafai or Aitken until he stands out in NSW Cup by bagging some tries and having his name called out, nether of which is happening right now.
 
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