Boot Aitken

[KogarahWarrior]

Okay, I'm not one who is hot and cold bout' players that much, but let me say this. Aitken is a very good young player, and is still developing. But- his defence is shocking. All Storm tries were on Edges, mostly being Nene and Aitken's. Aitken was always caught out of position, came flying out of the line, and stranded poor ol' Nene and Duges on that side. Nene was poor but is getting better. Saved a few. Boot Aitken, get him to NSW cup to top his game. Bring in Taane. As one of you said, the edge problems stopped when Taane came on.
Nene and Taane are really good mates of the field.. Have no troubles with communications..

 

[Dragonslayer]

Okay, I'm not one who is hot and cold bout' players that much, but let me say this. Aitken is a very good young player, and is still developing. But- his defence is shocking. All Storm tries were on Edges, mostly being Nene and Aitken's. Aitken was always caught out of position, came flying out of the line, and stranded poor ol' Nene and Duges on that side. Nene was poor but is getting better. Saved a few. Boot Aitken, get him to NSW cup to top his game. Bring in Taane. As one of you said, the edge problems stopped when Taane came on.
Nene and Taane are really good mates of the field.. Have no troubles with communications..

Agree with what you say KW.

A lot of people have an issue with Nene's defense, but I think he's been hang out to dry by Aitken and to a lesser extent McCrone.
If Nene holds back, then creates an overlap, if he comes up to plug the hole he leaves his man to get on the outside, he also has to consider a grubber through as well, if he up and one is put through people will be on his case about being too far up. He's really between a rock a hard place. I'm not saying he's a great defender either but he's saved us many times both last week and this week, whereas Aitken is just lost at sea.
Some will say Aitken's only young, hell he's nearly 22, how long does he stay young for?
There is no co-incidence that both times he's been hooked, firstly replaced by Mann and today by Milne, that the defense tightened up on that side and the danger looked less threatening.
I'm a fan of Aitken, but he need re-invention IMO.

 

[GC Dragon]

He is a backrower playing centre which becomes more obvious by the week . Put him in the middle and he will defend fine against the forwards running straight at him .

 

[2010]

It's a shame but Aitken has been doing this all year it seems. I am sure the coach knows this but it appears the issue has not been rectified. It's time Aitkin spends some time in the reserves to fix this problem

 

[Walpole]

It must be very difficult for MacDonald. As a winger he's told to stay with his centre but that's pretty hard when your centre all of a sudden bolts out of the line like a maniac.

I really like Aitken but his defensive problems need to be worked out. You would think McGregor, being a former international centre and all, would be able to help him with that. Or at least bring in Matt Cooper to do some work with Aitken if that's not part of Mary's very limited brief.

At the very least I think it's time to swap Milne and Aitken over for the next game.

 

[Frank Facer]

I agree with GC Dragon. Aikten is a backrower playing centre, but he lacks size to be a first grade forward. To my knowledge Aikten played lock for most of his juniors and was only moved to centre in his late teens.

It isn't just Aikten's defence that let's us down, it is his attack too. He provides very little creativity, or X factor at centre. He is not a speedster either.

Milne should most definitely be picked at centre next week. He should have been the first centre chosen at the start of the year. I still want us to sign Milne up long term. Milne does provide some creativity, and X factor at centre.

 

[possm]

It's a shame but Aitken has been doing this all year it seems. I am sure the coach knows this but it appears the issue has not been rectified. It's time Aitkin spends some time in the reserves to fix this problem

I've been calling for Aitken to be replaced by Milne since round two when we played the Eels. However, it is not all Aitkens fault I lay blame at:

Mary's game plan the 'compressed defence' or as some call it 'the up and in defensive plan' that Mary uses. Aitken is not suited to this defensive plan mainly because his is not good at timing and also has a problem with lateral movement. Aitken also has an unrelated problem with the high ball.

Millward's rush to extend Aitken's contract for 3 more years prior to season's start. It didn't make sense to me as Dugan was Millward's preferred right centre. With Dugan and Aitken signed, and Herbert - a junior right centre also signed, Milne did not seem to be in the Club's future plans.

Well, here we are and so what to do. I say:
Extend Milne's contract for two years and make him first choice for right centre. He has a history with Macdonald and their combination together should be what is needed on our right edge.
Withdraw the Dugan offer. If there is no suitable replacement within the Club, - Dufty, Field and Mann - then recruit a fullback.
Extend the contracts of Packer, Mann and Lafai.

The cap space gained from the release of Dugan and all of the fringe first graders we are not keeping for 2018, should be sufficient to do this.

In hindsight it would have been better to sign our marquee players Hunt Widdop and Dugan initially and then our first graders, juniors and lastly our fringe first graders. In this way we would have put together a competitive squad for 2018 and laid the foundations for the depth and development needed within our system.

 

[Saint_JimmyG]

If Aiken goes, it will only half solve the problem as MacDonald is just as culpable in defence.

 

[Joey_dragons]

i agree aitken has to go and replaced with milne. eels found the weakness and so did the storm. also its time for nighty to hang the boots. a great player and legend of the club but to slow and always caught out....

 

[giboz71]

Aitken has an upside. Strong and deceptively quick. Scored a few runaway tries this year which for a backline crying out for speed, is important.

It's his decision making and overall smarts that get him in trouble. He can actually tackle, when he makes the right decision, he usually shuts his opposite down. Trouble is, he rarely makes the right decision to jam in. And this leaves Nene exposed.

Surely someone in the coaching staff can teach him? Unless it's another Duges situation where we're still waiting for him to ball play from FB?

 

[Eastview]

Well he just got named in the centres for Country so someone must rate him

 

[denis preston]

Aitken has an upside. Strong and deceptively quick. Scored a few runaway tries this year which for a backline crying out for speed, is important.

It's his decision making and overall smarts that get him in trouble. He can actually tackle, when he makes the right decision, he usually shuts his opposite down. Trouble is, he rarely makes the right decision to jam in. And this leaves Nene exposed.

Surely someone in the coaching staff can teach him? Unless it's another Duges situation where we're still waiting for him to ball play from FB?

Giboz , unfortunately in his long range try against Manly he was being chased by a second rower and a slow centre that was 5 metres behind him and a standing start , so it was deceptive. He is a good footballer and it baffles all of us what the f**k the coaching staff are doing about his glaring defensive reads.

 

[71saintsimon]

Nobody seems to want to mention niightingales poor defensive reads or when his left standing by much faster wingers or how many tries get scored on his side from opposition kicks , it all seems to be Aitkein and McDonald's fault here

 

[possm]

Aitken has an upside. Strong and deceptively quick. Scored a few runaway tries this year which for a backline crying out for speed, is important.

It's his decision making and overall smarts that get him in trouble. He can actually tackle, when he makes the right decision, he usually shuts his opposite down. Trouble is, he rarely makes the right decision to jam in. And this leaves Nene exposed.

Surely someone in the coaching staff can teach him? Unless it's another Duges situation where we're still waiting for him to ball play from FB?

When you have a player like Milne sitting on the bench, I'm afraid it is off to reserve grade at lock or secondrow and a body building program to have him ready for a bench spot in 2018.

Can I add it is not all Aitken's fault. The defensive read problem has been there since early 2016 and the up and in defensive plan has failed many times in 2016 and against the Eels in round two this year. Put that one down to the coaching staff.

 

[Farrquarr]

I also seen dugan miss alot of one one tackles this weekend. Dugan was also out of position alot.

 

[possm]

We can't BOOT Aitken because he was one of the first players extended for 3 years. We can assist him with personal development transforming him into a backrow forward in reserve grade starting from now. If he does not like this, advise him we will not stand in his way for a move to another club before Jun 30.

 

[Forster Dragon]

Just needs good coaching

 

[possm]

Just needs good coaching

I agree he needs good coaching however, he has a lateral movement problem which results in speedy players easily burning him.

 

[BennyV]

The similarities to Mitch Rein are interesting...

Local junior who burst onto the scene earlier than was intended and handled the jump very well. Built a reputation as a strong runner and caught a lot of opposition off guard early on, and was hugely hyped because of this. However, a year or two into his career, a number of fundamental holes started showing through in his game and it gets to a point where they are a bit of a coaches pet, keeping their spot despite the fact that there are superior players waiting in line. Signed long term deal. Also, struggles with passing.

 

[Belta]

I found Mary's comments on Mann's defence needing to improve interesting, he did miss the one on one with Slater, but considering Slater is up there with one of the all time best fullbacks I found it hard to be critical, but Duges had some bad misses, and as mentioned nighty was caught out a little, although some of those try's no other winger I've ever seen would of stopped them, but yeah the outside backs were poor again. Aleast Mary conceded Mann is keeping his spot whilst Widdop is out.

Sorry Aitken but IMO you lose you're spot to Milne