Brock Lamb

[Joel-22]

I have defended everything Nathan Brown has done. I have understood the reasoning behind some of his decisions despite disagreeing with them myself.

Then he dumped a 20 year old Brock Lamb for a 28 year old with no knees who was barely doing enough to stay in reserve grade.

I think it's very possible Brown has lost the dressing room and given today's opposition the final score could reflect that.

 

[Johns Magic]

Supposedly Hodkinson was going well in NSW Cup apparently but bringing him back was a shit decision.

 

[Joel-22]

I'm still trying to understand what Lamb did to deserve to be dropped at all, let alone ahead of Feeney.

 

[K-Man]

Supposedly Hodkinson was going well in NSW Cup apparently but bringing him back was a shit decision.

With Hodko I feel like it doesn't really matter how he's going at that level. He is a known quantity and these days in the NRL he doesn't have any tools at his disposal to hurt teams.

He's like a solid Group 3 winning horse running in the Melbourne Cup and coming 20th. He's not in the top class, so reserves form is largely meaningless.

It's different with young halves who have potential because their lower grade form offers a glimpse of what they can do.

 

[slotmachine]

Hodko was the best player on the field in the trials too.

The sooner he gets to the ESL the better for all concerned.

 

[Volcom6685]

I still understand his decision. Lamb had his worst game last week. Gives him accountability as well as let him have a run with cogger and also WIN a game.

 

[Johns Magic]

I'm still trying to understand what Lamb did to deserve to be dropped at all, let alone ahead of Feeney.

Lamb had a few quiet weeks for sure.

 

[Old dog]

I think Lambs drop in form is a young player suffering from lack of wins and pressure mounting to get the team home despite his lack of experience. It would do him good to pair back up with cogger, suggest we put them in first and let them play, Hodko/Feeney to reserves

 

[Swarzey]

Lamb does the things you don't see. Lamb tries to organises, Lamb tries to lead the side around; he tries to structure our attack, he tries to make sure that we're not bunched up in the middle of the field, tries to make sure that the ball goes from Levi to Sio or Ross or whoever is on the wing as smooth as possible. He has tried to be the core of the team, the leader and guide the side.

I say tries because of where this side is at, without a halves partner to assist him in developing these skills or players around him to get results from his work, he's never going to get the credit he deserves. He does everything Hodkinson was brought in to do, just without the players or experience that similar players have. For the past 7 weeks Feeney as done none of that and for the past year and a half neither has Hodkinson. Instead of looking for two active halves and judging who deserves to be axed or not based on whose on your screen more, whose putting the last attacking pass, attacking kick etc, maybe we should be finding someone who can compliment Lamb?

And it's just NSW Cup and it's just against a woeful West Tigers reserve grade side but it seemed he and Cogger did a banger job yesterday.

 

[Caped Crusader]

I get the decision if we were coming up against Melb or Cronulla etc but to do it right before a must win game like today's was ill conceived, especially ahead of dropping Feeney who has been consistently far worse than Lamb

Brown has nearly lost me

 

[Johns Magic]

Feeney has lad more tries on than Lamb of late I reckon

 

[Old dog]

It's the critical times filled with errors, when feeney has the ball he is adventuress but errors keep happening, I understand he is under enormous pressure, to play well, win a game, win a contract

 

[Caped Crusader]

Feeney has lad more tries on than Lamb of late I reckon

May be he has maybe he hasn't

Feeney has certainly missed far more tackles and not kicked anywhere near as well

I cannot fathom any world where Feeney is the better player than Lamb

 

[Swarzey]

Feeney likely does but I mean Cronk only has 8 try assists in 12 games; considering some of the scorelines Melbourne have put on other teams and a player of his caliber, you would expect more. There's a reason he's a shit buy in fantasy. But his lack of try assists wouldn't deter anyone; it's what you don't see in organisation that teams want, its his kicking game and general leadership.

Cronk as an example is going from one extreme to another but it highlights the value different players offer. I see a lot of what Cronk does in Lamb. I don't care if Feeney lays on fewer tries, we're in those positions to score because of Lamb's effort to begin with. Look at today, we struggled to form any attacking raid whatsoever; we had a shit kicking game, they constantly started sets way off their line and it's the f**king Wests Tigers. Hell, how f**king dumb did we look? Players running into each other, nobody knowing where to run, the holes to hit. Any sense of structure was dead.

Give me Lamb's unseen influence over Feeney's try assists any day of the week.

 

[Johns Magic]

Yeah I don't disagree with any of the above. Both better than Hodkinson though.

 

[Still Nutty]

For mine, if both are fit, Lamb and Cogger should be our starting halves next week. If nothing else than to say ''our halves did not deliver anything in structure or game plan today and we need to hold players to account"...

While I am all for stability and giving combinations a chance to grow, there is a point where you have to say "that performance is not acceptable!" and dropping them, particularly when the potential future halves have delivered the day before at least gives him reason to say - let's give it a go because it can't be any worse than that.

 

[Joel-22]

If we don't sign anyone else for 2018 I have no doubt that our best halves pairing rd 1 2018 will be Lamb and Cogger.

 

[Old dog]

Response to nutty and Joel, agreed, cogger/lamb have been our best halves combination for a couple of years, yes even better than Hodgkin/Mullen, as a combo, Mullen was very good but hodko did not perform to what was expected. Give them the job/responsibility until we sign someone better

 

[Glendale]

Well... I was the first one on these forums to suggest the logic behind Brownys move. I sorta got what he was trying to do with this. How wrong was I.

Feeney and Hodkinson are both playing for their careers and both turned out performances that was not of first grade standard. That should be both their careers done. Lamb and Cogger for the rest of the year.

 

[Old dog]

Well... I was the first one on these forums to suggest the logic behind Brownys move. I sorta got what he was trying to do with this. How wrong was I.

Feeney and Hodkinson are both playing for their careers and both turned out performances that was not of first grade standard. That should be both their careers done. Lamb and Cogger for the rest of the year.

Isn't it funny how clever you seem when you think like me