Damien Cook - Reserved

[greg jay]

Cook needs to be allowed to play HIS style which is use his SPEED and Attack. That means taking some RISKS. Cook seems scared out there and probably due to Maguire's instructions and Farah's shadow. Cook seems harnessed to me. Not free flowing like he does not want Maguire to hammer him with criticism.

 

[SBD82]

Cook needs to be allowed to play HIS style which is use his SPEED and Attack. That means taking some RISKS. Cook seems scared out there and probably due to Maguire's instructions and Farah's shadow. Cook seems harnessed to me. Not free flowing like he does not want Maguire to hammer him with criticism.

All of your hooker struggles seem to stem from Madge being unwilling to modify your style of play to suit any one particular hooker. McInnes included.

 

[Souths Till I Die]

Cook needs to be allowed to play HIS style which is use his SPEED and Attack. That means taking some RISKS. Cook seems scared out there and probably due to Maguire's instructions and Farah's shadow. Cook seems harnessed to me. Not free flowing like he does not want Maguire to hammer him with criticism.

This makes a lot of sense. Cook's creative play does sometimes seem held back. He opened up the dogs defence yesterday only to have John Sutton stand lazily in the defensive line.

 

[themacemaceman]

This makes a lot of sense. Cook's creative play does sometimes seem held back. He opened up the dogs defence yesterday only to have John Sutton stand lazily in the defensive line.

A play or 2 before that Sutton was bent over backwards.... and injured his neck. He then went off after that instance you are referring to so I'm not too sure it's a case of him being lazy..... more so injured.

 

[rabbitohs95]

Farah is far too slow!!!!!!

It's pedestrian.

Cook saved 2 tries yesterday but let's just ignore that hey!!!!

Im not bagging Cook Im just saying Farah isnt as bad as some are making him out to be.

 

[callmack1]

It's certainly a tough decision between hookers but Madge must pick one.

Even though Farah hasn't been bad and he has the experience and control, I myself prefer Cook, he just seems more dangerous.

As others have said maybe dropping Fatah for a while would really fire him up.

 

[Rsag85]

He just has to pick one or the other

 

[Tiger5150]

Madge always say you have to go back to move forward. Maybe dropping Farah for a month or two might fire him up to win his spot back in the side

Yep, worth a try, seemed to work at the Tigers.....wait no....

 

[themacemaceman]

We are not losing because Cook is Hooker or Farrah is Hooker. It makes no difference I think.
We are failing to execute a crucial parts of the game.
(Sorry for sounding like Madge)
We fail to capitalise on opportunities we get from penalties or errors by the opposition.
We are not getting repeat sets and building pressure. A lot of our kicks to the in goal are hitting the feet of opponents or getting picked up outside of the ingoal.

 

[doyen]

We are not losing because Cook is Hooker or Farrah is Hooker. It makes no difference I think.
We are failing to execute a crucial parts of the game.
(Sorry for sounding like Madge)
We fail to capitalise on opportunities we get from penalties or errors by the opposition.
We are not getting repeat sets and building pressure. A lot of our kicks to the in goal are hitting the feet of opponents or getting picked up outside of the ingoal.

All of which adds up to a dysfunctional RL side!! Our coach very much included!!

The halves & hookers hold the responsibility of holding the steering wheel & should therefore shoulder the bulk of the blame for us staring down the barrel of being a possible 13th place after 7 rounds----if the Panthers & Eels win,indeed,we will be 13th on the ladder!!!!

Saints have Widdop,McCrone & McInnes at the helm & enjoy top of the ladder status[double our points] as well as a whopping differential 120 pts ahead of Sths.
We obviously lack effectiveness from our key players,as mentioned!

 

[souths_reborn]

All of which adds up to a dysfunctional RL side!! Our coach very much included!!

The halves & hookers hold the responsibility of holding the steering wheel & should therefore shoulder the bulk of the blame for us staring down the barrel of being a possible 13th place after 7 rounds----if the Panthers & Eels win,indeed,we will be 13th on the ladder!!!!

Saints have Widdop,McCrone & McInnes at the helm & enjoy top of the ladder status[double our points] as well as a whopping differential 120 pts ahead of Sths.
We obviously lack effectiveness from our key players,as mentioned!

Our biggest problem at the moment is that we are not capitalising on our dominance, particularly in our opponents red zone. Overall, our lead up play is quite good and I'd say our hookers are effective at doing their jobs. In saying that, I do agree that our halves need to step up, particularly on the last tackle. I hate picking on one player but I really think Adam Reynolds needs to work on the execution of his plays a lot better. In particular, I think his kicks look all rushed and his positioning is all wrong; he needs to drop a bit deeper and give himself a bit more time instead of standing flat and getting closed down. At the very least we need to be earning repeat sets but we are not even doing that at the moment. Cody Walker for most part has been excellent this season but he is not what I'd call a fifth tackle player in that his skill set is not really suited to executing plays on the last other than to mix things up a bit. Hence, we really need either Adam Reynolds or Robbie Farah to take control on the last and get points on the board for us.

 

[themacemaceman]

Our biggest problem at the moment is that we are not capitalising on our dominance, particularly in our opponents red zone. Overall, our lead up play is quite good and I'd say our hookers are effective at doing their jobs. In saying that, I do agree that our halves need to step up, particularly on the last tackle. I hate picking on one player but I really think Adam Reynolds needs to work on the execution of his plays a lot better. In particular, I think his kicks look all rushed and his positioning is all wrong; he needs to drop a bit deeper and give himself a bit more time instead of standing flat and getting closed down. At the very least we need to be earning repeat sets but we are not even doing that at the moment. Cody Walker for most part has been excellent this season but he is not what I'd call a fifth tackle player in that his skill set is not really suited to executing plays on the last other than to mix things up a bit. Hence, we really need either Adam Reynolds or Robbie Farah to take control on the last and get points on the board for us.

You are spot on my friend.
It's not all doom and gloom.
I think Reyno's short kicking game hasnt been of the high standard we have come to expect from him and hence we have not got repeat sets and been able to build pressure.
The players we have can do the job. They just need to start doing it.
The dragons have proven this. Everyone is doing their job and they are winning.
Winning breeds winning and loading breeds losing.
We just need to string a few wins together and avoid 2-3 game losing streaks.

 

[Rabbits20]

You are spot on my friend.
It's not all doom and gloom.
I think Reyno's short kicking game hasnt been of the high standard we have come to expect from him and hence we have not got repeat sets and been able to build pressure.
The players we have can do the job. They just need to start doing it.
The dragons have proven this. Everyone is doing their job and they are winning.
Winning breeds winning and loading breeds losing.
We just need to string a few wins together and avoid 2-3 game losing streaks.

Well the next 2 matches it's doom and gloom without Sam.

Unfortunately we will be 3 and 6.

 

[doyen]

You are spot on my friend.
It's not all doom and gloom.
I think Reyno's short kicking game hasnt been of the high standard we have come to expect from him and hence we have not got repeat sets and been able to build pressure.
The players we have can do the job. They just need to start doing it.
The dragons have proven this. Everyone is doing their job and they are winning.
Winning breeds winning and loading breeds losing.
We just need to string a few wins together and avoid 2-3 game losing streaks.

I reckon all on here expected we were going to be a much better side than Saints.

Saints were going to be wooden-spooners,or very close to it, especially with their new dud hooker!!!

I can accept the fact that we may be behind Saints after 7 games--but,120 pts[120 POINTS,120 POINTS] behind in differential--half the comp points too!!!

There's more to our problems--our spine is crooked & feeling the pressure & it is showing clearly on the scoreboard!!

 

[themacemaceman]

Well the next 2 matches it's doom and gloom without Sam.

Unfortunately we will be 3 and 6.

I concur. We will miss Sam

 

[themacemaceman]

I reckon all on here expected we were going to be a much better side than Saints.

Saints were going to be wooden-spooners,or very close to it, especially with their new dud hooker!!!

I can accept the fact that we may be behind Saints after 7 games--but,120 pts[120 POINTS,120 POINTS] behind in differential--half the comp points too!!!

There's more to our problems--our spine is crooked & feeling the pressure & it is showing clearly on the scoreboard!!

As far as points differential goes it's a bit like the chicken and the egg..... what came first.
Are we down the bottom because of our poor points differential or is our points differential bad cause we are down the bottom of the ladder?

 

[Rabbits20]

I concur. We will miss Sam

Yes it's unfortunate mate.

Let's hope we can at least be competitive.

Maceman I'm just letting you know I respect your views and it's great when you're on here.

Hopefully I get ya in fantasy too.

 

[Rsag85]

We should fight Sam's charge

 

[DiegoNT]

Its funny

People bang on about cook suiting our style of play.
Then those very same people criticise madge for his game plans and the selection off his player's for that style of play.
Apparently cook suits a power game but they don't want a power game that starts with power centres/wingers talali, Goodwin, hunt and gray, and is carried out by conservative props who don't pass/offload and is balanced out with gun defenders like Turner and Clark to win the arm wrestle

 

[callmack1]

Our biggest problem at the moment is that we are not capitalising on our dominance, particularly in our opponents red zone. Overall, our lead up play is quite good and I'd say our hookers are effective at doing their jobs. In saying that, I do agree that our halves need to step up, particularly on the last tackle. I hate picking on one player but I really think Adam Reynolds needs to work on the execution of his plays a lot better. In particular, I think his kicks look all rushed and his positioning is all wrong; he needs to drop a bit deeper and give himself a bit more time instead of standing flat and getting closed down. At the very least we need to be earning repeat sets but we are not even doing that at the moment. Cody Walker for most part has been excellent this season but he is not what I'd call a fifth tackle player in that his skill set is not really suited to executing plays on the last other than to mix things up a bit. Hence, we really need either Adam Reynolds or Robbie Farah to take control on the last and get points on the board for us.

Spot on!