Jason Nightingale 2017

[Dennis Papaioannou]

We have had various weaknesses and needs since we won a comp in 2010. For years, we had a soft underbelly and were pummelled by bigger packs. That has now been addressed. We had no recognised half since Hornby retired, Hunt has fixed that. We've lacked creativity and skills since Duges has been FB, we've fixed that hopefully with Dufty. The last piece of the puzzle is for years we have been painfully slow and have been exposed badly by quicker sides (Parra and Melb this year are glaring examples)..

The lack of speed is the one thing holding us back IMO. Yes its only one thing, but in reality its the last thing that needs solving.

If we're serious about 2018 and beyond, we really need to solve it

Oh - minor detail, and we haven't had a serious coach since Bennett - so actually 2 things that are holding us back.

 

[AyiosYiorgos]

So what would you prefer 15 tries from 20 metres out or half a dozen spectacular long range efforts?

Point is anyone could have scored hes try's, but he is unable to score any try's from 40-60m out doesnt have the pace anymore and not to mention he is letting in heaps of try's due to lack of pace, players are beating him on the outside, when this never happened before, time is up for him, he has a great legacy better to retire now then go on next year...

 

[giboz71]

Just had a look at Nightingale's stats.
He has actually scored 15 tries not 14 which makes him the 6th highest try scorer in the competition.
By comparison, 1 less than Ado Carr which everyone keeps referring to.
He has also made the most Line breaks in the team this year with 14.
Finally, second biggest total of running metres in the Team.
I honestly don't know what more the guy can contribute so he can justify his starting position.

You're missing the point. Of course we can keep Nighty and he'll do the job for us. He always has and always will. He's actually one of my favourite players. Yes he has decent stats this year, but those stats are in a team currently in 9th place and will likely miss the finals. And it's skewed because we've gone to his side almost exclusively all year and he's been fed by Lafai and Widdop who have both had good years. Mann scored 10 tries last year playing half a season in what was a woeful attacking year and he's not even a winger.

We should be looking for the best winger available to make us a top 4 side, not a side coming 9th. And I'll argue till the cows come home that there are better wing options out there than Nighty, both internally and externally.

 

[Old Timer]

Just had a look at Nightingale's stats.
He has actually scored 15 tries not 14 which makes him the 6th highest try scorer in the competition.
By comparison, 1 less than Ado Carr which everyone keeps referring to.
He has also made the most Line breaks in the team this year with 14.
Finally, second biggest total of running metres in the Team.
I honestly don't know what more the guy can contribute so he can justify his starting position.

Most of his run metres would come from hit ups is there any way to find out what the distance of his runs are and see how many there are for each category say
75 -100 metres
50 - 75 metres
25 - 50 meteres
15 - 25 metres
less than 15 metres
If the majority of his stats are in the bottom 2 categories as I suspect they are then he is doing the work of forwards which is to be admired but doesn't mean he is therefore a great winger with great running stats.

 

[rasaint]

I have already made my post here but surprised to see the blame for the 'exposed left side' blamed on Nightinggale.
Titans got two overlaps on the left, one resulted in a try to Copley. Nightingale was left two on one, tried to cut it off but kept chasing even when Copley was advantaged by a forward pass head start; he actually got close and got an ankle tap on him but the line too close. With a run up jump Don ( the winger with the most kick try jumps) got over Nightingale like he does to other wingers in the comp and scored.
Nightie has scored 15 trys in a team running ninth. He makes more breaks and metres than most in the comp let alone the Dragons.
He will be free under the cap 2018 I understand.
No I'm not a ' Flo legend for ever' supporter. However, I didn't want to let some off beam comments diminish a player who is one of our best this year.
For the record I would take Ado Carr/ Semi R / Vunavuti ahead of him but not to many more. I also like Anthoney Don from the Titans who is genuinely very fast. Yet Don badly missed our Joel Thompson on the lead up to McInnes 1st try.

 

[AyiosYiorgos]

Nightingale is past it, i think people are blinded by Nightingale, EVERYONE hear has the utmost respect for him and he is a DRAGONS legend, time to give one of the young guys a chance...

 

[Overseas dragon]

Well boys you have all made a very good response to the question nighty,in or out.but seriously it really doesn't matter Mr McGregor will just laugh at your argument. And the first player selected will be Jason Nightingale. I personally think he still goes OK for a slow older winger.there's no way Jason is. Not in our top 6 players.

 

[Dennis Papaioannou]

Point is anyone could have scored hes try's, but he is unable to score any try's from 40-60m out doesnt have the pace anymore and not to mention he is letting in heaps of try's due to lack of pace, players are beating him on the outside, when this never happened before, time is up for him, he has a great legacy better to retire now then go on next year...

It's not that simple and also not a true representation.
If you want to point to isolated instances in games and forget about the other stuff that he does then go ahead.
Totally disagree that "anyone" could have scored 15 tries - just nonsense.
He has to position himself and time his run to take that last pass.
Looks easy but he makes it look easy because he's a great finisher.
What about the 14 line breaks he's made this year? Highest in the team.
How does a player manage to do that without speed?
Who cares if he doesn't score from 40-60m out?
Nightingale is not our main problem and until someone better comes along, we should be grateful to have him.

 

[AyiosYiorgos]

It's not that simple and also not a true representation.
If you want to point to isolated instances in games and forget about the other stuff that he does then go ahead.
Totally disagree that "anyone" could have scored 15 tries - just nonsense.
He has to position himself and time his run to take that last pass.
Looks easy but he makes it look easy because he's a great finisher.
What about the 14 line breaks he's made this year? Highest in the team.
How does a player manage to do that without speed?
Who cares if he doesn't score from 40-60m out?
Nightingale is not our main problem and until someone better comes along, we should be grateful to have him.

You lost me at Speed, take the blinkers off, we all acknowledge he was a great player, but father time has caught up...

 

[Dennis Papaioannou]

Most of his run metres would come from hit ups is there any way to find out what the distance of his runs are and see how many there are for each category say
75 -100 metres
50 - 75 metres
25 - 50 meteres
15 - 25 metres
less than 15 metres
If the majority of his stats are in the bottom 2 categories as I suspect they are then he is doing the work of forwards which is to be admired but doesn't mean he is therefore a great winger with great running stats.

The stat that is hard to refute and one that surprised me is the line breaks.
14 line breaks is nothing to sneeze at.
It's obvious that he does a lot of donkey work carting the ball back but I think he is contributing a lot more.
I just feel we owe to him to be totally objective and not just rubber stamp his as "too old, too slow"

 

[Dennis Papaioannou]

You lost me at Speed, take the blinkers off, we all acknowledge he was a great player, but father time has caught up...

Read and understand my post - be objective and don't see just what you want to see.
I posed a couple of reasonable questions that you conveniently brushed.

 

[slippery5]

Most of his run metres would come from hit ups is there any way to find out what the distance of his runs are and see how many there are for each category say
75 -100 metres
50 - 75 metres
25 - 50 meteres
15 - 25 metres
less than 15 metres
If the majority of his stats are in the bottom 2 categories as I suspect they are then he is doing the work of forwards which is to be admired but doesn't mean he is therefore a great winger with great running stats.

This is the reason why I hate stats, there should be a stat, meters gained post line break, which I'm sure would be zero !!!!

 

[gregstar]

If only Hayne wasn't such a douche.

When he gets the flick from the titans, his pace would be handy.

We need pace urgently.

 

[Crossbow]

He is the man.Just listen to the killers new song.There singing about nighty.God bless you Jason you deserve one more dance next year.F,uk the haters.Go get em sunshine