Which half would you choose?

[BrotherJim05]

Let's pretend that Brooks or Moses decide to leave. The obvious thing to do would be to sign an experienced half (likely we will sign a park footy player but meh), but the question is, who would you sign to partner the half that stays and why?

My choice was Peter Wallace:
- Could sign him on two year deal
- Wouldn't break the bank
- Best defender out of the list
- Good kicking game
- Has a wealth of experience to compliment the erratic style of Brooks/Moses

I see this as the best option. Cronk would be the best but he would come at a very high price. Soward would have to break contract which could get messy, Reynolds is great but he is also fairly young and would come at a high price.
The other players don't quite compliment Moses/Brooks style imo. We need a composed, experienced and level headed half with a solid kicking game. They also need to be able to defend to FG standard.

 

[Magpies Forever]

What we have in Rankin is good enough. Strengthen things by putting him in his preferred position and added bonus in opening up wing position for a proper winger eg addo - Carr.

 

[madunit]

Littlejohn and Drinkwater are more than capable to do the basic job required at 7, with Brooks at 6.

Spend the coin on a backrower who runs hard and straight and knows how to defend.

 

[Tiger05]

Littlejohn and Drinkwater are more than capable to do the basic job required at 7, with Brooks at 6.

Spend the coin on a backrower who runs hard and straight and knows how to defend.

Are they any better than Moses ? Should we retain Moses and get rid of Brooks ?

I don't know at this point. I think on the right coin it's worth keeping both Moses and Brooks.

 

[madunit]

Both of them have good passing games and good kicking games.

Moses is playing closer to his full potential than Brooks is.

Give Brooks a season at five-eighth (in a traditional sense - second receiver) and let him be a runner/distributor with less pressure on him to get his confidence and natural game back. Let Farah and the halfback control the game and direction 50/50.

This is not about letting Farah get what he wants, its about allowing a game plan to develop that will see us get good value out of Cherrington.

 

[Tigerted]

Adam Reynolds.Great defender, phenomenal all-round kicking game & smart organiser.He's currently earning less than the impostors playing for us.He can write his own cheque re his next contract so will be out of our league financially.

After Reynolds I'd prefer Pearce -tackles like his old man with a quality all round game who is accustomed to winning @ club level but unfortunately his worth to the roosters has skyrocketed due to the poor performance of the 6 & 7 in his absence.He looked @ home @ Leichhardt when I saw him in attendance re the honouring of his old man when the hill was renamed after the Balmain legend.

Back to reality in the short term Taylor should combine either of our nsw cup halves with Brooks or Moses in 1sts.Id actually like to see how both drinkwater & Littlejohn would perform as our NRL teams 6 & 7.They couldn't do any worse than the present incumbents.

 

[Vic Mackey]

If we had to pick one Moses for mine, by a mile. This is brooks third full season in first grade and each season has been worse then the one before it.

 

[Tigerted]

Yep Brooks has been a massive flop.Ive no doubt that O'neill & Pascoe would be stoked if another club offered him more than us but it's inconceivable.The figures that r being mentioned of around the 800k mark r totally fabricated by the slimy manager.Even if there was a scarcity of good halves on the mkt u'd have to be insane to offer brooks or Moses 1/4 of what they r currently earning.

Due to the money they r both on the club would be much better of w/out either of them.They r both massive liabilities in particular brooks.Thats obviously assuming we spend our money judiciously which is not the norm with this shambolic clubs history of over-spending on mediocrity.

 

[BrotherJim05]

After we get flogged by Bunnies I hope that the coach cuts either Brooks or Moses to NSW Cup. Whichever one performs worse gets the cut.
Whoever performs better in NSW Cup gets the bump up to FG.

Let the four of these players COMPETE for positions

 

[macnaz]

Does anyone think Brooks has played worse since Moses joined him ?

 

[benched tiger]

He certainly hasn't improved,neither has Moses,ideally both should of been learning their trade in the lower grade rather than fg.

 

[Tiger05]

He certainly hasn't improved,neither has Moses,ideally both should of been learning their trade in the lower grade rather than fg.

Maybe they are the best options that we have though. The problem is that we are overpaying both of them right now along with Robbie and potentially other players. That stops us buying for instance a gun forward.

 

[Tigers Tale]

Does anyone think Brooks has played worse since Moses joined him ?

This is a great point Macnaz.

I was talking to my father who is well into his 80's and he said neither one of these two will kick on while ever they are playing with us. They needed an old head to guide them and this crap they are dishing out might have worked at school boy level when they first started together but not at NRL level.

When you think two years ago these guys were supposed to be our guiding lights and who we built our team around you need to wonder what has gone so wrong. The WT management said their plan was to make the 8 in 2016....yeah, right.

Like everyone is saying we need to pick one and stick to him but get some level headed player either inside or outside of the one we keep to give guidance. Put the money to better players in other positions.

 

[simmo1]

I'd get rid of both to sign Milford. Ridiculous how far ahead of our halves he is at the same age.

 

[Tiger05]

I'd get rid of both to sign Milford. Ridiculous how far ahead of our halves he is at the same age.

He also played a lot of fullback. He is a quality player though. I'd love to have him here. I can't see Brooks or Moses becoming that good. Maybe they will but you wouldn't bet on it.

I wonder how much more Brooks and Moses are getting paid than Milford.

 

[Tigerted]

Unfortunately the intangible called potential & the fact they r Balmain juniors enabled there slimy manager to hoodwink this dumb & desperate club to make these 2 pathetic halves quite wealthy for there age.Good luck to them for making money massively disproportionate to there contribution thus far.However the time has arrived where we must never be so reckless & generous with our money again.Its also time that these 2 substandard jokes r made clearly aware what they r really worth & hence told to f**k of from the concord leisure centre.

As good as Milford is & the obvious fact is that our halves r not a patch on him, if he were on our payroll it wouldn't surprise if he were to be infected with the WT culture of mediocrity.U do not get away with mediocrity or putting the cue in the rack @ the 20 min mark of a match under Wayne Bennett.

 

[madunit]

Brooks is showing tonight that he plays better without Moses.

And when he plays well, he is better than Moses at his best

 

[Tigerted]

Well I hope Moses is out injured long term & brooks can start replicating tonites effort on a regular basis.

Geez it's nice to get the 2 pts against souffs.I just hope woods & grant r back & teddy is fine 4 the dogs.

 

[macnaz]

Yep... we seen the old Brooks tonight .. the one with potential . Im not sure what it is but he seems to be under less pressure without Moses . Maybe it is Moses's competitive nature that makes Brooks feel as tho they competing against each other ?

 

[Clifferd]

Brooks really stood up tonight. His short kicking game is bloody amazing, scary to think that it took a Moses injury in warm up for him to pull off that game

His performance replicated his Dragons debut, very good