Sloan

[st.phil]

This kid needs to be re-signed ASAP. He is by no means a top 8 fullback in the comp currently. However, he is improving with every game. Defensively his positioning is getting better, he’s not as scared of the collision, breaking tackles on kick returns. If he keeps up his current trajectory, he could become a top 5 fullback. We need to lock him up before others start sniffing, nothing too hectic just a 2 year extension so he has flannos tenure to show his improvement

100% , and he’s a DRAGON … homegrown and doesn’t need coaxing into joining the club. Like everyone gets off on saying - not the finished product etc - but out the back he is our ver of Walsh , electric speed and killer instincts. We’ve not had a player in our team that genuinely stressed the opposition w his speed since Gasnier / Soward (shades of it with Dufty but he rarely ran through the line , more around it) , Sloan is becoming that guy. Still a bit dicey under high ball but will improve , can build the club around this kid.

 

[hook hook]

100% , and he’s a DRAGON … homegrown and doesn’t need coaxing into joining the club. Like everyone gets off on saying - not the finished product etc - but out the back he is our ver of Walsh , electric speed and killer instincts. We’ve not had a player in our team that genuinely stressed the opposition w his speed since Gasnier / Soward (shades of it with Dufty but he rarely ran through the line , more around it) , Sloan is becoming that guy. Still a bit dicey under high ball but will improve , can build the club around this kid.

Yeah, I agree! He has always had potential but his game has come along in leaps and bounds to start the season if he can keep improving he can be anything. We could definitely build a team around him

 

[Dragon for life]

Yeah, I agree! He has always had potential but his game has come along in leaps and bounds to start the season if he can keep improving he can be anything. We could definitely build a team around him

Personally i’d be waiting. i know you can’t wait forever but if he’s a dragon as some of you suggest i’d be waiting. He has defensive issues. watch when he makes a tackle on the goalline he never makes the effort to follow the ball across field to clean up a grubber or potentially make a tackle. Now watch the good fullbacks. Cant fault his attacking skills, although i would like to see him hit the line harder. Defensively not great.
personally i’d rather see Lomax at fullback. He is soooo wasted on the wing. Would love to see him chiming into the backline at full speed with his footwork. Soo reminds me of Gasnier

 

[Dragon for life]

Personally i’d be waiting. i know you can’t wait forever but if he’s a dragon as some of you suggest i’d be waiting. He has defensive issues. watch when he makes a tackle on the goalline he never makes the effort to follow the ball across field to clean up a grubber or potentially make a tackle. Now watch the good fullbacks. Cant fault his attacking skills, although i would like to see him hit the line harder. Defensively not great.
personally i’d rather see Lomax at fullback. He is soooo wasted on the wing. Would love to see him chiming into the backline at full speed with his footwork. Soo reminds me of Gasnier

I’d be trying to lock up Lomax And if it takes a move to fullback to make it happen then that is what i’d be doing

 

[Spazer]

Personally i’d be waiting. i know you can’t wait forever but if he’s a dragon as some of you suggest i’d be waiting. He has defensive issues. watch when he makes a tackle on the goalline he never makes the effort to follow the ball across field to clean up a grubber or potentially make a tackle. Now watch the good fullbacks. Cant fault his attacking skills, although i would like to see him hit the line harder. Defensively not great.
personally i’d rather see Lomax at fullback. He is soooo wasted on the wing. Would love to see him chiming into the backline at full speed with his footwork. Soo reminds me of Gasnier

I know the nrl stats aren't always accurate but 26 tackles with 3 misses (one was against hammer in open space) @ 90% efficiency. It could change as the season goes but it's a good start for sloan.

Regarding lomax I don't understand the desire to put him at the back. He plays a roaming roll anyway from the wing sometimes attacking in sweep plays, his strongest skill is attacking high balls which is better on the edge with a wider angle and you still get his strong kick returns from wing. I don't think he will add much more at fb than he already does on the wing.

It's only early but see how things play out.

 

[jak]

100% , and he’s a DRAGON … homegrown and doesn’t need coaxing into joining the club. Like everyone gets off on saying - not the finished product etc - but out the back he is our ver of Walsh , electric speed and killer instincts. We’ve not had a player in our team that genuinely stressed the opposition w his speed since Gasnier / Soward (shades of it with Dufty but he rarely ran through the line , more around it) , Sloan is becoming that guy. Still a bit dicey under high ball but will improve , can build the club around this kid.

would love to see the club try to get billy slater to have a chat with sloan. or do you have to be a Queenslander for that to happen.

 

[SEAT 1A]

Sloan put his body on the line on Sunday, beat Garrick and made Turbo look slow and was aware to take advantage of Hunt's short kick.

He's still young, speed to burn, our best fullback and doing what the coach is telling him to do.

 

[justadragon]

I'm finished criticising Sloan, he's doing everything we asked of him, he's still learning and young, the main thing is he knows he still has to improve and is trying to do that.

 

[Jersey No 14]

Backing off from that high ball has me not backing off.
The jury is still out on my books.
He needs to man up a sacrifice his heath for the team.

 

[Kolum Kid]

I'm finished criticising Sloan, he's doing everything we asked of him, he's still learning and young, the main thing is he knows he still has to improve and is trying to do that.

I'd go so far as to say that it would be nice to be able to say the rest of the team had improved as much as Tyrell has.

 

[SBD82]

He needs to man up a sacrifice his heath for the team.

I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that this is poorly worded.

Because that statement is f**king ridiculous.

 

[VodkaSaint]

This kid is a weapon and all we can do is criticize him, I loved him from the day I watched his 1st NRL game , his confidence got knocked about but I always thought in my heart with the right coach he will be a star, the type you can build your team around .
Mind you I was frustrated as anyone with him and Thankfully he knocked back Wayne Bennet and 500k

 

[hook hook]

This kid is a weapon and we can do is criticize him, I loved him from the day I watched his 1st NRL game , his confidence got knocked about but I always thought in my heart with the right coach he will be a star you can build your team around .
Mind you I was frustrated as anyone with him and Thankfully he knocked back Wayne Bennet and 500k

I agree, we are good at holding grudges here. Yes he didn’t have the best year last year but did anyone? Yes he had brain explosions (warriors Reece walsh
The expert commentators agree that he’s a gun, it’s just media and dragons fans driving the agenda.
I think this year he’s playing a similar style and at a similar level as the hammer and all he gets is praise. His defence this year is better than a lot of fullbacks, ponga is useless in defence, Walsh isn’t much chop and they’re top tier fullbacks

 

[sammymills]

Compare Sloan and how we criticise him , kid can score 5 tries in a game and someone will be whinging over 1 missed tackle
The kid is trying his best not the finished product yet but improving every game

with latrell and his piss poor efforts in defence straight up laziness and yet he’s rated as one of best in the game.

 

[Victoire]

His awareness and effort to chase down and prevent DCE's 40-20 attempt was the most impressive thing from me, a big highlight. He really has improved big time this year in many areas.

 

[TheRev]

I said this last week, I am one of Sloans longterm critics, but I see small improvements each round this year (which did not happen in 2022/2023). And given there are literally no other fullbacks in our entire squad.. Sloan is it for us, we need to hope/pray he continues to grow... plus we need atleast 1 bloke with speed to support, or we will score 0 points... we don't have much skill in our roster.. just power.. so our gameplan is to support the holes they make.

I would still take any of the other 16 clubs fullbacks every day of the week.. even some of the nsw/qld cup fullbacks I think will be far more complete players even if selected tomorrow.. let alone after 3yrs of development.. but Sloan is who we have, so I just continue to hope that I underestimated him and that improvement continues under Flanagan.

 

[Dragon David]

I said this last week, I am one of Sloans longterm critics, but I see small improvements each round this year (which did not happen in 2022/2023). And given there are literally no other fullbacks in our entire squad.. Sloan is it for us, we need to hope/pray he continues to grow... plus we need atleast 1 bloke with speed to support, or we will score 0 points... we don't have much skill in our roster.. just power.. so our gameplan is to support the holes they make.

I would still take any of the other 16 clubs fullbacks every day of the week.. even some of the nsw/qld cup fullbacks I think will be far more complete players even if selected tomorrow.. let alone after 3yrs of development.. but Sloan is who we have, so I just continue to hope that I underestimated him and that improvement continues under Flanagan.

I think TheRev that given how poorly most of the other players have been these past couple of years, Sloan has not really been able to shine. If he was the full back for the Panthers, Broncos etc with their better players, he would be killing it in my humble opinion.

He has shown improvement to date in proportion to some improvement in the way the team as a whole has been playing. The team was rubbish against the Dolphins and Cowboys because as a team we were hopeless in defending our line and didn't have the resilience to overcome the comeback by the Cowboys. I am expecting that we will be dominated in several more games but hopefully not to the extent of copping drubbings too great.

We do not presently have that many quality players and as time goes by I'm hoping that the quality will pick up substantially particularly for 2025 and the future with some astute outside signings and bringing the better juniors into first grade who have been developed properly to meet the demands of that grade.

 

[BLM01]

I said this last week, I am one of Sloans longterm critics, but I see small improvements each round this year (which did not happen in 2022/2023). And given there are literally no other fullbacks in our entire squad.. Sloan is it for us, we need to hope/pray he continues to grow... plus we need atleast 1 bloke with speed to support, or we will score 0 points... we don't have much skill in our roster.. just power.. so our gameplan is to support the holes they make.

I would still take any of the other 16 clubs fullbacks every day of the week.. even some of the nsw/qld cup fullbacks I think will be far more complete players even if selected tomorrow.. let alone after 3yrs of development.. but Sloan is who we have, so I just continue to hope that I underestimated him and that improvement continues under Flanagan.

You would take Taafe or Rapana over Sloan?

 

[TheRev]

You would take Taafe or Rapana over Sloan?

100%, Taafe is a huge upgrade over Sloan.. we nearly had him too... even Tracey would probably give us everything Sloan does with twice the heart.. I know everyone is pumping their tyres this week cause we won (like after every win).. and I gave him props last week after a bad loss... he is improving.. but it is from a low base.

The raiders have a bunch of fullbacks, not even sure who will be their longtermer.. Chevy Stewart perhaps.. Savage is somewhere in the middle and already on par with Sloan if not ahead.. and has transitioned well to the wing while he develops, Rapana is an absolute weapon.. but hes near the end of his career... but these are the weakest of the other squads (and I knew someone would go here).. there are 14 other clubs, most of them have 1, 2 or 3 guns.

Most of the points Sloan scores (and we need him too) are running off other players who create the opportunity... i.e. be there in support.. lots of young speedy blokes can do that.. but thats the bare minimum to be expected from a fullback, its the contact and physicality that is the piece that will unlock him.. and the good news is there is more of it this year, the coach seems to be getting through.

 

[JubileeJeffro]

Sloan is definitely worth continuing to develop. Next year with 3-5kgs more weight on him and he will really start to shine.. he is still only 21 ffs