westie, give it up, please! Reynolds was an absolute spastic. I will never forget that day at Leichhardt when he got stretchered off, Prince moved to halfback, we came from behind and belted Manly and the rest was history. Best thing that happened at that stage.
If Reynolds was so good, why did he disappear off the face of the earth after he left us?
Matt Head on the other hand is a very good, smart player, great kicking game and good organiser. Doesn't have much of a running game, but alot of that IMO is due to injury. With the right structure, he is a quality player. Shame he is always injured.
I've already expressed my views on why attacking halfbacks hit the scrap heap in the past 5-10 years. Now we don't have to worry about that because none are even hitting first grade.
Your last paragraph sums up my view on both players, and indeed others. Little flashes of play-making ability which leave you wondering why the coach can't get the team set up to play around them. It seems so much easier to run with a player like Prince or Soward who'll go out, bang on a couple of trys but not really bring the goods when it counts.
Prince is a fantastic footy player and was well involved in our run to the premiership, but it's hard to deny other players were far more crucial in the back end of the finals.
With players like Benji, Farah and indeed Prince at the time it seems to me the best structure is to have an organising half like Kimmorley, Head, Reynolds et al laying the ground work with a kicking game, couple of short passes, some organisation while the flair boys do their work off the back of that.
Why is that any time we've had something like this potential combo they always pulled in different directions with only one bloke playing at a time?
If you want an example of this well executed, try Melbourne. Cronk is a similar player. There's no fifth gear to him, but you don't need it. He kicks, passes and organises and Slater, Inglis get off the back of him and lay down some havoc. This is what we should have had back in the day when we were first class bollocks.
I think this is still relevant. Benji has basically shown a complete inability to combine with other play-makers since getting wide of Prince in '05 (and '05 only). He and Farah have obvious difficulties with style etc. And now we're bringing in another flair player in Taumata. Why should we expect things to be any different.
Isn't it reasonable to expect that, as always under Sheens' club coaching, dating back to the Reynolds days, that each week we'll see a different dominate ball-player doing his own thing while the others struggle to get into the game?
