3-2-1 v Titans

[JJ]

If nothing else it certainly creates a very funny narrative for this forum!

Word…

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

I was thinking that during the game but then I saw Clark’s post match interview - he said that Jacko shouldering so much workload elevates all the other guys who don’t have such freakishly huge motors and lets them go at 100% when they’re on the field. Hes actually a big part of why we’re not getting any drop in forward intensity with the interchange.

I still reckon there's a very fine balance here if the argument is it's all about maximising effectiveness: because even if everyone else performs slightly better if e.g. they play 40 minutes instead of 45 or 50 minutes, you're still weighing that against a comparative, errr, "plodder" playing 80 minutes. And he's not merely out there for 80 minutes, he's taking 5,000 hit ups and making 75,000 tackles which could be being made by more damaging runners and harder tacklers.

But to be clear, at the moment this is a 99% hypothetical concern even for me, because Ford is getting over the advantage line and making his tackles and "winning the contact" pretty well.

 

[Meth]

An Origin front row pairing at the Warriors is something to be celebrated!

that wasn’t the joke

 

[Meth]

I was thinking that during the game but then I saw Clark’s post match interview - he said that Jacko shouldering so much workload elevates all the other guys who don’t have such freakishly huge motors and lets them go at 100% when they’re on the field. Hes actually a big part of why we’re not getting any drop in forward intensity with the interchange.

yeah he is playing Barnett’s role

 

[Matua]

I was thinking that during the game but then I saw Clark’s post match interview - he said that Jacko shouldering so much workload elevates all the other guys who don’t have such freakishly huge motors and lets them go at 100% when they’re on the field. Hes actually a big part of why we’re not getting any drop in forward intensity with the interchange.

I hope it's not like 2023/24 and our little man bench where everything revolves around it as a game plan, so if it stops working (if Ford returns to his previous error ridden ways), we have nothing else. It is interesting that the more minutes he plays the less errors he seems to make.

Anyway, let us celebrate the greatest most improved player award of all time. I reckon Chad Townsend was the previous holder, sadly he had to leave the Warriors to show his improvement, but while he was a Warrior I genuinely thought that I had a hope of playing first grade despite being at the time old, overweight, and unfit. That he went on to become a regular first grader with a premiership still astounds me.

 

[ozenzud]

I also cannot get, why you wouldn't support a player, playing over his perceived abilities. If we were getting flogged by 30 points and a player wasn't up to it, criticize away. But a bloke topping the running metres (a pure performance stat these days, almost as important as the scoreboard) and the tackle count, plus being lorded by team mates for doing 1 percenters, AND WE ARE WINNING, surely, surely, that's celebrated? Fair enough Ford used to get fatigued and make errors. Ruben Wiki, Steve Price, Jerry Seuseu all used to make errors and do half as many runs and people would cre#m themselves over their performances! His errors are low atm. Celebrate!

 

[ozenzud]

I hope it's not like 2023/24 and our little man bench where everything revolves around it as a game plan, so if it stops working (if Ford returns to his previous error ridden ways), we have nothing else. It is interesting that the more minutes he plays the less errors he seems to make.

Anyway, let us celebrate the greatest most improved player award of all time. I reckon Chad Townsend was the previous holder, sadly he had to leave the Warriors to show his improvement, but while he was a Warrior I genuinely thought that I had a hope of playing first grade despite being at the time old, overweight, and unfit. That he went on to become a regular first grader with a premiership still astounds me.

We crossed over comments. Sort of saying the same thing.....spooky

 

[Matua]

I also cannot get, why you wouldn't support a player, playing over his perceived abilities. If we were getting flogged by 30 points and a player wasn't up to it, criticize away. But a bloke topping the running metres (a pure performance stat these days, almost as important as the scoreboard) and the tackle count, plus being lorded by team mates for doing 1 percenters, AND WE ARE WINNING, surely, surely, that's celebrated? Fair enough Ford used to get fatigued and make errors. Ruben Wiki, Steve Price, Jerry Seuseu all used to make errors and do half as many runs and people would cre#m themselves over their performances! His errors are low atm. Celebrate!

Oh yeah, I was his biggest critic in previous years, and would have barney's with people who thought he didn't have one of the worst error rates in the whole comp.

Funnily enough some of them are trying to "I told you so" me, despite the fact we were discussing then, not now.

I'm fully happy to admit he's playing outstandingly at the moment.

 

[Meth]

I also cannot get, why you wouldn't support a player, playing over his perceived abilities.

Who isn't supporting him?

 

[Meth]

Warrior of the week is Jackson Ford

Ford 38
Boyd 14
Harris-Tavita 13

Barnett 6
Halasima 6
Leiataua 4
Fisher-Harris 3
Laban 2
Clark 2
Watene-Zelezniak 2

15 voted

 

[Meth]

Funnily enough some of them are trying to "I told you so" me, despite the fact we were discussing then, not now.

yep qft

 

[marlins2.0]

Warrior of the week is Jackson Ford

Ford 38
Boyd 14
Harris-Tavita 13

Barnett 6
Halasima 6
Leiataua 4
Fisher-Harris 3
Laban 2
Clark 2
Watene-Zelezniak 2

15 voted

The Ford-Mannering medal sounds good!

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

But a bloke topping the running metres (a pure performance stat these days, almost as important as the scoreboard)

I mean, this is a pretty bold statement which I tend to disagree with. Like, an absolutely useless fullback or winger can top the run metres in the modern game. The usefulness of these metrics is pretty key to whatever "debate" is being had here.

Fair enough Ford used to get fatigued and make errors. Ruben Wiki, Steve Price, Jerry Seuseu all used to make errors and do half as many runs and people would cre#m themselves over their performances!

My philosophy has always been I'll cream myself (yes I have a personal philosophy about when I ejaculate while watching the Warriors) if someone's runs are, well....good. Like, if people can't differentiate a good run from a bad run using their eyes then there's very little point even discussing any of this.

I was thinking earlier how Steve Price circa 2006-2008 was a great example of a guy who racked up big numbers via an outstanding quality of work. But there are also guys who'd rack up impressive numbers while being more of a handbrake (some would put our own CNK in this category).

All of this is really just to say that the numbers by themselves don't do a whole lot for me but I recognise that a lot of people do read a lot into them.

 

[marlins2.0]

I mean, this is a pretty bold statement which I tend to disagree with. Like, an absolutely useless fullback or winger can top the run metres in the modern game. The usefulness of these metrics is pretty key to whatever "debate" is being had here.



My philosophy has always been I'll cream myself (yes I have a personal philosophy about when I ejaculate while watching the Warriors) if someone's runs are, well....good. Like, if people can't differentiate a good run from a bad run using their eyes then there's very little point even discussing any of this.

I was thinking earlier how Steve Price circa 2006-2008 was a great example of a guy who racked up big numbers via an outstanding quality of work. But there are also guys who'd rack up impressive numbers while being more of a handbrake (some would put our own CNK in this category).

All of this is really just to say that the numbers by themselves don't do a whole lot for me but I recognise that a lot of people do read a lot into them.

Price was a big fish in a small pond at that time though.

What Ford has accomplished, in not only in a short space of time ,but with the pack he plays in...it's quite remarkable.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Ford is top of the entire NRL for post-contact metres so his hit-ups clearly aren't shit, you cant top that stat whilst being ineffective even if you're talking more hitups than the others. He's also top ten for most runs, all run metres, and tackles- the final stat is actually pretty mindblowing when considering that he's also topping categories on the other side of the ball.

 

[TheDMC]

I hereby predict that there will be a bronze statue of Jackson Ford at Mt Smart in 2036.

 

[Meth]

I hereby predict that there will be a bronze statue of Jackson Ford at Mt Smart in 2036.

will be Ford’s intellectual equivalent

 

[Meth]

Who isn't supporting him?

jokes aside and coming back to this, there seems to be this insinuation that those of us who a) were critical of him last year and b) aren’t on the 6 dally m points (or the more valuable 3 LU points) every week train are unhappy with or in denial about his improvement. This just isn’t the case.

 

[Penrose Warrior]

Who isn't supporting him?

You're right, everyone is supporting him...I think there has been a bit of a lagging bias against him and the perception of he's a plodder, he's error prone, he may revert to type etc. I think the plodder thing is hilarious. You could put a mask on him and pretend he's a new player, and no way does a guy with his post contact numbers, work rate, skill at times get called a plodder. But it's stuck to him.

Compare that with Boyd, who to be quite honest apart from the Tigers game last year, was mostly abysmal in Metcalf's absence...but (jokingly) sometimes gets talked up as the next Joey and we wonder why he's not further up the Dally Ms (rightly). No residual bias there.

Jacko Ford is a jet right now, every side would love to have him. I've never seen a player improve more. He's offering so much to this side.

I agree with Willie Mason, though - who must've taken his meds this week because he made sense - that Ford isn't an Origin player right now. He's effective because he plays 70+ minutes with high work rate. Origin doesn't really want those guys, unless they're as damaging as Payne Haas. He's not a bench player, so he has to start, and when you have AFB and either Haas or whoever comes in for him (Barnett would be the incumbent), that's not happening.

 

[Izz]

I agree with Willie Mason, though - who must've taken his meds this week because he made sense - that Ford isn't an Origin player right now. He's effective because he plays 70+ minutes with high work rate. Origin doesn't really want those guys, unless they're as damaging as Payne Haas. He's not a bench player, so he has to start, and when you have AFB and either Haas or whoever comes in for him (Barnett would be the incumbent), that's not happening.

Yeah, Ford is essentially putting up Terrell May 2025 numbers (though with better post contact). If May, who is a bigger body and harder to get to ground, and arguably with a better offload, didn't make Origin, I don't see how Ford does at this point.

That being said, Ford doesn't have the May name, so maybe he's got more chance