Adam Reynolds

[Danish]

Eh, I thought he was pretty good. Certainly wasn’t the problem in Souths spine.

Cook on the other hand, was f**king diabolical. When he doesn’t have the Burgii steamrolling the opposition or Murray getting lightning quick play the balls to play off of he offers nothing

 

[Vic Mackey]

Keary was terrific in 2014-15 for us. I can't remember the number of blind side tries he generated for us. He has always had a fantastic short kicking game and his dynamic with the ball was a terrific partner for Reynolds control.

Then post 2015, Rusty has a go at McInnes, Keary cracks it at Rusty, things get sour and Keary plays with zero heart in 2016. The rest is history.

Of course he's learnt under Cronk - who wouldn't. But he was the perfect partner for Reynolds.

No, according to Roosters fans and channel 9 Keary and Tedesco were bums who were barely NRL standard before the Roosters taught them to play footy

 

[Wily Ole Dog]

I

The fake construct you now follow is a poorly run corporate entity that serves as a llaything for a billionaire and a bad actor.
.

Politis

 

[mozza91]

Eh, I thought he was pretty good. Certainly wasn’t the problem in Souths spine.

Cook on the other hand, was f**king diabolical. When he doesn’t have the Burgii steamrolling the opposition or Murray getting lightning quick play the balls to play off of he offers nothing

This. The last 2 Preliminary Finals are the worst games I’ve seen Cook play.

He’s been great for NSW the last few years but has gone missing when the Rabbitohs need him.

 

[Danish]

This. The last 2 Preliminary Finals are the worst games I’ve seen Cook play.

He’s been great for NSW the last few years but has gone missing when the Rabbitohs need him.

Cook has been kissed on the arse walking into the blues at the exact moment the maroons lost every good player they have.

1-2 seasons earlier he’d have been found out in a big way

 

[SBD82]

This. The last 2 Preliminary Finals are the worst games I’ve seen Cook play.

He’s been great for NSW the last few years but has gone missing when the Rabbitohs need him.

His purple patch of form coincided with the refs heavily policing the ruck in the first half of 2018.

It’s not that he has been bad since then, but his most formidable weapon is his speed out of dummy half. When that’s annulled, his defence and service are still useful, but he’s not going to win you games through spectacular plays.

 

[Captain Apollo]

He has always been a role player. And was his best when doing that. Handle kicking, organise, just pass quick to his backs. His defence was probably amongst the best of the halves around a few years back too. Also a very valuable goal kicker. He needs a certain type of five eighth to compliment him and Keary was the perfect foil for him because Keary also is a big organiser

He is a mid tier halfback who is more than capable of taking his teams to top 8, top 4 positions. But he will never take a Premiership on his own like a Thurston could, without the right spine partners.

I think you nailed it. Reynolds is a decent halfback who does his job competently i.e. organise the side, guide them around the park, and kick for territory. He is not a noted ball player as you have stated but he has developed some ball playing skills.

His shortcomings though are exacerbated due to the lacks of ball players within the current South Sydney first grade squad. Johnston/Douhei, Walker, Cook and Reynolds are all primarily ball runners and there is no recognisable ball players in the side (I'm not saying there is no ball playing skill, just no out and out recognisable high skill level ball player). This is why if you nullify or hold the Souths go forward they have no "plan b" as the playing group does not have the skill set.

I know it is easier said then done, as quality ball playing halves are rare, but it is really what Souths need to inject into their side if they really want to be more than just perennial semi-finalists.

 

[BranVan3000]

His purple patch of form coincided with the refs heavily policing the ruck in the first half of 2018.

It’s not that he has been bad since then, but his most formidable weapon is his speed out of dummy half. When that’s annulled, his defence and service are still useful, but he’s not going to win you games through spectacular plays.

I’d say more significant than the policing of the ruck (because that inherently slows the game down) is that by finals you have players with 26, 27, 28 games of conditioning. Those players who were getting exhausted after 60 minutes aren’t there for finals campaigns

 

[carcharias]

Cook has been kissed on the arse walking into the blues at the exact moment the maroons lost every good player they have.

1-2 seasons earlier he’d have been found out in a big way

Ha
What bullshit
Cook was awesome in Origin
You could say Tedesco has Been kissed on the arse too.
Walks into a roosters team with Cronk calling the shots.

 

[Mr Spock!]

I think you nailed it. Reynolds is a decent halfback who does his job competently i.e. organise the side, guide them around the park, and kick for territory. He is not a noted ball player as you have stated but he has developed some ball playing skills.

His shortcomings though are exacerbated due to the lacks of ball players within the current South Sydney first grade squad. Johnston/Douhei, Walker, Cook and Reynolds are all primarily ball runners and there is no recognisable ball players in the side (I'm not saying there is no ball playing skill, just no out and out recognisable high skill level ball player). This is why if you nullify or hold the Souths go forward they have no "plan b" as the playing group does not have the skill set.

I know it is easier said then done, as quality ball playing halves are rare, but it is really what Souths need to inject into their side if they really want to be more than just perennial semi-finalists.

Probably why we went after Cronk.

 

[big hit!]

Reynolds is our MVP. His consistency is is the reason we've stayed up the ladder most seasons. His role is to drive the team into position with his kicking game, earn us repeat sets and get us into the opp 20. He was excellent at that again last night.

He has been an excellent defender throughout his career too, save for the latter part this year with a busted back.

In our side from that point it's been Inglis, Luke and then Keary, and then Cook and Walker to score us points.

If Cook didn't have his worst ever NRL game last night then Reyno has taken us to another GF.

Reynolds/Keary should've been a 10 year combo with 2-3 premierships. Thanks Rusty.

without the quick play the ball, the Souths spine are basically spuds. they can't lay anything on when the defensive line is set and beat them with a well-organised play. whether this is shit attacking plays put together last season by Seibold and co., or this year by Bennett and Demetriou, or whether it's a backline cattle issue, who knows, but it's been the same the last few seasons. Everything happens around Murray and Cook predominantly. Roosters negated them in last year's prelim, and Canberra did same this year.

Hope Blake Taafe & Lachlan Illias come along. No doubt rival clubs will be sniffing around these two. Reynolds and Walker are getting on and I don't think they'll lead Souths to a premiership. Better to promote and do away with the dead wood. Souths have some good youth coming through if their Jersey Flegg win on the weekend is any indication.

 

[Cockadoodledoo]

Keary was terrific in 2014-15 for us. I can't remember the number of blind side tries he generated for us. He has always had a fantastic short kicking game and his dynamic with the ball was a terrific partner for Reynolds control.

Then post 2015, Rusty has a go at McInnes, Keary cracks it at Rusty, things get sour and Keary plays with zero heart in 2016. The rest is history.

Of course he's learnt under Cronk - who wouldn't. But he was the perfect partner for Reynolds.

I am not saying he couldn't play but he wasn't the dominant half for Souths and wouldn't have been because Reynolds has always been Souths chief playmaker and I actually rate Reynolds. Reynolds simply had a lot more touches of the ball than Keary. I was looking at NRL stats and Keary was outside the top 50 (the stats only go down that far) for Try Assists in 2014. I get that he played 12 games only but 50th spot was good for 7 try assists. In 2015 he ranked equal 39th with 9 try assists from 24 games. In 2016 I realise he played 17 games and again ranked outside the top 50 for try assists, which was good for 8 try assists, even Josh Papalli had 8.

Moving to the Roosters in 2017, he still played second fiddle in the ball handling stakes to Mitchell Pearce, but managed 16 try assists from 26 games and ranked equal 10th, in 2018 he became the Roosters chief playmaker and ranked 2nd in the NRL with 21 Try assists from 23 matches. In 2019 he again repeated this feat, coming second with 22 Try assists from 21 matches.