All talk, no walk': Warriors season looks doomed already

[Iafeta]

I think he was rubbish up till round 10 or so last year. He turned up out of shape which was pathetic. From that point on he was making a lot of metres back through the middle and holding up middle defenders well.

First week I thought he was going well until he came off injured. Friday night he was clearly beat up badly.

I've been underwhelmed in general by him at the Warriors. I acknowledge he was brilliant through the middle for the Rabbitohs. I expected a lot more obviously. I still believe he will be of great value this year. Reputation wise he needs a big year and he knows that.

 

[ZEROMISSTACKLES]

No, no coaching experience at all...

Im going to assume you played the game at a high level. Im not sure if youre from NZ but here level 3 is the highest level (last I remember) and when I asked, it was meant as a compliment.

 

[Iafeta]

Thanks, yep I took it as a compliment. No, no high level league playing experience. Played a reasonable level of cricket and did some freelance sports journalism but there's not much else to write home about from me.

 

[ZEROMISSTACKLES]

Give Luke some time. Remember he was considered one of the games best at one stage. Quiet at the moment and last year as well. Success breeds confidence and the more games we win the more I think he'll return to the Luke of old.

 

[ZEROMISSTACKLES]

No, no high level league playing experience.

Oh ok, well Im totally stumped. Completely got you wrong. You make some really good points.

 

[vvvrulz]

I dont know why Ayshford is not selected. Yes Fusitua can play centre but he can play wing as well where he scores those tries where his body is pushed out and not even on the playing field better than most in the competition.

This just absolutely pisses me off, of the three positions available Fus is far and away best at fullback closely followed by wing. He's had a handful of games at centre (granted scored plenty of tries), but hasn't done much good with marking his opposite, defending overlaps and setting up his winger. Why are we forcing him to pick up a third set of skills when it took him a good year to figure out back three defence?

There is just no excuse for geniused selections in my mind.

 

[vvvrulz]

Wonder if Luke's just reverted to type - is he simply a myth built on one outstanding season with the Bunnies - where they won the premiership without him anyway.

Prior and since he's simply been inconsistent and ill-disciplined, our vaunted spine has amounted to little to date - and quite frankly he's been shit

The weird thing this isn't Luke's type at all. The Luke I know was a bit of a Mick Ennis, bursting out of dummy half, getting in faces and making a right nuisance of himself. The caveat was the grub and the penalties, but he'd make up for it with his metres and enthusiasm.

This variation of Luke looks old, bored and full of plod. The fact that he couldn't get it up during his homegrown Naki match was the real kicker for me, he just doesn't give much of a crap since coming over.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Luke had some heavy family issues at the start of last season, his first child was born and was very sick. In hindsight he should've been given compassionate leave but at the time both he and the club decided he was better off playing to keep him occupied. I'm surprised nobody seems to remember this

 

[Benek]

I thought Luke looked good in first round until injured. I think this year we will see a totally different Luke from last season. He came into the season in obviously better shape, and I think that's mental shape as well as physical. Just wait until first bye or mid-season and he'll be getting POTY and praise from most of us. Can't judge him on two games, the first of which he went out early injured and the second he played obviously still injured.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

The other thing I heard about Luke last year (though this one is less certain) is that he was not impressed with the coaching setup on coming over from Souths and at one point attempted to raise a bunch of issues but wasn't backed by other players. I'm not saying he was right in doing that but it might explain a lack of enthusiasm at times if he wasn't really invested in the coaching direction.
Hopefully under Kearney he's more committed and enthusiastic. I liked what I saw in round one til he got hurt.

 

[Iafeta]

I agree on how he was going before he got injured. Seemed to me he was bringing forwards onto the ball after engaging markers well. He also showed good hands on Friday to handle a Mannering offload to put Johnson away.

 

[Blair]

The big clean-out debate can be taken seriously if/when we fail to make a top-eight finish in 2017. I hope the discussion includes Johnson. He's in his seventh season of first grade. A genuine clean-out means no player should be untouchable, at least from consideration.

But we aren't even close to that yet. A win on Friday and we'd be back feeling more positive.

 

[vvvrulz]

I wish the Stupid Six saga brought about the clean out.

The last time we played beyond our means was that Dragons game last year, the first time in forever we played with genuine heart.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Speaking of the Dragons... they got thumped by the Eels today and sit on two points with us. So much for the author and his "serious finals contenders". And the Panthers who got flogged by the Dragons last week, flogged the Tigers who had looked quite impressive in the first round. Anyone who tries to seriously pick finalists or also rans at this point has rocks in their head. I'd probably say the Storm, Cowboys, Broncos and Raiders definitely look good, and the Titans are in trouble with injuries, everyone else has a big question mark next to them at present.

 

[Penrose Warrior]

Speaking of the Dragons... they got thumped by the Eels today and sit on two points with us. So much for the author and his "serious finals contenders". And the Panthers who got flogged by the Dragons last week, flogged the Tigers who had looked quite impressive in the first round. Anyone who tries to seriously pick finalists or also rans at this point has rocks in their head. I'd probably say the Storm, Cowboys, Broncos and Raiders definitely look good, and the Titans are in trouble with injuries, everyone else has a big question mark next to them at present.

Exactly what I was going to post. Makes the author look more ridiculous than he already did, but as in all journalism it's fish and chip paper (or virtual fish and chip paper, wherever shit writing ends up on the internet) so we move on and forget.

 

[Meth]

Bottom line- whether you are this guy, or Iron Lion, it is way too early to make a call on how this season will go.