Backrow Performance

[Tiger05]

11. Blair - 57 metres in attack, 1 tackle break, 27 tackles, 5 missed tackles
12. Bell - 26 metres in attack, 1 offload, 34 tackles, 4 missed tackles
13. Heighington - 59 metres in attack, 1 offload, 1 tackle break, 37 tackles, 3 missed tackles

Is that a good enough performance ?

To me this is just poor - plain and simple.

I should add I'm still pissed and Blair is making me go insane.

 

[sputneek]

Blair can play prop you know...

 

[Tiger05]

Blair can play prop you know...

I'm sure he could wear the 8 or 10 on his back. I'm pretty confident he wouldn't be performing any better though.

 

[sputneek]

8. Blair 9. Farah 10. Galloway 11. Ellis 12. Whoever 13. Whoever

 

[innsaneink]

Blair on current form would be beaten by a 10yo girl playing ''pattycake''

 

[Tiger05]

8. Blair 9. Farah 10. Galloway 11. Ellis 12. Whoever 13. Whoever

Blair over Woods is like choosing my dead grandma over 10 supermodels for a night of sloppy wet group sex.

 

[Fordy20]

Without the minutes on field, those statistics are meaningless.

 

[Matchball]

Blair will never thrive in our line up.
He is a grub,came from a club that was grubby and i think that's why we paid what we did for him, to slow down the play the ball through thuggery. He offers nothing else than grapple tackles and 3 rd man flops. He would be a great bouncer up the cross.

 

[The Charlatan]

I'm sure he could wear the 8 or 10 on his back. I'm pretty confident he wouldn't be performing any better though.

Would certainly force him to get more involved.

Seriously though, how is it that Ellis came from the other side of the planet, and fit straight into our lineup and performed from day one whilst Blair has had 16 weeks to get right and is still failing to perform. I could accept it for the first three or four weeks but this is getting beyond ridiculous. We've spent the big coin on him too, so he will start every week unless injured. That coupled with Lawrence & Benji whose defensive abilities seem to have regressed and Lote in indifferent form our who left side is shot to shit.

 

[hybrid_tiger]

I thought over the last month or so Blair was improving but he has been a disgrace in the last two weeks.

Those figures are terrible. I like Bell in defense but he's useless in attack. Heighington is a complete liability in both attack and defense.

 

[gronkathon]

Bell is good in attack when played at lock, he needs minutes and multiple runs to reach peak effectiveness.

Currently the minutes and more importantly the runs at important times in sets are being hogged as usual by Heighno who does sweet FA with them

 

[Magpie Tragic]

I just forced myself to watch the replay of the Knights game again & concentrated on Blair.....in the first 10 minutes alone he touched the ball twice, missed a tackle & was second or third man into other tackles on maybe two occassions?? Was mostly playing outside Lawrence in attack & defence FFS. During that time Ryan playing wing made probably 8 hitups and made half a dozen tackles and the other pigs the same. Simply not good enough by Blair...... I want him to succeed, but he has had more than ample time to adjust to WT's structure

 

[madunit]

As I've said before, what exactly is it that Fulton does that is so hard for Blair to do.

Fulton runs hard straight lines and tackles relentlessly.

Why is Blair unable to do that? It's got nothing to do with structure, every team has back rowers who run straight and hard and tackle shitloads.

Heighington hoigs hit ups, I'll give you that and they are generally ineffective and he easily handled by defences. But simple fact is, if Blair was putting his hand up more, Hino wouldn't get so much ball.

Watch when Ellis comes back, Hino improves because he's not trying to take so many hit ups, so he has a bit more fuel in the tank (which he usually uses on defence, which I don't mind)

But you can't have a shitload of solid defenders in the pack and only 1-2 being consistently good attackers. You'll never give your halves and backs enough space to create in.

Blair obviously doesn't like pressure, doesn't respond to responsibility roles, is not a leader and is clearly lazy.

He is exactly what we had with Ben Te'o, a bludger with shitloads of ability, who stands way too wide of the ruck so he can run at smaller blokes in the hope he gets a break and looks good, when that is essentially what you have centres for. And is rarely ever the first person to make contact in defence, he's usually second at best.

Benji's poor defence of late is because he's had to make that first contact more often than not.

Your forwards should be making first contact when defending opposition forwards, not your halves.

 

[Ron's_Mate]

The key problem of course is the coach who refuses to do anything about the above mentioned problems. How many players have been dropped to NSW Cup this Year? Only one that I can think of (Ayshford). As has been said before, the players know they can get away with it. Could a good coach like Hasler get some first grade performances out of Blair? I'm sure that he could, or else Blair would find himself in the lower grades.

 

[Magpie Tragic]

" Blair obviously doesn't like pressure, doesn't respond to responsibility roles, is not a leader and is clearly lazy"

He has an uncanny ability to run to where the ball won't be either in defence or attack.....

 

[Radical Rat]

Blair will never thrive in our line up.
He is a grub,came from a club that was grubby and i think that's why we paid what we did for him, to slow down the play the ball through thuggery. He offers nothing else than grapple tackles and 3 rd man flops. He would be a great bouncer up the cross.

I reckon I'd win the wrestle if he tried to kick me out of a club.