Billy Burns

[Maddragon99]

He wasn't given a shot in first grade because he wasn't even close to being ready. If you were an NRL coach and your philosophy was to just throw young players into first grade just to "give them a shot", regardless of whether they were ready or not, you'd be borderline negligent.

I'm also struggling to see what you mean by this: "after years of mediocrity and the board persisting with Mary suddenly it's panic stations and wild desperation to make the finals at any cost and our young guys are expendable".
Apart from the Blacker swap (clearly for a better player in a position we NEED), where are you seeing our young guys being "expendable"?
The club is paving a clear path for Sullivan right now, he is right at the top of their priority list, Amone and Sloane are a strong focus of the club, they just re-signed Cody Ramsey, Ravalawa is getting is shot and has been re-signed long term, Lawrie is starting and is killing it.
There is no evidence to suggest the club is being frivolous with our juniors, or that we're currently at panic stations. In fact, there is CLEAR evidence to suggest we finally have direction and a path forward.

I am not at all suggesting that he stands still all game, that's just hyperbolising on your part and you know it. I've watched Eddie in numerous NSW Cup games, and for a forward of his size you'd expect him to be hitting over 100m a game, with PCM through the ceiling. He's just not. In fact he was lucky to hold a bench spot for a while there.

Mary's regime was a dark time, but Blacker has been under 3 different coaching administrations now and all 3 have made the same assessment about him.
He's not up to it, and if he ever gets there, it won't be for at least a few years. We needed an edge NOW, and we got a good one in Burns. It's a good trade for us.

Who knows what Blacker may or mat not achieve during his career? At the end of the day we need second rowers & Burns looks to be an excellent prospect pretty much first grade ready. A very understandable trade.

 

[giboz71]

Not sure why we're discussing the merits of this trade?

We're getting a FG ready backrower who has come from a Premiership calibre system in Penrith and has cut his teeth in FG (12 games) including a 2 try effort.

We're woefully short on edge backrowers and we seemingly are now flush with middles (Kerr, Vaughan, Lawrie, Poasa, Merrin, Ellis, Molo next year) and maybe Fifita, McGuire and JDB.

On paper at least, we're way ahead in this trade, what are we even talking about?

 

[Illusion]

Not sure why we're discussing the merits of this trade?

We're getting a FG ready backrower who has come from a Premiership calibre system in Penrith and has cut his teeth in FG (12 games) including a 2 try effort.

We're woefully short on edge backrowers and we seemingly are now flush with middles (Kerr, Vaughan, Lawrie, Poasa, Merrin, Ellis, Molo next year) and maybe Fifita, McGuire and JDB.

On paper at least, we're way ahead in this trade, what are we even talking about?

This .....

 

[giboz71]

Not sure if people noticed, but Ford had a nice cameo on the weekend.

Defence has been one of his biggest issues but he made a couple of nice defensive plays including a big hit on Friz. Hopefully, Hook, Elliott and co are working with him here as this was big weakness for him. Good signs on the weekend, even if it was just a short stint.

A backrow pairing of Burns and Ford will be handy in the next year or two.

 

[Maddragon99]

Not sure if people noticed, but Ford had a nice cameo on the weekend.

Defence has been one of his biggest issues but he made a couple of nice defensive plays including a big hit on Friz. Hopefully, Hook, Elliott and co are working with him here as this was big weakness for him. Good signs on the weekend, even if it was just a short stint.

A backrow pairing of Burns and Ford will be handy in the next year or two.

Agreed. The cheap acquisition of Burns changes things a little I was sure we’d make a strong play for Capewell or Crichton I wonder if this is now necessary? Interesting Ford, Burns & Sims all signed to end ‘22

 

[giboz71]

Agreed. The cheap acquisition of Burns changes things a little I was sure we’d make a strong play for Capewell or Crichton I wonder if this is now necessary? Interesting Ford, Burns & Sims all signed to end ‘22

And Kerr seems to be making a good fist of playing edge. Its apparently an experiment that may last 12 weeks given our short stocks in backrowers, so who knows he may end up staying there. He was great on the weekend. Fui is technically an edge as well.

It's amazing what a few short weeks can do, at the start of the year we had the bare minimum edge back rowers. Assuming we get any combination of Fifita, McGuire and JBD (and Molo) next year our available second rowers become:

Sims
Kerr
Fui
Ford
Burns

Seems our pack is shaping nicely now.

 

[RufusRex]

Ford will struggle to play another game for us now.
Was selected out of neccessity against the knights but Burns will jump him straight away.

 

[possm]

And Kerr seems to be making a good fist of playing edge. Its apparently an experiment that may last 12 weeks given our short stocks in backrowers, so who knows he may end up staying there. He was great on the weekend. Fui is technically an edge as well.

It's amazing what a few short weeks can do, at the start of the year we had the bare minimum edge back rowers. Assuming we get any combination of Fifita, McGuire and JBD (and Molo) next year our available second rowers become:

Sims
Kerr
Fui
Ford
Burns

Seems our pack is shaping nicely now.

Kerr's stint on the edge is a great step in his personal development. He will be noticed by the rep selectors and seen as a versatile forward rather than just a prop.

 

[Maddragon99]

And Kerr seems to be making a good fist of playing edge. Its apparently an experiment that may last 12 weeks given our short stocks in backrowers, so who knows he may end up staying there. He was great on the weekend. Fui is technically an edge as well.

It's amazing what a few short weeks can do, at the start of the year we had the bare minimum edge back rowers. Assuming we get any combination of Fifita, McGuire and JBD (and Molo) next year our available second rowers become:

Sims
Kerr
Fui
Ford
Burns

Seems our pack is shaping nicely now.

JdB’s trial is meant to start on Monday, it’d good to finally get this behind us.

 

[giboz71]

Ford will struggle to play another game for us now.
Was selected out of neccessity against the knights but Burns will jump him straight away.

Its depth though which covers 2 areas.

Injuries and competition for spots in the 17. Its a formula which has worked well for the Panthers.

 

[giboz71]

Kerr's stint on the edge is a great step in his personal development. He will be noticed by the rep selectors and seen as a versatile forward rather than just a prop.

I watched a replay of the Knights game the other day and he was outstanding. Always making yards and he popped offloads nearly every time.

Sims got all the wraps due to his 2 tries, but Kerr was great as was Fui.

I'm absolutely loving our pack this year and seems we will only get better.

 

[RufusRex]

Burns takes the Williame/Ford bench spot covering both edges and centres

 

[blacksafake]

This swap deal is a smart deal which is not something the club has been known for in recent years.
Webb & Hook must be congratulated, at this point in time.

 

[kit66]

Blacker had a game in 1sts last year and was gassed after 5 minutes.
He had pre season games with us this year including being taken into touch of a kick return and not much else.

The club had an issue with back row depth and Blacker didnt do enough in those limited opportunities to compel Hook to keep him ...

Eminim one shot.

He may develop into a beauty but right now in this club he is expendable as we are desperate for back row depth and that was the price to get burns from penrith.

It makes it hard when you guys just make sh*t up to suit your stories, are you unaware that there's stats all over the internet that just tear your bs arguments to shreds.

First sentence - quote - " Blacker had a game in 1sts last year and was gassed after 5 minutes."
In truth he played just 8 minutes and made more metres than both Ellis ( 22mins ) and Fuimaono ( 15 minutes ) and also had a higher tackle rate than both those guys and got a huge cheer every time he touched the ball.
Second sentence - quote - " He had pre season games with us this year including being taken into touch of a kick return and not much else."
Had a run in the trial against Cronulla - 10 runs for 113 mtrs ( 46 pcms - highest in the team by far ) 19 tackles 1 miss.
Had a small stint in a trial against the Eels ( times not recorded but I think around 15 - 20 minutes on field ) - 5 runs for 46 mtrs ( 17 Pcms ), 21 tackles 1 miss.
So not really the pathetic plodder you're all making him out be.

You could at least do a bit of research.

It doesn't matter now cause he's gone but ffs spare me the bs.

 

[kit66]

As for blacker being one of our "young guys" he is actually one of Brisbane's young guys who became our young guy who is now a panthers young guy.

Brilliant, you're not as dumb as your post count and you noticed I called him one of our young guys as opposed to one of our juniors.

 

[kit66]

Has AG made a single wrong decision yet with his signings?
We are shorter in back row depth than in any other spot right now.
Blacker hasn’t even had a breakout season in reserves yet ala Wakeman & he never saw FG, not a single game (Mehry obviously at fault there)
I just don’t feel upset by this, player swaps happen quite often & for once it seems like this was a wise one.

I love what Griffin is doing, that's not my issue. I'm just disappointed we'll never see Blacker in the big red V again. It's a real shame. How many good young props do we have on the books to bring through now ?

 

[slippery5]

Blacker feels like a forum favourite - according to the populous in here a superstar in the making, but according to the coaches not making the grade.

Not by my "informants", takes the ball up a few times & then goes missing. Been like this all the way through his Jnr rep teams but selected on his shear size in comparison to others of his age.
The test to those who are much bigger in their age group is, can they continue it when others mature physically & can match it in strength.

 

[giboz71]

Moving Blacker on is not a reflection on his ability. He may turn into a fair player.

It’s more timing, we could have spent the next 2 years developing him like we did with Kerr but we don’t have the time.

We need edge players now and we have a ready made one in Burns. That’s footy I suppose and time will tell if letting Eddie go was a mistake. But Hook hasn’t made a wrong move yet, so have every confidence this is the right move as well.

 

[muzby]

McGregor couldn’t see fit to use Blacker. Even though he needed every possible help he could get.

Young couldn’t see fit to use Blacker.

Hook not only didn’t see fit to use Blacker, he’s actively recruited 3 new front rowers instead. Including Daniel f**king Alvaro (who I’ll admit had added much more than I gave him credit for)..


But yet, for some reason Blacker is seen as a massive loss from people on here....

 

[redv13]

No loss at all really