Charlie Gubb

[VillaTheGorilla]

My friend also pronounces his name 'Jubb', which makes me not want to like him any more than I have to

 

[Meth]

So far, I've got 'he's a fan favourite', 'he lifts the team' and 'his defensive effort'. The first is irrelevant, the second is unquantifiable (from where we sit, anyway) and the third is debatable.

 

[Meth]

oh, and 'we're winning'

 

[Blair]

Having been to a couple of games this year all I can say (and it's been mirrored in this thread) is that the energy levels of the team (and crowd, which spurs the team) picks up noticeably when Gubb comes onto the field.

Not every player can do that. OK, so what he contributes on the field is energy, I don't underestimate the value of that.

 

[Rich102]

For me the most important thing he brings to the party is enjoyment.
He throws himself into everything.
When the team are plodding along he comes on and shows energy.
Not afraid to take on anybody.
Warrior spirit - what the team sorely needs more of.

 

[Blair]

oh, and 'we're winning'

Shush! No one needs to know apart from us. Let's keep it our dirty, little secret for a while longer.

 

[JJ]

Having been to a couple of games this year all I can say (and it's been mirrored in this thread) is that the energy levels of the team (and crowd, which spurs the team) picks up noticeably when Gubb comes onto the field.

Not every player can do that. OK, so what he contributes on the field is energy, I don't underestimate the value of that.

Just get Mannering or Thompson to grow their hair long then?

Seriously, he's a pauper's Martin Lang - his enthusiasm is infectious, but in most respects he's pretty ineffective

 

[JJ]

Seen Lane play a bit for the reserves.
Nothing about his game suggests to me he is going to get promoted soon.

Lane has been a bit disappointing for me, guess Hasler is a clever bugger... he looks like he's got an upside, but yet to see it.

 

[TheDMC]

Again, what is this valuable contribution that Gubb makes?

It's not with the ball in hand.

ok, so he can tackle...'he tackles everything that moves'- on the weekend, one of his better games- 22 tackles (and 2 missing tackles) in a half of football. Afoa did more. Hoffman, undoubtedly, does more.

Dunno Meth, I'm not a fan of Gubb, but many of those 22 tackles against the Titans were very impressive - got up at them real quick and cut em down before they got anywhere...
Which is a hell of a lot more useful than the warriors usual let them hit the line and then gain another 5 meters before third man in FINALLY gets the legs and take em down.

At the same time, Gubb's hit ups were largely ineffective as were most of the forwards in the middle except Muts.

Over the last two games we have been driven back in the tackle in the middle of the park so many times when coming out from our line or even in the middle of the park. This is pretty concerning to me - completely kills our momentum and minimizes attack zone opportunities. What are we doing wrong?

1 individual technique
2 size/power issues
3 a lack of support (someone behind them helping them out before backward momentum kicks in)
4 too predictable so the defence nearly always knows the exact point of 'attack'.

I'd say a mix of the above - and best rectified by mixing up our sets - nothing complicated but some inside balls, and try going wide early in sets more often - out to kata/hoffman/bodene/ayshford -- everytime we do we seem to get a good 20m plus with little risk. Obviously not something you do every set as it needs to catch the opposition unawares but we underutilize that tactic. Its one that some teams have used against us a lot in the past very successfully when our defence is compressed etc. Manly nailed us on it a few years ago when they weren't mud (and our backline defence was abysmal).

 

[TheDMC]

Watching the warriors team tackle the opposition makes me laugh sometimes - you have three blokes in the tackle trying to work together to stop momentum and get the guy on his back. But they more often end up working against each other, pulling and pushing in different directions and the third man in can't find an opening to the legs. Painful at times.

 

[Beavers Headgear]

Ordinary player

Went to the Panthers game down here an the crowd went nuts when he came on, so I watched him close, and he ran around like a headless chook acheiving nothing of any substance, over the space of 2 sets for Penrith I watched him go in 100kmh for 6 tackles and 1 of them stuck

 

[VillaTheGorilla]

Good post and I agree.
Probably not the place to talk about it too much, but i think the Warriors really need to mix up their attack as what you're describing happens far too often. Passing wider than one man out, tying a few inside before the , or little kicks before we get to the last tackle. Mix it up to keep the oppobacktrackuessing, because they seem to know what were gunna do.
Storm were under big pressure early against the Broncos in one set, so Cam Smith stepped out of dummy half and put a massive kick down field on the 3rd. Chased it and tackled hard and put them under pressure. I dont think the warriors show enough variation to make out opposition second guess themself. SJ flying towards a backtracking defence in two minds is gunna carve up more often than not.

Dunno Meth, I'm not a fan of Gubb, but many of those 22 tackles against the Titans were very impressive - got up at them real quick and cut em down before they got anywhere...
Which is a hell of a lot more useful than the warriors usual let them hit the line and then gain another 5 meters before third man in FINALLY gets the legs and take em down.

At the same time, Gubb's hit ups were largely ineffective as were most of the forwards in the middle except Muts.

Over the last two games we have been driven back in the tackle in the middle of the park so many times when coming out from our line or even in the middle of the park. This is pretty concerning to me - completely kills our momentum and minimizes attack zone opportunities. What are we doing wrong?

1 individual technique
2 size/power issues
3 a lack of support (someone behind them helping them out before backward momentum kicks in)
4 too predictable so the defence nearly always knows the exact point of 'attack'.

I'd say a mix of the above - and best rectified by mixing up our sets - nothing complicated but some inside balls, and try going wide early in sets more often - out to kata/hoffman/bodene/ayshford -- everytime we do we seem to get a good 20m plus with little risk. Obviously not something you do every set as it needs to catch the opposition unawares but we underutilize that tactic. Its one that some teams have used against us a lot in the past very successfully when our defence is compressed etc. Manly nailed us on it a few years ago when they weren't mud (and our backline defence was abysmal).

 

[Meth]

Dunno Meth, I'm not a fan of Gubb, but many of those 22 tackles against the Titans were very impressive - got up at them real quick and cut em down before they got anywhere...

As I said, it was one of his better games. It was actually this thought that prompted me to post this thread, strangely enough...if that's one of his better contributions, is he worth his spot?

 

[TheDMC]

I'd say probably not.

We seem to be playing with way too many props - 5 against the tits - muts, lillyman, gubb, lisone, vete, and afoa.

Would rather a tevaga on the bench and Sipley. See you later gubb and roache.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Gubb played at lock against the tits. Which makes sense, he's s bit small for a prop really. I don't mind the bench stacking with props generally though. We suck if we don't compete in the middle third.

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

Gubb is pretty much the most "average" sized prop around at 188cm and 108kg. Bigger than Lisone and Lillyman. Don't really see how he's too small.

 

[ZEROMISSTACKLES]

Gubb is pretty much the most "average" sized prop around at 188cm and 108kg. Bigger than Lisone and Lillyman. Don't really see how he's too small.

On TV he definitely looks bigger than Lisone and Lillyman especially when you factor in his height. Paint him green and give him some coloured contact lenses and he makes for a great Incredible Hulk. Never seen him up close though but yeah, as far as TV goes he looks quite big IMO.

 

[Penrose Warrior]

108kegs and 6'2 isn't small. But what is he? Is he an attacking weapon? No. He doesn't bend the line, nor does he particularly possess an offload. Is he a defensive workhorse? No. His defence is getting better in recent weeks but he was a ridiculous liability earlier in the year.

Stats this year: Avg 15 tackles a game, 6.5 hitups for 58m. Contrast that with Lisone, who makes the same amount of tackles but hits it up 9.5 times for 80m.

If he's a prop, his metres carrying are weak. If he's a backrower, he has no particular ball-playing ability and if he's a workhorse (debateable) we already have two of those in our regular starting line-up.

There's a myth out there that he can play because he has long hair and occasionally hits hard that he fires up the team, is a fan favourite and cult figure etc. But strip all that back and he's such a bog average NRL player. There's nothing he's adding that a Lane, Sipley, even Palavi or Sao shouldn't be able to add either in your back-up front row stocks or back row.

 

[vvvrulz]

But strip all that back and he's such a bog average NRL player.

And if he was anything else, I think we would have seen it by now.

He's not a liability unless he's holding better players back, and that might possibly be the case.

 

[Meth]

Too small for the enforcer role though...