You often hear the commentators in particular Laurie Daley talking about the players that are prepared to run the courage line, meaning hitting the ball at high speed regardless of whether or not there are defenders in front of them.
Well we have two blokes who will do this a couple of times each game in Simon Dwyer and Gareth Ellis, but that`s it none of the other forwards will except for Ben Murdoch-Masila and neither will any of our centres except for Chris Lawrence when he`s playing. I can tell you that Beau Ryan would be prepared to do this all day if he ever got a run in the centres.
The other point is running the ball hard and straight up the middle. I`ve heard quite a few of our supporters say we are going wide far too often before making inroads up the middle and this is 100% correct, but from what I`m watching the very reason we often do this is because there is nobody ready and willing to run the ball hard and straight up the middle. Yesterday was much like most of our other losses so far this season, Galloway made a couple of real good hit ups, Aaron Woods also made a couple of strong runs and Heighington started running hard and straight towards the back end of the game when we were getting desperate (why he doesn`t get in and run the ball like this early in the game I`ll never know?), but very rarely if ever did someone else back it up with a second strong charge after the first one. For this reason I don`t think it was a bad decision to release Gibbs, I know he`s a very solid defender but he`s one of the fastest props in the competition yet never runs the ball at high speed, I hate to say it but to me that`s lack of courage. Finally very interesting to hear Adam Blair`s comments about Fifita always running sideways, he got it in one, 9 out of 10 of Fifita`s runs this season have been predominately sideways and it`s obviously a known fact with opposing players. Interestingly Fifita used to run hard and straight nearly every time when he was destroying opposing sides in the Toyota Cup and when he did run the ball hard and straight on the one occasion yesterday after being provoked by Blair it was a barnstorming run that showed what he is capable of. Again the question why isn`t he prepared to run the ball hard and straight all of the time, lack of courage and hence the reason we were not prepared to pay him $300,000 per season. My worry about that is that Fifita is still only very young for a NRL prop and with the right guidance I think Fifita will again start running the ball hard and straight on most occasions and add to the fact that players with his size, strength,speed and endurance don`t grow on trees.
Well we have two blokes who will do this a couple of times each game in Simon Dwyer and Gareth Ellis, but that`s it none of the other forwards will except for Ben Murdoch-Masila and neither will any of our centres except for Chris Lawrence when he`s playing. I can tell you that Beau Ryan would be prepared to do this all day if he ever got a run in the centres.
The other point is running the ball hard and straight up the middle. I`ve heard quite a few of our supporters say we are going wide far too often before making inroads up the middle and this is 100% correct, but from what I`m watching the very reason we often do this is because there is nobody ready and willing to run the ball hard and straight up the middle. Yesterday was much like most of our other losses so far this season, Galloway made a couple of real good hit ups, Aaron Woods also made a couple of strong runs and Heighington started running hard and straight towards the back end of the game when we were getting desperate (why he doesn`t get in and run the ball like this early in the game I`ll never know?), but very rarely if ever did someone else back it up with a second strong charge after the first one. For this reason I don`t think it was a bad decision to release Gibbs, I know he`s a very solid defender but he`s one of the fastest props in the competition yet never runs the ball at high speed, I hate to say it but to me that`s lack of courage. Finally very interesting to hear Adam Blair`s comments about Fifita always running sideways, he got it in one, 9 out of 10 of Fifita`s runs this season have been predominately sideways and it`s obviously a known fact with opposing players. Interestingly Fifita used to run hard and straight nearly every time when he was destroying opposing sides in the Toyota Cup and when he did run the ball hard and straight on the one occasion yesterday after being provoked by Blair it was a barnstorming run that showed what he is capable of. Again the question why isn`t he prepared to run the ball hard and straight all of the time, lack of courage and hence the reason we were not prepared to pay him $300,000 per season. My worry about that is that Fifita is still only very young for a NRL prop and with the right guidance I think Fifita will again start running the ball hard and straight on most occasions and add to the fact that players with his size, strength,speed and endurance don`t grow on trees.
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