David Simmons appreciation thread

[soc123_au]

Thank you Limmo for 6 wonderful years at the Panthers. One of the most under rated players in the game. 200 games, 0 off field incidents & I don't recall a bad game from the bloke. Champion bloke & a champion player.

 

[Panther_Daz]

So reliable. Rarely made a mistake. Quality finisher. Superb human being.

 

[Panther Pete]

Ultra reliable, never dogged it and former NRL leading try scorer. I hope his service to our club is recognised by providing him with Panthers related employment for a very long time.

 

[mxlegend99]

I think a couple in here have short memories. He has played plenty of poor games and made plenty of mistakes. In his time at the Sharks and early years with us he was very error prone usually in comical ways. IIRC his last game for the Sharks saw him try picking up a ball over the try line and kicking it out of his own hands when it was a certain try if he had simply placed hands on it or dived on it. He was dropped for it and signed with us not long after. That said any player in the game for even 50 games would have made a lot of errors and done some ridiculously embarrassing stuff. Good players learn from those mistakes.

Simmons is one of those players. He has gotten better with age. He seems to have gotten smarter as a footballer and worked toward becoming a reliable winger who makes few mistakes. Then we bring in Dean Whare at a perfect time to make the most of him being a smart and well positioned winger that formed an excellent combination. He has never been the best athlete or most talented player. Which makes it even more impressive IMO that he has gone on to achieve 200 games and 100+ tries. It puts him in the company of some great players.

There's a very good chance that many of our highly rated youngers won't go on to have a career even near the one he has had. Guys like George Jennings, Robert Jennings, Waqa Blake etc. would be doing well to have half the career he has had. His transformation as a player since arriving with us has been truly amazing. He was literally a Sharks reject that was dropped to NSW Cup when we signed him. Now he's a player with 200 games (or will be within a week) and more than 100 first grade tries. He's so good that when we get an injury to our full strength team we know he can come in and we've lost nothing.

 

[soc123_au]

I recall a few shockers for the Sharks, but honestly cant remember a bad game from him in Panthers colours. I remember him being very good in his debut game for us against the Dragons in 2010.

 

[BxTom]

He had a few bad games as does every player. Don't forget that many, many times he was doing the job of two with some very poor players beside him. Overall, he has been a real professional and he is brilliant at reading a game and positioning himself in both attack and defence. Well done Simmo, you will be missed.


Tom.

 

[GongPanther]

He says he wants to retire after having a close conversation with the person that matters most,his wife.

But who knows,between now and then,there'll be a club that will wave an offer too good to pass up.

 

[SweetandSoward]

We got to convince him to keep going.
He is the most reliable winger.

I would rate him above
Jason Nightingale

 

[tripster]

He has been absolutely excellent for us this year. I don't think I've seen him drop a bomb, he has been reliable in defence and a great finisher.

Surely we can accommodate him under the salary cap for an additional year if he wants to keep going.