I dunno where to put this post, so in here it goes lol....
I'm getting sick to death of hearing supporters at the ground abusing the sh*t out of Justin Poore. I thought he played well tonight, and he was unlucky to get called for that knock on.
The guy could make 200m, throw 10 offloads and score a hat trick and some of our so called supporters would still be abusing him.
In a team vying to win this years premiership Justin is being owned by many props and Tim Mannah is a comet leaving quite a long trail behind for Justin to catch up. Tonight, Justin was almost like marshmallow. Now this could be just a coaching/tactical issue which needs tinkering with. It seems we need two or three making a run up to get the defense in two minds. Currently both Poore and Fui are getting an x on the spot too early in a run up allowing a group of defenders to come in and blot there raids.
Mannah and Cayless can quickly/subtly shift direction, even with large angle movements but Poore can't seem to do this so he is just a straightforward battering ram and unfortunately he is not that effective. Fui appears to be carrying an injury in his knee/leg because his subtle lateral movement is nowhere near the standards he set last year making it very easy for defenders to nullify almost all his attacking raids.
I am not on any anti Justin Poore wagon but after closely watching his last two games he is not showing any signs of being a premirship winning front row prop/enforcer. He was easily tamed by Snowden, Douglas and co this evening and the Moanly props last Monday night easily handled Justin as well.
This is a message to Terry Leabeater.....
Dear Terry... what is it in Justin's game that needs tinkering with?????
You of all ex Eels premiership winning props must see the issues Justin is presently being challenged with.
Is it just a technical problem with coaching or a tactical/strategy team issue or is it a mental issue with Justin or is he carrying some injury that is holding him back thus far...???
Whatever it is.... it ain't right. As a performing 1st grade prop things just don't feel right with Justin's recent/present performances. He does not come across as an enforcer. During this 2010 season thus far, other younger props are regularly owning Justin.
As a junior I played a bit of prop and I was coached to get over the top of my opponents and at worse, get them mentally off their game. Even on the receiving end with broken noses, nasty knees, eye gouges, coat hangers etc, no one ever got the better of me. And as a last resort, if I had to, I would squeeze their nuts so hard and then legally flatten them with my next tackle. I was not a dirty player but I would never let any prop own me in a game. It was unthinkable.
Currently, Justin does not lead from the front and this concerns me. I am not saying he can't because he probably can but he just ain't doing it consistently so far this year. Whatever it is that is holding him back.... Justin needs to get this sorted out because the Eels are going to need 4 firing props to win this years premiership and he is presently nowhere near that end-of-season standard.
