How far can we go without Gareth Widdop

[Alec’s-saints]

How far have we gone with McIdiot over the last 5 year's?

Definitely preliminary final last year, injuries killed us

 

[Glenn012]

Definitely preliminary final last year, injuries killed us

So 1 finals victory, on the back of rampant forwards in 5 years. Sounds like the new reality can't get a lot worse.

 

[Old Timer]

So 1 finals victory, on the back of rampant forwards in 5 years. Sounds like the new reality can't get a lot worse.

The question is do you want it to be a constant in your life?
Surely 5 years is more than enough mediocrity?

 

[R&WTILLIDIE]

Before you crucify me...hear me out...I think Widdop is overrated. Against shit teams he was a stand out. But in tight situations it seemed to me that Widdop would choke, or overplay his hand. For example kicking out on the full against Canterbury in the semis. Chip and chase against Brisbane last week. Running sideways a lot. He looked like he could have been so much better than what he actually was. Maybe he wasn't coached correctly? I don't know....but maybe a fresh face like Norman could be a blessing in disguise.

 

[Glenn012]

The question is do you want it to be a constant in your life?
Surely 5 years is more than enough mediocrity?

Me personally or the team? In either case, mediocre is way too optimistic.

We will soon see how much the team misses Widdop. I predict not at all.

 

[Saint_JimmyG]

Definitely preliminary final last year, injuries killed us

Are these injuries the same affliction which received befelled Widdop?

Ironic.

 

[Saint_JimmyG]

Before you crucify me...hear me out...I think Widdop is overrated. Against shit teams he was a stand out. But in tight situations it seemed to me that Widdop would choke, or overplay his hand. For example kicking out on the full against Canterbury in the semis. Chip and chase against Brisbane last week. Running sideways a lot. He looked like he could have been so much better than what he actually was. Maybe he wasn't coached correctly? I don't know....but maybe a fresh face like Norman could be a blessing in disguise.

Is this the same Norman who is universally known as a “rocks or diamonds” player?

Interesting.

 

[Dracarys]

Widdop had been sadly out of form. If it had anything to do with his positional switch we will never know. Tomorrow we'll have four guys in the spine who know they'll finish in the position they started in and to my way of thinking this will make all the difference. And Mary is spared a humiliating backdown on his experiment that was going nowhere.

 

[Glenn012]

Widdop had been sadly out of form. If it had anything to do with his positional switch we will never know. Tomorrow we'll have four guys in the spine who know they'll finish in the position they started in and to my way of thinking this will make all the difference. And Mary is spared a humiliating backdown on his experiment that was going nowhere.

There are a few players in the NRL who the media loves. Widdop, Cleary, Taylor, Gutherson. I'm watching Parra vs Sharks now and Gutherson is comfortably the worst player on the field but doesn't get any criticism. Last night Cleary was terrible for 80min plus but kicked the goal and field goal so probably got MoM. Taylor has no running game at all.

I'm just glad one of our white elephants is history. No all we need is the other, Paul McGregor, to injured himself. Maybe cut his head while shaving would put him out of action for a few weeks.

 

[Glenn012]

Aaron Woods used to be another one.

 

[Crush]

Aaron Woods used to be another one.

Aaron Woods is on the same level as Jeremy Latimore these days.
There is a massive wiff of plod as he shuffles around the field....

 

[blacksafake]

Before you crucify me...hear me out...I think Widdop is overrated. Against shit teams he was a stand out. But in tight situations it seemed to me that Widdop would choke, or overplay his hand. For example kicking out on the full against Canterbury in the semis. Chip and chase against Brisbane last week. Running sideways a lot. He looked like he could have been so much better than what he actually was. Maybe he wasn't coached correctly? I don't know....but maybe a fresh face like Norman could be a blessing in disguise.

I’m not going to crucify you mate but I’m not sold on Widdop being overrated. We have relied heavily on him on plenty of occasions & he is a quality player as well as a good goal kicker & is a massive loss. I do agree that a fresh faced Norman could be the silver lining to Widdops injury. A fresh face in the coaching department would be better.

 

[possm]

In my opinion we will not miss Widdop at all. If anything this will give our fans a clear look at what Norman can do at 6 and if Dufty has overcome his demons. Our real problem is the loss of JDB and the leaky right side defence.

This week will be our opportunity to mark our coach on his ability to address these issues.

 

[Old Timer]

I encourage people to go back and read some of their posts re Widdop, not just in this thread but many others as well.
We can now clearly see what life without Widdop in the team let alone the 6 jumper is really like.
We have injuries now but we also had plenty of those in previous years as well so what is the difference?
We had a coach who put our best attacking player into a less favourable position and all of our inadequacies are now on show big time.
Our attack is simply garbage and whilst Norman had some moments of note, none of this season offerings have been a patch on previous years including the darkest parts of those years.
Have we had some brilliant individual moments this year for sure we have but we have looked a complete rabble for all but 1 game and a couple of halves.
When Widdop was at 6 we had some bad outcomes but nothing as bad as the shit that is being served up week in week out thus far this year. When Widdop was going well the team looked competitive and it is anything but that now.
I contend that whilst the coach is complete kaka the loss of Widdop at 6 is more catastrophic than that and even allowing for injuries Widdop would have least been able to weave some magic at different times and given us some satisfaction of which we have none at this point in time nor will we anytime soon.

 

[denis preston]

I encourage people to go back and read some of their posts re Widdop, not just in this thread but many others as well.
We can now clearly see what life without Widdop in the team let alone the 6 jumper is really like.
We have injuries now but we also had plenty of those in previous years as well so what is the difference?
We had a coach who put our best attacking player into a less favourable position and all of our inadequacies are now on show big time.
Our attack is simply garbage and whilst Norman had some moments of note, none of this season offerings have been a patch on previous years including the darkest parts of those years.
Have we had some brilliant individual moments this year for sure we have but we have looked a complete rabble for all but 1 game and a couple of halves.
When Widdop was at 6 we had some bad outcomes but nothing as bad as the shit that is being served up week in week out thus far this year. When Widdop was going well the team looked competitive and it is anything but that now.
I contend that whilst the coach is complete kaka the loss of Widdop at 6 is more catastrophic than that and even allowing for injuries Widdop would have least been able to weave some magic at different times and given us some satisfaction of which we have none at this point in time nor will we anytime soon.

Don't agree. Widdop looked ordinary at times when our forwards stopped going forward the past 3 years.

 

[Old Kogarah Boy 1]

Aaron Woods used to be another one.

Aaron Woods cut his hair and losts all his strength.
Says so in the bible.

 

[Saint_JimmyG]

Don't agree. Widdop looked ordinary at times when our forwards stopped going forward the past 3 years.

What half or five-eighth wouldn’t?

 

[Saint_JimmyG]

I encourage people to go back and read some of their posts re Widdop, not just in this thread but many others as well.
We can now clearly see what life without Widdop in the team let alone the 6 jumper is really like.
We have injuries now but we also had plenty of those in previous years as well so what is the difference?
We had a coach who put our best attacking player into a less favourable position and all of our inadequacies are now on show big time.
Our attack is simply garbage and whilst Norman had some moments of note, none of this season offerings have been a patch on previous years including the darkest parts of those years.
Have we had some brilliant individual moments this year for sure we have but we have looked a complete rabble for all but 1 game and a couple of halves.
When Widdop was at 6 we had some bad outcomes but nothing as bad as the shit that is being served up week in week out thus far this year. When Widdop was going well the team looked competitive and it is anything but that now.
I contend that whilst the coach is complete kaka the loss of Widdop at 6 is more catastrophic than that and even allowing for injuries Widdop would have least been able to weave some magic at different times and given us some satisfaction of which we have none at this point in time nor will we anytime soon.

Put simply, Widdop is a world class five-eighth whose SGI career has been stymied by the absence of a genuine, first grade halfback until Hunt’s arrival. We all saw the difference last year. He is a far more consistent player than Norman can ever hope to be.

As for Corey, he kicks a couple of field goals and everyone loses their minds.

Ridiculous.

 

[Old Timer]

Don't agree. Widdop looked ordinary at times when our forwards stopped going forward the past 3 years.

I agree that at times he did look ordinary but most times we looked a whole lot better than anything we have done this year.
From an attacking point of view he did ignite some great raids in lots of games and now we are gormless.
Without him our forwards seem to be going backwards almost all the time.

 

[epDragon62]

Put simply, Widdop is a world class five-eighth whose SGI career has been stymied by the absence of a genuine, first grade halfback until Hunt’s arrival. We all saw the difference last year. He is a far more consistent player than Norman can ever hope to be.

As for Corey, he kicks a couple of field goals and everyone loses their minds.

Ridiculous.

I don’t think this is fair to Norman, he was looking pretty good when he got injured.

That’s not any commentary on Widdop.