Lachie Miller

[aqua_duck]

I’d be hesitant to move Ponga again.

I’m willing to give Miller more time to work on the errors. Being so raw we did need to expect this…like you said though, the fact that he’s getting worse each week is my concern.

He’s getting a lot of media hype so I hope internally his errors are being acknowledged.

I don’t think we can simply put it down to being raw, he played football long enough to know how to catch a ball.

 

[perverse]

I don’t think we can simply put it down to being raw, he played football long enough to know how to catch a ball.

People talking about him like he's a 19 year old rookie. He turns 29 before the season is over.

 

[Yosh]

I think he is trying to play too quickly. Too eager each time. He needs to focus more. I want to see him make zero errors next week, nothing else really matters.

 

[Woody90]

People talking about him like he's a 19 year old rookie. He turns 29 before the season is over.

Yeah to be fair I keep forgetting how old he is.

I’m not sure what the solution is though. I think we need to stop moving Ponga around, and we’ve probably trained too much with Miller now at the back to bring anyone else in.

 

[Wizardman]

Tonight was his first night where the rocks truly outweighed the diamonds. For 8 weeks or so, I'd be okay with that.

For the rest of 2023, I think you cannot leave him out. He is your best option there by a country mile in attack there. Quite frankly, you need him there to help score points. If he continues to churn out errors, replace him at the end of the season.
Fullbacks sometimes just need time and the Knights should give him the season.

The good thing about Miller is his attitude. He does have James Maloney-like short memory where he doesn't let his errors affect his approach to a game. The day that changes and he is affected by his errors is the day to drop him.

 

[perverse]

Tonight was his first night where the rocks truly outweighed the diamonds. For 8 weeks or so, I'd be okay with that.

For the rest of 2023, I think you cannot leave him out. He is your best option there by a country mile in attack there. Quite frankly, you need him there to help score points. If he continues to churn out errors, replace him at the end of the season.
Fullbacks sometimes just need time and the Knights should give him the season.

The good thing about Miller is his attitude. He does have James Maloney-like short memory where he doesn't let his errors affect his approach to a game. The day that changes and he is affected by his errors is the day to drop him.

I would say the second week personally... although last week was close. Either way, I'm starting to get nervous whenever he goes near the ball, rather than excited.

 

[SamSepi0l]

Yeah we can't call him a rookie or green to try and excuse his inability to catch.

 

[Woody90]

Tonight was his first night where the rocks truly outweighed the diamonds. For 8 weeks or so, I'd be okay with that.

For the rest of 2023, I think you cannot leave him out. He is your best option there by a country mile in attack there. Quite frankly, you need him there to help score points. If he continues to churn out errors, replace him at the end of the season.
Fullbacks sometimes just need time and the Knights should give him the season.

The good thing about Miller is his attitude. He does have James Maloney-like short memory where he doesn't let his errors affect his approach to a game. The day that changes and he is affected by his errors is the day to drop him.

I think we’ll definitely persevere with him for the rest of the year at the least. We’ve signed a young fullback from England for next year who looks he could be the goods but as of now it’s Miller’s jersey to lose. I’m hoping he can limit the errors because he can be a real asset in attack.

He was definitely a bit bizarre last night though. Even errors aside he just didn’t seem to be on the same wavelength as the team and what was going on around him. There were multiple times last night where I actually asked where the hell he was. The whole teams support play let us down but as a fullback you need to be there when breaks are made through the middle. That part we can probably work with him on though, the handling errors probably not so much.

 

[aqua_duck]

I think we’ll definitely persevere with him for the rest of the year at the least. We’ve signed a young fullback from England for next year who looks he could be the goods but as of now it’s Miller’s jersey to lose. I’m hoping he can limit the errors because he can be a real asset in attack.

He was definitely a bit bizarre last night though. Even errors aside he just didn’t seem to be on the same wavelength as the team and what was going on around him. There were multiple times last night where I actually asked where the hell he was. The whole teams support play let us down but as a fullback you need to be there when breaks are made through the middle. That part we can probably work with him on though, the handling errors probably not so much.

100%, positioning and things like that are definitely an inexperience and rawness thing, catching a football is not

 

[The Axe of Druss]

Catching a ball under pressure is certainly an experience thing though

He looks like he is trying to think 2 steps ahead and is losing focus on the now. Very common with rookies of any age

 

[PhilGould]

The 3 on the weekend weren't really under any direct pressure. They were all catches you'd expect any fullback to make, but errors happen and aren't the end of the world. No one would be focusing on them if he made an impact on the game in other ways.

Got gifted another Dally M vote for it though so I guess I'm wrong.

 

[Apey]

The 3 on the weekend weren't really under any direct pressure. They were all catches you'd expect any fullback to make, but errors happen and aren't the end of the world. No one would be focusing on them if he made an impact on the game in other ways.

Got gifted another Dally M vote for it though so I guess I'm wrong.

You don't think he's having any positive impact on our games?

Needs to get these errors out of his game real fast, but that's a stretch.

 

[PhilGould]

Talking about the game vs the Cowboys specifically, the errors were easily the most memorable part of his game

 

[Woody90]

Dally M voting is often influenced by media hype and Miller certainly has a lot of that (both fairly and unfairly IMO). I'm hoping in house though there have been honest discussions with him about the errors.

 

[Frederick]

Dally M voting is often influenced by media hype and Miller certainly has a lot of that (both fairly and unfairly IMO). I'm hoping in house though there have been honest discussions with him about the errors.

Dally M points are often awarded by people who don't actually watch the games (and have admitted as such)

 

[aqua_duck]

Honestly needs to be dropped

 

[perverse]

Can you carry a fullback with those sorts of issues in their game? Maybe you can, I dunno. My preference is he fixes it, but it doesn't seem to be going anywhere at the moment which is a worry 7 games in.

11 games in and I'm willing to call it. We can't carry his issues in the team. He's not NRL standard.

 

[Burwood]

He’s got the same cons that he had at the start of the year, but unfortunately all of his positives have also vanished. With his background in 7s, I don’t think he has a full season of NRL quality in himself just yet. Maybe in a year or two…

 

[perverse]

He’s got the same cons that he had at the start of the year, but unfortunately all of his positives have also vanished. With his background in 7s, I don’t think he has a full season of NRL quality in himself just yet. Maybe in a year or two…

Yeah, when he's 32 lol

 

[aqua_duck]

The thing with Miller is I’m starting to struggle to find what he really does well. I know he breaks a lot of tackles but many of those tackle breaks are from either crabbing across field and I think teams are on to that and letting him crab instead of rushing up in a staggered line.
The errors are getting more horrendous by the week and virtually all the good things have disappeared, there were a few times half breaks were made and Miller was nowhere near as a support player