oldmancraigy said:
Avenger - I know you're a Dykes fan because he can create play, but with him we run into the same, yet opposite set of problems to those we face with Wagon.
With Wagon at 5/8 we suffer from his terrible inconsistency as to whether or not he will pass the ball - which Wags will turn up? The one who throws the ball early, or the one who is indecisive and stutters before the defensive line before submitting meekly (or kicking it through on the 3rd tackle when nobody is chasing....)
With Dykes you get a great playmaker, but you also suffer from wildly inconsistent performances - one week he is a world beater, the next he's the little guy who can't tackle and throws way too many dummies as he shuffles across field... One week you get a precision kicking game, the next you get "chip bombs" which are all too easy to defuse, and kicks off the side of the boot...
I'd seriously prefer the Morris/ Witt combination - both are good runners of the ball, and both are reasonable kickers - we won 9 of 13 games last season when they were our combination - and with them creating behind a strong pack I think we'll do just fine! Especially on the defensive side of things!
Of course I'd never replace Dykes with Kerr or Dorn - but if we release him it's because we've replaced him with Tahu and Morrison - players we wouldn't have been able to get without slicing his paycheck... Kerr or Bird (both handy youngsters) would be simply insurance in case of injury - we do need someone to play 5/8 in premiere league!
I say keep Dykes (if possible) and, IF possbile, keep him fr another 2 years.
Michael Witt and Tim Smith would learn a lot from him.
Now, onto your criticism of Dykes (which is quite true).
I believe that is mainly a coaching and team issue.
Dykes has always crabbed across field, side-stepping, fending, dummying. And he was succesful at Cronulla? Why? Well:
* At Cronulla, he was told he could play his natural game. Apparently Brian is trying to get him to change his game
* At Cronulla, his teammates didn't sit back and watch him go at it like stunned mullets; they watched him closely and supported his plays
* At Cronulla he was played at 5/8, his natural position, with a competent halfback.
I think it's mainly a coaching problem (and I am not entirely against BS BTW). Instead of telling Dykes to change his style of pla, he should be spraying the outside backs. He should give them a gobful. THEY are the ones he's trying to create space for. If BS is "too technical a coach", then surely he must realise that by Dykes crabbing, finding space and offloading to a player running at pace cutting back on the inside at an angle, he is creating a structured and effectve play.
I don't think with Dykes it's a matter of him not suiting our team. I think it's a matter of the team not suiting him.
I reckon we could sign Joey, and we'd only have two players (Wade and Ash) running off him.
