Our dirt average winger...

[Frenzy.]

No 2

Ah yeah, that was Quinn. Shocker!

 

[spirit of league]

for sure there is still miles of improvement needed in simmo. lacks the instinct of a long-term 'schoolboy' player and still approaches the physical aspect of league a bit like he's still at left back for cronulla seagulls fc.

but... to give credit where it's due he has at least started to show some improvement and i'm happy about that. particularly because he seems set to stay regardless. you can see his confidence is improving which is leading to better play.

i thought his read of the situation in bailey's try was good. the fullback had him covered, he drew the defender, got an offload away which allowed play to continue... try.

so long as he stays focused and realises he still needs to work extra hard to try to catch up to the real league players (in terms of experience, fitness, attitude, vision , etc) he stands a good chance of making it.

 

[Macca]

Geez Reefy, once you have a bias on someone it's all over for them isn't it?

I was never really a critic of Simmo's, but today he surpassed my opinion of him. He has improved alot in the last few weeks.

 

[NthCronullaLocal]

I thought he played better last week then this week and that last week was his best first grade game ever.

He is improving but my concern is that he has to be babied around the field too much by Peach and Vagana. He has to be able to handle himself on his own and read the play but that should come with time and experience.

 

[blacktip-reefy]

Well I have been accused of being Simmons hater to which i will respond.
I dont hate Simmo. he just cant play footy. He hasnt learnt how to. In my opinion he is a passenger & finals footy liability because of his late start to league. The only other player I know of who went well & started late is Brian Carney. But Carney is 1 tough fugger. Simmo isnt.
Now here is a quick around the club pick of Simmos experience level.
Now tell me why Simmo looks like an absolute amateur against any of thes guys, some with half of the 1st grade experience in much harder positions?
If we want to teach a guy to play footy in firsts, why didnt we sign the fastest guy at the local little athletic track in the offseason?

Simmons 30 games in firsts
Covell 30
Inglis 2
Hunt 35
Bott 10
Goldy 33
merrit 35
Tonga 43
williams 19
thurston 39
Youngquest 14
Head 35
Carmont 30
Galea 30
Pritchard 30
pommeroy 2
Sutton 14
Chalk 5
Gafa 28
Howell 28
Tupou 32
Stewart 27
Webster 15
Temata 39
Fulton 13
marshall 19
halatau 35
Farrah 15

 

[Macca]

I never said you hated Simmo, but you certainly have some bias against him. He has improved in the last few weeks yet you deny him that.

Compare him to whoever you want, I say he's the second best winger at the club at the moment. I didn't think he was earlier in the season but he is now IMO.

 

[blacktip-reefy]

so who would be 3rd best going on who you have seen over the last 5 weeks?

 

[fizman]

Well I have been accused of being Simmons hater to which i will respond.
I dont hate Simmo. he just cant play footy. He hasnt learnt how to. In my opinion he is a passenger & finals footy liability because of his late start to league. The only other player I know of who went well & started late is Brian Carney. But Carney is 1 tough fugger. Simmo isnt.
Now here is a quick around the club pick of Simmos experience level.
Now tell me why Simmo looks like an absolute amateur against any of thes guys, some with half of the 1st grade experience in much harder positions?
If we want to teach a guy to play footy in firsts, why didnt we sign the fastest guy at the local little athletic track in the offseason?

Simmons 30 games in firsts
Covell 30
Inglis 2
Hunt 35
Bott 10
Goldy 33
merrit 35
Tonga 43
williams 19
thurston 39
Youngquest 14
Head 35
Carmont 30
Galea 30
Pritchard 30
pommeroy 2
Sutton 14
Chalk 5
Gafa 28
Howell 28
Tupou 32
Stewart 27
Webster 15
Temata 39
Fulton 13
marshall 19
halatau 35
Farrah 15

Are you sure your not getting Simmons mixed up with Peachey?? I assure you I could put forward a compelling argument to suggest that Peachey and others for that matter have most certainly been liabilities in finals football and not just on one occassion.

I would respect your opinion alot more if there was consistency across the board for ALL players. Unfortunately, there isn't.

 

[Macca]

The last 5 weeks.

Today I thought Mellars was better out of he and Samia.

A week ago I was in Perth. No PL.

2 weeks ago I was in Melbourne. No PL.

3 weeks ago they played at Henson.

4 weeks ago Newtown had the bye.

5 weeks ago they played at Campbelltown.

So you are saying that because I haven't seen much PL I can't make that call? Fair enough, I retract the statement.

I have, however seen Simmons, and he has done some great things over the past 5 weeks. From what I have seen all year, I rate him the number 2 winger at the club.

 

[SirShire]

His attack was great, but he was turned inside out by Smith and Withers on a number of occasions.

 

[Frenzy.]

He's a gawky looking player... and I said this before but he is starting to remind me alot like Colin Best...

I never liked him at the Sharks but he did put on a few flashy things at the right moment that made him look good. We need a quick winger on that side anyway..

Mezz , Simmo ...Best? Who cares... If you saw those missed tacles by that Knight wingwer thisarvo you would kiss the ground that Simmons walks on

Ahh Coolum you've hit the nail right on the head there. Flashy things do not make a good player. They make an impression on the mind that can give an illusion that one is looking at greatness. Kind of like getting a Bullseye at darts then missing the board with the next 9 darts then being mooted as a great darts player because of the one spectacular bullseye.

I'm gonna come clean here. Back when I was posting as Frenzy I was telling everyone who wanted to listen about this kid Simmons coming up. I'd been following his career closely, mainly because he was being coached by a mate of mine from De La. When I had my season seat I'd watch every Flegg and PL game.

Maybe that will jolt some memories.

On current form I was wrong to talk him up. That's easy to admit. It's a lot harder to admit he's good when he isn't. I'll never be a blind loyalist.

The thing is he is not handling the step up well at all. Yes he is improving little by little but as a hard nosed 38 year veteran supporter of the Sharks that's not good enough. As far as I am concerned our club has never had a hard edge. We are too mamby pamby down there. It's hard to argue that with ZERO premierships in nearly 40 years.

IMO we won't win a comp either if we pander to players based on potential when they are not performing to anywhere near that potential and other players are doing better.

One of our best wing prospects is Dimitri Pelo and he looks like leaving. Why? Because he can't get a shot behind Simmons. I've got a feeling Goldy will go too. He's also streets ahead of Simmons. So by playing faves with one player we lose players who are better now from the club.

There's a word for this sort of thing in football.

 

[Frenzy.]

BTW Simmons tackle count for the night (first pass)

1 tackle
0 misses

Seeing as though he was hanging around Graham after he should of dived on the ball that must be the "1"

 

[blacktip-reefy]

I assure you I could put forward a compelling argument to suggest that Peachey and others for that matter have most certainly been liabilities in finals football and not just on one occassion.

No you couldn't.
If you did, you would contradict john lang, whose opinion I rate about 50 gazillion times higher than yours.
I cant see how a team of over acheivers can be labelled liabilities.
In the years where Cronulla were competitive & stood a real chance, we never had the players, money or power. Langs words.
What he meant by that was, when the Broncs played us in 97 GF & Ryan was out injured, they brought in Plath. We had barnett out & we replaced him with ???????fugged if I can remember!
Then there is the referees. The judiicary. The game times etc etc.
We all know you are a closet peachey hater Fizzman, so don't hide.

 

[millersnose]

simmo went good in attack

he was very confused in defence

when kimmorley rushed up he should have also

there was 4 on 2 and the only chance of stopping a try was to get out from the line as early as possible

everyone focused on kimmorley and ignored the elephant in the lounge room - the 2 man overlap

 

[Chondricthyes]

Simmo continues to improve. his defence is getting better( but as with most youngsters decisison time is costing him)and his attack is gaining confidence.


no point running the field when you have a defender on you, one hit and your out of play.Always had support and obviously heard them early.

Still can't understand some who won't conceed an improving youngster.

He will be first cab off the rank at FB when Peach finishes the coach has
already said it.

 

[Bastard Squad]

I’ve got to admit he’s getting better, a little better all the time.

I'm certainly not going to criticise him for Kimmorley's mistakes.

 

[coolumsharkie]

I’ve got to admit he’s getting better, a little better all the time.

I thought you were going to break into song then

 

[MightySharks]

Blacktip Reefy wrote:Well he cant be the fastest becaue Merrit is faster than him & quite possibly Goldy & believe it or not Gallen.
As for his game today, he made quaite a few mistakes as well.
Still too much bad in his game.
For instance Baileys try. If he was so fast, why didnt he score himself? Bott, Hunt, Steward, Best, Minni anybody else scores that try alone after Vags great lead up work. Covell definitely would have.
No not Simmo, he carries the ball like a "handbag" & runs in field & make the try so much harder & gives a poor pass back to Vags.
Also the poor read when BK fugged up in teh first 10 simmo did not lay a hand on anybody. But hey, the commentators didnt crucify him like they did to best when he kept coming in to seal the overlap & bott stung him on the outside I guess..
Simmo improving after 40 gifted games in the top grade, no doubt.
I wonder what Greg Inglis would like after 40 games in firsts?

Blacktip and Da Vinci,
You Guys have lost all credibility, Simmons Has been playing some good football you only focus on the negatives of his play and never the positives, he has shown over the past 6 weeks he is well and truly a part of a winning sharks team and deserves his spot. As I sais at the start of the season lets see how things pan out before we bag blokes and now things are panning out after 10 rounds we are 7 and 2 we have won three matches away from home in a row. So from where I sit things look pretty good. I watched premier league yesterday and merritt showed once again he was not up to first grade standard. It is time to get over you unfounded bias and support what is a good Sharks team!

 

[pogo]

the bias is so ingrained that the clique will never acknowledge the efforts of simmons and bird.

on the contrary they will death ride them and swoop on any error yet will gladly overlook similar if not worse performances from their favourite players

i d like to get any sort of odds simmons against mcgoldrick and gallen over 100 metres.

the assertation that those quoted would have scored the try eventually scored by bailey is laughable in the extreme, especially so in covell s case.

 

[Dread]

I just re-watched the tape, paying close attention to Simmons.

I looked at the two defensive 'lapses' that Da Vinci has quoted, and IMO, they're drawing a long bow.

The first, where Noddy raced out of the line - Simmons hangs back. The player with the ball in his hands, the eventual tryscorer, beats Noddy with a step and races into the gap behind him. Simmons coming up, IMO, would have made little to no impact on this try.

As for where Simmo failed to cover for Noddy's mistake, I think this one is entirely unjustified. The amount of time between Noddy dropping the ball and the Raiders player pouncing on it is negligible - human reaction time dictates that Simmo was always going to be hard pressed to get there. You can even see it; as soon as it registers the ball has escaped Noddy's clutches, the Raiders player is practically already onto it. Can't fault him that one; that's entirely a black mark against Noddy.