Rookie report card - class of 07

[Godz Illa]

Final summation of the new blood of 2007. Feel free to write your own.

Tony Caine: C. Defensively solid but slightly behind the pace of first grade in attack, possibly still recovering from major knee reconstruction.
Ben Ellis: B+. Tireless worker in defence, and as the year progressed started warming to the task at dummy half. Was hitting some good form when injury struck. Hope we retain him
Rangi Chase: A. Earmarked for the dummy half role where he was effective but surprised plenty with his running game at five-eighth. Kept defence guessing. Needs to work on his tackling technique though, too many misses
Tom Hewitt: B-. Not a flamboyant player but a quick effective winger capable of doing his job
Chris Houston: C. Started well but fell away sharply. Capable of becoming an 80 minute fist grade tradesman type
Dan Hunt: A. Deserved more gametime but in hindsight was probably nurtured the correct way, considering the dropoff Morris and Houston endured. Terrific young prop, can offload.
Keith Lulia: C+. Mixed some good performances with some not so good ones. Decent player, future in the forwards
Josh Morris: A-. Sensational first half of the year. Handling errors became a serious issue towards the latter half.
Jason Nightingale: A. Strong, deceptively quick and seemingly offloads at will. Kept on improving. I love this player
Lagi Setu: B+. Considering it's only his second year of league from a union background, and he is only 19, looks the goods. Aggression, footwork and the ability to offload.
Chase Stanley: A-. Big, strong, fast and only 18. Produced some schoolboy errors (understandable considering he is one) but also some moments of absolute stunning brilliance. Future star.
Ricky Thorby: B-. No nonsense aggressive ball runner. With some strength work over the off season and his low centre of gravity could become a real asset in the rucks denting the line and playing the ball quick.
Richie Williams: DNF. Expelled.

 

[The Preacher]

Richie Williams: DNF. Expelled.

:lol: Sent on an sabatical to the mountains and collected a spoon.

 

[Drew-Sta]

Pretty spot on Godz. Good wrap up.

Looking forward in particular to Lagi Setu and Ricky Thorby's contributions next year.

 

[dragonfire]

yeh Setu really started to show some promise late in the season, can put some pretty solid hits on as well. It wasthe tale of two halves with Morris and Nightingale, Morris was brilliant once he got put into the fullback position and then once moved back onto the wing really went downhill, Nightingale came into his own in the 2nd half of the season, honestly i cannot see how Brett/Josh can push him out of first grade

 

[_Johnsy]

IMO with a buit of gym work thorby could be the ideal prop for us next year, we need someone who will push through the defensive line with regularity.

 

[Willow]

Final summation of the new blood of 2007. Feel free to write your own.

Tony Caine: C. Defensively solid but slightly behind the pace of first grade in attack, possibly still recovering from major knee reconstruction.

Totally agree. He tried hard at times but was sometimes a yard off the pace and too slow from dummy half.

Ben Ellis: B+. Tireless worker in defence, and as the year progressed started warming to the task at dummy half. Was hitting some good form when injury struck. Hope we retain him

Needs more time in first grade and he'll keep improving.
Woolford is the past, Ellis is the future.

Rangi Chase: A. Earmarked for the dummy half role where he was effective but surprised plenty with his running game at five-eighth. Kept defence guessing. Needs to work on his tackling technique though, too many misses

Huge wraps.

Needs to bulk up a little more if he is to make the five-eighth spot his own.

Tom Hewitt: B-. Not a flamboyant player but a quick effective winger capable of doing his job

Off to the Broncos so that's that.
I rated him as a winger but we have plenty and can't them all.

Chris Houston: C. Started well but fell away sharply. Capable of becoming an 80 minute fist grade tradesman type

Gone as well.
Seemed to be lacking a bit of heart late in the season but he'll go well in another club's jersey.

Dan Hunt: A. Deserved more gametime but in hindsight was probably nurtured the correct way, considering the dropoff Morris and Houston endured. Terrific young prop, can offload.

Reminds me of Barry Beath. A touch of pace over 20m and he goes looking for work.
Has the potential to become our best forward.

Keith Lulia: C+. Mixed some good performances with some not so good ones. Decent player, future in the forwards

The jury is still out. Never let us down.

Josh Morris: A-. Sensational first half of the year. Handling errors became a serious issue towards the latter half.

Agree totally. I could be wrong but it seemed that other teams started doing their homework on him. Great turn of pace and looks better chiming in wide of the ruck.

Jason Nightingale: A. Strong, deceptively quick and seemingly offloads at will. Kept on improving. I love this player

Heaps of G&D. He pops up everywhere. Sometimes looks like a graduate from the Arthur Murray school.

Lagi Setu: B+. Considering it's only his second year of league from a union background, and he is only 19, looks the goods. Aggression, footwork and the ability to offload.

Like Lulia and Thorby, the jury is still out.

Chase Stanley: A-. Big, strong, fast and only 18. Produced some schoolboy errors (understandable considering he is one) but also some moments of absolute stunning brilliance. Future star.

Yep. can't wait to see him develop. Future backrower most likely. He'll be causing all sorts of havoc around the ruck when he matures.

Ricky Thorby: B-. No nonsense aggressive ball runner. With some strength work over the off season and his low centre of gravity could become a real asset in the rucks denting the line and playing the ball quick.

See Setu and Lulia.

Richie Williams: DNF. Expelled.

lol.

Great summary Godz. :thumn

 

[RedVDave]

Needs more time in first grade and he'll keep improving.
Woolford is the past, Ellis is the future.

No personal attack on you or anything Will but Ellis is still unsigned for next year, make's you wonder does'nt it?

 

[Dragooner]

Good wrap up, agree with everything!

Was expecting you to give Josh an A which I would have disagreed with, A- the perfect mark.

Rookie of the year for us: Jason 'Florence' Nightingale, cannot go past him!

 

[Collateral]

Tony Caine: Has not seen enough First grade after that horrific injury to be judged fairly.

Ben Ellis: Good honest player with great plays now and then.

Rangi Chase: Would have to be my choice for rookie of the year.

Tom Hewitt: Not bad, not great. Prefer Florence.

Chris Houston: Dissappointed in Houstons overall impact to dragons games.

Dan Hunt: Great player. A good replacement for Bailey.

Keith Lulia: Expected more but overall wasnt too bad.

Josh Morris: Started the year on fire but fell away at the end giving Rangi the rookie of the year award.

Jason Nightingale: Our second best out of the Rookie class of 07. Good solid winger.

Lagi Setu: Started to see more in his last couple of games and obviously grew in confidence. Should go well next year. Good aggression in defence.

Chase Stanley: See Josh Morris.

Ricky Thorby: Similar to Ellis with so good hard runs up the middle which is what we have been missing. Doesnt take a backwards step.

 

[Dragonsforthewin]

Good review guys, thumbs up. However if given the chance to start over R Williams could have been something special. He might have a good year next year or end up being a reserve for reserves :/ pity, wasted talent.

Hunt has been great this year, looking forward to watching him play, has alot of heart ans runs hard.

Morris, same as what you guys said.

Nightingale, freaky runner but is great in whatever he does, has a bright future.

Chase, looks the best for me at 5/8 and I think he has a HUGE potential to be one of the best players in the comp for comming years.

Ellis, I'd pick him anyday over woolford, good player and will get better.

Setu, Lulia, need to see more

Thorby, liked what Ive seen from him this year and the last game has me excited about him next year, he might turn out to be a key forward for us.

Caine houston hewitt, average.

Chase Stanley, this is our biggest prospect and I'm glad he is signed till 2010, he is so young and has so much talent and strength, the little things in his game like learning when and where to offload will come with experience.

I'd put him and gaz in the centres and f**k cooper off to reeserves or get rid of him and free up money to buy a new forward.

The backline we will have next year there will be alot of competition and skill, looking forward to 08. If the forwards step up we will make the 8 easily.

tbh, I think Hornby, Ryles and cooper need to go, they have not impressed me at all this year, although hornby has done alot of makeshift work so he has an excuse and cooper has made alot of linebreaks so that is a big plus for him on the other hand, but he seems disinterested.

 

[SilverSteeler]

I'd put him and gaz in the centres and f**k cooper off to reeserves or get rid of him and free up money to buy a new forward.

The Dragons would be stupid to get rid of Cooper, he hasn't been at his best of late but he can win you games in attack and defense.

 

[Godz Illa]

Ridiculous comment re: Cooper. His performance on Sunday was an aberration. I thought he was consistently very good to excellent throughout the second half of the season. Most games I had him in the top 5 players. No way should we even be entertaining the idea of dropping him any time soon.

 

[dragonfire]

tbh, I think Hornby, Ryles and cooper need to go, they have not impressed me at all this year, although hornby has done alot of makeshift work so he has an excuse and cooper has made alot of linebreaks so that is a big plus for him on the other hand, but he seems disinterested.

Wooo, interesting statement. For me I think next year will be Cooper's last year for us and he will move to England at season's end, had a bad game on Sunday but has been great for most of the season. Ryles along with Creagh has, in my opinion, been the standout forward for us this year. Hornby is an interesting one, too much shifting around has hurt him a little bit, however Josh Morris is a ready made replacement

 

[Dragonsforthewin]

Ah well, just my opinion, he has been quiet all year and looked disinterested at times.

Not sure what he is getting paid, but I would prefer they get rid of him as he is overrated IMHO and Gaz/Stanley would be a better combo, the left over money we can use to keep some youngsters.

 

[petetheileet]

totally agree with you Godz, great wrap up

 

[The Preacher]

Ridiculous comment re: Cooper. His performance on Sunday was an aberration. I thought he was consistently very good to excellent throughout the second half of the season. Most games I had him in the top 5 players. No way should we even be entertaining the idea of dropping him any time soon.

I've got him in my best five Dragons for the year, one game doesn't make a season.

 

[Collateral]

To be honest, I think Cooper is a little overrated. I'd prefer Hodges, but then again, I like players who are sh!t stirrers haha.

 

[Drew-Sta]

Hodges form for the last 2 years has been nothing short of world beating. Gas has good competition there, and a Hodges / Gasnier centre pairing would be wonderful to watch this year.

 

[Godz Illa]

I'm a big fan of Hodges and agree he is one of the best players in the game. However, he has never dominated Cooper head-to-head. Uneasy stalemate is probably the best result he's achieved against Coops.

 

[Drew-Sta]

True, outside of last weeks game against Manly, I've never seen Cooper dominated by another centre's attack.

But Hodges attack will win you games as well, and his defence isn't necessarily shabby either. Hodges does what Gasnier should do; Roam and chime in when the 'X' factor is required.

Still, they're two very different players. My one gripe about Cooper is his passing game is almost non-existent lately. He needs to set his man up outside him better.