A few on here, yourself included feel Burton had an ordinary end to last year. Rookies do that
Not everyone has fallen away, Those that have do have reasons
Edwards hasn't
Api hasn't
Yeo hasn't
Sorensen hasn't
To'o has been injured
Martin playing a new role
Kikau has but consistency has never been a strength of his
Spencer is a still learning to position
Leota has been injured
Crichton is finally getting an extended run in a position
The halves have been in and out of the side for a while
Everyone does the basics well, very few have shockers. Just not all carve up, it is often a different group of players each game as the standouts
None of this is bagging a player, Just reality and why they say it takes 50 games to be a real NRL player.
Also is why the average NRL career is only 30 games, if it was easy then more players would have longer careers
I think burtons run fell in line with nath getting injured and ua massivley struggling injuries wise.
I certainly dont think tago has fallen away at all.
If anything i think hes improving ever week and hes game has stronlgy developed since the start of the year.
As i said, no more dropped balls. Rock solid in defence, getting highly involved.
Trying to use attacking stats like line breaks and lba or trys to say a rookie has dropped off is crazy.
In reality our whole team struggles post origin and has done the last few years. Its a mix of fatigue injuries and missing players through origin.
Its a well known thing in the nrl how well the good teams deal with origin and post origin.
Our attacking numbers might be down for some players but given the outs is definitley to be expected.
Suali is a rookie... hes killing it at the back end of the year.
Not all rookies drop off. And the 50 or 30 game rule i dont really think appllies to all rookies.
Pretty clear suali,cobbo, tago, may etc etc all pending injury have long careers ahead of them.
Cobbos already played origin... suali will play for aus in wc. Some rookies and players dont need the 30 to 50 games experience to understand the nrl level..the freaks just get it and come in and adapt to the level.
You get players like spencer who id say is a bloke who the 50 game rule applies to. Players that have ability but cleary takes them a while to find his feet..
Yes burto dropped off last year but that was probably as much to do with the whole team struggling injury wise post origin. Hes numbers may have bern slightly down but hard to blame him when the whole teams numbers were down.
In reality the blokes that actually have had a drop in form for us are too...hes said so himself.
I think crittas out of sorts atm, coukd be a loss of confidence since origin
Marto prior to the weekend was well off...
Everyone else has been fine and just experienced our normal post origin drop off with players out.
Yea kiks numbers are down but its to be expected... do you expect him to have the same or more trys, line breaks or line break assists with sos and salmon in the halves ....
