interested in RAMs opinion on this....well I'm not really but I am for shit and giggles!
You are kidding. Forty20 does all that research to highlight a guys work that had an alright game to good, AT TIMES, but most of it was just bread and butter efforts that you expect, otherwise why is he even in the team? While the real hero in the game is neglected, that being Manu Ma'u.
Look I don't like or want to keep bashing one of our own and realize that he is very young still, but he in my opinion is still under achieving in the running of the ball. Most of those gifs that Forty20 banged on about as being great examples as to his wonderful contribution to the team in attack were a joke. I mean take a good look at them.
He had what many here, including me, was his best game for a while, but still got turtled, to the contrary of what Forty20 stated in the article and as for his PTM's they were ordinary at best. 2, 3 or 4 metres gaind by a polooka who is at full stretch is hardly anything to get exited about, especially when most of those carries are 2-3 metres. Don't look at the run he is making before the defensive line, but metres gained once he gets touched. Very different tableau to what Forty20 is trying to paint.
Now, did he have a good game, yes by his average standards I agree he did, but as many here have already stated Souths hardly put up an aggressive show and we really under performed against them as a whole team effort. We should of gone on with it in the second half, even with a wounded Moses, to win by at least 14-20 points if we played fair dinkum for that entire game.
But getting back to Moeroa, he still has shown me very little to suggest that his attacking game has improved all that much at all. He still gets dominated in the tackle and does not brush off many defenders to make a break like other robust big polookas of his size, or long carries with defenders on his back flaying and desperately trying to bring him down. That to me is what a 190cm young solid forwards assignment should entail. He rarely gets the better of defenders. That try he scored against Souths was the first time in a while that I can think of that he ran the line just right and bettered the defense. But a good portion of the credit should obviously go to the better service by Moses of course. Lets hope that they do strike up a great combination out there, it may be his making.
Also when you look at his defensive effort closely, which is his strength at the moment, the most damaging part is the other defenders in the tackle like Kaysa and Scott, but he is a good defender and has improved in that part of the game.
Overall though he is still way off from being for mine a great up and coming forward of the game. He is very interchangeable with any other decent defensive backrower, who doesn't provide much else to the team. Will that change? Who knows with any great certainty, but to do a review on him when he plays against one of the poorest forward packs of the comp which delivers him a try highlight and then rave about his special runs that get us to a better play, that aren't all that special, especially when compared to that other bloke on the other side who blitzed it, and blitzes it against the best that the NRL can offer most weeks, is I think a little, lets say, agenda driven to prove a point of view that really isn't there at this point in time.
Forty20, I love your posts and columns on our players and great club, but this time I fear you have over stretched the reality through your rose coloured glasses in regards to Moeroa. But lets hope Moses does give him better and early ball and in the process he learns how to run better lines.
End of rant.
