Rumours and Stuff

[Soto]

When we play the Rorters there, will Aaron Woods be lining up for us..
Question is if we do sign him does that mean Lane out?

NRL news, The Mole | Eels, Manly chasing Aaron Woods for possible club switch before finals

amp.nine.com.au

 

[I'm a loser baby...]

Sounds like contracts aren't worth the what was it now?

 

[Matty Bhoy]

I really don’t see what Woods brings to us these days. Finals experience I guess…

 

[hindy111]

I really don’t see what Woods brings to us these days. Finals experience I guess…

Yeah I feel the same. If everyone is fit we have 4 forwards on the bench. Is Woods better then any?
Maybe slightly edges them all but not a whole lot with age not on his side.

 

[strider]

Im not saying i am a fan of signing Woods, but if RCG or Paulo got injured, are we content with a middle rotation of (alongside one of, or worse two of, rcg/paulo) Marata, oregan, lane .... then you start thinking Papa to middle and carty big edge minutes ... or hipgrave, greig, stone

I can understand woods might be reasonable big man depth

 

[Joshuatheeel]

Woods is as good as any of our bench middles if not better then all of them. Actually wouId prefer Woods over Lane / Kafusi

defensively strong / makes good metres / has an offload and hard to put on the ground.

reckon this is a case of overrating our bench middles and underrating Woods ability.

Yeah he isn’t elite but for the right price / contract length, he wouId be a good signing. And it appears MON generally gets players at a price suitable to us or we walk away….

 

[Matty Bhoy]

Woods is as good as any of our bench middles if not better then all of them. Actually wouId prefer Woods over Lane / Kafusi

defensively strong / makes good metres / has an offload and hard to put on the ground.

reckon this is a case of overrating our bench middles and underrating Woods ability.

Yeah he isn’t elite but for the right price / contract length, he wouId be a good signing. And it appears MON generally gets players at a price suitable to us or we walk away….

Yeah possibly over Lane as a middle. I’d rather Kafusi at this stage. I honestly can’t remember the last time I was ever impressed with Woods. Everything by him seems to be done at pedestrian speed these days. All that being said, our recruitment and retention has been superb of late, so I’m more than happy to roll the dice if the club thinks he offers something.

 

[Matty Bhoy]

Perhaps more to the point I was sending out the “Broncs after Woods” articles to all my mates to wind them up here north of the border, so it looks like I might be eating crow

 

[TheRam]

Not saying that Woods wouldn't be a decent buy but looking at his stats this season and it looks like his worst 3 games for running metres was against the 3 best teams other then ourselves in the Storm, Panthers and Bunnies where he couldn't crack the 100m. So when we need him the most he seems fairly ineffective. Not saying he wouldn't be a decent signing at the right price, but doesn't seem to be able to give us impact when we need it most. It is very concerning that he has a real shocker against the Storm, the best team at the ruck, with only 50m when you take out the kick returns.

The 14th round where he made 157m against the Panthers was SOO effected with 5 stars missing and the Sharks got up by a point. He made 146m against us, but he also played 80mins the only time this year and we seem to allow many players to have great games against us. The Bunnies can be weak up front, but seem to have had one of their better games against them. He is a decent tackler without being great. I do like how he is always molesting the ball carrier, but can give away the odd 6 again because of it. He has been averaging around 45-50mins a game, so great figures on his carries bar the said 3 games against the best opposition.

What does this tell us about Woods? Maybe nothing, but maybe that we won't be getting all that much out of him when we meet any of those teams during the play offs.

 

[Joshuatheeel]

When we play the Rorters there, will Aaron Woods be lining up for us..
Question is if we do sign him does that mean Lane out?

NRL news, The Mole | Eels, Manly chasing Aaron Woods for possible club switch before finals

amp.nine.com.au

Not saying that Woods wouldn't be a decent buy but looking at his stats this season and it looks like his worst 3 games for running metres was against the 3 best teams other then ourselves in the Storm, Panthers and Bunnies where he couldn't crack the 100m. So when we need him the most he seems fairly ineffective. Not saying he wouldn't be a decent signing at the right price, but doesn't seem to be able to give us impact when we need it most. It is very concerning that he has a real shocker against the Storm, the best team at the ruck, with only 50m when you take out the kick returns.

The 14th round where he made 157m against the Panthers was SOO effected with 5 stars missing and the Sharks got up by a point. He made 146m against us, but he also played 80mins the only time this year and we seem to allow many players to have great games against us. The Bunnies can be weak up front, but seem to have had one of their better games against them. He is a decent tackler without being great. I do like how he is always molesting the ball carrier, but can give away the odd 6 again because of it. He has been averaging around 45-50mins a game, so great figures on his carries bar the said 3 games against the best opposition.

What does this tell us about Woods? Maybe nothing, but maybe that we won't be getting all that much out of him when we meet any of those teams during the play offs.

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against the panthers the first time he made 11 runs for 96 m. 34m was PCM. He had no kick returns. Sharks only had 37% of the ball and made less then 1200 m. He also made 27 tackles (Missed 2) Over all it was a pretty decent game by the Woods in a side that got flogged.

against south’s it was 10 runs for 89m. 38 PCM. No kick returns. He also scored a try. When we played south’s only Lane / Brown made more then 100m (and only just). Our other middles made similar metres as Woods. So not really a poor performance compared to our middles

against Storm, he made 7 runs 66 m, 16 from a kick return. 20m PCM. So with his other returns he averaged 8.33 a run not great but not terrible in a game against a dominant storm performance. Stormed scored 6 tries in the second half so it’s unlikely Sharks had much ball

so stats show, Woods still makes good PCM metres against the better sides (roughly 30 % of his metres). Thus in a better side, he wouId most likely contribute to improving our attack, good PCM allows for quick play the balls….

additionally Woods has 8 errors in a crap side (trying to hard / Sharks under pressure more), Lane has 14 (in a top 4 side)….

 

[84 Baby]

I like the thinking but I don’t think Woods is the right answer (unless he’s coming in to give RCG/Paulo decent downtime in lead in to finals).
Probably wishful thinking and the dollars won’t work/other club will tell us to get f**ked but I’d make enquiries for short term loans of Luke Thompson, Tapine, Connor Watson or Ethan Bullemor and even, if it’s just a short term rental, if the dollars can be done I’d ask about TPJ (short stints off bench) or extremely wishful thinking Josh Papali’i (opponent benches would have no hope regardless of who starts for us)

 

[Joshuatheeel]

I like the thinking but I don’t think Woods is the right answer (unless he’s coming in to give RCG/Paulo decent downtime in lead in to finals).
Probably wishful thinking and the dollars won’t work/other club will tell us to get f**ked but I’d make enquiries for short term loans of Luke Thompson, Tapine, Connor Watson or Ethan Bullemor and even, if it’s just a short term rental, if the dollars can be done I’d ask about TPJ (short stints off bench) or extremely wishful thinking Josh Papali’i (opponent benches would have no hope regardless of who starts for us)

it’s not about giving RCG /Paulo less time, it’s about improving our middles so when they come off, we have players with similar impact.

it really comes down to is Woods a better middle replacement after 20 or so minutes then Lane / Kafusi / Marata and if so is the cost worth it (contract value / pathway/development for a junior)

 

[84 Baby]

it’s not about giving RCG /Paulo less time, it’s about improving our middles so when they come off, we have players with similar impact.

it really comes down to is Woods a better middle replacement after 20 or so minutes then Lane / Kafusi / Marata and if so is the cost worth it (contract value / pathway/development for a junior)

I don’t think Woods works as a bench player though unless he completely reworks his game. He’s a 50-60 minute player where he can provide consistent and constant output over that time.

Come finals, RCG & Paulo will be eating up 120 mins of the 160 minutes needed for our props. Possible Woods can split time with Paulo so that Junior can be more impactful in his minutes but Junior is the far superior prop, so for that 10 min switch Woods would have to provide more than he currently is.

Other than that Woods’ game time would be half his usual game time and I don’t think he has ever been the player able to condense his output into less minutes.

Not to say he wouldn’t be an improvement on current situation, but I think there’s better candidates for the position

 

[Poupou Escobar]

I don't know why merkins are obsessed with giving our starting middles fewer minutes. The starters at the clubs above us on the ladder play about the same minutes as our guys. The exceptions are Leota, who plays slightly fewer, and Murray and Yeo, who both play slightly longer minutes.

 

[IFR33K]

Woods is as good as any of our bench middles if not better then all of them. Actually wouId prefer Woods over Lane / Kafusi

defensively strong / makes good metres / has an offload and hard to put on the ground.

reckon this is a case of overrating our bench middles and underrating Woods ability.

Yeah he isn’t elite but for the right price / contract length, he wouId be a good signing. And it appears MON generally gets players at a price suitable to us or we walk away….

Would rather Woods over lane.

 

[84 Baby]

I don't know why merkins are obsessed with giving our starting middles fewer minutes. The starters at the clubs above us on the ladder play about the same minutes as our guys. The exceptions are Leota, who plays slightly fewer, and Murray and Yeo, who both play slightly longer minutes.

Well it’s not like it’s a one size fits all but agreed. It could perhaps work for Paulo, making his output more efficient, but really that’d be guess work/luck to determine when we’re on the attack or on the defence because Junior is more effective on one side.
But on the flip side, I don’t think it works for an RCG or Woods style player. They’re effectiveness is in being able to churn out runs, metres and tackles over an hour. It’s not in being able to run 6 20m runs in half that time. It’s a different skill/athleticism.

 

[84 Baby]

Would rather Woods over lane.

As bad as Lane has been at times, if the position is a 30 minute flat out ball runner, I’d go Lane over Woods

 

[Twizzle]

I would also prefer Lane over Woods mainly due to his ability to play both middle and edge and he seems the ideal benchie due to his utility value

Woods well past his best and pretty limited as a middle only.

Woods would be more of a threat to Kafusi than Lane

 

[hindy111]

it’s not about giving RCG /Paulo less time, it’s about improving our middles so when they come off, we have players with similar impact.

it really comes down to is Woods a better middle replacement after 20 or so minutes then Lane / Kafusi / Marata and if so is the cost worth it (contract value / pathway/development for a junior)

Marata hasn't impressed me since Monday back to the forwards.He has been very average

 

[hindy111]

I don't know why merkins are obsessed with giving our starting middles fewer minutes. The starters at the clubs above us on the ladder play about the same minutes as our guys. The exceptions are Leota, who plays slightly fewer, and Murray and Yeo, who both play slightly longer minutes.

If we can win whilst giving them fewer mins I am sure they will feel fresher come finals to play longer mins. You also reduce risk of injury.
If played 45mins rather then 55 then it's a 20%ess chance of hurting yourself.