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Poupou Escobar

Poupou Escobar

Post Whore
Messages
91,669
Zoso said:
I’d like to see what Drown can do under the new coaching set up but it’s a fair point.
Has he (i) given us value for money to date and/or (ii) could some of that money be better spent elsewhere?
I’m on the fence for both parts of the question atm…
He didn’t exactly handle the primary playmaker role when Mitch was injured last year. Asi pretty much took that role, and he’s not that special.
Drown rarely if ever lets us down in defense but his attack is up and down. Maybe, that has a lot to do with who is outside him but plenty has to do with involvement. And involvement could be due to how the team has been coached and structured to play.
Whatever the reasons, it feels like we’re paying good money for a great defender, good ball runner but otherwise patchy attacker, and ineffective kicker, who drifts in and out of games.
Too harsh, about right??
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I think Drown's involvement is awesome, and he regularly makes 20+ runs a game. It's what he does best, playing like a second fullback (or even the first fullback while we had Gutherson playing like a half). But the reason Drown is on my shit list is that his leadership is poor for such a highly paid player, including his leadership off the field. That long suspension for being a douchebag on the piss was a massive red flag. And I love him as a player.
 
Poupou Escobar

Poupou Escobar

Post Whore
Messages
91,669
Delboy said:
Posts like this really underline you haven’t been around rugby league for a while, this comment makes no sense .

also Lynn is an above average half, but no surprise You don’t see that.
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I reckon you don't understand a single thing I post and that's fine. You're not my target audience.
 
Z

Zoso

Juniors
Messages
314
Poupou Escobar said:
Then no doubt neither would anyone else we could've picked in SG Ball that year.

Consider all the merkins who started at hooker in the NRL last year. There were 38 of them, including all the backups who started a handful of games (or even just one). The mean (rounded) and median age of these merkins was 27 while the mode was 26. Interestingly, but not statistically relevant, was the fact that 6 of these hookers were born in '95, 6 in '96, 7 in '98, but only 2 in '97. Only 4 of the 38 were born before 1994, and only 1 was born after 2001, which was Da Silva, born in 2005. So to write off Matt Arthur (also born in '05) is insane. But that's not the point of this post.

The point of this post is to illustrate that at most, only seven of the hookers in the best represented age group (last year that was the ones born in 1998) went on to "make it" in the NRL, and I use the term loosely, since this cohort includes Paul Roache, who only started a single game at hooker last year, which was the only start of his 4 game NRL 'career'. This bloke is now 26 years old. Of these seven, only four played SG Ball in 2016 (it was an under 18s comp back then): Kenny, Mahoney, Starling and Blayke Brailey. Grant and Robson both didn't play SG Ball in 2016, instead playing NYC that year, proving that early milestones is a good indicator of quality. Roache was playing park footy in Auckland in 2016.

Of the blokes who turned 17 in 2016 (and therefore were also eligible for SG Ball) only three of them started at hooker in the NRL last year (Verrills, Hands and Smoothy). Verrills and Hands both played SG Ball in 2016 while Smoothy played Mal Meninga Cup.

What this means is that, of the 16 SG Ball teams in 2016, only six of them had players who went on to start at hooker in the NRL in 2024 (Penrith, Canterbury, Newcastle, Cronulla, Manly and Western Sydney Academy). The other ten teams had zero players who would go on to start a single game of NRL at hooker while in their prime. Parra's SG Ball hookers that year were Vea Tapa'atoutai and Adam Campbell. I'm sure the club knew neither of these guys were going to become NRL players, but as always, they have to name a team every week. It's not like they were preventing a higher potential youth from getting a run. There were only six future NRL hookers running around in SG Ball in 2016 and they were all at other clubs. They didn't have their pathway blocked by nuffies like Campbell and Tapa'atoutai. So it is with Matt Arthur. If he really is a nobody, then we had nobody better missing out because of him getting a run. Don't sweat it. SG Ball is full of nuffies, and the cream rises to the top. Future NRL players don't let nuffies hold them back. If they're good enough some other club will gladly take them.
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I think TheRam hacked your account Pou!
 
Delboy

Delboy

First Grade
Messages
7,560
Poupou Escobar said:
I reckon you don't understand a single thing I post and that's fine. You're not my target audience.
Click to expand...
Your target audience must be people who love stats and have no feel for the game and don’t attend any games or watch many at all so they have no eye test of players, particularly non NRLgames.

it’s obvious where your target audience is , glad I’m not regarded as part of it.
 
Poupou Escobar

Poupou Escobar

Post Whore
Messages
91,669
Delboy said:
Your target audience must be people who love stats and have no feel for the game and don’t attend any games or watch many at all so they have no eye test of players, particularly non NRLgames.

it’s obvious where your target audience is , glad I’m not regarded as part of it.
Click to expand...
No my target audience is people who understand concepts like opportunity cost; the idea that the more you spend on players like Dylan Brown the less you can spend on more reliable players who offer better value for money and possibly even better leadership.
 
Tiger5150

Tiger5150

Bench
Messages
3,899
Delboy said:
Your target audience must be people who love stats and have no feel for the game and don’t attend any games or watch many at all so they have no eye test of players, particularly non NRLgames.

it’s obvious where your target audience is , glad I’m not regarded as part of it.
Click to expand...
delete
 
Z

Zoso

Juniors
Messages
314
Lomax to be goal kicker according to this. Don’t know how reliable they are as a source.
www.instagram.com

Eels.nation on Instagram: "Interesting news this. I do rate it, I think it helps Moses significantly and probably makes the potential captaincy role for him easier. Thoughts? 🤔⬇️💬 —— #goparra #parradise #nrl #blueandgoldarmy #uptheeels #bringon202

545 likes, 10 comments - eels.nation on December 19, 2024: "Interesting news this. I do rate it, I think it helps Moses significantly and probably makes the potential captaincy role for him easier. Thoughts? 🤔⬇️💬 —— #goparra #parradise #nrl #blueandgoldarmy #uptheeels #bringon2025 #dylanbrown...
www.instagram.com www.instagram.com
 
L

Legal Eel

Juniors
Messages
1,061
Zoso said:
I’d like to see what Drown can do under the new coaching set up but it’s a fair point.
Has he (i) given us value for money to date and/or (ii) could some of that money be better spent elsewhere?
I’m on the fence for both parts of the question atm…
He didn’t exactly handle the primary playmaker role when Mitch was injured last year. Asi pretty much took that role, and he’s not that special.
Drown rarely if ever lets us down in defense but his attack is up and down. Maybe, that has a lot to do with who is outside him but plenty has to do with involvement. And involvement could be due to how the team has been coached and structured to play.
Whatever the reasons, it feels like we’re paying good money for a great defender, good ball runner but otherwise patchy attacker, and ineffective kicker, who drifts in and out of games.
Too harsh, about right??
Click to expand...
About right…but I will think we will see more under the new system
 
Gary Gutful

Gary Gutful

Post Whore
Messages
53,060
Delboy said:
Your target audience must be people who love stats and have no feel for the game and don’t attend any games or watch many at all so they have no eye test of players, particularly non NRLgames.

it’s obvious where your target audience is , glad I’m not regarded as part of it.
Click to expand...
Most armchair critics think they are geniuses and have amazing “eye tests” of players and “feel for the game” but they are usually pulling their dicks.

Have always thought its a weird thing to try and brag about as well.
 
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