Season 2021 Trials

[WA Tiger]

Trading Nofoaluma and Talau for JAC would have been an amateur, I’ll considered move.
I am still a bit shocked the club decided not to do so.

Nofo is the only long term player at the club that’s any good..(apart from Brooks he’s the only long term player) Even WT would know how bad that would look to lose him ..I’m thinking we would have said no to the Nofo Trade request so why would Melbourne then make that dual trade request including Talau afterwards.. ..maybe that was the original request although I’m sure they only asked for Nofo first

 

[BrotherJim05]

Rowdy pre injury would have been our last speedster wouldn’t he?

Mate...Tedesco, JAC, Korobete....f**k me we would be a different team if we managed to hold on to any of those speed demons

 

[BrotherJim05]

I really like Brooks, and nothing would give me greater pleasure than seeing him contribute to us finally breaking our finals drought - but I'm not convinced he has the organizational skills. We absolutely dominated that game and he made some really poor 5th tackle kicks with no pressure whatsoever. I feel this has been the core of Brooks' issues at the Tigers. He can setup tries, score himself, and his defence is absolutely superb for a half (compared to Benji...its night and day)...it's just his game management that lets him down - particularly when we are under pressure.

I really, really, really hope he proves me wrong.

On another note, I was really impressed by AD. I think an out-and-out, running 5/8 is his best position. He has a pretty big frame which puts the opposition in two minds whether he is going to just charge straight over the line or pass. I hope he keeps the 6 jersey for the year and we don't get any silly ideas moving him to fullback or centre. He clearly doesn't have the speed for either of those positions but he definitely has the ball skills for 5/8.

 

[Tigerm]

Nofo is the only long term player at the club that’s any good..Even WT would know how bad that would look to lose him ..I’m thinking we would have said no to the Nofo Trade request so why would Melbourne then make that dual package request including Talau ..maybe that was the original request although I’m sure they only asked for Nofo first

I don't know about Nofo, I thought he was back to his worst, running 50mts sideways and 1m forward on quite a few occasions. But we have him for a while, i hope they can fix it, but not sure they can now?
When he runs straight he is a marvel though.

 

[Tiger05]

Mate...Tedesco, JAC, Korobete....f**k me we would be a different team if we managed to hold on to any of those speed demons

I saw that Koro will be leaving Australia due to the money on offer for him overseas. It's hard to keep these guys but geez losing Koro was a dumb move.

 

[WA Tiger]

I don't know about Nofo, I thought he was back to his worst, running 50mts sideways and 1m forward on quite a few occasions. But we have him for a while, i hope they can fix it, but not sure they can now?
When he runs straight he is a marvel though.

I’ll watch it again but I thought it was 1m sideways and 50 forward (since we’re exaggerating) ..looked ok to me

 

[WA Tiger]

As much as some would like, One preseason trial, with way less pressure and intensity than what is going to hit us when season proper comes around (regardless of weather the stronger team was playing when he was playing) doesn’t get Brookes off the hook by a long shot.. Weather or not his new role is to just shovel the ball on, he won’t be able escape the scenario or similar - when we are 12-10 down with 2 minutes to go and Brooks has the ball on the 5th tackle, he will most likely fk it up, like he always does when there’s pressure. Even the jets speed won’t save him..I wonder if he will be yelling for the ball at that point in the game..
I noticed Brooks doesn’t look around to see what’s going on outside him before he passed the ball a couple of times ...Just something to keep an eye on..
It’s going to be more a case of let’s get a great team around him so his weaknesses won’t keep us out of the 8. If that’s possible.
But I really like Brooks and hope he does well..

 

[Speedy Gonzales]

I’ll watch it again but I thought it was 1m sideways and 50 forward (since we’re exaggerating) ..looked ok to me

There was definitely a run where he crabbed 30-40 odd meters sideways for little gain

 

[WA Tiger]

There was definitely a run where he crabbed 30-40 odd meters sideways for little gain

I remember seeing one of Nofos sideways then forward runs and thinking ok at this moment he's gone further forward than he or any one else would have only because he ran sideways first.
That's the thing he may go sideways but inevitably not every time but maybe 1 out of 3 (thats ok) he will not only run further forward (that one was a good 10-15 metre forward run) but with support he will create a break that will, with the split defence lead to advancing a good distance up the field and can easily esp with the Jet and big forwards looming lead to try's.
I dont see the crabbing as a bad thing some do.

 

[Speedy Gonzales]

I remember seeing one of Nofos sideways runs and thinking ok at this moment he's gone further forward than he or any one else would have if not for the sideways movement.
That's the thing he may go sideways but inevitably not every time but maybe 1 out of 3 (thats ok) he will not only run further forward (that one was a good 10-15 metre forward run) but with support he will create a break that will, with the split defence lead to advancing a good distance up the field and can easily esp with the Jet and big forwards looming lead to try's.
I dont see the crabbing as a bad thing some do.

In some instances when you get the ball on the half way line it’s okay. It’s when we have the ball in our red zone (20 meters from our try line) and he does it, it shits me.

it jams all of our runners in and he ends up getting tackled 10 meters in from touch. I was always coached in rep teams that the middle of the field is the best place to get tackled on kick returns

 

[The Silverdale Phantom]

I really like Brooks, and nothing would give me greater pleasure than seeing him contribute to us finally breaking our finals drought - but I'm not convinced he has the organizational skills. We absolutely dominated that game and he made some really poor 5th tackle kicks with no pressure whatsoever. I feel this has been the core of Brooks' issues at the Tigers. He can setup tries, score himself, and his defence is absolutely superb for a half (compared to Benji...its night and day)...it's just his game management that lets him down - particularly when we are under pressure.

I really, really, really hope he proves me wrong.

On another note, I was really impressed by AD. I think an out-and-out, running 5/8 is his best position. He has a pretty big frame which puts the opposition in two minds whether he is going to just charge straight over the line or pass. I hope he keeps the 6 jersey for the year and we don't get any silly ideas moving him to fullback or centre. He clearly doesn't have the speed for either of those positions but he definitely has the ball skills for 5/8.

AD just keeps getting better and better.

Dominated and toyed with the Manly side within his playing ambit.

Some people might argue that was to be expected v their young chumpsters but the alternative would be much worse and he had a fine game.

He was also one of the most positive players out there, body language , enthusiasm and celebrations.

There was also an element of composure in his game that we didn’t always see last year.

 

[WA Tiger]

AD just keeps getting better and better.

Dominated and toyed with the Manly side within his playing ambit.

Some people might argue that was to be expected v their young chumpsters but the alternative would be much worse and he had a fine game.

He was also one of the most positive players out there, body language , enthusiasm and celebrations.

There was also an element of composure in his game that we didn’t always see last year.

Correct me if I'm wrong but AD pushed Jake T over backwards to score a try. Made him look like a boy. That's got to take some kind of attitude.

 

[Speedy Gonzales]

Correct me if I'm wrong but AD pushed Jake T over backwards to score a try. Made him look like a boy. That's got to take some kind of attitude.

It was Ben Turbo but none the less it takes a lot of strength and grit...Basically dragged him 5 meters across to the try line

 

[The Silverdale Phantom]

It was Ben Turbo but none the less it takes a lot of strength and grit...Basically dragged him 5 meters across to the try line

Lol.

Hopefully we don’t have to live on that trial for the season!

 

[WA Tiger]

In some instances when you get the ball on the half way line it’s okay. It’s when we have the ball in our red zone (20 meters from our try line) and he does it, it shits me.

it jams all of our runners in and he ends up getting tackled 10 meters in from touch. I was always coached in rep teams that the middle of the field is the best place to get tackled on kick returns

Ok I’ve seen the crabbing you prob refer to......06:30 into the first half.Nofo had the option of running straight into Tapau or another manly player nearly on their try line as he was returning the ball from behind the try line, after a Falcon off a manly player..instead he ran across the field looking to hook up with his outside backs. Unfortunately it was Talau there who really might as well not have been on the field for most of his time on the field.....but the point is Nofo ran 20 metres forward and there was no drama there that I saw. So yea, of the two spots, I know where I’d prefer to have started the second tackle run from. So an over reaction imo..
Anyway by now they all know what Nofo’s going to do. They just need someone who can combine with him and take advantage of it. That’s not the slug Talau unfortunately or even Kapaoa really from what I’ve seen of him...BJ different story

 

[Das Hassler]

Ok I’ve seen the crabbing you prob refer to......06:30 into the first half.Nofo had the option of running straight into Tapau or another manly player nearly on their try line as he was returning the ball from behind the try line, after a Falcon off a manly player..instead he ran across the field looking to hook up with his outside backs. Unfortunately it was Talau there who really might as well not have been on the field for most of his time on the field.....but the point is Nofo ran 20 metres forward and there was no drama there that I saw. So yea I know of the two where I’d like to have started the second tackle run, so an over reaction imo..
Anyway by now they all know what Nofo’s going to do. They just need someone who can combine with him and take advantage of it. That’s not the slug Talau unfortunately or even Kapaoa really from what I’ve seen of him...BJ different story

Yeah...i kinda get the feeling Talau could end up being another Esan Masters.
And that's not being disrespectful to EM....just media hype v reality