A couple of interesting articles, from the other side?
I personally think the answer is obvious - the best players are juniors, and the most disappointing players are seniors. So Madge has his footballing ability locked up in players who don’t yet have the experience to fight tougher and smarter under adversity. And the players we turn to under adversity, the experienced once, aren’t playing good football even in absence of pressure.
I personally think Tamou is doing OK (he has almost no experienced support in the forwards), but guys like Mbye, Nofo, Jimmy Jet, Musgrove, Chee Kam, BJ, Packer have net negative output.
I think the fix is less obvious - get in more experienced heads, or be patient and try to get the kids confident to be performing to a more consistent level in difficult matches.
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Tigers players over 45 maches: Twal (82), Mikaele (54), Liddle (57), Luch (79), Garner (54), Douiehi (64), MCK (88).
Total = 7
Over 100: Tamou (284), Jet (162), Packer (184), Ofa (123), Nofo (155), Mbye (150), Maumolo (108), BJ (225), Brooks (164),
Total = 9
Who in the >100 club is playing well? As I said Tamou is OK 6/10, Ofa I think 7/10, Brooks 7.5/10, rest hopeless - that’s coming on 1000 games of experience with poor 2021 output. Maumolo gets a pass because he’s just arrived.
The 50+ match club haven’t really kicked on - Twal is alright, Mikaele inconsistent, Liddle has only recently strung matches together. Luch is our best attacker and worst defender, Garner is middling (how did he already get to 54 matches?), Douiehi good, MCK career benchie.
So Madge not getting output from these experienced players. They are the backbone of the side. He inherited almost all of them, but you would also hope he could coach a good number of them to play to their best ability.
However I’ll argue that the “best” output of these 50+ match players has never really been that good. Guys like Mikaele, Garner, MCK, Packer, their career-best football has been short-lived, a year at most, so it can’t only be Madge as a coach. E.g. you’d hope Madge could get the best out of Luch, and for a good while that has been the case, but also St George didn’t let him go because he was an easy player to get results out of.
Barely any of the experienced players are hand-selected juniors - they are almost entirely cast-offs and some-risk players that Tigers hope to turn around. Brooks is one, Twal arguably was poached, so was Luch. The rest were basically released / unwanted by former clubs. I don’t know if that is specifically on Madge, that his most experienced players could only be bought off clubs that didn’t want them any longer, and he doesn’t have a core of experienced club juniors.
By comparison to Melbourne Storm, best team going around.
Storm 2021 players over 45 matches: Hughes (75), Jacks (48), G Jennings (49), Kamikamica (49), Olam (54), Cheese (78), Reimis Smith (65), Paps (48).
Total = 8
Over 100: JAC (121), NAS (138), J Bromwich (266), K Bromwich (184), Finucane (212), Kaufusi (146), Munster (144), Welch (110).
Total = 8
Of the +100 club, 6/8 were Melbourne Storm junior selections, 2 were head-hunted from other clubs. Of the ~50s, about half are juniors/debutants, 1 head-hunted (Paps).
Of the +100 players, 100% are rep players. So Bellamy is getting very good value out of his experience, and his highest paid / most experienced players are also the best performers.
So is that entirely the coach, or does he have some luxury of having head-hunted or junior-base players forming the core of his experienced group? Aren’t many rejects from other clubs there, although of course you take into account that Storm are so successful they don’t really need to look at rejects.
Storm’s junior players also have been able to wait patiently and come through a successful system, mentored by experienced rep-level players (in some cases, hall-of-fame players).
Whether or not Madge has the skills, he doesn’t have the luxury of that back-history that the Storm have, both in terms of smart long-term recruitment, junior development in a successful environment, no need to sign rejects, top-level experienced players whose best football is elite-level. Madge’s most experienced players have almost never been elite-level, not under any coach or any club.
Now Bellamy developed all that himself, so you can’t wipe it aside as being an achievement. BUT, when Bellamy joined Storm had played finals 3 times already, missed it twice (years before him), were being bankrolled by News Ltd, not allowed to fail/linger due to NRL multi-city strategy. Bellamy inherited Matt Orford, Billy Slater, Cam Smith, Scott Hill, Rodney Howe, Matt Geyer, Robbie Kearns, Stephen Kearney.
A year later he had Cronk, a year later Inglis - they were both already in the Norths Devils system (Storm feeder) when Bellamy arrived. Any of these named Storm players have played at a high level at other clubs too, so it’s not just the coach, they are inherently good in other systems.
And within 8 seasons, Bellyache’s side were done for systematic salary cap cheating, which tells you after his first several seasons, they conspired to set up and retain an illegal level of players, to either hold onto experienced elites or experienced juniors, i.e. keep the leadership whilst not losing the new rep-quality juniors.
This isn’t to defend Madge, just contrasting the rosters and where the rosters came from.
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