Sloan

[KogarahWarrior]

I hear you and see your point but when do we cut our losses and say we need a more complete fullback?
Sloan is improving, I don’t disregard that but fullback is such an integral position, can we afford to spend years developing a kid who is likely never going to be a Reece Walsh, Kalyan Ponga, Ryan Papenhousen? All those blokes were absolutely flying at 22 years old.
In fact, Reece is younger than Sloan I think.
We say nothing to lose because we aren’t going to win a comp this year but what if we were heading into the finals which isn’t out of the question.
Would you rather be going into week one of the finals with Lomax at the back or Sloan?
Against say the Dogs.
Sure we won’t win the comp but to knock the dogs out of the finals? Give me Lomax please, I want a fullback with confidence, guts and determination.
Anyway, won’t happen but just throwing it around.

I understand your Pov, Crush. But, Sloan, unlike Walsh, has a shit team around him to build off. Walsh became one of the best once he had the best players around him helping him to build a solid platform. Also, Ponga was in absolutely no way flying at 22. He was pretty mediocre compared to his talent and pay packet until around 2022 or 23. Papenhuyzen also had more time in development and under one of the best coaches EVER.

I've been disappointed with Sloan's performances too, to be honest, but I'm trying to be patient and take it positively and just say hey, at least he's getting better each week in areas he was lacking in previously and try to understand how poorly he's been eased into FG

 

[Crush]

Who do you think is a realistic target for us that we can actually attain, and will be better than Sloan?

Yeah it’s tough, we aren’t going to get a top tier fullback sign from another club.
But there has to be a point where we consider options.
Chevy Stewart for example has huge wraps on him now at 18 but I guarantee if he’s 22 and still not up to scratch then Raiders will hit CTL ALT DEL
I was spewing when we missed out on Connor Tracy, he’s no Reece Walsh but he’s a real footy player for the same coin that Sloan is on. Tracy is very consistent and tough for a small bloke, he’d only be Sloans weight.

 

[Dribble&Yarn]

Yeah it’s tough, we aren’t going to get a top tier fullback sign from another club.
But there has to be a point where we consider options.
Chevy Stewart for example has huge wraps on him now at 18 but I guarantee if he’s 22 and still not up to scratch then Raiders will hit CTL ALT DEL
I was spewing when we missed out on Connor Tracy, he’s no Reece Walsh but he’s a real footy player for the same coin that Sloan is on. Tracy is very consistent and tough for a small bloke, he’d only be Sloans weight.

Fair point on Tracey - I was surprised we didn’t go for him tbh. Good player, covers multiple positions, wouldn’t have cost that much either

 

[Dragons4me]

I understand your Pov, Crush. But, Sloan, unlike Walsh, has a shit team around him to build off. Walsh became one of the best once he had the best players around him helping him to build a solid platform. Also, Ponga was in absolutely no way flying at 22. He was pretty mediocre compared to his talent and pay packet until around 2022 or 23. Papenhuyzen ore time in development and under one of the best coaches EVER.

I've been disappointed with Sloan's performances too, to be honest, but I'm trying to be patient and take it positively and just say hey, at least he's getting better each week in areas he was lacking in previously and try to understand how poorly he's been eased into FG

This.
Sloan is being judged weekly on here. This 22 yo has (I think) played 17 games so far this season and scored 9 trys. I can't believe commentary on here wanting to get rid of him. Talk about scrutiny! We've shed enough juniors (Garrick, Saab, Bostok et all) who have gone on to bigger and better things without adding Sloan.

 

[Bin Chicken]

This.
Sloan is being judged weekly on here. This 22 yo has (I think) played 17 games so far this season and scored 9 trys. I can't believe commentary on here wanting to get rid of him. Talk about scrutiny! We've shed enough juniors (Garrick, Saab, Bostok et all) who have gone on to bigger and better things without adding Sloan.

How many tries has he let in from poor defence or having no positional sense ?
He is a lovely young man but is going to stop us progressing .
the “work in progres” tag after 53 NRL games is ridiculous .

 

[TruSaint]

Haha thanks for proving conclusively that you just read what you want to read on here Big Chief.
Also, how hard is it to spell SLOAN properly ffs, it really isn’t that hard

What a clown you are picking up a spelling error.
Well done champ. Dribble indeed.

 

[TruSaint]

Is it? Either way, and whether it’s true or not has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on Sloans game. Just like it didn’t for Ian Roberts or anyone else

Give it a rest, championship

What or who is a championship ?

 

[Hound of Dracula]

Yeah - lets recruit Fuller or Bula so we can improve on Sloan's shite defense.

4 rounds into 2025 we can then bitch and moan about our rubbish recruitment of the new 'turn style' fullback.

Sloan
17 games 116 tackles = 6.8 per game
24 missed = 1.41 missed per game
Trai Fuller
9 games 74 tackles = 8.2 per game
17 missed = average 1.89 missed per game
Jahream Bula
17 games 108 tackles = 6.35 per game
30 missed = average 1.76 missed per game

The truth is none of these fullbacks should have to deal with that much traffic. Sure, Sloan needs to bulk up and improve his tackle technique but our defense in general has to lift.

Tyrell, like Trai and Jahream, doing nearly twice the work in defense than the better team's fullbacks.

Tedesco
15 games 70 tackles 4.67 per game
14 missed = 0.93 per game
Gutherson
14 games 58 tackles 4.4 per game
15 missed = 1.07 per game

Sloan will make it.
Till then, stop the posts Fulla Bulla

 

[TruSaint]

Yeah - lets recruit Fuller or Bula so we can improve on Sloan's shite defense.

4 rounds into 2025 we can then bitch and moan about our rubbish recruitment of the new 'turn style' fullback.

Sloan
17 games 116 tackles = 6.8 per game
24 missed = 1.41 missed per game
Trai Fuller
9 games 74 tackles = 8.2 per game
17 missed = average 1.89 missed per game
Jahream Bula
17 games 108 tackles = 6.35 per game
30 missed = average 1.76 missed per game

The truth is none of these fullbacks should have to deal with that much traffic. Sure, Sloan needs to bulk up and improve his tackle technique but our defense in general has to lift.

Tyrell, like Trai and Jahream, doing nearly twice the work in defense than the better team's fullbacks.

Tedesco
15 games 70 tackles 4.67 per game
14 missed = 0.93 per game
Gutherson
14 games 58 tackles 4.4 per game
15 missed = 1.07 per game

Sloan will make it.
Till then, stop the posts Fulla Bulla

For the record, I haven't once suggested letting him go, and have mentioned he has improved.
Like any player though, he is open to criticism after the game on the weekend, just like we praise him when he has a great game.

 

[John moz]

Another 5 minutes in that game v Broncos we would have lost that game after letting 3 tries in the 2nd half.
He has had 3 years in the Nrl and has never been dropped to nsw cup .
At his age can't tackle and put his body on the line as a fullback when will he learn.
It's just the basics to defend your line he got targeted and he will again games v Penrith and Melbourne coming up in weeks.
He was never a fullback he played his junior days on the wing.

 

[Old Timer]

50 + games in and

Sloan is now catching bombs 2 weeks in a row woohooo
Sloan is missing 1 on 1 tackles but will learn woohoo
Sloan is often out of position but will learn woohoo
Sloan doesn't support nearly enough in attack but will learn woohoo
Sloan needs another pre-season to improve woohoo

To me it seems that the more Sloan has to do in respect of defence the less he is doing in attack which is what all the hype was about in the 1st place.

Honestly guys how many games should we / do we have to invest for this to become a complete package?

 

[offiah]

Pretty sure he was dropped to cup for almost an entire season after one rainy game against the Sharks. Although, that was in the Hook days where dropped players had no idea what they needed to work on and coaching wasn’t really a thing.

 

[since77]

For the record, I haven't once suggested letting him go, and have mentioned he has improved.
Like any player though, he is open to criticism after the game on the weekend, just like we praise him when he has a great game.

Sloan is getting pretty close to a line in the sand moment for me and I'm a fan of his and have defended him quite a bit on this forum. But those missed tackles against Brisbane concerned me. I think there were mitigating circumstances in at least two of those misses but overall I can understand the criticism of him after last weeks game.
I'd love for the kid to succeed, but will he?
My hope is that he can go through a preseason uninjured and Flanno can perform a Lomax like transformation with him. Not as confident as I once was about it though.

 

[Dribble&Yarn]

For the record, I haven't once suggested letting him go, and have mentioned he has improved.
Like any player though, he is open to criticism after the game on the weekend, just like we praise him when he has a great game.

Fair enough mate - and you're right, any player is open to criticism. Some of those missed tackles on the weekend were not a good look. I personally feel he is worth persisting with (however if Sloan doesn't make changes it's going to be harder to take this stance). Also, I apologise for my part in our back and forth last night. Hoping we can engage differently moving forward

 

[Hound of Dracula]

50 + games in and

Sloan is now catching bombs 2 weeks in a row woohooo
Sloan is missing 1 on 1 tackles but will learn woohoo
Sloan is often out of position but will learn woohoo
Sloan doesn't support nearly enough in attack but will learn woohoo
Sloan needs another pre-season to improve woohoo

To me it seems that the more Sloan has to do in respect of defence the less he is doing in attack which is what all the hype was about in the 1st place.

Honestly guys how many games should we / do we have to invest for this to become a complete package?

You hit the nail on the head O.T.

To me it seems that the more Sloan has to do in respect of defence the less he is doing in attack which is what all the hype was about in the 1st place.

Get our overall defense in order and the attacking flare of Sloan will flourish.

'woohoo' and I'll raise u a couple of Boo Hoo's