The "PLEASE Brian, sign a halfback" Thread

[Alex28]

please
no one rated inglis at 5/8th
he was ok
but no where near his potential and ability.
if we had inglis at 5/8th
id still rather look for a halfback and move inglis to the centres

That is how poor our current half options are to be honest...

 

[voltron]

That is how poor our current half options are to be honest...

wtheck?
our current half options are poor because if we get inglis we would STILL need a halfback? (when inglis isnt a half or 5/8th so getting him wouldnt help our problem in any way in the slightest)
that isnt really an argument bro

of what we have dureau/mullen is the best of our options
and ive accepted that
if we can get better then thats cool
but until then i'll take what we have
i mean its not like we have john morris and trying to pretend he's a halfback
dureau is a halfback not a fantastic one, but he helps our team

 

[Joker's Wild]

I generally try to stay out of the whole Rogers v Dureau debate as it tends to turn into agenda driven dribble, however Im going to interject here and say I would like to see Rogers moved to the bench and fed into the back row rotation for a while when Scotty is fit. Get him in there doing some of the meat and potatoes work to minimise the playmaking pressure on him and allow him to chime in when he feels comfortable. I think a lot of his brain explosions are due to him feeling that he has to make a play every touch.

 

[Alex28]

of what we have dureau/mullen is the best of our options
and ive accepted that

That isn't even correct. Our best option is Mullen/Dureau/Rogers - we have played our best football when we have been able to have all 3 in the 17. When relying on EITHER Dureau or Rogers - we see problems. But when we have Dureau AND Rogers available for interchange - we have played much better.

 

[aqua_duck]

Mullen IMO is our most important player (Gidley included)

 

[Baron Vo Mandor]

The way I look at it is Mullen probably is a better player as he is our only half worth pissing on if he was on fire.

However Gidley is a much, much better player.

 

[NS_Sherlock]

I generally try to stay out of the whole Rogers v Dureau debate as it tends to turn into agenda driven dribble, however Im going to interject here and say I would like to see Rogers moved to the bench and fed into the back row rotation for a while when Scotty is fit. Get him in there doing some of the meat and potatoes work to minimise the playmaking pressure on him and allow him to chime in when he feels comfortable. I think a lot of his brain explosions are due to him feeling that he has to make a play every touch.

This is exactly what I have been thinking. Rogers needs to be out of a playmaker position away from that pressure for a while and just pass and run and tackle and be part of the team then bring plays back in when there is a real opportunity.

 

[Karmawave]

The Knights best win of the year in my opinion was against the Dragons - namely because of the strength of opposition, and more so because it was away from home.

While ever the team can play like that with Mullen/Rogers in the halves, it at least shows what they can do at their potential together.

In the end the key to it is good go forward in the pack - whoever is the halves.

 

[perverse]

In the end the key to it is good go forward in the pack - whoever is the halves.

couldn't agree more with this. we look good no matter who is playing in the 6 and 7 when the forwards are dominating. no surprise really, rugby league is a pretty simple game when it comes down to it. dominating in the forwards gets you probably 75% or more towards a win.

 

[Pika]

The Knights best win of the year in my opinion was against the Dragons - namely because of the strength of opposition, and more so because it was away from home.

While ever the team can play like that with Mullen/Rogers in the halves, it at least shows what they can do at their potential together.

In the end the key to it is good go forward in the pack - whoever is the halves.

Spot on Karma.

 

[yesterdayhero]

The team looks a lot better when they played Mullen at 6 and Scotty at 7... Scotty is a organize player where he setups the plays getting out of our first half and has a long kicking game. Then you have Mullen that takes over and is more in our attacking area.
They both play as good as each other. They are basically a team together and know each others game. We would be better having Ben Rogers on the bench as he can play almost everywhere to take on injuries but still could sub in if it is not working
Dont forget Mullen and Dureau are still heaps young what they could in 5 years time, How good they could be. NSW Maybe?There is no point in signing no halfbacks at this stage we should give them 2 years, No point in buying a sh*t halfback who is going to be playing in the newcastle comp



Mullen For 5/8
Dureau for Halfback
Rogers bench

 

[Frederick]

So what about Brett Seymour? He's now on the market

 

[Hanscholo]

Because we are currently doing so poorly without a 'halfback' even though our fill-in will probably play origin three. Nice post.

 

[Alex28]

So what about Brett Seymour? He's now on the market

We'd have to get his s*** together...but his sacking screams of convenience (after the 30 June cut-off, big salary saving), he's a decent halfback, he'd come relatively cheap and probably adds some much needed experience.

 

[Serc]

Only on this forum would someone rate Inglis as a "weakness".

6 - Inglis
7 - Mullen

I'd take that over what we have in a heartbeat.

Yuck

The reasons why Inglis at 5/8 worked possibly exclusively only at the Storm during the period 07-08:

a) their forward pack
b) Cameron Smith
c) Smith's kicking
d) Cronk organising the show leaving Inglis and Slater to take part in their plays which would've been designed for great ball runners like themselves
e) the rest of their backline
f) Inglis is not only a freak, but he also has the rare ability to play to an incredibly high standard anywhere in the backline (except halves of course), but it partly extends to 5/8. If there was no such thing as Billy Slater the best fullback in the world would probably be GI right now...

Personally I don't think it would work anywhere else...but the basics would be a great hooker/good halfback (or vice versa) that does all the kicking and organising and much of the passing to the forwards etc.

 

[Spot On]

it's weird... but it's always been the case apparently. dureau is just a winner. i'm interested to see how he comes back after his injury, as rogers has gone back to rocks instead of diamonds of late.

the key to dureaus winning statistics this year are simply that he allows mullen to go to 5/8th. as a team, we function better that way. he also offers another genuine kicking game to the team, which makes a massive difference. look, i don't know how much more scotty has to give than what we've already seen... but i'm not sure that we really need any more than what he can provide. his ability to boss the team around and call the shots is something that doesn't come naturally to mullen either.

i love what rogers can provide when he's firing too, though. i just don't know if he's worth carrying as a liability for the moments that he does break a game open... because mullen is similar in game breaking qualities... but without nearly as many barry crockers in him.

i would love to sign a top line halfback. would i like to lose some of our squad as a result? no. do i think there are better options that would come at the same or lesser price than dureau? definitely not.

Now that is Spot On. Exactly. Scott's defence isn't the best though.

 

[Alex28]

Yuck

The reasons why Inglis at 5/8 worked possibly exclusively only at the Storm during the period 07-08:

a) their forward pack
b) Cameron Smith
c) Smith's kicking
d) Cronk organising the show leaving Inglis and Slater to take part in their plays which would've been designed for great ball runners like themselves
e) the rest of their backline
f) Inglis is not only a freak, but he also has the rare ability to play to an incredibly high standard anywhere in the backline (except halves of course), but it partly extends to 5/8. If there was no such thing as Billy Slater the best fullback in the world would probably be GI right now...

Personally I don't think it would work anywhere else...but the basics would be a great hooker/good halfback (or vice versa) that does all the kicking and organising and much of the passing to the forwards etc.

So you are saying if you had to choose between Dureau, Rogers and Inglis and that player had to partner Mullen you would NOT choose Inglis?

There are some massive Dureau fan-boys here...

 

[Yosh]

We cant afford to have another back on the bench... Wes/Karawana (big back but not quite forward if you ask me) and Rogers? Thats a terrible bench.

I still have quiet alot of faith in Dureau and he'll play some good footy this year if you ask me. I still think signing Rogers probably wasnt our best buy, if he wasnt signed, Dureau would have had no.7 to himself and probably estabilshed himself pretty well. Dunno though, we still have couple of weeks till finals and hopefully we have it sorted by then so our during our finals run we have a solid 1,6,7,9 combination.

 

[Serc]

So you are saying if you had to choose between Dureau, Rogers and Inglis and that player had to partner Mullen you would NOT choose Inglis?

There are some massive Dureau fan-boys here...

You know i'm one of Scottys biggest fans but that has nothing to do with it on this occasion...

In fact I didn't even think of him when i saw your post - I thought "yuck, two great players playing out of position" and then all the reasons why it works for the Storm came to mind straight after. Obviously if the guy was to somehow play for us as a winger/centre/fullback I would cream my pants but that isn't going to happen is it

I'd pretty much say "DEFINITELY not" given what sort of players both are. Maybe if we had Buderus/Johns, or Smith/Cronk, or Farah/*insert random quality halfback here* or any other quality players in the #9 and #7.

 

[Jobdog]

Inglis at 6? No thanks.