Right. Can someone please explain to me what is so wonderful about Ben Creagh?
He is the most 1 dimensional player I have ever seen play Rugby League. He is able to do a hit up - his average is 14 per game so far this season - and he doesn't miss tackles. OK, so he hardly bothers tackling, making a piss poor 19 per game on average this season - but when he does bother, he rarely misses.... which is a good thing.
Number of offloads this season in 6 games??? Go on, guess. 4 and all of those were made in the SAME GAME. That's 5 games, 70 hit ups and NOT ONE SINGLE OFFLOAD.
Seriously, and people are lauding him as an Origin player? Don't make me laugh.
Case in point - in the Dragons loss on the weekend. On the penultimate play of the game - the Dragons were down by 6 and there was 12 seconds left on the clock and 40 metres to go. The Dragons were passing the ball along the line, probing for a weakness. Soward passed the ball to Creagh and ran behind him looking for the run around as the defensive line was cracking. So what did Mr 1 dimension do????? Yep, he ran to the line and took the tackle. HE RAN STRAIGHT AT THREE PEOPLE. There wasnt a hope of a bust where he ran. He destroyed the one chance the Dragons had. He didnt look like he was going to offload. He NEVER DOES. The defence know exactly what he is going to do every single time he gets the ball.
He doesnt create confusion in opposition defences, he creates knowledge that he will use up another tackle.
Queensland are praying he is picked for New South Wales.
If he is, then the selectors don't watch Rugby League.
Ok that was pretty bad
i think we have learnt more about you than Creagh from your post
allow me to retort!
First of all there would not be another wide running second rower in the NRL that would bend the line back as much as Creagh and lets face it he's got some speed behind him so if i want some one to hit a hole i know who id be looking at!
He stings players in defense, and stings players trying to tackle him!
ok now for some undeniable facts:
he has played every minute of every dragons game this season
he has made more meters than any other back rower in the competition this season.
No other forward in the NRL has made more line breaks than him.
Has made 3 times as many tackle breaks (16) than missed tackles (5) No other NSW forward can match this.
Sure he hasn't made a mountain of tackles, but if you were taking on the dragons would you direct a lot of traffic down the left side with Creagh and Cooper there???
Now lets see who else nsw have got that might be better:
Odonnell
Stewart
Hoffman
Laffranci
Gallen
all of these players have missed more tackles than Creagh this season (Creagh has spent more time on the field than all of them) some of them with double and tripple the missed tackles.
None of them have made the amount of line breaks or tackles breaks as Creagh has. Only O'Donnell has made half the amount of line breaks, all the rest have made less than half.
Creagh has also made more meters than any of them
So to me it looks like these guys who played for Australia and NSW last year cant hold a candle to Creagh.
Offloads...
Does it look like Bennett has instructed his pack to keep the ball alive?
i dont think so, they havnt needed to, they have dominated nearly every pack they have come up against. Id say the Saints have been instructed to keep their offloads to a minimum. If someone does 4 in one game and none in 5 other games it seems to me he can follow a game plan. If someone can make four in game i am pretty sure he is a able to utilise the skill. Its called discipline.
Versatility...
I front rower gets taken out 10 mins into the match. Out of all these if need be i think Creagh could play front row best.
Watch the games look at the stats and perhaps grow a brain. On the first 6 rounds this season its clear the the NSW back row should be Creagh, Watmough and Waterhouse.
Pete.
