Where are all the Groupies?

[Jake the snake]

Where are all the Brian Smith lovers and the BURTY lovers gone they are abit silent. Parra Pete are u still bangin the coach or what????

Hollywood do still think we can win the GF with your beloved Burty in the team???

Come out of the holes that u are hiding in and defend them. But don't come out after we beat a reserve grade side like St george this Friday and say we told u so.

 

[MarkInTheStands]

To Quote Doc Holliday, "I'm your Huckleberry"

On form things don't look all that flash, Burty is missing tackles, hell the whole side is missing tackles, In attack we are crabs with no forward direction once we get within the opposition 30, But . . . things went a little better at the start of this game. Coach Smith Believes we were hosed on some 50/50 calls, well we were but the main problem is that we dropped our heads when we were hosed. The Problem in this club is that there is no confidence in each other, the fans have no confidence in the players, the fans have no confidence in the coach, the players have little confidence in each other and right now the club is in quicksand.

Every loss chips away at that confidence, even when it was built up slightly in the first 50 minutes of Sunday’s Game, confidence was lost when calls went against us that didn't go against Melbourne.

So what is the cure, well that is simple a win. Will we get one this week? I don't know. The Players bought to this club expect a winning atmosphere, the players that have been here since 1998 have thrived on a winning atmosphere, a Winning atmosphere bought to the club by Brian Smith, after 2 Premiership winning Players Turned coach and still couldn't get us into the finals.

But as for now, I am waiting on the side to be announced. Then I will make my own decisions on some of what was said. For me, this week is time for all Parramatta fans to realise that you can't win them all and to go forward, you sometimes need to go backwards. BUT I think we have gone far enough backwards, and that next week we will build on the strong 50 minutes from last Sunday. Then the week after that, maybe we will get a little bit better than the week before, and so on. 15 more games to go this year, we only need to win 7 to do better than last year and 8 wins will get us to the semis. Then it is back to my last hour of the race analogy.

 

[Twizzle]

I am a Burty lover.

I aint hiding.

Lukey burst out of the line while defending at 5/8, to be brushed off by Scott Hill.

Hill then ran nthrough a gap the Likey left and passed to Kidwell, who then passes to Bell.

Lukey pace enabeled him to catch Bell and he tried again to tackle but fell off. Bell scored and the rest is history.

Twice Lukey had an opportunity to stop that try, and he failed.

This is the guy that took Soloman Homono head on after he ran through our forwards, and yet fell off two soft tackles, after creating the hole in the first place.

A similar thing happened 2 weeks ago, when Burty was defending at 5/8.

That I believe is uncharacteristic. You cant use the excuse that he can't defend at 5/8. The game is not that scientific that it allows you to fall off two tackles, just because of the field position.

I'm not sure what the answer is, but things don't seem to be too rosy in paradise.

 

[fridge]

luke has poor tackling form, he tries to tackle with his arms by pulling people down. it's like he is afraid of contact.

don't forget he bombed a certain try by being too afraid of going straight for the line and passing off to grothe. instead he ran backwards and sideways and chucked an ordinary inside ball, and by that time melbourne's defence slid up.

for an attacking player he hasn't offered much in attack. plz put him in PL or on the wing. i think wing suits him best because you don't really tackle much and you're just trying to run away from people.

 

[AlexTheEel]

Just because some people have differing opinions (myself included) doesn't mean we are groupies.

Smith turned the club around in the late 1990's and he has my full respect as a coach.

 

[Eelementary]

I'm a Burty fan.

But the player we've seen out there in recent weeks is NOT Luke Burt. (Well, he is, but to a point.).

Look at his early form this year and lasy year - he was in very good form. His defence has always been average, but this year it has been below that.

He is suffering from a SEVERE lack of confidence, and he is NOT enjoting himself.

But I put it down to more than the losses. Something isn't quite right.

All our players who were confident are not now.

 

[Twizzle]

Yeah........I think there are a few players with similar mind set to Burt.

He was playing well, particularly with his kick returns last year, now look at him.

 

[Parraren]

I am a fan of Burt's. He is an excellent winger, a decent fullback and a very average anything else. The sad thing is, he is being played in the centres where he just looks COMPLETELY OUT OF SORTS! Burt simply does not have the size or strength to play in the centres and the longer he plays there the worse his form and confidence will get. The sad thing is, Smith will not change our back 5 again this week despite this and the fact that our right side defense is still a shambles.

 

[Twizzle]

Unfortunalty McKinnon was our best player last week, so Burty will continue to be played out of position, until, or if Sideshow gets dropped.

 

[fish eel]

Unfortunalty McKinnon was our best player last week,

If Jake is concerned about so called burty groupies being quiet, whats happened to all the people who were ripping into McKinnon at the seasons start?

 

[The Colonel]

Well, I went to the "Meet the Players" after the game on Sunday night and I would guess there is a good chance that Petersen may not play this week. He was looking very ill (concussion I think) when he came in and didn't hang around for too long - I think one of the trainers took him off to the doctors.

 

[strider]

Peterson was probably still spewing cos Dykes didn't throw him that cut out pass when he got pumelled in the corner in the second half :lol:

 

[JessEel]

He is suffering from a SEVERE lack of confidence, and he is NOT enjoting himself.

i agree so much with that, so what does smithy do to help his confidence?

drop him to PL :roll:

 

[parralight]

To Quote Doc Holliday, "I'm your Huckleberry"

You watch far too many movies MITS.. ;-)

 

[Eelementary]

I agree Jess.

I like Petersen - he tries very hard and has a great 'never-say-die- attitude.

But he is just not in good form.

HE should have been dropped, and Burt put in the number 2.

But I am pleased Ash is back in Firsts.

TREMENDOUS talent this bloke.

 

[Hollywood Jesus]

sorry I have been semi-absent, but my comp went berko and died and I only got another one tonight.

As for Burty, I am glad he has been dropped. While it is not his fault that he is being played at centre, nevertheless he is playing woefully, and a stint in Reggies is what comes to players who don't perform. I'm more pissed off with him that with all his potential, it is Ben Hornby playing at the back for NSW. On his day Burty would rip Hornby to shreds, yet his form this year did not even warrant a possible inclusion in the Country side.

As for the GF thing - Yes. I have said it a few times so far this year.........I care not about form until Round 20. As long as we hold 50% win ratio until then I will not be all that unhappy. When Round 20 rolls around, the real footy starts, and that is when we need form. Beating the Dragons this week is 2 pts that will keep up our 50% ratio............

 

[The Godfather]

On his day Burty would rip Hornby to shreds, yet his form this year did not even warrant a possible inclusion in the Country side

Struggling to even warrant inclusion in first grade. His attack has been good, but defence is dreadful.

Maybe Luke has a confidence problem in his tackling after coming back from breaking his collar bone twice last year.

Chin up Luke - see you back in first grade soon.

 

[strider]

I am convinced Burty fell in a heap after Buderus cleaned him up in the Newcastle game...he was cutting em up through the middle before that in numerous games....then a try was on and Burty chose to hold the ball and try to step him and whamo - knocked the tripe out of him (buderus can put on a big hit for his size) and he went quiet.

I think Burty is great - just his confidence has been knocked out of him....a bit like Hodgo was I think.

 

[Nikki]

Burty has been the scapegoat for Smithys stupidity. Once again a player is being played out of his postition and obvioulsy out of his depth so we will the coach will punish him for that by dropping him to PL. What the coach should in fact do, is give himself and uppercut!

 

[Eelectrica]

Coach should drop himself to premier league :lol: