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Would Ravs get a job anywhere else in the NRL ?

ozbash

Referee
Messages
26,922
what do you people think of Rovelli ?

he came to a desperate warriors side who were without a halfback and were experimenting with Fein and Hohaia and losing games right left and center.

Was ravs the answer ? he started off ok but as the team has grown/improved he seems to have lagged behind.
Having witt and fein either side of him should really give the guy more options in attack but in effect he really lacks much except his kicking game, which is mediocre.

would he get a spot in any other NRL team ?
 

Scott

Bench
Messages
3,794
He's a good young developing player. Give him time I say, as he hasn't even had a year in the position at FG level. We are in the top 4 so he must be doing ok....
 

NZ Warrior

First Grade
Messages
6,444
I think Rovelli has been doing ok. But I would like to see Hohaia get another run at halfback.

I haven't been too impressed with Rovelli's kicking options recently. Why they continued to grubber kick for an entire half of the game is beyond me. The Sharks weren't even going up for their own bombs, and we scored a try as soon as we started to bomb.

The thing that pissed me off most about that game is Taulapapa diffusing Witt's 40/20. That really f**ked me off. That would have been the 2nd most decent kick of the night.
 

-Dr.J-

Juniors
Messages
413
Yeah he needs to change up his kicking options a little bit, I think though that the way he plays is as the main instigator of set play. You can see by the rehearsed nature of a lot of what he does that it's because it's a play that has been set up to be run, and gets repeated later on if it fails.

In these circumstances it's only partially his fault as he's pretty much a robot for the coaching team. What I want to see is him being given more options in the set play and making a few more instinctive choices. The thing about the Warriors is when they bother run a set play, the primary option is often the only one.

All in all I think he is definitely NRL standard and would easily get a job back at the Roosters or Tiges, maybe the Dogs or Bronc's as well. If you compare him to the other people on his level of experience many of them struggle to cement their spots because of patchy performances - He's already reasonably consistent and consistency makes a truely top shelf player.
 

-Dr.J-

Juniors
Messages
413
P.S: I'm not being a fanboy as he had a crap game with poor kicking and options on Saturday, and I realise he's not dominant or anything. I just think he has the goods.
 

AliN

Live Update Team
Messages
3,676
Ravs on the bench for a while to make him hungry. He'd dart nicely from dummy half.
Have preferably Hohaia, or if still injured, Fein at halfback beside Witt next week. There'd be more options I reckon.
Half the time the team doesn't know whether Ravs is going to kick, or what sort of kick.

Disappointed so far with the halves combination in 07..
 
Messages
218
I don't really rate Rovelli to be honest. He just doesn't seem to control things enough for a halfback and the Warriors will often go through quite long sequences of plays without him really getting very involved. There's certainly room for a solid organising halfback in the NRL and maybe Rovelli will grow into one, but I don't think he's there right now. Like a few others I'd like to see him go back to the bench (where I thought he did well early last year) with preferably Hohaia but possibly even Fein having a run in the 7.

I wouldn't give up on him completely at the NRL level and I could see him becoming a solid if unspectacular halfback in the Jason Taylor mold. But at the moment the Warriors need more flair and creativity from the halves than he seems capable of supplying. On the other hand I never really rated Witt in the past but he shows good vision and touches of creativity, I think he'll be very useful if he can eliminate the errors from the game. Things like his kick for Byrne to win the game a couple of weeks ago, not to mention his little kick to Byrne that Toddy unfortunately spilled last weekend, make it look like he reads the game nicely.
 

KeepingTheFaith

Referee
Messages
25,235
Right now our halves lack anything that resembles a running game, that's my biggest concern. The last time Rovelli ran was against the Cowboys when he scored that try (also his first run for that game.) He just doesn't seem interested in running unless the defenders give him no choice.

Without a halfback drawing defenders, guys like Lauaki, mannering, Anderson, Wiki etc are always going to have two or three guys hanging off them before they even get the ball.
 

Iafeta

Referee
Messages
24,357
When I watched him live last year he seemed to be well organised and have a good degree of vision. He was able to spot an opportunity and find either the pass or kick to execute it well. Also, when he came into grade he showed excellent footwork with ball in hand.

This season he's started a bit slowly, but I think he's a credible young player. With salary cap restrictions (given how much of it is on the book ends), I doubt we could have got a Johns like player, but he's got the ability to become a good organising half. Not nessarily a consistent game breaker, but someone who can lay it on for others to exploit. I like him as a player, and thought last year in particular we didn't lose a lot in him taking the #7 jersey off Stacey - didn't game styles, but he seemed quite structured and efficient in his work.

He'll be fine, particularly if the rest of the pack aside from Price learn how to offload again. We have had a very low level of second phase play, which Grant was pretty good off the back of last year.
 

Skram

Juniors
Messages
489
Agreed that last year he was far more impressive, especially right at the beginning coming off the bench and when we made that run towards the tail end. He seems to have either become a little complacent or is still getting used to Witt, I'd say the latter. When Ravs was playing beside JRo it was obvious what his role was, he had to organise, lay good distributing passes on and kick, cos Ropati could do none of the above. This year with Witt he's had to alter that and I think it's affecting him somewhat.
He'll come right though, interesting to see how he goes this week without Witt.
 

JoeD

First Grade
Messages
7,056
I think he deserves more time. I don't think Fein is a real option but maybe Witt is if JBro becomes the regular 5/8
 

Dr Crane

Live Update Team
Messages
19,531
He's passable, right now.

I wouldn't go dropping him though, imagine if we dropped every halfback that went through a bad spell.
 

mean

Juniors
Messages
560
I suppose I have big expectations particularly with the likes of Prince's, Thurston's, and Joe William's game at present. Prince and Thurston are excitingly smart players and Williams has a great kicking game.

I saw potential with Rovelli with his passing game, putting guys into great holes earlier in the season. But, either the runners are getting tired or he isn't creating these holes or alternatively he has lost confidence(did he throw an intercept scoring pass a couple of games back or was that Witt?)

Anyway, his kicking game is mediocre and he needs to shine for favourable praise from me.
 

Auckland4ever

Juniors
Messages
1,243
I've said it before, we are heavily reliant on our forwards dominating. Neither Rovelli & Witt have much of a physical presence, they rely on having a generous amount of space to work with, if they dont get it, theyre generally pretty limited.

Rovelli does have decent organisational skills though & he can put together a decent kicking game. Its as much a matter of who partners him as anything. Witt may be the best option we have, but apart from the Souths performance, I dont think their combination has set the world on fire.
 

LeagueNut

First Grade
Messages
6,980
mainland-cheese-sign.jpg


Good things take time.
 

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