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Your Thoughts on Ricky...

Messages
544
I'm pretty sure we all agree that Ricky is one hell of a coach with a great future ahead of him. In fact the whole coaching staff at the Roosters has done a remarkable job over the last 3 years. No disrespect to the coaching staff prior to this either, I think they have alot to do with their recent success.

I have seen alot of posts relating to Walker, both Roosters & non-Roosters supporters. The armchair experts out there say...

He cant tackle
He's suspect under the high ball
He's a loose cannon
etc...

Question is, what does Ricky see in him to persist having him on the team? I often thought of this. Is it done intentionally so that the opposition can just target one side of the field?

I know this is going to be difficult for some of the children on this forum but I'm actually hoping to get some constructive responses.
 

fat_mike

Juniors
Messages
1,181
i think sticky see's walker attacking flair more than anything. walker running off finch and fittler can cause opposition defences some trouble.

maybe he's there for attacking ability only. chooks arent excactly swimming with wingers.
 

TheEye

Juniors
Messages
221
Probably also a lack of cattle in terms of a replacement.

Byrne - well has a heap of chances but is a shadow of the player he was inside Mullins in 2002

Lester - had chances in 1st grade but didn't do too much

Who else are you going to put in?
 

avsterooster

Juniors
Messages
410
i think lester goes alright, hes solid runs the ball hard and can hit in defense.

i to sometimes question what stuart is doing persisting with walker but then i think to games when he has stood out such as round 3 against the bulldogs and the game against raiders and others etc

in attack as fat mike said he is dynamite... the inside balls can kill opposition and i dont know why he hasnt been involved with that of late.

his defense is dodge, but sticky must believe in him and hopefully this weekend in the most important match of the year hell give it to all his critics and have a blinder
 

Vicious

Bench
Messages
2,624
Did a Roosters insider put old Roy Masters up to writing that article about Chris Walker???Think about it???His form has been pretty ordinary,but at best,love him or hate him,he`s a very talented footballer.That article could be just the ammunition to fire him up and possibly bring out the best in him!
 

Broncodroid

Juniors
Messages
2,313
Heard the saying "Speed kills"...? Ricky Stuart has, and Chris Walker (despite what short comings he may have as a mature individual off the playing field), has plenty of it giving the Roosters are home run threat from anywhere on the field.

I often thought of this. Is it done intentionally so that the opposition can just target one side of the field?

No. If Stuart or his previous mentor Wayne Bennett (no, I do not include Langmack) thought this, he would not be playing grade.

What I have to remind myself quite regulary when reading some of the BS spewed on this forum is this: the majority as you say are 'children' who read something or hear something from a source and recycle it back on here as there own opinion. When challenged on this "opinion" they resort to personal attacks with little substance once seen by a minority in the school yard.

Chris Walker is a QUALITY NRL winger. His support play, speed, acceleration and efforts to come in looking for work makes him a player that any coach in the NRL would love to have lurking out wide. His defence is improving, he is in SOME ways maturing as a player and we will see him in the near future return to S.O.O Rugby League I assure you.
 

Raider_69

Post Whore
Messages
61,174
According to Steve Folkes Ricky had "terrific sex" with the dogs flegg team :lol:

stuart is a smart man, one of if not the smartest football brains to ever grace the footy feild, he would have his reasons for keeping walker on the feild, i dont know what they are but im sure there is a reason... i think having someone that many identify as a weakness is a valid point

he protects walkers defence reasonably well but teams still identify him as a weakness, plus in attack there is one thing you cant coach and thats natural speed and as much as i hate walker he has got this in an abundence, give him the slightest gap and he'll get through it with sheer speed
 

m0j0

Bench
Messages
3,152
I know this was a "thoughts on Ricky" question, but the focus has obviously shifted to Walker, so I'll continue down this path.

I'm sure I will cop a lot of flak for this and I'm no NRL coach so I probably deserve it. That said, I'd like to see Walker move to fullback and put Mini on the wing. From memory, Walker played 2 games at fullback this year - Warriors at SFS and Cows at Gosford. I seem to recall he played well in both games - was safe under the high ball and his defence was not obviously deficient.

Now I know you're thinking "but Mini is a representative fullback!" However, think back to 2002 when he was a Premiership winning winger.

There are some benefits I can see with this change. Firstly, while he's not the best defender, Mini has improved a lot this year, and his desperation defence has saved us on a number of occasions. Walker won't be susceptible to attacks on the flank and will have assistance from the inside defenders.

I don't think it will take Walker's attacking potential out of play as he's always following the ball around anyway. Mini has the ability to break tackles in broken or thin defence which happens frequently when the ball is quickly spread to the wings - Mini breaks a tackle, slips an inside pass to a roaming Walker who has space in front of him and he's away! (Sorry - got carried away)

This idea is obviously not without flaws. The biggest one I can think of is Walker's positional play defending at fullback. I think he could be found out with a short kick and if the line is broken, I wouldn't be too confident if Walker was the only one between the ball and the line. I do, however, think his speed would assist in preventing 40/20 kicks.

Anyway, I've probably just exposed why I'll never be a league coach, but we can't all be brilliant at everything. :D
 

Raider_69

Post Whore
Messages
61,174
Ive always said that mini is an exceptional winger doing his best at fullback
to me he just isnt a fullback, which is a great testoment to his ability, for the bloke to not be a real fullback and then play for aust and win the dally m in this possy is fantastic acheivement

but with all these great fullbacks around why not move mini to his best position wing... even at the roosters, i dont think walker is the answer but im sure there are other options... well next season there will be

AMOS TO FULLBACK!
 

pyro

Juniors
Messages
48
IMO Mino is a brilliant Fullback and i would be very sad to see Sticky move him from the position he's become used to and brilliant in. He doesn't have enough interjection on the Wing. He gets his hands on the ball far more at Fullback and breaks the first tackle more that anyone else in the NRL. His work is underestimated by most. Those extra few meters Mino makes when returning the ball when compared to other Fullbacks help his team in the long run. eg: if Mino returns 20 kicks in a game and makes 5 meters more per return than the opposing Fullback, that's 100m less his team has to get back onside to return the ball and make meters. He is also brilliant in support play from Fullback. Not to mention all of the try saving tackles he has made for us this season. Also he is forming a really good combination with Anthony Topou which i think will really develop into some great trys and metres gained next season. And a prediction from me is that next season, Wingy and Mino will form a lethal combination, ten times stronger than any combination they have now.

In reguards to Chris Walker: When he is defending outside a Centre who knows how to defend, and he has spent this off season working on his defence with Sticky, all of Chris' defensive problems will be solved.

Sticky is a brilliant coach. And he never made any bad decisions in reguards to Walker. He simply should have never let Hodges back into the side. He dropped Hodges earlier in the year and gave him a chance again. Hodges let Sticky down and i don't think Stciky will risk anything like that next season. This years loss will do nothing but good for us IMHO. I know it hurts but it'll be good for us in the long run.
 
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