I think everyone is underestimating the loss of Mahoney, espicially the commentators. Everyone was focused on Cleary missing and could not give a fuck about Mahoney who has probabaly been a top 10 player this year. He has been the most creative dummy half in the NRL this year. Moses is our dominant half and leads the NRL with try assists (at the time I post this) even if they mainly come from kicks. Gutho plays as our five-eight in attack while D Brown plays a running and linking role in the team. Mahoney is even critical in attack because he provides the best service and also sets up many tries himself. As you can see, 3 of eels spine our inside the top 20 for try assists. So D Brown doesn't need to provide anything great. Mahoney is even more important in changing the momentum of the game through his kicking game from dummy half. This is something we really needed against Penrith in the second half.
Stats according to Fox Sports
You can argue that D Brown could maybe set up 5 tries in the 11 games he has played. D Brown game style is to run hard, and play direct and straight from BA's order. Has BA underestimated D Brown's ability? And should he give him more freedom to chance his arm in attack? I have noticed recently that D Brown invovledments in game start high and then slowly dip. Against the tigers, dogs and panthers he put in nice grubbers early in the game to cause line drop outs and nearly a try for Opacic against Tigers. However, then Moses and Gutho start running the team and D Brown just tends to link up the attack or run the ball. I think BA needs to build some confidence into D Brown which may help his passing game. I have noticed a couple of times he has put his centres into half a gap, but nothing full eventuated. If you look at the statistics, the dominant halves in the NRL in term of attack, all play on the left hand side of the field. I believe D Brown is struggling with spreading left to right and is more suited to going right to left. Unfortunately due to his ability to defend astutuely, I think changing his side of the field may help his attack but weaken our teams defence signficantly. Thus it wouldn't happen.
I will say that for someone who just turned 21 and has suffered a couple long term injuries, BA has not helped him develop combinations. Firstly he has switched from the left hand side to the right hand side of the field. His center & and wing combination keeps on changing. Then his backrow combination has changed from Lane to Matto who actually suits his gamestyle less despite how shit Lane has been sometimes. Matto is more of a W Graham that is better with early ball and offloads rather than Papali'i who is suited to when his halves plays straight and deep into the line. Note that these changes never happened all at once. They happened at different stages of the year. So for someone who is trying to develop his attacking game at a very young age for a half, all these changes around him will not help.
P.S Some of my thoughts have been inspired by HKF and Coryn Hughes opinions.
Replies
Dylan needs a hole runner outside him, he isn't the type to give ealy ball as you stated he likes to dig into the line. He definitely would benefit if papalii switched sides.
Yea it suits D Brown and Moses game. Moses likes to give early ball which Matto likes so he can offload. I think the left hand side of the field could get even stronger with Matto on the left because we tend to play well on the left on the back of offloads which Matto provides. It allows Gutho to cut it straight to Sivo who runs at an isolated winger and score. Contrastingly, Brown likes to dig deep which Papali'i likes so he can isolate defenders and steam roll over them.
Matto was moved to the left earlier this season when the halves swapped sides but was moved back to the right when papalii took lanes starting spot. The only reason I can think off that BA would be reluctant to move matto from the right is he is a cross field target for moses attacking kicks.
I think BA would only be reluctant to do it because of Papali'i going so well on the left. But I think he can do as good or even better on the right. In regards to Matto, there is no reason why D Brown can't kick for Matto on the left. D Brown kicks inside the opp 20m is nearly as good as Moses. Moses can still target the same spot with Dunster drifting infield or D Brown contesting for the hit back. On the left, this will mean that we have 3 aerial targets with Matto, Blake and Sivo.
If it were up to me I would do the switch and also I would only give lane 20 minutes per game, 10 either side of half time. I would bring papalii off after 30 and put him back on for the last 30, keep him fresh as he is more dynamic.
Yea in my review I suggested that Lane has 15 minutes spells instead of 20 minutes because he fatigues quickly when defending. I guess 10-15 minute spells are fine. Allow Carty get some more minutes.
Total of 20 mins, 10 each side of half time.
Yep make sense. Surely he can avoid a dum ass error during 20min of play. Want to see Carty get some minutes as well when Papali'i needs a break. While papali'i is great in attack he can miss tackles or give dum 6 agains.
Spot on, brown had a great partnership with lane 2 years ago, a similar hole runner will make that side more effective.
But now since Lane is become shit, Papali'i is the man.
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