Eels Blogs

Greg Alexander getting close to Weidler Status

Posted by SuperEel 22 on April 5, 2012 at 9:20am

I just read an article on NRL.com about 3 players who are yet to fir for their clubs. The 3 players were Sandow, Boyd and Blair. Now, I don't think Alexander's been watching much of the game these past few weeks because those teams as a whole haven't played very well. Sandow's first 2 games were quite good and I believe he's scored the majority of Parramatta's points. He had, like the team did, a couple of shockers against Penrith and NthQLD but did what he needed to do against Manly with Hayne and Roberts igniting everything. I haven't seen much of Newcastle or the Tigers but when the team as a whole aren't playing well it's hard for the new players to click into the side. This article should've been reserved for later in the year when the competition has settled and there's a better idea of which teams are more consistent. I can't post the article because I'm on my phone.

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Replies

Ricky April 5, 2012 at 9:24am

He has a vendetta and hatred for the Eels.
Need I say more?
SuperEel 22 April 5, 2012 at 10:44am

I think that Sandow's still finding his feet at Parra. Roberts is a player who's game is similar to Hayne's so it's a bit easier for him to be able to play with Hayne. I'm reserving my judgement of Sandow until about Round 12 when he should've clicked with Roberts and Hayne will have played more consistently. Sandow had the ball 4-5 times at Souths because he was playing like Hayne was. He had to get involved or they wouldn't win. He hasn't set the world on fire like we know he could do but he hasn't really done anything wrong.
Dark Assassin April 5, 2012 at 10:52am

But the mere presence of having Sandow on the field means the defence has to watch him and that's what they're doing at the moment which means Roberts and other players are able to find spaces in the defence more easily. Once that teams focus more on Roberts and Hayne there will be more room for Sandow to move
HH - Love You Iongi Time! April 5, 2012 at 10:56am

I agree Darky.

The more they focus on Sandow or Hayne the less they will on Roberts, Maitua and Paulo.
The key is how MK can envisage the oppoisiton lines defence and feed the ball to the righ tparty to catch them on the back foot.

We are in a good spot, yes 1 win is 1 win but I have seen enough to say that if SK starts the same team as last week we can score points and be competitive in matches. Hey the shining light is that we won a game in the last 20 minutes really. Normally we would go into our shell and play with no nuts.
- Dark Assassin > HH - Love You Iongi Time! April 5, 2012 at 12:13pm
  
  And as they might have had players out, we still beat last years Premiership winners and that is a hard task to achieve
Snakey - Sack Dylan Brown April 5, 2012 at 11:06am

Ben Ikin is a flea of a commintator aswell, hes up there with Weidler n Alexander, for 'blow fly' of the year award too..
- SuperEel 22 > Snakey - Sack Dylan Brown April 5, 2012 at 3:31pm
  
  If you watch the cricket, Ian Healy is the worst commentator in the history of sport. In a 5 minute period Healy pretty much copied everything Richie Benaud said. Ben Ikin did the same with Sterling. Wally Lewis isn't much better. He copies Sterling as well sometimes. It's clear that these 2 QLD "legends" are still behind the great Peter Sterling even after playing.
SuperEel 22 April 5, 2012 at 11:45am

He can't tackle but he can hit guys twice his size. If they can get someone protecting Sandow then we don't really have a weakness in defence provided our right-side stays strong.
Tom Mus April 5, 2012 at 11:58am

I think Sandow excels at playing what's in front of him, but thus far there hasn't been much in front of him to play.

Roberts is a similar sort of player, and with Fui on his edge, Hayne back, and an inexperienced centre, we actually created something for him to work with against Manly.

I think we'll see Sandow come into his own with Hayne back, and if we give him a running forward down his edge to create some space and indecision.
- SuperEel 22 > Tom Mus April 5, 2012 at 12:07pm
  
  When you watched Sandow play for Souths he played off a whim. Hayne said it himself that he and Sandow don't have too much of a plan when they get the ball and that they're mainly playing what they see. I think the best thing they can do and what is a trademark of a great player is to be a couple of plays ahead of everyone else but still play what's in front of you. Sterling and Johns were both very good at it. Sterling constantly says in commentary to not just "go through the play". What he means is that if an opportunity opens up take it. I think that's where Sandow and Hayne will be most deadly when running our plays. Sandow's already shown it this season when he through a dummy, the gap opened in the defence and he sliced through against the Warriors. Hayne said it will take them a couple more games before they understand each other more and that once they do they're going to be very hard to stop.