Don't get me wrong, I like Jennings in our team, but his combination with Semi, well there actually isn't any. I watched the game last night and when Jennings gets the ball his initial inclination is to just run and normally infield leaving Semi posted out on the wing. Actually when Jennings gets the ball Semi normally just stands there knowing he will not be passed the ball, must be very frustrating for him. BA needs to get Jennings to look first, not run, and see if Semi in a better position and if so pass him the ball. However, considering his age, this could probably never be taught to him.
This now raises what to do with Semi. Considering his try scoring ability and skills, I think next year BA needs to train Semi as the right centre. This would allow Semi to be paid more as well. Taka could become the super sub as he is able to cover almost every position on the field and is also big enough to play in the forwards.
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Absolutely agree Semi is by far not seeing enough ball playing outside Jennings. In fact the only time he seems to get the ball in his hands is really when he takes the initiative to come inside to take a hit up or a return from kick chase if the opposition decide to punt it in his direction.
The issue is Jennings is not going to move from his centre position and he good where he is but instead of looking at trying to put Semi at right centre for the life of me I cannot understand for the life of me why BA does not just switch Semi to right wing and put Gutherson outside Jennings and he would not see any ball at all which would be the best result allround.
If BA wont do it directly get the cleaning lady to hand out the jerseys on game day and give Semi a number 5 to put on his back and Gutherson a number 2 to put on his and if either have a problem they can take it up with her!
The main reason Semi isn't getting ball is that the overlap isn't there. If Jenko gets the ball and his defender is in front of him, why pass to Semi? There was not one such oportunity last night. The BIGGEST issue is that people had a pre-conceived idea this may happen this year, and have actually looked for it way harder than is neccessary, and so blogs like this appear. Teams know we are a left side first attack, and our left side is still a work in progress with Foran & Norman. How many tries has Semi scored this year where he got the ball on the end of a sweep play which created an overlap? Not many. 2 last night weren't. Last weeks one vs Manly was indiv. brilliance. He got 2 against the Dogs through the middle of the field. We ARE NOT getting to the outside of many teams, if any, on our left side. But that doesn't matter when we are still scoring through other players and plays. It will continue to improve. Jennings is a great addition for us.
We are only 8 rounds in and Semi has scored 5 tries and the team are still gelling.
The bigger problem is the right side, Parra are starting to go more and more to Jennings/Semi because the right side isn't delivering, this allows teams to stack against our left side attack.
OK, so what the general consensus among people here is they are happy with the amount of ball that a damaging winger like Semi is getting as opposed to what Gutherson is getting and what he is doing with it?
Jennings is a natural ball runner yes but take a look at last nights game again. When Jennings made the bust down field and had Semi outside him he had the blinkers on and had no thought whatsoever to pass it to him. Sure Jenning's ended up scoring the try but he planted the ball wide out which gave Gordon a more difficult conversion kick that fortunately he made whereas had Semi been passed the ball with the extra pace he ends up under the sticks.
Sure this decision by Jenning's did not change the outcome of the game but given another day (god forbid say in a GF!) would people still be happy if Jenning's decided to take the similar path of selfishness of not passing to a flying Semi and Gordon misses the conversion in this instance?
Do you have Semi in your fantasy football team? Would explain the bitterness towards one of the games best centres.
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