Respectfully, I think many on here are asking themselves the wrong question when it comes to who should play halfback this week.
I agree that Gutherson, Perham and D Brown are all far better attacking players than JA, who is slower and less agile. But does attacking flare make a good 7?
There are many examples I could use, but I'll stick to just a few.
Anthony Milford - probably has more attacking ability than any Parra player, but he's a rubbish halfback and only a good 6 when he has a good onfield general beside him. Why when he has all the attributes to be a great half? Instinct, great feet, soft hands, speed and the ability to kick. I think its two fold; he doesn't organise his players to be in position to execute team plays and he takes the wrong options, particularly under pressure.
On the otherside of the coin, look at what Chad Townsend has done at the Cowboys. Townsend is not an overly talented athlete. He almost never makes a 'wow' play. Tom Dearden and Drinkwater are both far better individual attacking players, but they didn't succeed at all when paired together in the halves last year.
I'm not saying JA is anywhere near Townsend's level as a half either, I'm just pointing out that a 7's role is far more than being a talented attacker.
I think JA deserves first crack at 7 because he is the only recognised halfback after Moses, and he is used to marshalling his players into position and handling the kicking. How well he does that is another topic altogether, but let's not forget he is young and is likely to get better.
I don't think Guth or Perham are realistic options. Both excel in broken field play and Guth can certainly put on a nice pass etc, but he is not the structured cool head a 7 needs to be, nor has he ever done it before.
D Brown might go ok there. I guess we won't know until he is tried. But my instincts say he is not a natural onfield general either.
Let's not forget too, whoever plays there will only do so temporarily.
I think its less disruptive to put JA there and increase the responsibilities of Brown and Guth in the red zone. We also need to learn to win through our defence - which we had to focus on whether Moses played or not. I don't think the focus should be on attack for the next 4 weeks.
Just my opinion, I respect other opinions to the contrary.
Replies
Fair points. But if he plays like crap for two games then get someoe else.
Chad Townsend at 43 (not his real age) is still faster than JA.
I've seen JA play many a NSW Cup game and all of them have shown he's a very raw half learning his trade . He doesn't have the natural skills where you could take a flier on him at NRL level and accept some good with the bad . To me it's doubtful he'll ever make it at a higher level but even so .. the fact we have 1 injury in the halves and are calling up a kid who's played a handful of NSW Cup games is laughable. I'm putting all the talk about his ability aside here because I think we've all seen what we've seen ..
We shouldn't be in a position where he's needed at this stage of his development and we most definitely shouldn't have him playing off the bench in NRL when he's got so much to learn about playing halfback. There was a NSW Cup game against the Raiders in Canberra a couple of weeks ago .. he had a couple of nice touches in the first half mixed in with some quiet periods and some misreads in defence .. but his 2nd half showed how much development he still has to do . Up by 12 he threw an intercept for a Raiders try where it hit the guy in the chest and he had 15 metres to score under the posts . Kicked a ball dead , missed a tackle and the 12 point lead was gone . Canberra were coming home with a wet sail and he deferred some of the tough kicks to the 5/8 who sometimes was in a worse position than him. In the end Rankin got us home with experience. JA was no where to be seen . Later That afternoon he was 18th man for NRL . I think he's played 1 maybe 2 full Cup games since and that was 6 weeks ago. The fact we have no other alternative and BA is comfortable with that shows we are in a lot of trouble.
At best imo some of the senior players stand up and we get a couple of wins . At worst guys won't know their roles and it will confuse everything like it has in the past while Jake lopes around like a baby giraffe who should be playing Ron Massey Cup. In the past him playing in the halves has really put a handbrake on our attack and the continuity of our spine . The NRL game is way too quick for him . He may know our plays inside out and where we need to get to on the field .. but it's all happening too fast for Jakes skill set and his execution suffers . We're in for a very long month here and BA is a certified dope for letting it happen like this .
Agree with everything you've written
X a billion
maybe he has slower processing speed .... I teach lots of children who need a bit more time to implement things or follow sequences ....
the problem is the game doesn't have that extra time for him 🤷♀️ And that will never be the case no matter how much time and dedication he puts in sadly
He will be targeted by the good coaches. When a player is targeted his deficiencies are magnified 10 fold. That's why players have to work specifically on weaknesses in their game - if opposition coaches didn't target a player's weaknesses (such as Moses' defence a few seasons back) it wouldn't be an issue but they do.
Having a player so obviously not up to task is a MASSIVE target for an astute coach.
Now, who's first opposition coach off the rank? Oh, it's Dessie Hasler. Jesus wept.
KrAm they will hammer him and then we will have other players trying to minimise that and of course mucking up their own roles or plays no doubt
It won't be good if the team ends up carrying him for periods in the match
The problem is, JA doesn't organise or control the reserve grade team. Rankin runs the reserve grade squad.
If JA can't organise and control a reserve grade squad, how can he be expected to do that with a 1st grade squad.
The majority of people can see that. I think his dad sees it to but is stubborn and refuses to accept it.
I just watched the NSW cup highlghts v the panthers, its only one game but he didnt feature in 1 try
Brissy I did say it was 1 game, cant find a replay to get the complete picture
-
1
-
2
-
3
-
4
of 4 Next