Luke Brooks #167

[Tucker]

Why is brooks getting the focus tho?

Because everyone who knows Rugby League understands that Luke is the key to our success this year. We have strengthened our forward pack, with some degree of depth for the first time ever, our long term injured players are back on deck and there is competition for most spots on our roster.
We've been told all off-season that our style has changed, employing the attack focused, 05 inspired mentality of running the ball and keeping it alive. This seemed to be playing into Brooksy's wheelhouse. So we have waited for months as we have heard time and again that the team is training well, preparing well and adapting to the attack focused philosophies beautifully. We were eager to see him in the trials but he was rested. Round 1 has been a long wait.
Finally we get to see what he has been working on the past 4 months on a sunny sunday arvo at Leichhardt, on a dry track against a fellow cellar dweller....and we are disappointed in what was dished up.
The positives are that he ran 19 times for 192m. That is huge for him. The team only managed 6 line breaks, and he owned 1 of them. He also had 1 forced dropout through a grubber and an intercept. Not great, but certainly a good effort personally.
The negatives are that his defence was mud, with only 57% efficiency. He had a game high 6 missed tackles.

Those stats in isolation do not paint a full picture of why people are upset though. Its the overall picture whereby the team dominated all positive statistical data for the game and lost. We had all the opportunity in the world to win and couldn't get it done. As our most experienced spine player and highest paid overall, it is expected he would capitalise on the great work achieved by the team. He did not. When we were pummelling their line, he was not orchestrating the attacking waves. He was not identifying weaknesses and directing runners to exploit these areas. He did not play eyes up footy, rather repeating training drills in a very predictable manner. I am not a huge fan of Doueihi at 6 but he did recognise weaknesses, took them on and created our only tries. Luke needs to do far better.

 

[jadtiger]

Been waiting for paws to raise his head and defend his family. Must be very uncomfortable right about now after all his clucking during the off season.

But but don't ya know he was a dally M half back 🤡

It would be very humbling for paws to admit that both of his pin ups failed miserably yesterday (Brooks and Sheens) but on a serious note i hope he is well as it is very unusual for him not to appear on here after a game

 

[Pascoes_barber]

Because he lives rent free in your heads.

He didn't let in any of the 22 points yesterday.

Why don't those players get a mention?

Because this is the "Luke Brooks" thread. Everyone else who played poorly yesterday (and it's a disappointingly long list) has been discussed in the live game (or other) threads.

(Back on topic thanks)

 

[Tiger-ferret]

Because everyone who knows Rugby League understands that Luke is the key to our success this year. We have strengthened our forward pack, with some degree of depth for the first time ever, our long term injured players are back on deck and there is competition for most spots on our roster.
We've been told all off-season that our style has changed, employing the attack focused, 05 inspired mentality of running the ball and keeping it alive. This seemed to be playing into Brooksy's wheelhouse. So we have waited for months as we have heard time and again that the team is training well, preparing well and adapting to the attack focused philosophies beautifully. We were eager to see him in the trials but he was rested. Round 1 has been a long wait.
Finally we get to see what he has been working on the past 4 months on a sunny sunday arvo at Leichhardt, on a dry track against a fellow cellar dweller....and we are disappointed in what was dished up.
The positives are that he ran 19 times for 192m. That is huge for him. The team only managed 6 line breaks, and he owned 1 of them. He also had 1 forced dropout through a grubber and an intercept. Not great, but certainly a good effort personally.
The negatives are that his defence was mud, with only 57% efficiency. He had a game high 6 missed tackles.

Those stats in isolation do not paint a full picture of why people are upset though. Its the overall picture whereby the team dominated all positive statistical data for the game and lost. We had all the opportunity in the world to win and couldn't get it done. As our most experienced spine player and highest paid overall, it is expected he would capitalise on the great work achieved by the team. He did not. When we were pummelling their line, he was not orchestrating the attacking waves. He was not identifying weaknesses and directing runners to exploit these areas. He did not play eyes up footy, rather repeating training drills in a very predictable manner. I am not a huge fan of Doueihi at 6 but he did recognise weaknesses, took them on and created our only tries. Luke needs to do far better.

Great post

 

[The Fresh Oil]

Because he lives rent free in your heads.

He didn't let in any of the 22 points yesterday.

Why don't those players get a mention?

Such a weak response. It’s not rent free, he plays for the team we all support here. Ofcouse he will be discussed on a forum that discusses WT.

Forget him going missing. Forget the poor 5th tackle plays. Forget the poor defense. Forget the errors/dropped balls/hospital passes for me the most pathetic part of his game was The team was camped in the titans red zone for so much of the game and as our half he literally did nothing. AD at least threatened, scored and set another one up. I’m done talking to clowns about clowns. Good luck with it.

 

[Lukic]

We had 45 tackles inside their 20 and came up with two tries, both created by Doueihi.

And some of the responses we get here are that we should criticise everyone but Brooks for the 22 points that we let in.

We should've scored 30+ with the field position we had. That falls squarely on Brooks. Errors, hospital passes, blown overlaps. It was a typical Brooks disasterclass and he will be staunchly defended by people on here. Blows my mind honestly.

This isn't his first game in first grade. This isn't his second season and he's 21 years old. It's his 10th season and near on 200th game.

Look at what Ilias did on Saturday night against a much better defence. Second year player and a junior we let go of. Brooks couldn't dream of a performance like that and I'm not even thst enthusiastic about Ilias as a player just yet.

 

[sleeve]

That's no excuse.
They've had months of preseason and they still can't get it right.

🤦🏻‍♂️

From all reports, both Api and Brooks had little pre- season training owing to calf strains. Both did little running. It was obvious that they were well short on fitness. Jake can handle the hooking job, and Wakhem the 7 , and let the two of them get fully fit. Stains to FB, Laurie on the bench to cover 1, 6, 7.
Let's not overreact after one game.

 

[sleeve]

Just so much hate for one player, the other 16 must have been brilliant, i just missed seeing them.

 

[sparci]

Because he lives rent free in your heads.

He didn't let in any of the 22 points yesterday.

Why don't those players get a mention?

he not only lives rent free, his salary is daylight robbery

 

[tony soprano]

he not only lives rent free, his salary is daylight robbery

$$$

 

[ElleryHanley]

We had 45 tackles inside their 20 and came up with two tries, both created by Doueihi.

And some of the responses we get here are that we should criticise everyone but Brooks for the 22 points that we let in.

We should've scored 30+ with the field position we had. That falls squarely on Brooks. Errors, hospital passes, blown overlaps. It was a typical Brooks disasterclass and he will be staunchly defended by people on here. Blows my mind honestly.

This isn't his first game in first grade. This isn't his second season and he's 21 years old. It's his 10th season and near on 200th game.

Look at what Ilias did on Saturday night against a much better defence. Second year player and a junior we let go of. Brooks couldn't dream of a performance like that and I'm not even thst enthusiastic about Ilias as a player just yet.

Great post.

Luke has never, ever, been able to control a set when it starts in opp 20.

Look at his highlights as a kid, it was long range stuff or simply 'give it to Teddy'.

If you need Brooks to set up plays from inside the 20, you won't score much.

The frustrating thing is we now have a great pack and 'will' be in opp 20 a lot. We need a 7 who can convert that position into tries. He has never been able to do that.

 

[Winston Churchill]

Great post.

Luke has never, ever, been able to control a set when it starts in opp 20.

Look at his highlights as a kid, it was long range stuff or simply 'give it to Teddy'.

If you need Brooks to set up plays from inside the 20, you won't score much.

The frustrating thing is we now have a great pack and 'will' be in opp 20 a lot. We need a 7 who can convert that position into tries. He has never been able to do that.

And this is where the 'Myth' started. Having actual first grade quality players around you as a junior like Moses and Teddy can polish a turd up real nice.

 

[hobbo1]

10 years and 5 coaches and still useless

 

[simonsatiger]

i thought he looked good, dangerous every time he had the ball.

 

[earl]

i thought he looked good, dangerous every time he had the ball.

Some of his touches in the opposition attack zone were world class weren't they. That beautiful play that he didn't make but instead dropped it cold when we were on the attack or that beautiful pass that he didn't throw that hit Naden in the head.

 

[Demps]

We had 45 tackles inside their 20 and came up with two tries, both created by Doueihi.

And some of the responses we get here are that we should criticise everyone but Brooks for the 22 points that we let in.

We should've scored 30+ with the field position we had. That falls squarely on Brooks. Errors, hospital passes, blown overlaps. It was a typical Brooks disasterclass and he will be staunchly defended by people on here. Blows my mind honestly.

This isn't his first game in first grade. This isn't his second season and he's 21 years old. It's his 10th season and near on 200th game.

Look at what Ilias did on Saturday night against a much better defence. Second year player and a junior we let go of. Brooks couldn't dream of a performance like that and I'm not even thst enthusiastic about Ilias as a player just yet.

Great post.


AD did the most yet some want to move him out of position and still persevere with Brooks at 7.

Seriously mind boggling.

 

[Tom Shines]

When does he get extended to 2025?

 

[twentyforty]

C’mon guys, give Brooks a btreak. He hasn’t been able to train due to injury, same as Api. And the only side stepping he’s had to do is from the little bubs projectiles, because he hasn’t played a game since mid July ‘22.
I hear you say he should be controlling the game?
What if coach has given that responsibility to Doueihi and told Brooks to run the ball at every opportunity? ✅
At halftime what if the coach then told Doueihi to stop kicking and run the ball? ✅
I think there were a few who didn’t want to let the team or fans down and running out to a packed house at LO can be a reminder. Titans didn’t help the situation by continually giving us the ball during the start.
Let’s see what happens next Sunday?

 

[Devon Head]

We had 45 tackles inside their 20 and came up with two tries, both created by Doueihi.

And some of the responses we get here are that we should criticise everyone but Brooks for the 22 points that we let in.

We should've scored 30+ with the field position we had. That falls squarely on Brooks. Errors, hospital passes, blown overlaps. It was a typical Brooks disasterclass and he will be staunchly defended by people on here. Blows my mind honestly.

This isn't his first game in first grade. This isn't his second season and he's 21 years old. It's his 10th season and near on 200th game.

Look at what Ilias did on Saturday night against a much better defence. Second year player and a junior we let go of. Brooks couldn't dream of a performance like that and I'm not even thst enthusiastic about Ilias as a player just yet.

Agreed, at one point we'd had 35-6 tackles in their 20m and were down 18-2. They literally had 4 chances and took them all, we had dozens and took 2.

 

[Devon Head]

The amount of Twal targeted crash plays from a few meters out was disturbing like they were doing everything possible to get him his first try. There's a reason he hasn't scored one, EVER. We look more likely to score from inside our own half than anything close to the line.