Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

rusted-on said:
Yeah I was puzzled by that one as well. My thoughts are he had a niggle and they wanted to shield him from the physicality of the first 20 minutes. Doesn't make sense otherwise, Penrith we are not. I thought Twal did quite well though. It was good to see him playing a little bit of ball and making some metres. His usual reliable self in defence 🙂
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I like the way he always carries the ball to within less than a metre of the try line, a few times every game, then as he rises to his feet stares intently, almost having a telepathic conversation with the try line. Wonderful stuff.
 
Fingers83 said:
Daine Laurie - as much as I had hoped for the best - is one of our biggest issues. Great with the ball in hand and chewed up plenty of metres, but he is afraid to put his body on the line.

All the best fullbacks - including a 80 kilo Brett Hodgson, consistently risk it all to get to that high or loose ball.

Think he will find himself in reserve grade before too long. I totally understand why Sheens is in no rush to re-sign him.
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He had crazy meters and a lot of effort but FB and him are just not clicking for whatever reason.
 
Fingers83 said:
Daine Laurie - as much as I had hoped for the best - is one of our biggest issues. Great with the ball in hand and chewed up plenty of metres, but he is afraid to put his body on the line.

All the best fullbacks - including a 80 kilo Brett Hodgson, consistently risk it all to get to that high or loose ball.

Think he will find himself in reserve grade before too long. I totally understand why Sheens is in no rush to re-sign him.
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I don't think Laurie is afraid at all. Very often he takes a dirty hitup and too often yesterday he was being thrown the ball with nothing on, so he has to tuck it under his arm and run into the guts of the defence. He didn't shirk any of that contact yesterday and he got hammered a number of times, including that early warning shot from Tino across the chops. I say this watching the match live and Laurie taking a lot of bomb defusals down my end.

The bloke's about 80 kg.

So I don't think it's fear, it's hesitation. He's not afraid, he's unable to calculate as fast as the game demands. Luke Brooks has exactly the same problem. They talk about "natural ability" and "having so much time", which really means that the player in question has a baked-in ability, a hardware/wiring ability to read a game and take the right option. The players who hesitate or think about it too much, they are always a moment behind the play and over 24 x 80 mins those 1% delays add up.

Compare for example Laurie to Brimson. Brimson isn't really a great technical fullback, doesn't have much of a passing or kicking game and has been tried, to no great effect, in the halves. But Brimson is athletically elite and he doesn't hesitate, which is his big advantage over Laurie. Brimson scored his late try because he picked a line and ran as fast as he could from moment zero; a moment of hesitation and the cover defence gets him.

I think, unfortunately, what we see with Laurie is a bloke who hesitates just that bit too often and it leads to crucial mistakes, despite his otherwise positive involvement in the match. Same as Brooks, who yesterday was most threatening when he took a pre-meditated run, but fairly ineffective with what ended up being a fair amount of possession down the right end of the park.

Doueihi also is a bit hesitant, but given enough opportunities yesterday he did start grinding out attacking chances and, ultimately, 2 tries. But he almost didn't run for his try, looking almost that bit too long for a pass, and it was instead his athleticism and ability to palm off David Fifita which clinched the play. Doueihi has upper-tier athleticism in terms of body shape and strength that someone like Laurie just doesn't possess and never will.
 
jirskyr said:
I don't think Laurie is afraid at all. Very often he takes a dirty hitup and too often yesterday he was being thrown the ball with nothing on, so he has to tuck it under his arm and run into the guts of the defence. He didn't shirk any of that contact yesterday and he got hammered a number of times, including that early warning shot from Tino across the chops. I say this watching the match live and Laurie taking a lot of bomb defusals down my end.

The bloke's about 80 kg.

So I don't think it's fear, it's hesitation. He's not afraid, he's unable to calculate as fast as the game demands. Luke Brooks has exactly the same problem. They talk about "natural ability" and "having so much time", which really means that the player in question has a baked-in ability, a hardware/wiring ability to read a game and take the right option. The players who hesitate or think about it too much, they are always a moment behind the play and over 24 x 80 mins those 1% delays add up.

Compare for example Laurie to Brimson. Brimson isn't really a great technical fullback, doesn't have much of a passing or kicking game and has been tried, to no great effect, in the halves. But Brimson is athletically elite and he doesn't hesitate, which is his big advantage over Laurie. Brimson scored his late try because he picked a line and ran as fast as he could from moment zero; a moment of hesitation and the cover defence gets him.

I think, unfortunately, what we see with Laurie is a bloke who hesitates just that bit too often and it leads to crucial mistakes, despite his otherwise positive involvement in the match. Same as Brooks, who yesterday was most threatening when he took a pre-meditated run, but fairly ineffective with what ended up being a fair amount of possession down the right end of the park.

Doueihi also is a bit hesitant, but given enough opportunities yesterday he did start grinding out attacking chances and, ultimately, 2 tries. But he almost didn't run for his try, looking almost that bit too long for a pass, and it was instead his athleticism and ability to palm off David Fifita which clinched the play. Doueihi has upper-tier athleticism in terms of body shape and strength that someone like Laurie just doesn't possess and never will.
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Fair assessment but I think you hesitate when you are fearful of what might happen.
 
Fingers83 said:
Fair assessment but I think you hesitate when you are fearful of what might happen.
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I'm telling you it's not fear, I was right up close and he never showed fear of contact. You can go back and watch the tapes how many dirty hitups Laurie took, and he ran for a lot of metres total.

It's not what Laurie does with the ball that's a problem, it's what he does just before the ball gets to him. It's where he is positioned when they do short kicks. It what he does when there is a bomb contested at the line. It's where he is standing when the halves want to throw him the ball in attack. Often he's not in the right place and he's therefore not on the positive side of all the chances that come his way.

He's like the polar opposite to Billy Slater, who was always in the right spot and always on-hand in case some opportunity came up. Even Phillip Sami yesterday who did bugger-all second half, knew where to be on those handful of occasions where an opportunity arose.

And so Titans had about 5 or 6 chances and iced 4 of them; Tigers had about 20 chances and converted 2.
 
jirskyr said:
I don't think Laurie is afraid at all. Very often he takes a dirty hitup and too often yesterday he was being thrown the ball with nothing on, so he has to tuck it under his arm and run into the guts of the defence. He didn't shirk any of that contact yesterday and he got hammered a number of times, including that early warning shot from Tino across the chops. I say this watching the match live and Laurie taking a lot of bomb defusals down my end.

The bloke's about 80 kg.

So I don't think it's fear, it's hesitation. He's not afraid, he's unable to calculate as fast as the game demands. Luke Brooks has exactly the same problem. They talk about "natural ability" and "having so much time", which really means that the player in question has a baked-in ability, a hardware/wiring ability to read a game and take the right option. The players who hesitate or think about it too much, they are always a moment behind the play and over 24 x 80 mins those 1% delays add up.

Compare for example Laurie to Brimson. Brimson isn't really a great technical fullback, doesn't have much of a passing or kicking game and has been tried, to no great effect, in the halves. But Brimson is athletically elite and he doesn't hesitate, which is his big advantage over Laurie. Brimson scored his late try because he picked a line and ran as fast as he could from moment zero; a moment of hesitation and the cover defence gets him.

I think, unfortunately, what we see with Laurie is a bloke who hesitates just that bit too often and it leads to crucial mistakes, despite his otherwise positive involvement in the match. Same as Brooks, who yesterday was most threatening when he took a pre-meditated run, but fairly ineffective with what ended up being a fair amount of possession down the right end of the park.

Doueihi also is a bit hesitant, but given enough opportunities yesterday he did start grinding out attacking chances and, ultimately, 2 tries. But he almost didn't run for his try, looking almost that bit too long for a pass, and it was instead his athleticism and ability to palm off David Fifita which clinched the play. Doueihi has upper-tier athleticism in terms of body shape and strength that someone like Laurie just doesn't possess and never will.
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He doesn't seem afraid to take a hit up - very true; but it's the hesitancy, or seeming hesitancy, under the high balls that brings him undone. he needs to attack every ball.
 
jirskyr said:
I'm telling you it's not fear, I was right up close and he never showed fear of contact. You can go back and watch the tapes how many dirty hitups Laurie took, and he ran for a lot of metres total.

It's not what Laurie does with the ball that's a problem, it's what he does just before the ball gets to him. It's where he is positioned when they do short kicks. It what he does when there is a bomb contested at the line. It's where he is standing when the halves want to throw him the ball in attack. Often he's not in the right place and he's therefore not on the positive side of all the chances that come his way.

He's like the polar opposite to Billy Slater, who was always in the right spot and always on-hand in case some opportunity came up. Even Phillip Sami yesterday who did bugger-all second half, knew where to be on those handful of occasions where an opportunity arose.

And so Titans had about 5 or 6 chances and iced 4 of them; Tigers had about 20 chances and converted 2.
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Personally, I would give the role to Staines based off what I saw yesterday.

Staines looks ready and willing no matter the position he is in. I was very hesitant on his signing but I totally understand why he's been signed now. I don't think he has the same fear.

I would rather have a fullback spill the ball than not be in the contest at all.
 
happy_tiger said:
Comments like that tend to come and bite WT's fans on the arse .......if that is going to be our playing style all season we could completion rates like that every 3 weeks
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You're right, we could. It all depends on how optimistically or pessimistically you want to look at it.
 
jirskyr said:
I'm telling you it's not fear, I was right up close and he never showed fear of contact. You can go back and watch the tapes how many dirty hitups Laurie took, and he ran for a lot of metres total.

It's not what Laurie does with the ball that's a problem, it's what he does just before the ball gets to him. It's where he is positioned when they do short kicks. It what he does when there is a bomb contested at the line. It's where he is standing when the halves want to throw him the ball in attack. Often he's not in the right place and he's therefore not on the positive side of all the chances that come his way.

He's like the polar opposite to Billy Slater, who was always in the right spot and always on-hand in case some opportunity came up. Even Phillip Sami yesterday who did bugger-all second half, knew where to be on those handful of occasions where an opportunity arose.

And so Titans had about 5 or 6 chances and iced 4 of them; Tigers had about 20 chances and converted 2.
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This was exactly the problem yesterday.
 
twentyforty said:
I read somewhere Suaalii moves up to $800k this year with Roosters? I get your point, those chooks have a few sets of gold handcuffs. Souths were not smart letting him go, over a flexible contract stalemate.
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I think it’s time the fans take some action as club hierarchy won’t. Chants of ‘cheating cocks’ and ‘paper bags’ at Roosters games. Loud enough to drown out the TV and radio commentary.
 
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jirskyr said:
I'm telling you it's not fear, I was right up close and he never showed fear of contact. You can go back and watch the tapes how many dirty hitups Laurie took, and he ran for a lot of metres total.

It's not what Laurie does with the ball that's a problem, it's what he does just before the ball gets to him. It's where he is positioned when they do short kicks. It what he does when there is a bomb contested at the line. It's where he is standing when the halves want to throw him the ball in attack. Often he's not in the right place and he's therefore not on the positive side of all the chances that come his way.

He's like the polar opposite to Billy Slater, who was always in the right spot and always on-hand in case some opportunity came up. Even Phillip Sami yesterday who did bugger-all second half, knew where to be on those handful of occasions where an opportunity arose.

And so Titans had about 5 or 6 chances and iced 4 of them; Tigers had about 20 chances and converted 2.
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I think he is more worried about the potential errors than it being a fear of body contact. He does do some hard work often it’s just he stuffs up in the key moments when a fullback shouldn’t. Either way something isn’t right and we can’t carry that as a fullback risk moving forward.

The 2 bombs he didn’t catch, 1 resulted in a try he was in position and then for whatever reason just stopped either totally had a miss-read or stoped because he was worried about dropping the ball. The 2nd bomb again he rushed into position but then let it bounce which he was very lucky with it cost us 15-20mtrs as well.

I would’ve preferred him go hard in for the ball than let it bounce or give the opponent a golden chance to score.

Something isn’t right with him on those scenarios.
 
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