Aaron Woods ‘a shadow’ of James Graham, says Michael Ennis

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Woods was very good for us over a long time. His strengths were his motor and mobility. He never was the enforcer. The Dogs have problems from the board room to the playing roster, but they are a very resilient club and Iam sure they will get better along with Woods
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It would be idiotic to purchase Aaron Woods and expect him to suddenly be some kind of enforcer. Never has been and I expect never will be.

As others have said, he has a big motor, can get big metres, makes a good share of tackles, is hard to bring down and has a decent offload. The downside of this is he is slow to PTB, does not put on many big hits and in no way physically dominates other packs. He's more like a tree than a bear, he does his work and is tough to pull down, but you don't get out-and-out aggression.

So Ennis is kidding himself if he wants Woods to play like Graham, they aren't the same kind of footballer. Graham's doing just fine after 2 games but he's smaller than Woods, wearies as the season goes on and doesn't have the physical presence in his carries.

Woods isn't stepping into Graham's shoes, he is replacing Graham. Same as Packerlino aren't stepping into Woods' shoes. Dogs had a formula in 2017 that they didn't think worked / didn't like, and changed it up. Plenty of rounds left still to see if the change-up will have a positive outcome.

Also, off-field instability surely doesn't help, how about Dogs figure that out as well?
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Stop making sense.
He went there because they thought they needed something different - not something the same.
 
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Really starting to get over this

bunch of jilted lovers…

I thought you were right into these fluff stories :laughing:

No i mean over everytime Woods cuts his hair Teddy sips a latte or Slimey fart farts people feel the need to post it on Our Forum like jilted lovers..

We even had someone start a Woods thread in the Storm match forum..

Focus on the players we have busting their arse for us in 2018 imo even our fluff…
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When a player comes up through the Tigers ranks, captains the side and even has the postcode tattooed on his butt! (or where ever it is)… And then shats all over the club while still wearing the jersey!! I think it's fair to say that some die-hards will need a little time to recover. It's only natural.

I'm enjoying these dudes getting flogged though.. :smiley:
 
Never displayed any natural leadership qualities.
He has no temperament for that role.
Needs a leader to scream at him and give him hurry up on the field.
So Ennis got the wrong number on that one.
Not worth $800k per season and not amongst my 8 best props in the NRL.
But the Bulldogs knew what they were getting. Same as Moses at Parra.
With Teddy it’s different story.
 
One other thought I had, is because Woods has joined an arguably superior forward pack, he does open himself to more criticism, warranted or not.

As clearly the best forward the Tigers had, with little quality support and racking up good stats, you could hardly criticise Woods in the last few seasons. Same as you could hardly criticise Tedesco, though the bloke overplayed his hand in about 80% of games in 2017.

Woods now joining the likes of Klemmer and Jackson, taking a bit pay cheque that more or less forced Graham out - it opens him up to way more criticism that he was shielded from when playing for Tigers.

As far as I can tell, Woods is playing reasonably consistently with last season, just the overall performance of his team is lacking.
 
Mick Ennis comparing players based on their salaries will win him no friends imo.
We all know he and Graham are best buddies, but dont think Graham would be backing a headline like that today - its not Grahams style and I think he would have preferred for Mick.to keep that opinion to chats around the barbeque.
 
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Too many head knocks for Michael.

Aaron's numbers are the same, and that was the basis of why they signed him.

Thats almost right. His numbers are a little down on what they were last year. But, the main point is, the rest of the Dog's pack is playing poorly so, Aaron Woods is completely ineffective. He needs to play with aggressive forwards to balance out the forward pack with his workhorse style of play. But, if the rest of them don't bring the aggression or leadership, he's just churning out his numbers.

Also, they're paying $800k for him. We have Eiso and Twal doing the exact same job and how much are we paying them? I'd say their combined salaries aren't $800k.

I think comparing Twal & Eiso value to Woods is irrelevant.

Woods will never be that aggressive player, and the Bulldogs knew what they were going to get out of him.

They are probably more than happy with there return on the Woods investment.
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That's my thoughts exactly. Woods has never flattened an opposition player in defence, it's not his style. Churning out the metres, yeah sure, but on the same note he's not a damaging runner, just manages to carry 3 defenders most times and pop the occasional offload.
 
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Really starting to get over this

bunch of jilted lovers…

I thought you were right into these fluff stories :laughing:

No i mean over everytime Woods cuts his hair Teddy sips a latte or Slimey fart farts people feel the need to post it on Our Forum like jilted lovers..

We even had someone start a Woods thread in the Storm match forum..

Focus on the players we have busting their arse for us in 2018 imo even our fluff…
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Sorry Geo but, it just makes me happy.
 
Never going to be aggressive we knew that and many times wanted that out of Sharon but i agree never in his makeup to worried about how his hair situation looked and held together each week. Looks like he is going bald now this will genuinely affect his game for some time.
 
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James Graham and Mick Ennis best mates -hardly surprising. Hard to get a word in with Mick Ennis when he is on a panel really irritating and never objective yet all of a sudden his opinion has become relevant.

Woods can expect more of the same until the Dogs turn it around - if they do. It will be the same for all the big signings when we really see where the competition is headed.
Benji best value signing at this pont of comp.- who would have thought
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Ennis should stick to practising his "UFC commentator/faux tough-guy" voice for use in his commentary and The Greatest telly show. Reminds me of a little kid trying to sound gnarly when he puts that voice on.
 
I agree with Ennis, Graham is playing 100x better than Woods.
I'd be surprised if Woods makes the blues squad on his current form.
 
Woods would look and be much more damaging in the current Tigers pack …at the Dogs He is not what they needed,water under the bridge and he will just fade away as there are certainly more damaging forwards moving up the NRL ranks.
 
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The joy in us winning and Woods losing is about equal for some at the moment.
Cant see it letting up until the Dogs turn it around -if they don't Woods may cop it on two forums for a while yet.
Teddy talk has gone a little quieter this week.
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Yea weird isn't it. Also less Moses bashing, I guess it must be of his stats last game (or maybe a game before).
0 meters, 0 tackles and 6 missed tackles…. We should have never let him GO!

James Graham is a good player, past his prime but has impressed early for the Dragons. I thought his contract was lower, but they are getting their monies worth. We could have taken him here, but we got a good forward pack instead.

Woods too, is churning out some stats for the Dogs. Woods has averaged 58 minutes in his first two games, along with 13.5 runs, 115 metres and 27.5 tackles.... Not great stats, but not bad. Ennis just stirring stuff up. Most likely to boost his own ego.
 
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Aaron Woods is not James Graham.

In other news, grass is green and water is wet.
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All I will say on this piece is…in defense of Sharon he has gone to a rabble of a club from admin to roster...he is still the same Sharon but viewed differently now he is in a different jersey....Graham has always been a competative unit now in a well coached stable unit,he looks the goods but has a great team around him and he stands out...Sharon will produce a better game when everything stabilises around his club,if not this year but maybe next....
 
He has joined a dud side that are also a shambles off the field.

He has been average as well.

Good riddance.
 
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