Alright, I thought i'd voice my opinion on the 'magician' Benji Marshall.
First, take a look at this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0mLzdfFMUU
As you can see, a LOT of those tries weren't off benji's speed, they were off his ability to read plays, luck and his step. But a lot of the time that happened in WINNING teams because that is where benji excels. If the team is losing he feels the pressure of the how ever many thousand strong crowd, commentators and fans to be Benji Marshall - mircale worker but unfortunately when you go for the hail mary pass twice as much in poor situations (cause you're losing), it ain't gonna come off. So he ends up looking like Benji Marshall - The Greedy Overpaid Twat.
What Benji needs is three things:
1.) **A forward pack** to lay a platform. Not roll over the top of teams, just make solid metres (avg. in the NRL is great). This is actually not for Benji cause benji doesn't reaallly need a dominant forward pack to score tries. As you can see in the highlight reel a vast amount of his tries weren't from inside their 20 they were from half way. What this does is allow the rest of the team to score and take immense pressure off of Benji.
2.) **Solid centres and wingers**. We don't need a backline of marikas and josh morrises but rather beau ryans who are solid defensively and can catch a ball and hit holes well and have SOME speed to finish benji's plays as well as others' plays.
3.) **A halfback.** Everyone's said it and I'm just reiterating but he needs someone to take the pressure of him and score tries and set up tries too. Even just scoring + setting up 10 tries a season would be enough as long as he takes some of the other responsibilities from benji like long kicks, cause Benji can't do it all!
Surely you guys can understand pressure, right? If you're being paid 6 figure sums to perform on the field and you're down 20-0 you'd inherently place pressure on yourself to DO SOMETHING but that in turns forces Benji to play his hand again and again till he screws up.
I really can't believe that a someone who played as well as the guy in that video (and i can find you another 30minutes of his magic) will end his career playing like he has this season. But, if it comes to that we definitely don't want him locked in till his mid 30's at 800k, so make him earn his pay cheque.
First, take a look at this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0mLzdfFMUU
As you can see, a LOT of those tries weren't off benji's speed, they were off his ability to read plays, luck and his step. But a lot of the time that happened in WINNING teams because that is where benji excels. If the team is losing he feels the pressure of the how ever many thousand strong crowd, commentators and fans to be Benji Marshall - mircale worker but unfortunately when you go for the hail mary pass twice as much in poor situations (cause you're losing), it ain't gonna come off. So he ends up looking like Benji Marshall - The Greedy Overpaid Twat.
What Benji needs is three things:
1.) **A forward pack** to lay a platform. Not roll over the top of teams, just make solid metres (avg. in the NRL is great). This is actually not for Benji cause benji doesn't reaallly need a dominant forward pack to score tries. As you can see in the highlight reel a vast amount of his tries weren't from inside their 20 they were from half way. What this does is allow the rest of the team to score and take immense pressure off of Benji.
2.) **Solid centres and wingers**. We don't need a backline of marikas and josh morrises but rather beau ryans who are solid defensively and can catch a ball and hit holes well and have SOME speed to finish benji's plays as well as others' plays.
3.) **A halfback.** Everyone's said it and I'm just reiterating but he needs someone to take the pressure of him and score tries and set up tries too. Even just scoring + setting up 10 tries a season would be enough as long as he takes some of the other responsibilities from benji like long kicks, cause Benji can't do it all!
Surely you guys can understand pressure, right? If you're being paid 6 figure sums to perform on the field and you're down 20-0 you'd inherently place pressure on yourself to DO SOMETHING but that in turns forces Benji to play his hand again and again till he screws up.
I really can't believe that a someone who played as well as the guy in that video (and i can find you another 30minutes of his magic) will end his career playing like he has this season. But, if it comes to that we definitely don't want him locked in till his mid 30's at 800k, so make him earn his pay cheque.
