Austin v Brooks

B

balmain boy

Well-known member
You know Brooks really had an awful season this year, especially for a 20 year old.

And Austin had an amazing, blinder of a season!

Some Season stats:

Brooks 10 tries, 16 try assists (=5th in NRL), 13 line break assists

Austin 14 tries, 8 try assists. (Can't find his line break assists stats, but its less than 12)

Austin is the only 'playmaker' in the top 20 for tries. As has been said, Austin isn't that much of a team player, nor does he make the team around him better. An excellent runner, no question, but that's not the primary job of a half. And we have Teddy as our game-breaking runner - one of the best in the business.

Sure stats don't paint the entire picture, and yes there's still a lot of areas that Brooks and Austin (and of course Moses) can improve on, but Austin does have a few years head start already.

For a player who so many have bagged this season, and who has a lot of room for improvement with a number of rather average performances, Brooks is still right up there with the very best in attacking statistics this season!
 
Stats might not say everything, but I think they make a good point in this case. Austin is a ball runner first and foremost. WT has plenty of great ball runners in our team in my opinion (Tedesco, Moses & Brooks have all showed plenty in this area), but in Moses & Brooks there is two outstanding playmakers in the making.

In addition, I think in Austin's case you've pretty much got a player at his peak, while Moses and Brooks have a large upside for WT into the future. Just let them play, let them make mistakes and not turn them into football robots.
 
Austin did pretty well this season, with the "Show and Go" move. i can't see many teams falling for his dummies as much in the future as they did this year.
Austin as he wanted the starting 5/8 position, i was disappointed when he left. However now the regular season is done..i can see why the WTs kept Brooks and Moses and released Austin.
 
Austins 2 noticeably worst games of the year were against us, and highlighted he's a one trick pony in terms of his Show and Go.

I think he'll be still great, however he'll need to add to his repatoire to get better.
 
@Balmain Boy said:
You know Brooks really had an awful season this year, especially for a 20 year old.

And Austin had an amazing, blinder of a season!

Some Season stats:

Brooks 10 tries, 16 try assists (=5th in NRL), 13 line break assists

Austin 14 tries, 8 try assists. (Can't find his line break assists stats, but its less than 12)

Austin is the only 'playmaker' in the top 20 for tries. As has been said, Austin isn't that much of a team player, nor does he make the team around him better. An excellent runner, no question, but that's not the primary job of a half. And we have Teddy as our game-breaking runner - one of the best in the business.

Sure stats don't paint the entire picture, and yes there's still a lot of areas that Brooks and Austin (and of course Moses) can improve on, but Austin does have a few years head start already.

For a player who so many have bagged this season, and who has a lot of room for improvement with a number of rather average performances, Brooks is still right up there with the very best in attacking statistics this season!
Click to expand...

I think there were some factors that led to the criticism of Brooks.

Firstly we have high expectations on him based on how certain people have talked him up most notably Andrew Johns. Secondly we saw Moses developing and growing in confidence but to allot of us we did not see that same level in Brooks. Thirdly he looked a bit lost in some games, why I am not going to guess at.

I am still confident he will be a a quality half back, just hope it is for us.
 
What I loved about Brooksy on Saturday night was his last 20 minutes.That's when you need your best players to step up and he did. He was relentless in attack, both with his running game and his passing. He's a quality player.
 
Brooks is a far worse defender. His attack is not great under pressure.

But he's just a kid, we need to give him more time.
 
It's pretty funny how you say that brooks had a terrible year and then you show us the stats and brooks created 4 more tries than Austin. Sure Austin is better in defence but still How can you make that statement it doesn't make sense
 
@Kavi said:
It's pretty funny how you say that brooks had a terrible year and then you show us the stats and brooks created 4 more tries than Austin. Sure Austin is better in defence but still How can you make that statement it doesn't make sense
Click to expand...

Its hard for Austin to create tries when he never passes the ball. It isn't surprising his try assists would be low.
 
8 try assists for a half who played every game is quite low. raiders have also scored a lot of points.

betya most of those assitss would've come via offloads or bombs.
 
WHat about the fact that Brooks was the only focal point of attack for the first half of the season.

Farah and Moses had to hand him the ball at every opportunity.

The stats don't tell you that though do they.

Austin might have less try assists but how many opportunities did he have compared to Brooks to set up a try? What about how many times each touched the ball this year? That would be interesting.

And comparing a half to a running five - eight

To me its a really poor comparison.
 
I think the stats show that Brooks' year wasn't as bad as some would suggest, but as Tigers fans we know first hand from last season that when our team was going nowhere and needed a spark, it was Austin that provided it and he's done the same for Canberra all year.
He's not a traditional half by any means and I definitely rate Brooks, but stats don't measure Austin's energy and output in key moments.

That all changes with experience though, so here's hoping Luke grows to the player he can be.

_Posted using RoarFEED 4.2.0_
 
Dumb Comparison.
Brooks has improved in attack and defence. Just coming along slower than most would have suspected.
Hard to blame the kid standard of coaching is poor.
 
@VanillaThunder said:
I think the stats show that Brooks' year wasn't as bad as some would suggest, but as Tigers fans we know first hand from last season that when our team was going nowhere and needed a spark, it was Austin that provided it and he's done the same for Canberra all year.
He's not a traditional half by any means and I definitely rate Brooks, but stats don't measure Austin's energy and output in key moments.

That all changes with experience though, so here's hoping Luke grows to the player he can be.

_Posted using RoarFEED 4.2.0_
Click to expand...

Austins support play is second to none as well, but as a fan, his spark is what kept me going all year last year. This year has been a bore.
 
@Kavi said:
It's pretty funny how you say that brooks had a terrible year and then you show us the stats and brooks created 4 more tries than Austin. Sure Austin is better in defence but still How can you make that statement it doesn't make sense
Click to expand...

OP was being sarcastic for emphasis.
 
I agree with one point particularly, Austin doesn't make those around him play better.
He is talented but he runs around like a headless chicken.
He breaks down structure all the time, I still think his best spot is elsewhere, possibly as a Lyon style centre.
 
@jirskyr said:
Brooks is a far worse defender. His attack is not great under pressure.

But he's just a kid, we need to give him more time.
Click to expand...

This year was his learning year,next season after a solid off season,we will see a much more refined and skilful player..we all know how talented he is…
 
I think it is only fair to compare austin with moses. We had to let austin go to keep moses.
I believe time will prove the tigers have made the right decision there.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 542 (members: 24, guests: 518)
Back
Top