Benji

[Vicious]

I`ve noticed that Benji has been getting a fair bit of criticism of late, both in the media and on these forums and I really feel it`s unwarranted.
How many of you would honestly like Benji to change the way he plays if you were in charge ???

From my perspective, I honestly believe Benji is the worlds best footballer, I realise he makes mistakes and plays very unconventional, but if it was up to me I wouldn`t have it any other way. Put it this way, there is no footballer on earth who can put a ball runner into a gap better than Benji, if they run onto the football hard and run good lines, Benji will put the ball on their chest 9 times out of 10.
My point is that if the rest of the team does their job, Benji will carve up the best of defences and lead the way for us to winner another competition, no way in the world would I try changing anything that Benji does, let the rest of the side play structured and stick to running and tackling hard, BUT DO NOT RESTRICT BENJI !!!

 

[T-REXX]

im with u mate..

benji is Benji, his style is the way it is and people love him when it works.. when it doesnt they are onto him..

Dont change him…. that is what makes him Benji

 

[bbobb]

I am thinking Benji is about to have an awesome run over the next 2 months.

I still believe Benji thinks he needs to ALL the playmaking which is detrimental to his game. In another thread, it was mentioned that Benji doesn't get tackled and that simply is because I think he feels he needs to be first and second reciever. With Lui starting to get time on the field and continue his development, Benji should start to get more confidence in him which may allow him to take the line on more often - this is when Benji is at his best.

There will always be the occasional "crab across field", "cut-out pass to the touchy" of "kick-off the side of the boot" but he is a risk taker and there is lots of upside and the occasional down side - but I for one would not have it any other way

 

[crouching_tiger]

Put it this way, there is no footballer on earth who can put a ball runner into a gap better than Benji

Scott Prince..

 

[jtigerman]

I wholeheartedly agree. We would all love for him not to make some of the mistakes that he makes but if he cuts them out then he will also be cutting out some of the brilliant plays he pulls off. That would then make him no different to your stock standard five eigth.

 

[Brisbane_Tiger]

I love Benji but there is a time and a place for everything and sometimes he just kills me…grubber kick inside own 40 first set after scoring and halftime??? then Gordon scores.....

 

[Spartan117]

We sometimes take Benji for granted. I wouldn't swap him for anyone else

I feel that with is off and on field performances we would be hard pressed to find a greater Wests Tiger.

 

[Blackpearl]

We sometimes take Benji for granted. I wouldn't swap him for anyone else

I feel that with is off and on field performances we would be hard pressed to find a greater Wests Tiger.

ditto

 

[softlaw]

agreed that I wouldn;t swap him BUT he should not be the one organising the team. Especially when it comes to working off our own goal line and kicking for field position.
Unfortunately he feels sometimes that he has to take too much responsibility for those more mundane parts of the game when he should just butt out at those times.
That's a coaching/ recruitment issue though.
Give him a defensive line to react to though and he is a genius.

 

[jtigerman]

I love Benji but there is a time and a place for everything and sometimes he just kills me…grubber kick inside own 40 first set after scoring and halftime??? then Gordon scores.....

There is no doubt he should have kicked it long but it was easy to see what he was trying to do. Had he kicked a bit harder and wider then Tuqiri would have picked it up and there was a big chance for points. That is Benji in a nutshell really.

 

[hybrid_tiger]

I love Benji but there is a time and a place for everything and sometimes he just kills me…grubber kick inside own 40 first set after scoring and halftime??? then Gordon scores.....

Plays like that need to be cut out.

I still however would not swap him for anyone, but he needs to learn when to pull the tricks out. At that stage, all we needed was a kick downfield.

 

[Cysquatch]

yeah, no way would i want to get rid of him but he just needs to pull it in at times. benj=frustration and delight. thats the beauty of him. i think now that we have cemented a finals spot, not just he, but the whole team will be a little more relaxed and less nervous with their decision making….here's hoping anyway! he, like the team seem in two minds at times but when we just play whats in front of us we are the most dangerous team in the comp

 

[Team_Tiger]

Agree with most said. I wouldn't swap him for anyone else.

He drives you nuts sometimes but he provides the X-Factor for our side. Whenever I'm driven to tears of frustration with him… he pulls out something brilliant. Look at the Titan's game for example. Made some crazy errors in attack, but then drops that 50-odd metre field goal that proves the difference in the end (not to mention his goal kicking that night.)

I love him. He's frustrating at times, but that's Benji. You put him in a box and we lose the good stuff, too.

 

[MGB]

Most WT fans have a capacity to get a little carried away at times with him. Yes he can be great and sometimes is but the fact remains he has too many errors in his game and this is an area that still needs a lot of work if we are to become a consistent football side.

I don't buy the whole 'that's the Benji package' sorry but that is just rubbish. I have no doubt he can cut out some of the silly errors e.g. grubber kick in his own 40 and still keep the seat of your pants stuff…you only have to go back to the Parra game (his best game of the year) to see what he can do when he picks his moments better. He was very good at times yesterday but there were still some costly mistakes that on another day may have cost us more than they actually did.

He can be brilliant at times though no question and I for one am very glad he is in this side but honestly he makes me wanna bang my head against a wall at times too and the two dont neccessarily need to go hand in hand.

On a side note, full credit to him for his efforts with young Leighton yesterday, pure class.

 

[tig_prmz]

Yeh agree with most points on this thread except the part where you criticize him with those low percentage plays. I LIKE that even though they ARE low percentages for some reason.

 

[king_sirro]

Surely it isnt too hard to start taking the OBVUIOUS right options a bit more often. Like yesterday when Penrith raked the ball from Ayshford and Benji picked it up, raced down field and got tsackled out on the bloody first tackle. Surely he's smart enough to realise he had no hope of beating Gordon on the outside so the best thing to do was cut infield and take the tackle, giving us a full set of six with penrith scrambling.

 

[Lukic]

Anyone notice Benji's tendency to give away penalties in defence really recently by lying down on the other man too long and doing a bit of a Bryce Gibbs. He needs to cut that out.

As far as attack goes, he shits me to tears when he crabs across and does the thing with his hand motioning back for a runner who's pretty much flat footed. Also, he Needs to step back in at 2nd receiver and let Farah sort everything out around the ruck. The fact he's playing out of position somewhat as well as out of form, yet still carving defences up is great stuff, so I'm happy with the way he' s going. I really wish he took on the line at first thought rather than the pass, but as I said he's going good.

 

[system]

I think the reason why he is trying so hard to pull those plays off the last couple of weeks, is because not that he thinks its the only way to score points. Its because we wants it to be a big magical play, benji is obviously a bit low after the goal kicking extravaganza and lets face it he hasn't done anything wow worthy in a good while, he needs the big play, he feeds off it and at the moment he has no food.

 

[BrissieTiger67]

I love Benji but there is a time and a place for everything and sometimes he just kills me…grubber kick inside own 40 first set after scoring and halftime??? then Gordon scores.....

there was some slow passing happening on the last and benji marshal got the ball with about 2 seconds to do anything with it. the grubber through for lawrence was probably not what was supposed to happen and def did not come off.

i love watching benji play so im happy to take the good and the bad.

i agree that i think he is going to ignite over the next few weeks!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[gazza]

Worlds best footballer?
He is not even in the top 5 at the Tiges as far as im concerned.
Would be happy if he went elsewhere as he is not a team player.
Costs more points in a season than he scores.
cheers