Big bopper Blair is down but far from out

[Eye_Of_Da_Tiger]

We will know within the first 3 games if things will be different. I reckon his biggest problem at the tigers has been attitude and comitment.All the excuses in the world can't change that. I am guilty of being one of his worst critics but Im willing to give him one last go !

 

[tigertye]

I watched Blair very carefully at the back end of last year. He does a lot of 1%. He was almost playing as a lock in a Glenn Stewart type role being a link man for either side of the field for the halves. There was some improvement but if a young bloke like Buchanan or Sue can crack 100m a game then Blair should be able to much more often (I believe he only did this once this season).

For a prop who started most games due to Keith's injury he should have easily been getting 100m a game. He was in the 30-70m max a game range. Thats like 4-8 runs for a decent prop. That's very poor for a front rower and shows part of the reason we struggled to get downfield. Involvement, this is where I believe he struggles (just get the ball and run over someone Blair). You can do all the 1%'s (pressure on kicker, line speed, chase hard from marker), but you need the other 99% to earn a spot in a side.

He can spin the journos all the enthusiasm and "just wait and see's" in the world but until he can consistently crack 100m of solid yardage a game I'm not convinced he should be anything but a bench prop, or in the 17 at all. I would rather a young gun like Brown come on and go mental for 20mins then put up with 30-40mins of "I don't feel like playing this week" from Blair.

_Posted using RoarFEED 2013_

 

[pHyR3]

Still didn't see Royce simmons miss a tackle last year u can teach a team all u like but when u keep dropping ball and stuffing up your last tackle OPTIONS with midfield bombs what defence will hold on for 80 minutes ?
We bought Blair from a functional storm team that had structure and he was a star !
he came to th tigers without structure and he was a dud so shocked

Any coincidence that when Royce was in England we made the 8 twice ??

the 4 twice actually…. 😱pen_mouth:

 

[pHyR3]

I watched Blair very carefully at the back end of last year. He does a lot of 1%. He was almost playing as a lock in a Glenn Stewart type role being a link man for either side of the field for the halves. There was some improvement but if a young bloke like Buchanan or Sue can crack 100m a game then Blair should be able to much more often (I believe he only did this once this season).

For a prop who started most games due to Keith's injury he should have easily been getting 100m a game. He was in the 30-70m max a game range. Thats like 4-8 runs for a decent prop. That's very poor for a front rower and shows part of the reason we struggled to get downfield. Involvement, this is where I believe he struggles (just get the ball and run over someone Blair). You can do all the 1%'s (pressure on kicker, line speed, chase hard from marker), but you need the other 99% to earn a spot in a side.

He can spin the journos all the enthusiasm and "just wait and see's" in the world but until he can consistently crack 100m of solid yardage a game I'm not convinced he should be anything but a bench prop, or in the 17 at all. I would rather a young gun like Brown come on and go mental for 20mins then put up with 30-40mins of "I don't feel like playing this week" from Blair.

_Posted using RoarFEED 2013_

i think Blair averaged 78m in the end, he had quite a few games over 100m i'm pretty sure… but they were all towards the 2nd half when he was put at prop. and even when he only ran 50-70m at prop it was more cause he only got say 20-30min as compared to his 40m efforts over 80min in the 2ndrow/lock.

 

[tigertye]

I watched Blair very carefully at the back end of last year. He does a lot of 1%. He was almost playing as a lock in a Glenn Stewart type role being a link man for either side of the field for the halves. There was some improvement but if a young bloke like Buchanan or Sue can crack 100m a game then Blair should be able to much more often (I believe he only did this once this season).

For a prop who started most games due to Keith's injury he should have easily been getting 100m a game. He was in the 30-70m max a game range. Thats like 4-8 runs for a decent prop. That's very poor for a front rower and shows part of the reason we struggled to get downfield. Involvement, this is where I believe he struggles (just get the ball and run over someone Blair). You can do all the 1%'s (pressure on kicker, line speed, chase hard from marker), but you need the other 99% to earn a spot in a side.

He can spin the journos all the enthusiasm and "just wait and see's" in the world but until he can consistently crack 100m of solid yardage a game I'm not convinced he should be anything but a bench prop, or in the 17 at all. I would rather a young gun like Brown come on and go mental for 20mins then put up with 30-40mins of "I don't feel like playing this week" from Blair.

_Posted using RoarFEED 2013_

i think Blair averaged 78m in the end, he had quite a few games over 100m i'm pretty sure… but they were all towards the 2nd half when he was put at prop. and even when he only ran 50-70m at prop it was more cause he only got say 20-30min as compared to his 40m efforts over 80min in the 2ndrow/lock.

Keith and Woods consistently cracked 100-140+ metres a game. Blair actually played very similar minutes and ran for roughly half that according to your stats. Something tells me he should just pull his sleeves up and dig in. If I was earning 250k+ a year I'd take every hit up for 80 minutes. He takes 8-10 runs a game.

_Posted using RoarFEED 2013_

 

[pHyR3]

yep. and they are far superior players to blair. i dont think blair ever did that at storm either.

 

[galea_11]

Still didn't see Royce simmons miss a tackle last year u can teach a team all u like but when u keep dropping ball and stuffing up your last tackle OPTIONS with midfield bombs what defence will hold on for 80 minutes ?
We bought Blair from a functional storm team that had structure and he was a star !
he came to th tigers without structure and he was a dud so shocked

Any coincidence that when Royce was in England we made the 8 twice ??

the 4 twice actually…. 😱pen_mouth:

yeh interesting point wonder if there is any coincidence with him involved in 2005 think we did better then the 8 that year actually .
maybe roycey remembered how to coach defence that year or just the players COULD actually aim up and tackle .

Coach is always easy target think PARRA have learnt that

 

[pHyR3]

our defence was nothing spectacular in 2005 though…

not like Manly or Roosters this year.

it was mostly the right players at the right time (no injuries), good form and good attacking coaching from sheens.

 

[Defiant]

Make a 100 metres and stop missing tackles. Thats all we need to stop bagging him… not that i have.

 

[galea_11]

our defence was nothing spectacular in 2005 though…

not like Manly or Roosters this year.

it was mostly the right players at the right time (no injuries), good form and good attacking coaching from sheens.

awesome quote of year
win th comp but our defence was nothing spectacular in 2005
well actually cowboys scored 6 points in semi NOT bad
broncos in semi 6 Points OK
st George final 12 points ok
cowboys GF 16 points other then that our defence nothing spectacular

 

[pHyR3]

our defence was nothing spectacular in 2005 though…

not like Manly or Roosters this year.

it was mostly the right players at the right time (no injuries), good form and good attacking coaching from sheens.

awesome quote of year
win th comp but our defence was nothing spectacular in 2005
well actually cowboys scored 6 points in semi NOT bad
broncos in semi 6 Points OK
st George final 12 points ok
cowboys GF 16 points other then that our defence nothing spectacular

575 points against wests tigers in 2005, placing us as the TENTH best defence in the NRL that year. The warriors came 11th out of 15 teams and conceded 50 less points than us. So yes. the tiger's were not exactly renowned for their defence efforts during 2005….especiallly when you compare them to manly/roosters this year which is exactly what i did in the original post.

 

[happy_tiger]

Still didn't see Royce simmons miss a tackle last year u can teach a team all u like but when u keep dropping ball and stuffing up your last tackle OPTIONS with midfield bombs what defence will hold on for 80 minutes ?
We bought Blair from a functional storm team that had structure and he was a star !
he came to th tigers without structure and he was a dud so shocked

Any coincidence that when Royce was in England we made the 8 twice ??

the 4 twice actually…. 😱pen_mouth:

yeh interesting point wonder if there is any coincidence with him involved in 2005 think we did better then the 8 that year actually .
maybe roycey remembered how to coach defence that year or just the players COULD actually aim up and tackle .

Coach is always easy target think PARRA have learnt that

Please don't try and compare the defence from 2005 and 2010

Defensively the game has changed so much since 2005

 

[stevetiger]

He needs to significantly improve his work rate next year otherwise I can't justify having him in the 17.

The thing is does he deserve a spot in first grade based on form. I'm not sure that he does. He is a prop/lock up the middle and we have Woods, Galloway, Ava, BMM, Buchanan, Sue, Tapau and maybe some others.