Brooks Bashers Bore Me

[Demps]

Our successful spine consisted of

9 Farah
7 Prince
6 Benji
1 Hodgson

Breaking that down;

9 Farah - a strong competitor with extremely high rugby league smarts - football IQ - plays what's in front of him and will always play at 100% and leave it on the field.

7 Prince - cocky , skilled and the perfect controlling of the team. His kicking game was good and he always appeared to believe on himself.

6 Benji - the magician, unpredictable, elusive and always looking to create something. One that can play unstructured and shock the opposition.

1 Hodgson - not the biggest but huge heart and incredibly smart. Great support play that was always around where he needed to be.


Compared to what were currently dealing with

9 - Liddle - fast runner, makes good runs from dummy half but his passing is terrible.

Simpkin - young, raw and not quite ready, may have a big future but isn't at a stage where he's ready for 80 Mins of first grade.

Peach - Not even worth discussing


7 Brooks - Low IQ, low confidence, has been an ongoing problem for the last few years, needs a fresh start elsewhere.... best for both parties, no point dwelling on negatives, we aren't going to make finals with him at 7.

6 AD - I think he's the perfect 6 for us, as long as our spine is sorted. Closer to Robbie in attributes than Benji but definitely an important piece to the puzzle.

Jacko - early days but showing great signs. Controlling well and kicking game looks legit

Madden - again, early days but looks slick. More a 7 than a 6.


1 Laurie - check out the Laurie thread... he's done. He appears to be very dumb and I doubt he'll ever recover from that leg injury

To'a - an option , early days, took the high balls perfectly and appears to be quite skilful.

Dillon - you know I like him but he's a year or so away, looks legit though. He's a much better player than Laurie but needs time.

Sheens' always has good prospects coming through which we surely do but moving forward we need a LOT more class to the spine.

9 Api Korosau
7 Jackson Hastings
6 Adam Douihei
1 Laurie

Could be the team in 2023

And in years to come;

13 Rua Ngatikuara
9 Mikey Tannous
7 Zane Camroux
6 Adam Douihei
1 Logen Dillon


Or we can make releases and recruit, bring in some smarts for next year and roll the dice

9 Api
7 Madden / Chanel Tevita Harris / Volkman / Sezar
6 AD / Hastings / CTH
1 Charnze/ Dillon / Toa/ Farnsworth

Time to build.
Punt Brooks.

 

[Tim Sheens]

I don’t know who’s obsessed with Luke more the people who want him gone or the people who want him to stay.

Go back and look at the live match threads, particularly the early comments in them and the answer will jump out at you.

 

[Needaname]

I forget what thread I’m on.
Though I will say the only way Brooks gets moved on from the team it will be when we decide to run with a team of forwards and have Hastings play as a ball playing lock in the halfback position whom occasionally kicks.
It’s sad however for this team it may be the best thing for the entire squad to develop some resilience.
I do think this game showed that swapping him and Hastings around last weekend was a big mistake as Brooks speed created a lot more space for both Gildart and Toa in the game.
Imagine if we had Tuliagi instead of Seyfarth on the edge.

 

[BAGNF05]

I forget what thread I’m on.
Though I will say the only way Brooks gets moved on from the team it will be when we decide to run with a team of forwards and have Hastings play as a ball playing lock in the halfback position whom occasionally kicks.
It’s sad however for this team it may be the best thing for the entire squad to develop some resilience.
I do think this game showed that swapping him and Hastings around last weekend was a big mistake as Brooks speed created a lot more space for both Gildart and Toa in the game.
Imagine if we had Tuliagi instead of Seyfarth on the edge.

I like Seyfarth but he’s a middle forward.

 

[Tim Sheens]

So even if it was Cronk calling the shots, there is no regular dummy half service in the last 10minutes. You just don't get the ball anyway. Every tool wants to run themselves, Gildart, Simpkins, Luciano, Noffa, Madden, all got into dummy half at those stages and cut off everything, every single play the ball.

So to bash Brooks I see unfair in my opinion. But hey, plenty on here think he is the reason for our demise and that's their opinion, but how about some context. He rarely gets the service he needs, has not been behind a decent forward pack ever, is always on the back foot with no time to make decisions. It's no wonder what he does is in effective and often poor. If you think changing the person in the 7 will improve the forwards dominating, a decent and consistent dummy half, remove the glory hogs, then go ahead. Do it.

Don't know if I will go through the pain of watching it again to make sure of my thoughts at the time, though as similar thoughts including yours have been expressed by more than a few, there is probably no need to anyway.

After stuffing up the interchange by misusing Twal once again, maybe fatigue necessitated Peachey to come back on instead of bringing Liddle back to sort the already obvious lift needed at dummy half. I didn't notice who he replaced.

Simpkin had been okay, but last night felt that he was as poor for us as the bereft of confidence Laurie was. Just looked like they didn’t belong in first grade and his halves rightly gave Jake gobfuls for his schoolboy play.

Brooks could have been even louder, though he wasn't quiet and it isn't his character to go further.

 

[FinestTigers]

There is absolutely no difference between how our team is steered during games and the way a drunk driver drives.

Drinking and driving typically causes impaired judgment balance problems, and confusion, impaired speech, staggering, dizziness, the inability to anticipate and vomiting (fans).

If the driver of this team was charged and brought before a magistrate as a repeat offender this driver would definately receive a fine and his Licence would be suspended.

We know who the vehicle is (Coach) and we all know who is the drunk driver of this vehicle.

 

[stryker 69]

The whole side played really frantic in that period of the game, brooks included.

Should we have been chasing points though? or should the team have already put the Warriors away off some of the chances created earlier? Laurie also bombed a 3 on 2 in that period by dropping it cold.

The fact is, due to circumstance, we were still chasing points.
We were getting on top of them and then, bang…a great opportunity is presented to get those points and then close the game out. It is not taken.

Where does the fault lay for this?
Simpkin was horrible during this period but he has had only a handful of games in the top grade. Madden did nothing but he has had only a handful of games in the top grade. Laurie was aweful but he is still on training wheels with regard to games in the top grade. Liddle was stuck on the bench for some stupid reason. Thats it. They’re our skilful guys who could create points. They are young, inexperienced and they choked.

Luckily, we had a guy out there who has played over 170 NRL games, who had been in this position before and who was the captain. He knows what to do, he will call the shots, the lads will take his cue and implement his game plan….

 

[earl]

Then when the opportunity presented itself to be rewarded

I take it you missed the kick them Books put through to Laurie. He stood up out there.

You make a good point though and it's the big problem with Brooks. He does go missing at crucial times. I didn't think he did it in this game but he went missing last week.

He isn't a great player though so I don't know what you expect.

 

[earl]

Pay brooks $150k then cause that’s all he’s worth ..

He is worth a lot more than that. I don't know how much he is on but his salary gets inflated all the time. In a time when real wages aren't rising at all Brooks has managed to buck the trend big time. Alternatively the stories about his salary are lies. I'd have punt that his reported salary is a lot less than what people state.

 

[BAGNF05]

The fact is, due to circumstance, we were still chasing points.
We were getting on top of them and then, bang…a great opportunity is presented to get those points and then close the game out. It is not taken.

Where does the fault lay for this?
Simpkin was horrible during this period but he has had only a handful of games in the top grade. Madden did nothing but he has had only a handful of games in the top grade. Laurie was aweful but he is still on training wheels with regard to games in the top grade. Liddle was stuck on the bench for some stupid reason. Thats it. They’re our skilful guys who could create points. They are young, inexperienced and they choked.

Luckily, we had a guy out there who has played over 170 NRL games, who had been in this position before and who was the captain. He knows what to do, he will call the shots, the lads will take his cue and implement his game plan….

And when the moment came and he gave Laurie a clean ball with a 3 on 2, Laurie kooked it. Stop blaming Luke for others ineptitude.

 

[Snidest 0]

Laurie was covered …

By fresh air

 

[BAGNF05]

I take it you missed the kick them Books put through to Laurie. He stood up out there.

You make a good point though and it's the big problem with Brooks. He does go missing at crucial times. I didn't think he did it in this game but he went missing last week.

He isn't a great player though so I don't know what you expect.

Spot on. He has bad games like every half back. Last night was not one.

The losses aren’t his though it’s a team game.

 

[earl]

Where does the fault lay for this?
Simpkin was horrible during this period but he has had only a handful of games in the top grade. Madden did nothing but he has had only a handful of games in the top grade. Laurie was aweful but he is still on training wheels with regard to games in the top grade. Liddle was stuck on the bench for some stupid reason. Thats it. They’re our skilful guys who could create points. They are young, inexperienced and they choked.

Luckily, we had a guy out there who has played over 170 NRL games, who had been in this position before and who was the captain. He knows what to do, he will call the shots, the lads will take his cue and implement his game plan….

The fault lies with those guys you mention prior to mentioning Brooks. I agree Brooks isn't good enough to do it on his own.

I'm not even stating that Brooks gets the job on-going. We need to pick the best available team and we should all know what Brooks offers by now.

I was thinking that Hastings and Douieihi should be our halves and maybe they will be. We need fullback sorted out though. We also need to sort out our middle forwards. Twal to me has done nothing all season and he isn't an impact forward at all. Maybe it's time he got dropped as well.

 

[Snidest 0]

There is absolutely no difference between how our team is steered during games and the way a drunk driver drives.

Drinking and driving typically causes impaired judgment balance problems, and confusion, impaired speech, staggering, dizziness, the inability to anticipate and vomiting (fans).

If the driver of this team was charged and brought before a magistrate as a repeat offender this driver would definately receive a fine and his Licence would be suspended.

We know who the vehicle is (Coach) and we all know who is the drunk driver of this vehicle.

What an utter waste of everybody's time typing that drivel was....

 

[BAGNF05]

The fault lies with those guys you mention prior to mentioning Brooks. I agree Brooks isn't good enough to do it on his own.

I'm not even stating that Brooks gets the job on-going. We need to pick the best available team and we should all know what Brooks offers by now.

I was thinking that Hastings and Douieihi should be our halves and maybe they will be. We need fullback sorted out though. We also need to sort out our middle forwards. Twal to me has done nothing all season and he isn't an impact forward at all. Maybe it's time he got dropped as well.

Their argument is now, all the other guys are nuffies so Brooks needs to stand up and win it on his own, but he can only do it using the nuffies. I’m surprised he only asked to leave twice!

 

[stryker 69]

I take it you missed the kick them Books put through to Laurie. He stood up out there.

You make a good point though and it's the big problem with Brooks. He does go missing at crucial times. I didn't think he did it in this game but he went missing last week.

He isn't a great player though so I don't know what you expect.

For the first 65 minutes he was good. He was creating chances and was defending well. Even his short kicking was on point.
That’s why everyone was so happy when the binning occurred as we were on top and now had the advantage. Brooks was breaking their line, he and Madden were troubling them with kicks, Toa was terrorising their defence, Garner was closing down their attack. Keep doing what you were doing and the Warriors would fold.

I expected him to lead. Did you ever see Joey, Cooper, Thursty or Locky stand around waiting for the ball to come to them in a situation like this? These guys took over and ran every play through their hands until they scored and won. Brooksy doesn’t ever do this. His passiveness in high pressure footy causes us to miss finals. Don’t get me wrong, the young blokes stuffed that game up royally. Saying that, we still should have won and would have if Luke’s last 15 minutes were better. After 170 NRL games, that’s not too much to expect.

 

[stryker 69]

And when the moment came and he gave Laurie a clean ball with a 3 on 2, Laurie kooked it. Stop blaming Luke for others ineptitude.

You obviously have no sense as to what I’m describing so I’m going to stop banging my head.
Enjoy your day.

 

[earl]

I expected him to lead. Did you ever see Joey, Cooper, Thursty or Locky stand around waiting for the ball to come to them in a situation like this? These guys took over and ran every play through their hands until they scored and won. Brooksy doesn’t ever do this. His passiveness in high pressure footy causes us to miss finals. Don’t get me wrong, the young blokes stuffed that game up royally. Saying that, we still should have won and would have if Luke’s last 15 minutes were better. After 170 NRL games, that’s not too much to expect.

I get it. I keep trying to say this. He isn't that player. He isn't a great player. He is an average halfback.

I saw those players win games. They were special. Brooks isn't.

 

[BAGNF05]

You obviously have no sense as to what I’m describing so I’m going to stop banging my head.
Enjoy your day.

You were stating that he butchered the last 10 mins. Well he actually set up a second match winning play for Laurie. Who butchered that one too.

 

[Kaito]

What an utter waste of everybody's time typing that drivel was....

The man has a point...