Brooks: What exactly has gone wrong?

[beachtiger]

Every coach he’s had in grade has spoken about it being his team and his to take control of but clearly that doesn’t suit him which he’s shown. I’m a fan of Brooks but as a supporting half not the dominant half. I have never seen signs of him ever stepping up to “own” the team and in fact I think that expectation actually hinders his game. Used properly Brooks has a huge upside in our team, he has shown plenty of skill and in my opinion is one of the best defensive halves in the game. Take the expectation of him being the leader away and I believe you’ll get a much more relaxed and natural game from him which will bring out his best.

 

[cktiger]

If he is now controlling and distributing he’s doing a bloody poor job of it.
On the contrary it looks like lately that he’s bee told to look for a hole and use his speed.
Either way, on TV this week,Fittler and Gallen summed up our chances next year as not making the 8 without a halfback who plays consistently good (not bad as in Brooks case).

When the opposition have blocked off the outside options, he now runs himself. He used to throw some dodgy hospital passes to the 2nd rower.

Do you always think that Fittler and Gallen are right or just when they say what you already believe?

Fittler and Gallen are 100% right ... and so am I.
How many years do you want to give him before giving up...15?

 

[Speed2burn]

If he is now controlling and distributing he’s doing a bloody poor job of it.
On the contrary it looks like lately that he’s bee told to look for a hole and use his speed.
Either way, on TV this week,Fittler and Gallen summed up our chances next year as not making the 8 without a halfback who plays consistently good (not bad as in Brooks case).

When the opposition have blocked off the outside options, he now runs himself. He used to throw some dodgy hospital passes to the 2nd rower.

Do you always think that Fittler and Gallen are right or just when they say what you already believe?

Fittler and Gallen are 100% right ... and so am I.
How many years do you want to give him before giving up...15?

The media are the ones who hyped him up...not him

But Do you think someone like Nathan Cleary would excel in his shoes? I’m talking in terms of swapping through 4 coaches, musical chairs in terms of management, 50 different halves pairings, topped off with a sub par squad for the majority of his career.

In my view, the only time we’ve had a good mix of quality backs & forwards was in 2014. (During his stint)

 

[Sart0ri]

Fittler and Gallen are 100% right … and so am I.
How many years do you want to give him before giving up…15?

Brooks is a good halfback, he is not the best but far better than anyone else available at the moment.

I used to think that DCE was better. How has he gone without Turbo and a good dummy half? You take away the stars around a halfback and they all look ordinary.

I think the reason people want to sack Brooks is because he does not match their idea of a halfback. Storm came 2nd this year with a fullback playing as halfback, he doesn't have any of the skills and traits of a halfback. They used a centre who was too slow and too small to be a NRL centre as a halfback for 13 years and had a pretty good record.

 

[happy_tiger]

Fittler and Gallen are 100% right … and so am I.
How many years do you want to give him before giving up…15?

Brooks is a good halfback, he is not the best but far better than anyone else available at the moment.

I used to think that DCE was better. How has he gone without Turbo and a good dummy half? You take away the stars around a halfback and they all look ordinary.

I think the reason people want to sack Brooks is because he does not match their idea of a halfback. Storm came 2nd this year with a fullback playing as halfback, he doesn't have any of the skills and traits of a halfback. They used a centre who was too slow and too small to be a NRL centre as a halfback for 13 years and had a pretty good record.

DCE has carried Manly ..seriously man

 

[Sart0ri]

DCE has carried Manly …seriously man

3 wins out of 13 games without Turbo this year, he hasn't carried them very far.

 

[mike]

Fittler and Gallen are 100% right … and so am I.
How many years do you want to give him before giving up…15?

Brooks is a good halfback, he is not the best but far better than anyone else available at the moment.

I used to think that DCE was better. How has he gone without Turbo and a good dummy half? You take away the stars around a halfback and they all look ordinary.

I think the reason people want to sack Brooks is because he does not match their idea of a halfback. Storm came 2nd this year with a fullback playing as halfback, he doesn't have any of the skills and traits of a halfback. They used a centre who was too slow and too small to be a NRL centre as a halfback for 13 years and had a pretty good record.

DCE doesn’t look ordinary, he is the best player on the field without Turbo Tom. Certainly Manly does look ordinary and that’s the difference. Brooks looks ordinary.

 

[Strider]

I'm constantly amazed that after seven seasons and 145 games, people are still waiting for (nearly) 26 year old Brooks to come of age and/or step out from the shadow of Farah, Marshall or whoever.

This year he was thoroughly outplayed by a rookie hooker and a senior citizen five-eighth.

He's an average halfback that can't deliver us a top 8 finish.

I have to have a slightly different opinion than yours Papacito,only because I look at the way he had to chop and change his playing style to suit at least 4 different coaches with different structures and gameplans...you also have to understand Luke is timid by nature and with Benji gone he may become a lot more aggressive as 2021 progresses

What about a Cooper Cronk ..he has a different club coach , different All Stars coach , different State coach and different Australian coach all in one season ..all different styles ..maybe 2 different in a week

Everyone STOP with the excuses for Brooks , Marshall , our backline , our forward pack , our defence and the results they achieve every week , and every season

They aren't good enough , they aren't acceptable , and shouldn't be acceptable by anyone involved with this club whether it is a fan ,coach ,CEO ,Football manager , medico ,assistant coach or recruitment or retention guru


Reality is tough ...but you need to deal with it


What til Rd 25 next year ...when things are even worse

Brooks isnt a Cronk,...Cronk is much older and has been in the Melb system under one coach for a lot longer than Brooks had been..so do other players at elite level have different coaches..Brooks isnt an elite player with the experience Cronk has had..

So If he isn't an elite player ...we should be looking an upgrading him asap

No give Madge a chance to develope him into the halfback he was hyped to be...he has the ability,he just needs to have a coach for him to trust in and find confidence in his own abilities..

Ivan Cleary perhaps ?

 

[Strider]

I don't want to Troll but can Brooks throw wide passes? I just see him either throw a tough ball to the fella right next to him or throw a lame dummy and get tackled, or run in a circle and get tackled.

 

[Sart0ri]

I don’t want to Troll but can Brooks throw wide passes? I just see him either throw a tough ball to the fella right next to him or throw a lame dummy and get tackled, or run in a circle and get tackled.


 

[jadtiger]

I don’t want to Troll but can Brooks throw wide passes? I just see him either throw a tough ball to the fella right next to him or throw a lame dummy and get tackled, or run in a circle and get tackled.


Great pass certainly better then Benjis to row z

 

[Speed2burn]

I don’t want to Troll but can Brooks throw wide passes? I just see him either throw a tough ball to the fella right next to him or throw a lame dummy and get tackled, or run in a circle and get tackled.


Yet that try assist will go down as Mbyes when it was Brooks’s ball that really helped set it up

That’s why the try assist stat is mainly flawed

 

[Strider]

Good pass more of that next year 👍

 

[cktiger]

Good pass more of that next year 👍

Keep your eyes open - he only does one a year.

 

[earl]

Good pass more of that next year ?

Keep your eyes open - he only does one a year.

He does that more than once but one pass doesn't prove he is a quality halfback. His kick to AD when we won at the end was great. He organized that and executed perfectly. His defense is good. His running game is pretty good.

He needs to be a lot more consistent plus offer more if we consider him the guy who is going to lead this team to winning the comp.

I still think he is our best half and we need to work on improving that situation or have Brooks improve a lot.

 

[2005magic]

Good pass more of that next year ?

Keep your eyes open - he only does one a year.

He does that more than once but one pass doesn't prove he is a quality halfback. His kick to AD when we won at the end was great. He organized that and executed perfectly. His defense is good. His running game is pretty good.

He needs to be a lot more consistent plus offer more if we consider him the guy who is going to lead this team to winning the comp.

I still think he is our best half and we need to work on improving that situation or have Brooks improve a lot.

Next season oh Lord, next season. He should well and truely be off his P plates by now. This is all he will ever be.

 

[earl]

Good pass more of that next year ?

Keep your eyes open - he only does one a year.

He does that more than once but one pass doesn't prove he is a quality halfback. His kick to AD when we won at the end was great. He organized that and executed perfectly. His defense is good. His running game is pretty good.

He needs to be a lot more consistent plus offer more if we consider him the guy who is going to lead this team to winning the comp.

I still think he is our best half and we need to work on improving that situation or have Brooks improve a lot.

Next season oh Lord, next season. He should well and truely be off his P plates by now. This is all he will ever be.

I can't see him turning into a great halfback either. I think he is our best option at the moment and currently for next season. I don't think we have any other options.

I also think a lot of people's expectations of Brooks need to change. He isn't a great halfback. We can use him as a lower cost option in our halves who can do a lot of things well but not great.

 

[JD Tiger]

I don’t want to Troll but can Brooks throw wide passes? I just see him either throw a tough ball to the fella right next to him or throw a lame dummy and get tackled, or run in a circle and get tackled.


Do you see that Souths player playing in the centre spot push MBye over after he passes it? If MBye was a player with more aggression who stands up for themself, they get up after that, go to the Souths player and push him, a melee ensues, and there's a good chance we get a 8 point penalty try there after the refs look at the replay.

That's what the good teams would do, that's what I want us to do, stand up for ourselves. One of the highlights of the year for me was watching Brooks go after Gagai and throw a punch at him, letting Gagai know he wouldn't be putting up with the rubbish Gagai did. It's just a pity that to get some aggression and intimidation in the team we have to look at our halfback, when literally every other player should be doing that first before him.

 

[Geo]

I don’t want to Troll but can Brooks throw wide passes? I just see him either throw a tough ball to the fella right next to him or throw a lame dummy and get tackled, or run in a circle and get tackled.


Do you see that Souths player playing in the centre spot push MBye over after he passes it? If MBye was a player with more aggression who stands up for themself, they get up after that, go to the Souths player and push him, a melee ensues, and there's a good chance we get a 8 point penalty try there after the refs look at the replay.

That's what the good teams would do, that's what I want us to do, stand up for ourselves. One of the highlights of the year for me was watching Brooks go after Gagai and throw a punch at him, letting Gagai know he wouldn't be putting up with the rubbish Gagai did. It's just a pity that to get some aggression and intimidation in the team we have to look at our halfback, when literally every other player should be doing that first before him.

Penalty TRIES are when a TRY is not scored that would have been.. no second shot at goal

8 point TRIES are when a TRY is scored and there is an act of foul play on the TRY scorer..

So Mbye being knocked over would have resulted in neither..

 

[cktiger]

Good pass more of that next year ?

Keep your eyes open - he only does one a year.

He does that more than once but one pass doesn't prove he is a quality halfback. His kick to AD when we won at the end was great. He organized that and executed perfectly. His defense is good. His running game is pretty good.

He needs to be a lot more consistent plus offer more if we consider him the guy who is going to lead this team to winning the comp.

**I still think he is our best half** and we need to work on improving that situation or have Brooks improve a lot.

The big problem is I think he's our best half too ... that won't be good enough though.