Brooks: What exactly has gone wrong?

[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.

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..

Are you sure the act of foul play has to be on the tryscorer? If so, then maybe they can sin bin the bludger for the foul play.

My point is, remember when Mitchell felled Reynolds after Reynolds badly timed a kick that hit the Souths player. Mitchell barely got punished for it as it was seen to be 'provoked'. Or when a player is hit in a high tackle, and their team mates come from all around with argy-bargy to push the offender and talk tough. They're examples of cohesive units, of good teams sticking up for each other, and for some reason we very very rarely see WT players doing that.

Why not? That's the mentality we should have.

 

[Strider]

Apart from Brooks usually handing the ball to the fella next to him, his running game makes me cringe. The dummy and run into a defender. I wonder if he could try a side step or a few moves. His running game is pointless basically. I wish he didn't score off a dummy in his first game. 7 years on its no good Luke hah. Try something else.

 

[tig_prmz]

Just thinking out loud here but it's almost as if he NEEDS to make more mistakes. I don't think he's doing anything wrong, it's just he's not giving you enough as a halfback. He's not trying enough.

In the first couple of years, there were the back infield kicks to Teddy, taking the ball to the line with two decoys and doing a pressure pass, short kicks to the corner... he's stopped all of that. He's standing flat to the half and getting dominated with each 5th tackle option. He needs to be in space, stand deeper, take runners to the line, try some low % plays and learn from the mistakes.

I truly believe he is a hard worker, can perform under pressure, has the best defence I have seen from any half and actually has a good long kicking game (except spiral bombs). I would like him to do some goal kicking as well and become a back up goal kicker.

I have given him a lot of crap this year but I really like him and his off-field personality. I feel Noffa and him deserve a win and I hope 2021 is it. For us and for both of them.

 

[Strider]

I like Brooks but we need to look at why he was good in 2018 and use his strengths perhaps. And he needs an exciting 5/8th more than Mbye or Reynolds

 

[crazycat]

As everyone says. When we get DOMINATED in the forwards week after week why are we surprised by the poor result. Fix the damn forward pack.
Sure Benji pulled rabbits out of his hat. Brooks doesn't. Brooks can certainly turn on the tries and the effort.

Now I believe the solution to Brooks is that he gets moved to another position and we get a better team manager as a half. lets see, great running game, good passing can kick. Bad team control, bad positional awareness. Let Brooks goto 5/8 for a few games.

Our biggest problems is Liddle being an awesome 30-50 minute hooker who is going to get busted up again and the big D.

Your last paragraph is well off the mark.

Of course he is a 30-50 minute DH at the moment with a year in rehab and coming back and playing about 3 x 15 minute games. What do you expect?

With the off season behind him he will be just as likely to play 80 minutes as anyone else in the team.

There is no reason he would get busted again other than you saying so. His defense is quite good and will get even better. The thing he needs to work on is his kicking game, which will add another string to his bow.

His service from DH is way better than Grant and you can see that as soon as he comes on, everyone has more time immediately.

Dummy Half is a blender, a whirlpool of a role. We have been spoiled by Robbie Farah who gave 80 minute performances with lots of energy. Liddle is not this. Grant can go 80, Liddle doesn't.

Liddle hasn't played 80 minutes. Happy to be proven wrong, but we haven't seen this from him. 80 minutes is the exception for hookers, one of the toughest, continuous roles out there. Don't push 80 minutes on a guy that doesn't do it! Otherwise we just see this zombie 60 minutes in passing balls and getting hammered. It doesn't work.

Also, Liddle has been busted up pretty heavily. two shoulder reconstructions... Each time that happens the joints are a little weaker. The players that get injured tend to get more injured, that's why people don't want them as much. Maybe their bone structure is weaker then other players... Don't know.

Now Liddle has some great advantages. Great footwork and speed. I think Issac Luke when I think of Liddle. Yet the disadvantages, namely that he isn't an 80 minute player (yet) pose a risk that we need to deal with. Would I take Grant or Liddle +300K... Grant ofcourse. We don't have that choice and need to build Liddle, we do need a backup option though that's not bring Robbie Farah out of retirement.

 

[ElleryHanley]

Looked much better past two games he played. I also think AD will really suit Brooks.

Maybe there is hope...fingers crossed...

 

[Alex Seyfarth's #1 Fan]

Looked much better past two games he played. I also think AD will really suit Brooks.

Maybe there is hope...fingers crossed...

AD looks good at 5/8. Chimes in when he needs to, yet also recognises when the situation requires him to step up.

 

[hobbo1]

Looked much better past two games he played. I also think AD will really suit Brooks.

Maybe there is hope...fingers crossed...

But the peeps will accuse Doohey of stifling Brooks’s play ..

 

[jrtiger]

took the game by the scruff of the neck when it was on the line. if it wasn't for a cracking tackle from gutho then that's twice in the space of a month he's come up with clutch plays. feel for Benji but we got a glimpse of what we look like when Brooks is dominant. fingers crossed he comes into preseason focused.

 

[tiger05premier]

Looked great once Benji went off

 

[Geo]

Looked much better past two games he played. I also think AD will really suit Brooks.

Maybe there is hope...fingers crossed...

But the peeps will accuse Doohey of stifling Brooks’s play ..

No because they worked well together...

Did you notice who was 1st on the kick chase 90% of the time....

 

[ElleryHanley]

I think AD has the personality to balance Brooks also. He is more vocal and hard on himself. He wants to control the game. Brooksy will be freed up a lot to run and chase.

 

[hobbo1]

Looked much better past two games he played. I also think AD will really suit Brooks.

Maybe there is hope...fingers crossed...

But the peeps will accuse Doohey of stifling Brooks’s play ..

No because they worked well together...

Did you notice who was 1st on the kick chase 90% of the time....

I don’t do stats ...
It was a coach killer kicking on the 1st
Just admit it was a poor option ...
But Brooks is untouchable in your eyes ..
150 games ?
Doohey 50 games who’s been chopped and changed in multiple positions is still a better playmaker than Brooks ..
No ones perfect mate ...not even Brooks !

 

[tig_prmz]

Something I noticed before Benji went off is Brooks was very flat footed when he got the ball. He needs to move onto the ball and keep moving. I'd love to see him try some Mitchel Pearce type plays with two runners into the line.

 

[Cobarcats]

There you go, did you see how Brooks ran the ball more when Benji went off, defence was great, he's a bloody good player, he just gets lost because he doesn't know what's his role is, next year dooooee (like Cooee) at 5/8 and Brooks to shine. P S. need a straight shooter goal kicker!

 

[Geo]

Looked much better past two games he played. I also think AD will really suit Brooks.

Maybe there is hope...fingers crossed...

But the peeps will accuse Doohey of stifling Brooks’s play ..

No because they worked well together...

Did you notice who was 1st on the kick chase 90% of the time....

I don’t do stats ...
It was a coach killer kicking on the 1st
Just admit it was a poor option ...
But Brooks is untouchable in your eyes ..
150 games ?
Doohey 50 games who’s been chopped and changed in multiple positions is still a better playmaker than Brooks ..
No ones perfect mate ...not even Brooks !

Never said it wasn't poor at all..have never said he's perfect either

you just ignore what he did well ..defense on our goal line was better than blokes twice his size ,,started his TRY with good ball to Rowdy... quite a few thought the same in the 3 2 1..

It's to counter the constant rubbish..

Ellery is not his biggest fan..but he is objective..your not it's that simple

 

[Speed2burn]

There you go, did you see how Brooks ran the ball more when Benji went off, defence was great, he's a bloody good player, he just gets lost because he doesn't know what's his role is, next year dooooee (like Cooee) at 5/8 and Brooks to shine. P S. need a straight shooter goal kicker!

Just needs to back himself. There’s no reason why he couldn’t do it with Benji in the team either, just seems like he goes in his shell

 

[hobbo1]

Looked much better past two games he played. I also think AD will really suit Brooks.

Maybe there is hope...fingers crossed...

But the peeps will accuse Doohey of stifling Brooks’s play ..

No because they worked well together...

Did you notice who was 1st on the kick chase 90% of the time....

I don’t do stats ...
It was a coach killer kicking on the 1st
Just admit it was a poor option ...
But Brooks is untouchable in your eyes ..
150 games ?
Doohey 50 games who’s been chopped and changed in multiple positions is still a better playmaker than Brooks ..
No ones perfect mate ...not even Brooks !

Never said it wasn't poor at all..have never said he's perfect either

you just ignore what he did well ..defense on our goal line was better than blokes twice his size ,,started his TRY with good ball to Rowdy... quite a few thought the same in the 3 2 1..

It's to counter the constant rubbish..

Ellery is not his biggest fan..but he is objective..your not it's that simple

It’s your opinion it’s rubbish ...
Yes his defence has been good but it was either learn to tackle or stay as a speed hump ..
Shame his kicking game and game management has never improved .

 

[Geo]

Looked much better past two games he played. I also think AD will really suit Brooks.

Maybe there is hope...fingers crossed...

But the peeps will accuse Doohey of stifling Brooks’s play ..

No because they worked well together...

Did you notice who was 1st on the kick chase 90% of the time....

I don’t do stats ...
It was a coach killer kicking on the 1st
Just admit it was a poor option ...
But Brooks is untouchable in your eyes ..
150 games ?
Doohey 50 games who’s been chopped and changed in multiple positions is still a better playmaker than Brooks ..
No ones perfect mate ...not even Brooks !

Never said it wasn't poor at all..have never said he's perfect either

you just ignore what he did well ..defense on our goal line was better than blokes twice his size ,,started his TRY with good ball to Rowdy... quite a few thought the same in the 3 2 1..

It's to counter the constant rubbish..

Ellery is not his biggest fan..but he is objective..your not it's that simple

It’s your opinion it’s rubbish ...
Yes his defence has been good but it was either learn to tackle or stay as a speed hump ..
Shame his kicking game and game management has never improved .

Found the grass on 3 occasions even a repeat set..much better tonight..

 

[Jimmy]

With the emergence of Doueihi/Talau and AJ I have no room for Mbye in my starting side....he’ll be a bench hooker for us with liddle starting Imo