Chris Lawrence

[DonnyBrasco]

When I get home tonight I'm going to try and get caps from the replay and show just where Rowdy was getting the passes from Brooks. From my first-pass viewing they were 85% hospital passes.

Rowdy used to get a lot of ball from Benji and not drop so many because the pass selection was superior.

I can't fathom why they are still having him running these lines into the opposition?

You feel sorry for him, the balls he gets and then is expected to bust through a massive pack and make it over the line.

I wonder how much of this is coached and how much are the players alone deciding it's a brilliant idea?

 

[jirskyr]

When I get home tonight I'm going to try and get caps from the replay and show just where Rowdy was getting the passes from Brooks. From my first-pass viewing they were 85% hospital passes.

Rowdy used to get a lot of ball from Benji and not drop so many because the pass selection was superior.

I can't fathom why they are still having him running these lines into the opposition?

You feel sorry for him, the balls he gets and then is expected to bust through a massive pack and make it over the line.

I wonder how much of this is coached and how much are the players alone deciding it's a brilliant idea?

My opinion is his lines aren't so bad, he's always been a decent hole-runner Lawrence. Second rowers have to run holes somewhere in that channel.

The main issue is Brooks does not ask any questions of the attack and they prey on his runners. I'll put up the caps to show what I mean, but I was watching carefully after last week and Brooks takes one step forward before running sideways on pretty much every left-side play. He almost never straightens up.

As soon as you skip across field the defensive line advances on you and they molest your runners, because a sideways runner isn't concerning the defence at all. Esp Luke Brooks who doesn't really have a good running game, they just watch his runners.

So the reason Rowdy gets smashed is because he runs decent lines but Brooks telegraphs where the ball is going, the opposition just line the poor runner up.

It is my opinion that Lawrence should be rewarded for continuing to run what amount to suicide lines into the teeth of the defence, whilst Brooks throws him dodgy late balls at the hips. One thing I will say for Brooks is he doesn't have so much space to work with when his forwards are being dominated, but still his pass selection is very poor.

Compare to James Maloney against the Raiders, fair enough he had more space because his early-tackle backs and forwards were moving forward more effectively, but he takes it to the line and squares up before throwing passes. Maloney has a running game, the defence is aware of this, they respect his run and in that match they over-read his run, he kept opening up space for Wade Graham to pour into. Specifically Blake Austin, Maloney kept getting him interested and waiting for him to commit before putting Graham through on his outside. Brooks in comparison is running sideways.

Broses are all sideways running at the moment, and being little fellows, are very unlikely to bust a tackle, they only serve to cramp their outside runners.

 

[matchball]

I'm pretty sure Lawrence would qualify for a disability pension considering his lost mobility through injury.
Sack him and lead him down to the nearest centrelink.

 

[tigger2010]

I was thinking ask him to retire and offer him a role within the club,that way at least the team can use the cap money .

 

[Fumbles]

The highest paid player at the club but isn't accountable to anyone.

 

[Tigertigertiger]

Rowdys best asset was his speed, that's gone and that's why we are in a mess, too many small forwards who lack punch.

We need to buy big mungrels in our forward pack

 

[jirskyr]

When I get home tonight I'm going to try and get caps from the replay and show just where Rowdy was getting the passes from Brooks. From my first-pass viewing they were 85% hospital passes.

Rowdy used to get a lot of ball from Benji and not drop so many because the pass selection was superior.

I can't fathom why they are still having him running these lines into the opposition?

You feel sorry for him, the balls he gets and then is expected to bust through a massive pack and make it over the line.

I wonder how much of this is coached and how much are the players alone deciding it's a brilliant idea?

OK here are the 3 Brooks passes to Lawrence yesterday, before Lawrence was taken off concussed 2nd half.

 

[TCL]

When I get home tonight I'm going to try and get caps from the replay and show just where Rowdy was getting the passes from Brooks. From my first-pass viewing they were 85% hospital passes.

Rowdy used to get a lot of ball from Benji and not drop so many because the pass selection was superior.

It's hard to drop a ball when it is 6ft above your head sailing 4 rows deep into the stands. Sorry I couldn't resist. I do love Benji. He was great to watch when on song.

 

[jirskyr]

P1 is pure hospital, Canberra have two blokes just waiting for Lawrence plus the player tracking Brooks. You don't throw it in those situations.

P2 & P3 are two steps of another hospital, Brooks runs across and in-front of Lawrence, forces him to turn back inside (because MCK is already just outside Lawrence now), then turns the ball no-look back at Lawrence's knees. He maybe could have caught it but it was a fast pass without warning.

P4 is the only arguable one - Lawrence gets it well short of the defensive line. The only defence of Lawrence here is that Brooks has run at least 5 m across field to throw this pass, literally in a straight line sideways across the 10m line, so he's throwing a hard pass with his own lateral momentum across Lawrence. There's a little gap but Whitehead has it pretty well covered. If Brooks straightens maybe the pass comes off differently, but you can already see Bateman peeling off Brooks. If I'm a pro footballer, I never want to receive a pass from a bloke who has just run 5m sideways to give me the ball.

 

[happy_tiger]

Hang on Rowdy is a better second rower than just about every back rower in the comp according to the stats

We had this argument in the pre season

We should of signed him for life according to the stats , shouldn't we ??

 

[DonnyBrasco]

Two of the shots show how great it would have been in those instances to use him to push the defence back the other way without passing to him so he's the dummy runner, and then go back to the outside

 

[batboy]

I gave him the benefit of the doubt with the kick off cos that was a mongrel of a ball to catch. Putting those passes down though on the attack were hard to forgive. Expect much more from a seasoned first grader than that.

You probably couldn't see it on the TV Gunners - But he ran (sprinted) 20m in from the sideline to try catch that ball.. One of the halves was standing about 5-10m in from where he dropped it.

That ball was never (ever) his….
Was similar to when he used to bolt out of the line to miss tackles by a million miles.

 

[Cultured_Bogan]

A couple of those passes were iffy. I'm sure some other players would have held on to them. Who knows.

CL is a great clubman, has given everything for the club and puts in 100% every week but it looks as though it's catching up with him. I think personally he's playing too many minutes and Brooks poor game at the moment is stifling him further. I hope he can come back from it but I'm not so sure he can.

 

[batboy]

P4.jpg
P1 is pure hospital, Canberra have two blokes just waiting for Lawrence plus the player tracking Brooks. You don't throw it in those situations.

P2 & P3 are two steps of another hospital, Brooks runs across and in-front of Lawrence, forces him to turn back inside (because MCK is already just outside Lawrence now), then turns the ball no-look back at Lawrence's knees. He maybe could have caught it but it was a fast pass without warning.

P4 is the only arguable one - Lawrence gets it well short of the defensive line. The only defence of Lawrence here is that Brooks has run at least 5 m across field to throw this pass, literally in a straight line sideways across the 10m line, so he's throwing a hard pass with his own lateral momentum across Lawrence. There's a little gap but Whitehead has it pretty well covered. If Brooks straightens maybe the pass comes off differently, but you can already see Bateman peeling off Brooks. If I'm a pro footballer, I never want to receive a pass from a bloke who has just run 5m sideways to give me the ball.

You'll find that Lawrence has 2 defenders waiting for him because he has one line - and one line only…
Outside in.

 

[Nelson]

Hang on Rowdy is a better second rower than just about every back rower in the comp according to the stats

We had this argument in the pre season

We should of signed him for life according to the stats , shouldn't we ??

He had a bad game no doubt, it probably wasn't helped by his confidence going down along with that ball on the kickoff. It's 3 games into the season though and while that's apparently early enough to knife a coach you should probably wait a bit longer before you completely write off Lawrence and start crowing about being "right".

 

[Geo]

Hang on Rowdy is a better second rower than just about every back rower in the comp according to the stats

We had this argument in the pre season

We should of signed him for life according to the stats , shouldn't we ??

He had a bad game no doubt, it probably wasn't helped by his confidence going down along with that ball on the kickoff. It's 3 games into the season though and while that's apparently early enough to knife a coach you should probably wait a bit longer before you completely write off Lawrence and start crowing about being "right".

Happy seems to use stats as it suits him…here they are meaningless yet when it comes to Aaron and metres after contact.. (a stat not recorded btw) they prove he is also useless..

 

[goldcoast_tiger]

Now if you want to bag Lawrence that's fair enough in my opinion. But why is Lawrence under contract until 2019\. Why isn't this point ever brought up???. If I remember correctly wasn't this one of the many problems that others caused for Jason Taylor, correct me If I'm wrong, but wasn't this one of the many stuff ups associated with the Tim Sheens era. Wasn't it a 5 year contract on absurd money, with a one year option in his favour, which he exercised. Hang on, I almost forgot about Andrew Fifita. That's right, he was let go for Adam Blair. Chris Heighington another. Truth is we got lucky in 2005, by the name of Scott Prince and Benji Marshall.

The other piece of luck was Anthony Lafranchi. His leaving left a hell of a hole

 

[jirskyr]

You'll find that Lawrence has 2 defenders waiting for him because he has one line - and one line only…
Outside in.

Well no, there are plenty of instances of him running an out-line. Plenty, I'll even pull them up this afternoon if I have to.

But there are two main reasons IMO why Lawrence often runs outside-in:

1) Brooks runs across field too much. You can hardly run an outside line when your half is also running that line straight at you. You are just asking to get smashed, for a halfback to run you across field, at the defensive line, and throw you a pass across your body as the defence slides on you. Suicide. The natural response to a sideways distribution is to pick a moment to cut across that grain. Look at the second pass where Lawrence is forced to cut back in because Brooks runs across him.

2) The outside ball is normally meant for Tedesco. Don't think Brooks hit MCK at all against the Raiders, don't think he has hit him at all this season on that kind of play. Lawrence straightens so Tedesco can get the sweeping out-ball.

So Lawrence attracts heavy defence because they know he's going to get the ball, especially if Tedesco is not immediately present. Look at Pass 1, the backs are 8 metres behind the play, the Raiders are not at all concerned that the ball might go out back. And frankly Brooks just telegraphs too much, he rarely runs on these plays, for some reason doesn't really use his left-foot step, the defence just knows it's either going to Lawrence or Tedesco, that's the 2 options.

 

[Eddie]

Brooks does throw him some dead set hospital balls.

However his hands have been an embarrassment since he got his hip injury.

He just looks like the football is a foreign object in his hands.

He struggles to play the ball properly without adjusting the ball in his hands.

It's embarrassing to watch.

 

[bigsiro]

Hospital shmospital!!!!

Gimme a bloody break!!!!

Catch the ball for crying out loud!!!! Hospital pass is hardly a reason to drop the ball FOUR TIMES in a half!!

Sure, they were poor passes. What about the drop from the kick-off??? Did Brooks do that too???

Crikey Brooks has enough detractors (I'm one) and there enough threads where us fans highlight his ineptitude. But fair go, this is about Lawrence and unless those passes are uncatch-able (which they weren't) then a guy who is an 11 year veteran can damn well catch the ball first and if he's got an issue with the poor passing then he would be well within his rights to berate Brooks all he damn well likes.

But, if he's going to drop the ball every single time unless it is lightly placed on his chest then fair suck.