@boonboon said in [Esan Masters Please Stand Up](/post/1040365) said:
I think people are being a bit harsh. I don't think he has had his best season but consider he has been in FG 3 seasons and he is under his 3rd FG coach that can't make it easy on a young bloke who before he came into FG was a backrower so hasn't had the experience of growing up a centre.
Also this is his 2nd full year in FG so oppositions are also figuring him out a little more and know to look for the offload and for where he runs.
I also think his form isn't as bad as many are making out he is making 111m a match, has 34 offloads (1st for Tigers and 6th in the NRL), 6 tries (2nd best for us), 4 line breaks and 3 line break assists, 43 tackle breaks. He has also much reduced his error rate under Madge which has changed his game a bit from 1 per match down to 0.66 per match which has meant he is focusing more on quality play.
So is he playign a starring role no , could he be better yes but is he playing better then many are thinking - yes he is
Don't really care about stats but agree with the sentiment of this post...Marsters was OK last night..there really seems to be a need to criticise someone
Wests Tigers also had a plan to attack the Knights right edge which proved quire effective...not many opportunities for Marsters but he threatened with what little ball he did get broke a few tackles and a couple of nice offloads ..needs to work on setting up his outside man..had a few chances to do that but went himself..
I care about the stats, thanks boon for looking them up.
I have a strong belief that so many fans come to an absolute opinion based on one single viewing of something - one match, one try, one missed tackle. They don't go back and check the replays or the stats. And all the previous matches in the season recede into the back of the memory. The Stats serve as a reminder of what really happened, the facts of the match, subject to interpretation.
It's like the Mbye thread, people banging on that he missed a tackle on Ramien that led to a try. Yeah he did but Ramien busts 5 tackles per match, 3rd most in the NRL, so clearly he's hard to tackle. And Moses tackled / stopped him 10 times at least, so 10% critical missed tackles isn't that bad.
I personally think Masters is playing average for himself, a bit above average for centres in general. There is a general lack of form amongst centres in the comp at the moment - blokes like Euan Aitken, Dugan, Morris boys, Ramien, Lafai, Jimmy Jet, Blake, Whare etc. not at their best. Probably only Latrell, Chambers and Xerri really doing any damage at the moment. A bunch of teams are playing backrowers in the centres.
Lastly - Marsters still a first-choice NZ rep centre. And Mbye played 2 Origins. So obviously selectors have no idea about football talent either.