Farah admits Potter will continue to bench him in 2013

[pHyR3]

Wests Tigers skipper Robbie Farah admits coach Mick Potter will continue to bench him in 2013

By Ben Glover

Robbie Farah has admitted to being "a little bit cranky" with Wests Tigers coach Mick Potter when he brought the skipper off at a crucial time during their clash with Manly last Thursday night.

A renowned 80 minute workhorse, Farah was controversially hooked just before half-time, at a time in the game where the Sea Eagles had taken a 4-0 lead and were starting to gain ascendency.

History will show that Manly went on to record a comfortable 26-0 win over the Tigers at a sodden Bluetongue Stadium and a fair bit of the damage was done during the 17 minutes Farah was off the field.

Reflecting on the match on Sterlo on Thursday night, Farah admitted he felt Potter had got his timing wrong.
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"I've spoken to him and I think we both agree that there's time when he can afford to bring me off but at that stage of the game, at 4-0 just before half-time, I would have prefered to stay on the field," Farah said.

"But definitely there's going to be times during the year when he can afford to bring me off."

Farah said Potter had always planned to give his skipper some bench time at different stages through the season as a strategy to keep him fresh for big moments.

But Fox Sports rugby league expert Matthew Johns disagreed with the philosophy saying the Tigers weren't good enough to leave the best players on the sidelines.

"At the moment at the Tigers I don't think there's the depth there," Johns said.

"All respect to (Farah's replacement against the Sea Eagles, Masada Iosefa) but when you went off the field things went wrong.

"I think we all agree (Farah) needs to play the 80 minutes, or close enough to."

That won't always be the case.

"It's never nice sitting on the bench and to come off for that period of time made me a bit cranky but I could understand why the coach did it, and he's got my welfare in mind," Farah said.

"It's going to be a long year and there'll be times when I'm a bit flat and he's going to look to give me a rest and I can understand that."

See more at: http://www.foxsports.com.au/league/nrl-premiership/wests-tigers-skipper-robbie-farah-admits-coach-mick-potter-will-continue-to-bench-him-in-2013/story-fn2mcuj6-1226612796894#.UV6yAZNTCyU

 

[happy_tiger]

Maybe Robbie needs to stop arguing with Potter off field

 

[everett]

WTF

Farah is and always will be an 80 min player full stop. Harry Potter needs to get his head out his arse.

We need 4 impact forwards on the bench and not that ex muppet from Penrith. Should never play NRL again.

 

[LaT]

Are they arguing?

 

[kh_canada]

I'm all for the strategic benching, but Farah still brings out the big plays when he needs to, my issue is - will this strategy end up with Robbie missing the opportunities for big plays?

 

[alexaki]

Maybe Robbie needs to stop arguing with Potter off field

Pulls the pin…... Kaboom

 

[stryker]

I can't believe this is a serious strategy…is Potter a fair dinkum coach or just an unfunny jokester?
You don't replace your best player unless your comfortably leading. There's plenty of blokes in the comp who bust their arses every week and they play the full 80.

 

[JD1]

Until marshall is back to himself, farah stays on 80min…..or was farah benched to try and spark marshall as he would of more control.

Anyway, iosefa shouldnt be the player to replace farah you dont bring someone on that has a mistake and a penalty to give everytime, you want a night watchmen who plays to marshalls strengths.

 

[pHyR3]

I can't believe this is a serious strategy…is Potter a fair dinkum coach or just an unfunny jokester?
You don't replace your best player unless your comfortably leading. There's plenty of blokes in the comp who bust their arses every week and they play the full 80.

Don't think farah will get benched again this season in the same scenario vs. manly. It will be more in a, up 18-0 vs eels game from what I could gather. He said something like, "I'll be playing 80min against melbourne"

 

[Tiger_Watto]

Happy to review this option, on two counts:

1\. We replace Robbie with a Hooker [not Iosefa]
2\. It is done at the correct time in a game depending how the game pans out.

 

[pHyR3]

Who do you propose tiger watto?

 

[Tiger_Watto]

Luani

 

[innsaneink]

You look ahead Robbie will have a very full season…..he's already had 4 games in 17 days, Potter concerned he may burn out at the back end...I can see his point and its good to see he can see his timing was wrong, he's admitting his errors....he's hopefully learning from them unlike someone we knew

 

[alex]

I was watching Farah on Sterlo the other night and they brought this up. Farah said the reason was that he had played the first 3 games in 10 days and the Coach didn't want to burn him out. Obviously he didn't look at the draw for the following round because between the Manly and Melbourne games we have an 11 day break… That's as good as having a bye. Bad planning and foresight IMO. Never should have been done.

 

[foreveratiger]

I was watching Farah on Sterlo the other night and they brought this up. Farah said the reason was that he had played the first 3 games in 10 days and the Coach didn't want to burn him out. Obviously he didn't look at the draw for the following round because between the Manly and Melbourne games we have an 11 day break… That's as good as having a bye. Bad planning and foresight IMO. Never should have been done.

That is a vey good point Alex , i think Farrah has earn't the respect to be out there for 80 minutes , if we were winning by 20 with 10 minutes to go then yeah good call Potter , but in the context of things vs Manly that was the wrong call and the game got away from us when he was subbed.

 

[InBenjiWeTrust]

Whatever is the question, Iosefa is not the answer :frowning:

Iosefa is not Craig Wing.

 

[innsaneink]

I was watching Farah on Sterlo the other night and they brought this up. Farah said the reason was that he had played the first 3 games in 10 days and the Coach didn't want to burn him out. Obviously he didn't look at the draw for the following round because between the Manly and Melbourne games we have an 11 day break… That's as good as having a bye. Bad planning and foresight IMO. Never should have been done.

Yeh Im sure he only looked at the first 3 or 4 rounds. :unamused:

He looked as far and beyond the Origin period

 

[alex]

I was watching Farah on Sterlo the other night and they brought this up. Farah said the reason was that he had played the first 3 games in 10 days and the Coach didn't want to burn him out. Obviously he didn't look at the draw for the following round because between the Manly and Melbourne games we have an 11 day break… That's as good as having a bye. Bad planning and foresight IMO. Never should have been done.

Yeh Im sure he only looked at the first 3 or 4 rounds. :unamused:

He looked as far and beyond the Origin period

Do you really think a 15-minute spell now, given the 11-day break ahead, will impact his effectiveness in Round 26? Had this week's game been on Thursday or Friday I could cop the 'he needs to lessen the workload' excuse, but with an 11-day break ahead I think the strategy wasn't well thought out.

 

[innsaneink]

Yes, I do.
Why does Bellamy spell Smith at times for the final 10?
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They admitted they got the timing wrong.

 

[snowleopard]

IMO the real reason he benched Farah was to see what marshall & Miller would do in his absence and under pressure. The fact Miller was relegated this week is probably indicative of what Potter thought of his performance during the period Farah was off the field. I watched Marshall when Robbie went off and straight after half time and whilst he initially lifted in intensity (even made a tackle using his shoulder) his intensity didn't take log to drop off.