@Tiger-Tragic said in [Garner](/post/1040392) said:
And, unlike Chris, he catches the flat bullet pass from Brooks. He had a top game.
Honestly, I think it's as much about the passes as the players running onto it.
Does Chris Lawrence have a reputation for dropping the footy in regular play, say during a hit-up? No he doesn't. So if the reputation comes from catching "flat bullet passes from Brooks" only, it tells us something about the quality of those passes.
For starters, nobody should be throwing flat bullets to a hole runner just a few metres away. Soft hands for those runs, bullet passes for the cut-outs.
As Russell noted, we got a proper forwards platform after 20 mins, which makes all hole running easier.
However I will put it to you that it's the quality of the passes and also the type of hole running that Garner and Lawrence do.
Lawrence runs hard lines and aims for early gaps in the line. He doesn't really deviate from his line once he starts, so if the defence closes on him, he's not going to find a new line. He's not as agile as he used to be, but honestly he's never been a light stepper, he's always been about power generated whilst sprinting in a straight line / arc. So if Lawrence runs a line and the defenders go to him, he needs to catch and bust the tackle, or better have the half cut him out. And that's not a problem because drawing in defenders is a perfectly legitimate running line, you don't always need to be taking the ball.
Problem I find for Brooks is he is happy to fire short hard passes when the runner is right in the teeth of the defence. Lawrence drops those, Aloiai drops those, Matto has dropped those. Again, they should not be bullet passes.
With Garner on Friday, Brooks was giving him the ball a little earlier and Garner wasn't running hard lines, he was just stepping to the outside of his man (Kurt Mann) and trying to poke through the line just after he caught the ball. He's got pretty good bumpers once he's taken the pass and has a nice natural fend. There's much less pressure on these earlier softer passes and he's already committed to getting on the edge of his opponent, so what he needs to do is catch the footy and keep going through that half-hole.
Lawrence on the other hand has to content with defenders stepping into his run right as he catches the ball. And Brooks tends to pass it anyway, even if the gap closes.