Has Marshall come of age?

[citizen_cub]

IMO he was not great at all last week, purely because he hardly took on the line.

This week, the complete opposite, ran at the line all day and looked dangerous every time he did.

You can always tell if he's in for a big game, in the first couple of sets he will take the line on at least once or twice.

But when he takes on the line, he is the most dangerous attacking player in the NRL, no risk. I think at times he's a little too generous. He should be a bit more greedy and say 'you know what boys, I want the football'. He trusts the outside men too much, yesterday Ayshford, Mckinnon and Ryan were dominated by the Melbourne outside backs, every time he took on the line, he looked dangerous.

 

[Tigerdale]

his defence is where he has really improved.

putting his body on the line like he never has before

 

[jirskyr]

his defence is where he has really improved.

putting his body on the line like he never has before

He also had "Spidey" hands yesterday, i.e. once he got hold he didn't let go.

 

[Newy_Tiger]

IMO benji will always be a kid, always happy, crazy and willing to do some freakish things to score a try.What has changed about Marshall's game is now he picks his moments a little better.When Benji's confidence is up he is the best player in the game.

 

[southerntiger]

Second half, off of a Lote kick return, he gets the ball and throws it to Ryan, which almost goes over the sideline. On our own 40 metre line, tackle 1.

Come of age? Really?

Today was a step in the right direction though.

Blaming Marshall for that one? He passed it precisely where Ryan should have been. Ryan costs us every week by bit being positioned properly in attack.

rubbish, he crabbed across field forcing Ryan to the sideline and then threw a dumb pass as he is prone to do, he was saved by ryan onthat occassion. Rather than 'coming of age' I just reckon that it was one of those days when whatever he tried come off which was bound to happen sooner or later. Big rap on his improved defence though, been a real highlight this season. ANyway Im happy with rocks and diamonds when there is more diamonds than rocks.

I disagree. the same thing happened a few weeks ago. Marhsall or Farah (i cant recall now) pops a beauty of a ball to where a winger should be and Ryan was two metres behind the line.

The pass may have been dumb but our wingers (actually just Ryan) need to take some of the blame for not supporting their inside men, and moving up with them. Ryan is always wasting overlaps for this reason.

 

[stryker]

I cant believe people still bag on Benji….If he wasnt in this side we dont make the finals again this year.

Farah, Ellis, Heighington - they are all very important but Marshall is the one.

Everyone wants to change him and make him a playmaker like Johns, Thurston or Lockyer...but he isnt a playmaker...to me he's far more important - he's a MATCHWINNER and I wouldnt swap him for any player in the world at the moment.

 

[southerntiger]

Hahaha

"You should be there so thats where I'm passing it" :laughing:

Shouldnt he pass it to where the support actually is?

This is a fast paced footy. Professional players can expect their outside men to position themselves correctly. You would at least expect your winger to be running onto a flat ball, not standing two metres behind the line. This aspect of Ryan's game (Fitzy was guilty of this as well) has been annoying me all season.

Its no wonder we rarely exploit an overlap on that side of the field.

 

[system]

What we need is an honest toiler at half back. A percentages man.

Whats John Morris up to these days?

 

[Cultured_Bogan]

I cant believe people still bag on Benji….If he wasnt in this side we dont make the finals again this year.

Farah, Ellis, Heighington - they are all very important but Marshall is the one.

Everyone wants to change him and make him a playmaker like Johns, Thurston or Lockyer...but he isnt a playmaker...to me he's far more important - he's a MATCHWINNER and I wouldnt swap him for any player in the world at the moment.

Not to mention he does it with style and flair.

 

[stryker]

Hahaha

"You should be there so thats where I'm passing it" :laughing:

Shouldnt he pass it to where the support actually is?

This is a fast paced footy. Professional players can expect their outside men to position themselves correctly. You would at least expect your winger to be running onto a flat ball, not standing two metres behind the line. This aspect of Ryan's game (Fitzy was guilty of this as well) has been annoying me all season.

Its no wonder we rarely exploit an overlap on that side of the field.

I agree Southern….he creates space and puts the ball out in front for the outside men to run onto it. If the ballrunners arent there in time thats their fault for not reading the play well enough.

 

[Geo]

I cant believe people still bag on Benji….If he wasnt in this side we dont make the finals again this year.

Farah, Ellis, Heighington - they are all very important but Marshall is the one.

Everyone wants to change him and make him a playmaker like Johns, Thurston or Lockyer...but he isnt a playmaker...to me he's far more important - he's a MATCHWINNER and I wouldnt swap him for any player in the world at the moment.

Not to mention he does it with style and flair.

And no thanks to Beau Ryan apparently….although Beau knows how to kick into that corner for tries...

 

[tiger05]

I cant believe people still bag on Benji….If he wasnt in this side we dont make the finals again this year.

Farah, Ellis, Heighington - they are all very important but Marshall is the one.

Everyone wants to change him and make him a playmaker like Johns, Thurston or Lockyer...but he isnt a playmaker...to me he's far more important - he's a MATCHWINNER and I wouldnt swap him for any player in the world at the moment.

I think that he is a playmaker as well. I think we even need him more involved. There were some bad options taken yesterday when Benji wasn't involved in the 5th tackle play.

I agree that he is probably our most important player however they all play their roles. Farah is also a weapon and our forwards are really getting us going.

 

[southerntiger]

Geo it was a nice bit of work by Ryan but the need for the kick was once again an example of a flat footed winger being easily covered by a sliding defence. Tuqiri or Tuaki wouldnt have needed to kick IMHO.

 

[Yossarian]

Geo it was a nice bit of work by Ryan but the need for the kick was once again an example of a flat footed winger being easily covered by a sliding defence. Tuqiri or Tuaki wouldnt have needed to kick IMHO.

Is this a gee up?

 

[Cultured_Bogan]

Geo it was a nice bit of work by Ryan but the need for the kick was once again an example of a flat footed winger being easily covered by a sliding defence. Tuqiri or Tuaki wouldnt have needed to kick IMHO.

I think no matter who we had there would have been easily accounted for. We score the bulk of our tries out wide, and we have been doing more so down the right side in recent weeks.

Ryan knew he was going to be put over the line, so he kept the opportunity alive. He could have tried to be a hero and go it alone, but he put a well weighted kick in that the Fraud weren't anticipating and it paid off…

Props to him.

 

[southerntiger]

I am absolutely not taking away from the nice kick by Beau and given his abilities was exactly the right thing to do.

I actually thought Beau had a very decent game, so this shouldnt be taken as criticising him for his effort generally yesterday. He took some tough takes that I wouldnt have blamed him for dropping. Perhaps I am wrong on this particular play - I will have a look at it again tonight. Its not a gee up at all.

However, I do think too often Beau is either caught flat footed or behind the attacking line, whether or not this play was an example of that. There have been quite a few times in the past 5 weeks where I thought we had gotten outside of the opposition only for a sliding defence to quickly round up Beau. I do not notice that with any other player in our team, apart from Fitzy.

 

[Geo]

Geo it was a nice bit of work by Ryan but the need for the kick was once again an example of a flat footed winger being easily covered by a sliding defence. Tuqiri or Tuaki wouldnt have needed to kick IMHO.

I think no matter who we had there would have been easily accounted for. We score the bulk of our tries out wide, and we have been doing more so down the right side in recent weeks.

Ryan knew he was going to be put over the line, so he kept the opportunity alive. He could have tried to be a hero and go it alone, but he put a well weighted kick in that the Fraud weren't anticipating and it paid off…

Props to him.

I like his one against the Raiders better….that went through the guys legs.... :laughing:

 

[KingOvKingz09]

Has Marshall come of age?
\
\
I hope not

I like him as he is

X2

 

[jackyg]

NO. he's started to play more consitantly this year but he still does too much stupid stuff (eg. kicking the ball dead first tackle against the rabbitohswhen they were only 20m from the line) he seems to think that he needs to score on every play.