I want so much more from Bula. 33 year old Wighton had him totally covered and got out jumped by Jye Gray at the end against the bunnies.
I'm starting to think he's not such a good fit for our style of play. He'd go great in a really structured team. We need an auxiliary half..
Bula actually doesn't play a lot of 'Footy'. He's got an insane amount of natural ability, and there are these short moments you get to see that in a match, in isolation. But I really can't remember the last game he was a real handful that was causing a bunch of problems for a team. No dummies, no running at the line, can vanish at times in an opponents 20.
Im really starting to change my mind. You need to make headlines on the pitch at 900k.
Man wighton is a gun defensive centre . It’s so disrespectful to him and his career . He jammed often and early , often offside which the ref was reluctant to call for whatever reason , but hey if he was wearing orange black and white I would have said too bad so sad . He was great .
You could tell what the plan was hit right upright with unders , compress their defense on the left , and then shift .
many of the sets of 6 on the tryline went to that 4th play shift left , but he kicked arse and really shut it down . He caught Masi 3-4 times 1v1. I think there’s not many centres in the game who don’t get dusted at least once .
There was one shift in the second half on thier line , where we executed it perfectly got Masi on his outside where the right arm fend to cause the winger to collapse and get Luke a stroll over to win , and wighton was Luke nope . 99 times out of 100 on any other player and that’s 4 points in the bank .
Bula actually I thought was passing too early or not at all … but down the right . I think with the centres who normally set up down that side in Toa and May, you have 2 weapons who can beat just man and create space for thier winger . As good as Turuva is , I think we saw last night his skill set is beating a man with his footwork and causing you to miss … not beat a man cause the defense to colapae then flick pass / pass to the edge or inside .
For me I’d be tempted to get Herbert in at centre , put Turuva back on the wing , Skelton to the left and Luke L back to 19th man . Especially with the halves going down . More stability defensively .
All of this is too say to everyone . Stop being childish re. Bula . You’re all kicking rocks and picking jokes in his game so if he does leave you can tell yourselves “He WaS ShIt AnYwAy”.
For me I think he really needs to work on his 3v2, 2v1 , 4v3 , especially his cutout ball , and holding the ball in 2 hands. His basketball background has been amazing for hand eye coordination, flick pass , holding the ball in one hand , but a little bit detrimental in holding in natural 2 hand , what am I going to do , which helps especially with hitting the cutout ball . I’m no expert but it looks like when he launches the long pass , it comes from his arms and not his hips , unlike say a Reece Walsh where the power is generated from his hips .
That’s where I think Bula could be one of the best fullbacks in the game if he can be a little more deceptive and natural with his passing .
But he’s a gun. A big loss if we lose him.
