***LIVE GAME THREAD***

[earl]

Jirksyr - I hear what you are stating but I'm still not sold. Woods has some great moments. His offloads are great. He consistently gets good metres. His minutes are unreal.

I don't have the exact words that Lazarus used to describe him but this is a pretty good description.

The ‘brick with eyes’ was hesitant to point the finger at anyone, but he did vent his disappointment at big forward leader Aaron Woods for turning his back in hit ups and his slow play the balls.

The problem with Woods is that his faults aren't good for the team and especially the rest of the pack. I think most people can see that he often has a slow play the ball and a slow hit-up. That impacts the next guy hitting it up. His offloads get the team going forward and can win games but if that doesn't occur which is often sometimes that hit-up works against the team. It's not like all his hit-ups and play the balls are poor. It's just that often they are. He also often gets caught out defensively when he is slow to fill the gaps that he should be filling. He is basically a target defensively.

Maybe he is being called on to do too much work and it's impacting his game but I don't think that is the case. I think he is a big prop with great skills but he has a lot of downside.

I'm glad that we didn't resign him for the dollars that he wanted. I think we did the right thing. I don't think he is the right player to pay top dollar too and who fits in with our team faults. We need consistent players who don't have defensive faults. At the same time I think he handled himself really poorly as our captain. I think he was and is a disgrace to our club in relation to captains that have represented us. My opinion on that though isn't related to my opinion on his overall game.

 

[innsaneink]

I want woods to pull his finger out in D…he is lazy and costly and has been for years.
Ive mentioned his pros several times elsewhere
No bitterness here been calling it for some time.
Boony thinks throwing a game away = playing great...unbelievable...we had that game

 

[jirskyr]

Jirksyr - I hear what you are stating but I'm still not sold. Woods has some great moments. His offloads are great. He consistently gets good metres. His minutes are unreal.

I don't have the exact words that Lazarus used to describe him but this is a pretty good description.

The ‘brick with eyes’ was hesitant to point the finger at anyone, but he did vent his disappointment at big forward leader Aaron Woods for turning his back in hit ups and his slow play the balls.

The problem with Woods is that his faults aren't good for the team and especially the rest of the pack. I think most people can see that he often has a slow play the ball and a slow hit-up. That impacts the next guy hitting it up. His offloads get the team going forward and can win games but if that doesn't occur which is often sometimes that hit-up works against the team. It's not like all his hit-ups and play the balls are poor. It's just that often they are. He also often gets caught out defensively when he is slow to fill the gaps that he should be filling. He is basically a target defensively.

Maybe he is being called on to do too much work and it's impacting his game but I don't think that is the case. I think he is a big prop with great skills but he has a lot of downside.

I'm glad that we didn't resign him for the dollars that he wanted. I think we did the right thing. I don't think he is the right player to pay top dollar too and who fits in with our team faults. We need consistent players who don't have defensive faults. At the same time I think he handled himself really poorly as our captain. I think he was and is a disgrace to our club in relation to captains that have represented us. My opinion on that though isn't related to my opinion on his overall game.

Well Lazarus went on to say it was acceptable at NRL level, not Origin. And I think Woods is aware of that, him and Fifita were dominated in Game 3, whereas they tore into QLD Games 1 and 2.

I agree with what you said more or less, but he is a one-man pack and has been for so many years it's not funny. It's like Robbie Farah, who carried us for several years and almost took out the Dally M for those years, but eventually he got so used to trying to carry the side that it became all he could do, he couldn't properly let others take over.

Woods has the same job every week - make the first hitup of every set, play 60 minutes, run 150+ metres and make 35 tackles. He does it pretty much every week, I'd love to know the last game where Woods wasn't injured and ran for < 100 metres. Most of our forwards struggle to make 100m in consecutive weeks let alone trod out 150-200.

Absolutely it's imperfect, but I just imagine if he had another half-decent prop or two to shoulder the load, if he had a rampaging second-rower, with that consistent support, what his game would be like then.

I reckon you look at Tedesco now, he's showing all the hallmarks of a bloke trying to carry the side and it's damaging his game, the imperfections are starting to show widely.

Totally agree if Woods was asking for mega bucks this contract, we were better off getting close output from far cheaper units.

But Woods isn't the problem with 99% of our losses and he's not the reason we went over salary cap recent seasons. He really hasn't done anything wrong for the club except a couple of months of stupidity when renegotiating this year, and his reputation has been tarnished accordingly.

I hardly think Woods is being targeted defensively, he doesn't rack up many missed tackles and we don't leak nearly as many middle tries as LHS and RHS.

 

[Tiger_Steve]

Yes that makes sense the guy who coming off Origin plays 80 minutes at prop a few days later makes 200 meters and almost 40 tackles is the lazy one - yup yup yup well obviosuly it is the keyboard warriors who are geniuses their and not the genuine footy experts. Then again Ink hasn't said anything worth hearing since well umm well never so not a surprise really.

Tigers played great today against a top 4 team at home a traditional graveyard for visitng teams.

Can't say their was a bad player and if we play like that every week we would be in the finals

Another fool blinded by stats

I don't know what your expectations are, seriously. I am not as rosy about is as Boon, it was good in patches and I do wish we had that intensity every week, but it shows as a side we really can't compete with the Top 8 over 80 mins if the opposition plays alright.

But if we had 2 or 3 guys who could play 80 mins, run 200m and make 40 tackles we'd make the Top 4 every season. It's not just stats, I watched the game intently as I do every week, Woods was essentially our only genuine go-forward and Manly struggled to contain him every time. He had nil support, the backrow did nothing and nobody got within cooee of 100 m except Ava who managed 101.

People have this mistaken notion that only super-aggressive tactical props make any impact, that you have to smash it up like JWH or Junior Paulo or you are a fat, lazy slug. I really do wish Woods had a higher top gear, I wish he would lean in with his shoulder and bury the opposition. He doesn't and it's something for him to continue to work on.

At the same time, he played 80 mins yesterday. That's ridiculous for any prop, not to mention someone 5 games off an Origin.

We made 12 offloads yesterday and 25% of those were from Woods. Yeah Woods missed a bad tackle, so did MMc at exactly the same time, then Tedesco 1 second later. We missed 33 tackles total and let in 5 tries - Woods personally responsible for 2 MTs and 1 of those tries.

People want Woods to be what he isn't - a dynamic mover. Props come in 20 varieties and Woods is a slugger with a big motor, one of the best in that mold, I don't know why anyone expects Gillmeister tackling and Gareth Ellis mobility.

I also don't know how anyone can be a fat, lazy slug churning out 80 minute performances. He's imperfect for sure, but by far our best and most consistent forward and has been for about 5 straight years… but you want more. I just smell too much bitterness about this, beyond the performances, putting in the boot because he's moving on. I'm all for putting the boot in where deserved, but since he signed w Canterbury Woods has shut his mouth and lead from the front on the field, hence why Cleary has let him keep his captaincy.

Great post! Needed to be said. Woods trouble this year is that he was over exposed in the media and he didn't have the smarts to say the right thing. I'm sad he is going, I think he has made a poor decision but his effort for the Tigers, past and current should not be questioned