Luke Brooks

[jadtiger]

Does anyone think Brooks could move to 13 with Hastings going to 7 ? I think his defence is strong enough, we could use some speed in the middle, and he could add some variety by getting a quick pass away to Laurie or a backrower without the burden of having to control the attack.

If Hastings plays 7 next year we will be more pedestrian than this year despite the natural improvement in our young blokes

 

[Dyloh]

Has the club hired a specialist halves/kicking coach at all during Brooks’ time with the club?

 

[The_Patriot]

Some valid arguments in relation to Brooks's career being stifled by a club struggling to get out of its own way. Some poor coaches and lack of overall direction etc.

Having said that though what now ?, what does the club do with him now and going forward?

As an organisation we are desperate for success, Maguires career is also on the line.

I can understand the calls of patience and throwing support behind him and i see Maguire doing just that. For how long though seems to be where this whole discussion is at.

Whats best for the club should always come before a player. As it did with Benji.

How many more games, years do we give him to either go to the next level or get back to his best at least.

This was meant to be his year and while he's had some okay games he's not standing out. With Hastings here next year there's the real possibility he could pinch that #7 jersey at some point

Is that the best way to treat the situation, i have my doubts.

I dont think we do Luke Brooks any favours stringing him on if Hastings is the preferred option.

Not his biggest fan but i see no value having Luke Brooks in reserve grade. The club would be better off to get ahead of it and look at some mutually beneficial deal with Luke going to another club if Hastings is really coming in to play 7.

 

[happy_tiger]

Hope that Strongee's little blow up isnt considered bad form by the mods. I hope he sticks around. Im all for differing opinions and a bit of banter.

As for the Luke Brooks discussion ill have a go at the "my opinion - your opinion and the truth" thing.

**My opinion =** Luke Brooks is cooked at the Wests Tigers. Doesnt have the mental drive and toughness to turn around his complete lack of confidence. And even if he did he was only a mid range half back to start with.

**Your Opinion =** Luke Brooks has been hard done by and has genuine excuses for his form. he will come good. In the grand scheme of things he is one of the top 6 to 8 halves on the game and deserves his spot in our team going forward.

**The Truth =** Luke Brooks is an NRL half back. He is not a reserve grader. The trouble however is that he is struggling to lift his form and adjust to a style that doesnt completely suit him. He played well last week and did his job. Some of his kicking was very good, the placement spot on.

With great halves like Thurston, Johns, young Sam Walker etc they were genuine footballers. Not athlete footballers but genuine footballers who could read a line and play heads up footy.

Alexander and Johns commented recently on a sports radio show how Luke Brooks runs into the defensive line a little too often. Kind of like he doesnt know when to pass or when to run, as in he is not reading the play in front of him but just relying on natural talent to create something.

It was a one of the best reviews of the Luke Brooks situation i have heard. It reminded me of the Milford situation at the Broncos. Talented player but doesnt make the right play at the right time often enough to take away the enormous pressure he has placed on himself.

I see Brooks and Milford as very similar. Both naturally talented but neither are just out and out footballers who can read the play and execute what is needed when it is needed.

In short good player but not a player capable of lifting his team to any great heights.

None of that is true haha . And that’s not my opinion . But thanks for clarifying a position you clearly don’t understand , just to rationalise it for yourself . Seriously man , what the actual ?


Ill give you something that is very true about me. Im a bit blunt when im know im right about a player.

No hard feelings, youre entitled to your opinion.

What ? What has that got to do with what my opinion is ? I swear I’ve said it 100 times on here , yet you still paraphrase and summarise it to something completely unlike what I’ve said . I couldn’t be any clearer .
And what are you right about ? That he’s not nrl standard ? The rest of the nrl clubs would ? disagree with you . Every club would snap him up , who didn’t have an elite half . That’s all the answer I need to that question . So all your ramblings , amount for nothing if the people who do this for a living disagree with you to the tune they’d pay him half a mil to kick a ball around .
So you don’t know anything, how can you if that’s the general consensus in the NRL. And it is because the cowboys just came knocking and were willing to pay full freight .
Like I said , I think he’s slightly above league average , which is a shame because he could have been elite . But thank the basket case of Wests tigers past for that .


You have misread my posts. I cleary state he is an NRL player.

Sorry if you are looking for me to bite on your comments mate but im all good. If you want to get yourself banned you will have to go harder. Youll also have to find someone else to go back at you. It wont be me.

As ive stated youre entitled to your opinion.

Moving on.

Cheers.

No you paraphrased everything I said , only into nothing at all like what I said . And now what you want to pretend like you’re taking the high road . Sorry all the stuff you e said over the past few months totally undermine you .
I hope Brooks moves on for the record , it will suck to see someone who should have been the Aus halfback , be a shell of what he could have been, leave , but we messed him up to a point the club should be ashamed of themselves . He was supposed to be the sure fire , can’t lose prospect and now , he’s anything but that . It’s a real indictment on this club . And that’s why I stand by him , mainly because I know how much we messed him up , and it’s shameful . Its like what the Houston Texans did to David Carr years ago . He was again this can’t miss quarterback , who got hammered his first 5 years in the league , that by the time they fixed the rest of thier team , he had been ruined by bad coaching and blokes who couldn’t protect him .

How did WT mess him up? Curious to hear the evidence behind this one...

The claim, originally from Phil Gould. Gould said something alone these lines…

Basically the problem isn’t Brooks, the Wests Tigers are the problem with Brooks. He’s had 4-5 coaches in his career, close to 10 halves partners and different spine almost every other year with no forwards. How does he succeed with that?

I wonder how many coaches Joey had ...and how many halves partners he had

And the coaches thing ...does everyone get annoyed that Webster gets included ...everyone knew that he was fill in

 

[JC99]

Some valid arguments in relation to Brooks's career being stifled by a club struggling to get out of its own way. Some poor coaches and lack of overall direction etc.

Having said that though what now ?, what does the club do with him now and going forward?

As an organisation we are desperate for success, Maguires career is also on the line.

I can understand the calls of patience and throwing support behind him and i see Maguire doing just that. For how long though seems to be where this whole discussion is at.

Whats best for the club should always come before a player. As it did with Benji.

How many more games, years do we give him to either go to the next level or get back to his best at least.

This was meant to be his year and while he's had some okay games he's not standing out. With Hastings here next year there's the real possibility he could pinch that #7 jersey at some point


Is that the best way to treat the situation, i have my doubts.

I dont think we do Luke Brooks any favours stringing him on if Hastings is the preferred option.

Not his biggest fan but i see no value having Luke Brooks in reserve grade. The club would be better off to get ahead of it and look at some mutually beneficial deal with Luke going to another club if Hastings is really coming in to play 7.

I agree if Hastings takes the 7 jersey for an extended period then we don't need to keep brooks around.

 

[GNR4LIFE]

we;ll probably still give our opinions when they fly his commemeritive guirnsy up the flag post

Or when he breaks Farah’s record for most games for the club.

This topic is beyond boring at this point. Everyone says the same thing, and they find 500 ways to say it.

 

[BAGNF05]

I think people forget that Brooks has played 156 games in the NRL... that's more than Mbye, Joffa and pretty much the whole of our squad. He should be one of our leaders especially because he's our halfback yet we are supposed to wait for him to develop still, I swear people think he's still only in his second or third year!

I'm glad he's slowly improving this year though. He'll need to keep it up if we want to keep winning games, hopefully we see the second half vs dragons Brooks instead of the first half this weekend.

What part of forcing errors out of front rowers with your defense, creating tries, and forcing line drop outs isn’t leading? Seriously when he has a good game and we dominate possession like we did the bloke deserves a week off the pizzling he cops on here.

Edit: if he doesn’t back it up go for your life.

 

[JC99]

I think people forget that Brooks has played 156 games in the NRL... that's more than Mbye, Joffa and pretty much the whole of our squad. He should be one of our leaders especially because he's our halfback yet we are supposed to wait for him to develop still, I swear people think he's still only in his second or third year!

I'm glad he's slowly improving this year though. He'll need to keep it up if we want to keep winning games, hopefully we see the second half vs dragons Brooks instead of the first half this weekend.

What part of forcing errors out of front rowers with your defense, creating tries, and forcing line drop outs isn’t leading? Seriously when he has a good game and we dominate possession like we did the bloke deserves a week off the pizzling he cops on here.

Edit: if he doesn’t back it up go for your life.

What did he do in the first half... he blew many chances as well. His long kicking was terrible and that's what I think of a halfback controlling a team.... finding the grass and organising a team. Doueihi was the man controlling everything even Tamou said it, that's what I mean by leading a team. I don't think he played badly, he was fine.

Was good to see him force some dropouts for the first time all year, that's why I said I'm glad he's improving. Just because he played alrigjt does not equal controlling and leading the team around. Unlike a lot of people I'm not happy with my top paid halfback playing okay for only 40 minutes of a game.

 

[Tiger5150]

I think people forget that Brooks has played 156 games in the NRL...

You cant be serious....it seems like every third post here screams that he has played more than 150 games. He is the only player in the squad that i know how many games he has played. This thread is starting to eat itself.

 

[JC99]

I think people forget that Brooks has played 156 games in the NRL...

You cant be serious....it seems like every third post here screams that he has played more than 150 games. He is the only player in the squad that i know how many games he has played. This thread is starting to eat itself.

Yet a lot of people say he needs time to develop...

 

[Tiger5150]

I think people forget that Brooks has played 156 games in the NRL...

You cant be serious....it seems like every third post here screams that he has played more than 150 games. He is the only player in the squad that i know how many games he has played. This thread is starting to eat itself.

Yet apparently a lot of people say he needs time to develop...

I dont see that, I seriously think you are projecting. If we get new players and combinations it takes time to develop those combinations but I think we have seen everything we are going to see from Brooks.

 

[JC99]

I think people forget that Brooks has played 156 games in the NRL...

You cant be serious....it seems like every third post here screams that he has played more than 150 games. He is the only player in the squad that i know how many games he has played. This thread is starting to eat itself.

Yet apparently a lot of people say he needs time to develop...


I dont see that, I seriously think you are projecting. If we get new players and combinations it takes time to develop those combinations but I think we have seen everything we are going to see from Brooks.

I've seen it plenty. 'He's getting better he just needs time' or something along those lines. As you said, what we see is what we get he's not turning into a top class halfback

End of the day I'd love it if he could play like he did in 2018/2019 he's a good bloke and it would make our chances of winning games better. He's been alright this season but not at that level

 

[BAGNF05]

I think people forget that Brooks has played 156 games in the NRL... that's more than Mbye, Joffa and pretty much the whole of our squad. He should be one of our leaders especially because he's our halfback yet we are supposed to wait for him to develop still, I swear people think he's still only in his second or third year!

I'm glad he's slowly improving this year though. He'll need to keep it up if we want to keep winning games, hopefully we see the second half vs dragons Brooks instead of the first half this weekend.

What part of forcing errors out of front rowers with your defense, creating tries, and forcing line drop outs isn’t leading? Seriously when he has a good game and we dominate possession like we did the bloke deserves a week off the pizzling he cops on here.

Edit: if he doesn’t back it up go for your life.

What did he do in the first half... he blew many chances as well. His long kicking was terrible and that's what I think of a halfback controlling a team.... finding the grass and organising a team. Doueihi was the man controlling everything even Tamou said it, that's what I mean by leading a team. I don't think he played badly, he was fine.

Was good to see him force some dropouts for the first time all year, that's why I said I'm glad he's improving. Just because he played alrigjt does not equal controlling and leading the team around. Unlike a lot of people I'm not happy with my top paid halfback playing okay for only 40 minutes of a game.

He butchered one try that I saw. Pretty sure even Thurston was allowed the odd mistake. Like I’ve said before Brooks is probably our only player who can break a game wide open and the top teams have five or six players like that. it’s unrealistic to expect him to be ‘the guy’ every week but keep hammering him. He’ll leave and we’ll end up with another dud.

 

[JC99]

I think people forget that Brooks has played 156 games in the NRL... that's more than Mbye, Joffa and pretty much the whole of our squad. He should be one of our leaders especially because he's our halfback yet we are supposed to wait for him to develop still, I swear people think he's still only in his second or third year!

I'm glad he's slowly improving this year though. He'll need to keep it up if we want to keep winning games, hopefully we see the second half vs dragons Brooks instead of the first half this weekend.

What part of forcing errors out of front rowers with your defense, creating tries, and forcing line drop outs isn’t leading? Seriously when he has a good game and we dominate possession like we did the bloke deserves a week off the pizzling he cops on here.

Edit: if he doesn’t back it up go for your life.

What did he do in the first half... he blew many chances as well. His long kicking was terrible and that's what I think of a halfback controlling a team.... finding the grass and organising a team. Doueihi was the man controlling everything even Tamou said it, that's what I mean by leading a team. I don't think he played badly, he was fine.

Was good to see him force some dropouts for the first time all year, that's why I said I'm glad he's improving. Just because he played alrigjt does not equal controlling and leading the team around. Unlike a lot of people I'm not happy with my top paid halfback playing okay for only 40 minutes of a game.

He butchered one try that I saw. Pretty sure even Thurston was allowed the odd mistake. Like I’ve said before Brooks is probably our only player who can break a game wide open and the top teams have five or six players like that. it’s unrealistic to expect him to be ‘the guy’ every week but keep hammering him. He’ll leave and we’ll end up with another dud.

I re watched the game, there's at least 3 times he takes the wrong option inside the opposition 20 but in the second half he adjusted and started getting it right which is good but he does lack composure in those situations

Doueihi and Laurie are the ones breaking a game open this year, brooksy hasn't really done it much this year. He's normally got quite a good running game so hopefully he can get that going if we keep defending a bit better

 

[pawsandclaws1]

Does anyone think Brooks could move to 13 with Hastings going to 7 ? I think his defence is strong enough, we could use some speed in the middle, and he could add some variety by getting a quick pass away to Laurie or a backrower without the burden of having to control the attack.


If Hastings plays 7 next year we will be more pedestrian than this year despite the natural improvement in our young blokes

Absolutely. All we read is if if if with Hastings. Hastings is 25 and has never secured a starting NRL 7 at any club. He'll be as fast as that 5/8 Tayler preferred over JAC but on Valium.

 

[BZN]

I'm a person that has often noted the poor performance culture at the club as justification for Luke's poor development. While I haven't specifically blamed Benji or Robbie as the main cause for disruption, I do however believe that the club's previous organisational incompetence, quality of the team and frequent instability are major factors.
I can recognise that he's got some deficiencies  and poor leadership qualities including a lack of valour. Yet I believe he can turn things around given he can work on the mental, physical, tactical and technical elements of his game.

We all obviously don't see eye to eye on that and it's understandable but no offence my(or anyone else) applying this reasoning isn't to make excuses. In fact, they both mean completely different things.
When the Brooks supporters on here, myself included, stand by these reasons to why he's unable to produce certain traits/plays (being vocal, his kicks and try assists the most common) it isn't to be combative at all but we're simply applying some logic to why he's undeveloped in these areas.
In all team sports, an individual's growth is dependent on the coaching and team around him too. So at present not only would he be working on building on his own skills and other new ones, but he'd also be learning how to modify his game to serve or suit the needs of another newly formed team.

I'd say the only concern is his confidence and if he can take accountability of it he'd be in more control of everything.

Seriously Luke Brookes has played over 150 NRL games and you assert he "LACKS VALOUR" my understanding of word valour means courage. With respect Lauren if you believe anyone who has played 150 games of NRL lacks courage you havE no idea what it takes to play at this level.

I would never ever associate that word with the physical aspect of rugby league.
If you can understand that the outline of my post is relating the culture of the club and it's impact on Luke's development (especially the ongoing psychological challenges he's faced), and read that particular passage, you'd see this word has only been used only in regards to his leadership skills and ability.
I specifically meant, the courage to do whatever it takes to be the best and expect the same from those around him. To be relentless in pursuit of this and always strive to deliver the best results.
The only reason I even said it in the first place, is because it's obvious he has some confidence issues and his self-belief has sometimes appeared (that's obviously only my opinion though) to be shot and I'd like to see him overcome it.

I am honestly one of the last persons you'd hear say something to that degree about Luke. I actually literally tried to report a comment(just the other day) on the forum which suggested one of our other players smash or hurt him.

Yep , it’s clearly in his head . I don’t think anyone will disagree there . He runs when he should pass he passes when he should run , he thinks way too much . I don’t think it’s because he can’t control the team , or is overwhelmed by the responsibility, but that he lacks confidence in his own abilities . So he’s kind of like the coach in the water boy , who had his book stolen . He’s still a great coach , he just thinks way too much and can’t get out of his own way . The person who can get him to free his mind , will unlock the star he can be . Most have given up on the kid. I still have hope , even though I understand I’m probably on a sinking ship.

I’m not so sure this talk about sinking ship and tic tok clocks is warranted? The team needs stability, time together, games together. It’s something you can’t put a time frame on, and as we know, when it clicks into gear it’s a beautiful thing to watch. I expect Brooks’ progress to be in direct proportion to the team’s development.
And another thing, I thought Brooks was close to the best player on the park last week, but you wouldn’t think that after reading a few posts on here. ?

[/QUOTE]

But that's ok...dont blame you for not reading them as one of the Admins on here told me most of my posts are boring 😢 .
I have been a Very strong supporter of Brooks in all my time on here, but just recently have started to waiver.
With Madden apparently improving and now Hastings starting here next year, Brooks is really going to have to put his best foot forward, and I really hope he does :+1:
Have a great day Mate :slightly_smiling_face:

 

[avocadoontoast]

Anyone heard anything about a north of the border side making enquiries about Brooks .....

Interesting. I guess he’d be a logical target for Brisbane.

 

[Tiger5150]

I look forward to the lament thread exploding if Brooks goes to another club.

 

[jadtiger]

I look forward to the lament thread exploding if Brooks goes to another club.

As Joni Mitchell wrote and sang in "Big Yellow Taxi" You dont know what you've got till its gone

 

[DJG]

The one thing I seriously hate is when he sends the same useless bomb into the oppositions wing player, who 10/10 times is always there.

Like.. do something different for once, even send a bomb into no mans land or possibly a chip and kick for yourself for once.. he has the speed but seriously doesnt back himself.

On the positive note, you can see he is slowly changing and I personally believe I rate him and that he has been going better than other halves in the comp IMO.

I think we're in for a Brooks special this weekend...