Luke Brooks

[happy_tiger]

Brooks is confident in Mbye's defense & Mbye makes a lot of tackles and he hits hard too. Mbye is a great link player too, great passing game at 5/8, and that has given Luke more freedom to run. Run deep into the line, back up and cover defend.
The team seems well coached, when I have watched a game replay a few times, you can see that the team is going through the same set play a few times untill it works and a try comes off, In Friday nights game the 1st and the last tries you can see this and the bomb and batt back is being used well.
Their defense is a massive mystery to me, how in the last two weeks there has been an such an enormous improvement over the previous efforts, we were told that they would make a structural change at training. The defense has been improving quickly, to being very impressive in the last game.
I hope they can bottle that structural change, it would make a heap.

We have benefited the last 2 weeks by teams not being ready for the changes we have made in defence. This weekend will be more of a challenge as Parramatta play a bit deeper and that negates our more aggressive defence a little.

Actually line speed becomes more important ...if you can hit them before the ad line it makes it harder for teams to create 2nd phase and then it gives your back 3 more time to react to them replying with a short kicking game close to the line as well

Have you given your out of 10 yet..

Just waiting for the ASADA results .....

 

[pawsandclaws1]

Next time you see Toby Rudolph interviewed put your thoughts down on his similarity in appearance with Brooks.

 

[crazycat]

It’s marvellous how good your halves and backline perform when your forwards dominate the middle.

1000% right.
We get owned and we blame the halfback. Newcastle still lost games with Johns if Kennedy and co were out injured.

 

[TigerNeddyK]

Back on subject..Brooks must be regarded as being one of the top 3 or 4 halves in the NRL?
On any measure he’s been outstanding for us. I think his form has improved as a result of our forwards winning the fight for control of the centre? Looking forward to Brooksy showing Moses how a half can play.

I thought giving back some of Brooks’ options has helped. Needs a Garner/Blore outside him that will just run straight hard lines, giving him the options to pass short, out the back or to run himself. Had Lawrence doing this for him the first half of his career and as much as I love Lucy that’s just not his game. Finally having targets to aim for on the edges in Douhiei and Talau have had to of helped as well.

Except Lawrence would knock on 9 times out 10.

Cue the Lawrence purists to tell me Lawrence was a great club man

Eleven times out of 10, and then miss the vital tackle in the ensuing defensive set!

 

[BAGNF05]

It’s marvellous how good your halves and backline perform when your forwards dominate the middle.

1000% right.
We get owned and we blame the halfback. Newcastle still lost games with Johns if Kennedy and co were out injured.

The game is decided in the middle, the backs just determine the score.

 

[Ultimate Warrior]

Back on subject..Brooks must be regarded as being one of the top 3 or 4 halves in the NRL?
On any measure he’s been outstanding for us. I think his form has improved as a result of our forwards winning the fight for control of the centre? Looking forward to Brooksy showing Moses how a half can play.

I thought giving back some of Brooks’ options has helped. Needs a Garner/Blore outside him that will just run straight hard lines, giving him the options to pass short, out the back or to run himself. Had Lawrence doing this for him the first half of his career and as much as I love Lucy that’s just not his game. Finally having targets to aim for on the edges in Douhiei and Talau have had to of helped as well.

Except Lawrence would knock on 9 times out 10.

Cue the Lawrence purists to tell me Lawrence was a great club man

Eleven times out of 10, and then miss the vital tackle in the ensuing defensive set!

Nailed it! ?

 

[Alex Seyfarth's #1 Fan]

At the start of the year i was saying Maguire is going to throw his support behind Brooks come what may. The pressure Maguire was under coincided with Brooks's poor form. Rumours were around that the board were looking at other options.

How times have changed.

Brooks has been back to his best since coach removed Doueihi from the halves. It was exactly what Brooks needed to take control of the team.

Full credit to his form. I hope he can keep it up and imporve on his talk and on field leadership on the back of the renewed confidence.

My concern however is removing Doueihi a good young 5/8 improved his form. Last night when Moses went down Brooks played even better, took on more responsibility.

We are however playing this game to win a premiership. To do that and to beat top 4 sides you need two quality halves.

Can Luke still play this well with a dominant 5/8 outside of him. This is where i have my doubts and i hope we dont end up back at the start of this cycle where Luke is under pressure because his form drops again as we improve the 5/8 position.

Adding a Munster, Luai, Walker type 5/8 to this team is essential if we want to challenge for the comp. Can he handle that kind of presence on the field?

Im yet to see it and ill remain a critic until i see him play this well with a dominant 5/8 beside him.

Brooks hasn’t changed that much apart from form..

The difference between having Mbye and Doueihi is they are different 5/8 in the way they play... Mbye is a distributor 1st and foremost whilst Doueihi is give me the ball and I’ll do it myself runner which is great as well but often stops the flow of attack.. Doueihi needs to work on when to do that and when to simply distribute the ball like Mbye has been doing

Another interesting change has been Liddle playing 1st receiver in good ball range allowing Brooks to be wider of the ruck and the. Attack to stand deeper..re-uniting with Garner and having a Blore has added a new threat ...Brooks threw 6 short ball passes in the game all were caught and all put either back rower in space.. or drew extra defenders to cover...we are suddenly having options in attack,,

A very good post mate, I thought he also looked better when Seyfarth was on last night providing that link man pushing Brooks wider as well. He has been working on that play faking inside and then playing outside as well which is working a treat at the moment.

In regards to Doueihi, the way I look at is that he plays his best football as an individual at 5/8th, but that comes at the detriment of the players playing outside him.

I don't think Brooks and Doueihi in the halves was a huge failure.

I think moving Mbye to 5/8 was a temporary solution to get the ball to the centres and wing more often and Madge needed to try something new.

Hopefully Doueihi is getting some coaching on exactly how Madge wants him to play at 5/8 as well as when to run and when to pass.

Doueihi is a centre that is trying to transition to 5/8th, he may or may not make a successful transition.

I think mate that Mbye suits what we need atm playing 5/8,good ball distributor,lets Luke play his natural game and most of all AD getting ball to be able to work out wide...If anything AD is learning how to give the speed men out wide what they need,ball and space...

Sometimes , as weird as it sounds , just so they can get thier jerseys dirty . Otherwise you have a game where Nofa and The jet are chatting along the sidelines to the ball boy .

This isn't spoken of enough. I believe it should go down in WT folklore. That a winger and centre on one side felt so disengaged in the game that they would talk to ball boys!

 

[jirskyr]

There is no substitute for pace and Brooks getting on the outside of his opponent to put Garner into space was a highlight. The way also he put Blore into space by stepping back inside and then skipping to the outside was very clever. With Sheens coming onboard I have little doubt Brooks' game will come on further.


Brooks pace from the halfback position gives our attack a point of difference. Particularly if the forwards are winning the rack as they have done the last few weeks.

Brooks, Laurie, Liddle & Mbye is a very quick spine.


Liddle is quicker than I thought, considering that long range try against Panthers. Talau was beside him when he took off but had to give up after Lids streaked away.


I mean he outran Staines who’s supposed to be a speedster


Burton looked quick as well

Very ungainly runner Burton.

 

[jirskyr]

Next time you see Toby Rudolph interviewed put your thoughts down on his similarity in appearance with Brooks.

If he shaved and cut his mane?

 

[pawsandclaws1]

Next time you see Toby Rudolph interviewed put your thoughts down on his similarity in appearance with Brooks.

If he shaved and cut his mane?

Pony tail and manicured shave look. That is a popular look in the Shire. I don't believe it an inner west look.

 

[hsvjones]

Can't wait for parra to get 100 set restarts after ref pings us for playing aggresive defence

That is exactly what happens when teams play Eels or Souths.. Its so obvious too

All I ask for is a fair go but we all know it won't happen. My prediction is they win the penalty count 11-5 and 6 again calls 10-4... We will get a few in the last few mins to make it look even of course :face_palm:

 

[dazza65]

It’s marvellous how good your halves and backline perform when your forwards dominate the middle.

1000% right.
We get owned and we blame the halfback. Newcastle still lost games with Johns if Kennedy and co were out injured.

The game is decided in the middle, the backs just determine the score.

[/QUOTE]

 

[2005magic]

Can't wait for parra to get 100 set restarts after ref pings us for playing aggresive defence

That is exactly what happens when teams play Eels or Souths.. Its so obvious too

All I ask for is a fair go but we all know it won't happen. My prediction is they win the penalty count 11-5 and 6 again calls 10-4... We will get a few in the last few mins to make it look even of course :face_palm:

I'd like to think we are wrong and its entirely neutral but we see so many times the refs arent. Unconscious bias or whatever, they do favour the higher club teams.

 

[Speed2burn]

Can't wait for parra to get 100 set restarts after ref pings us for playing aggresive defence

That is exactly what happens when teams play Eels or Souths.. Its so obvious too

All I ask for is a fair go but we all know it won't happen. My prediction is they win the penalty count 11-5 and 6 again calls 10-4... We will get a few in the last few mins to make it look even of course :face_palm:

I'd like to think we are wrong and its entirely neutral but we see so many times the refs arent. Unconscious bias or whatever, they do favour the higher club teams.

A little off topic but the souffs game was so blatantly obvious, we were clearly the better team and whenever we had some sort of momentum in defense we would get nit picked for something so tiny.

Not to mention the Latrell grubby stuff

 

[jrtiger]

massive game for Brooks this week. needs to continually turn their forward pack around and find the turf to ensure Sivo and Gutherson don't wind up on the return. if he can control the tempo we'll go very close.

 

[tiger_one]

massive game for Brooks this week. needs to continually turn their forward pack around and find the turf to ensure Sivo and Gutherson don't wind up on the return. if he can control the tempo we'll go very close.

Geez, I'd love Brooks to run rings around flat track Moses.

 

[jrtiger]

massive game for Brooks this week. needs to continually turn their forward pack around and find the turf to ensure Sivo and Gutherson don't wind up on the return. if he can control the tempo we'll go very close.


Geez, I'd love Brooks to run rings around flat track Moses.

he always gets up to play us. need to take it to him early and not stand off him.

 

[gallagher]

massive game for Brooks this week. needs to continually turn their forward pack around and find the turf to ensure Sivo and Gutherson don't wind up on the return. if he can control the tempo we'll go very close.


Geez, I'd love Brooks to run rings around flat track Moses.

he always gets up to play us. need to take it to him early and not stand off him.

We never take the game to him, we just sit back and let him do what he likes. That needs to change

 

[The_Patriot]

Never plays well against the Eels. Legitimately looks scared of Paulo. Ran sideways all night and didn't take on the line when Paulo was in front of him. Fumbling and bumbling when he is around him.

And Moses just owns him. It's almost an abusive friendships.

Feel sorry for him watching him play the Eels.

 

[TheDaBoss]

Never plays well against the Eels. Legitimately looks scared of Paulo. Ran sideways all night and didn't take on the line when Paulo was in front of him. Fumbling and bumbling when he is around him.

And Moses just owns him. It's almost an abusive friendships.

Feel sorry for him watching him play the Eels.

Paulo is way to good
Every damn game his offloads ruin us