What's a HALFBACK.....

Geo

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In the Wests Tigers style of play…......

Found the dicussion on the Wests Tigers No. 7 jersey very intersting.....

The Tigers game has changed from the traditional Stuart/Daley (Prince/Bunji) style combo to a more Johns/Johns style where the halves split left and right of the ruck.....

We have numorous plays where Bunji, Moltzen/Lui or Farah are at first receiver...hell I think I even saw Gibbs and Payto in there at one stage against Parra....

People where right in identifing the halfback as a problem position,,,,,I think though in 2010 it has been solved....

Largely because Benji Marshall has stepped up to realise the pontential we All new he had.....the development of Marshall by Sheens into a complete playmaker is almost done.....

With the players Sheens has assembled around him good times are ahead in 2010, 2011,2012,2013,2014 and 2015.....

Take a Bow Benji Marshall...you are a star.... :sign:
 
while our 7 may not be a traditional 7 we still need someone who can do the required plays and who is on board with what marshall and farah are thinking aswell as being able to sense an opportunity of their own, so far moltzen is the only guy thats been able to do that and i hope it stays that way
 
What's a halfback?
Hell, what's a 5/8? Its changed to what it once was.
What's a hooker? Do I need to say more, what do they "hook" for?
What's a second rower? Bobby McCarthy changed that role in the 60's
What's a centre? There's no such thing as an inside or outside centre anymore.

So what's different?
Well, you can start with the 4 & 6 tackle rules but the main change over all the years is the 10 metre rule. It has dramatically changed the way that the game is played - all for TV. I for one don't mind the old fashioned defence orientated dog-fight. A 6-4 win is great for me, hard defence, attack trying different things to get through. But TV has changed all of that. They want to see open style attack (10% of the time, 90% of dummy running).

Let's haul it back to something in between! Reduce the number of interchanges (5?)

nuff said
 
In my opinion, what we have now is 2 genuine organisers in Farah and Marshall who control things for us. For mine, Marshall is wearing 6, but the fact he's at first reciever just as much as 2nd, and is our main playmaker, to me, that makes him our halfback. His form didnt turn around last year because he was moved to 5/8, his formed turned around because of 2 things IMO, 1, just a coincidence, and 2, he had a better foil in Moltzen to work with rather than Morris getting in the way. Lets face it, Morris tried his guts out, but he got too involved, stuffing things up and putting pressure on Benji. Moltzen sits back more like a 5/8 and picks his times allowing Benji free reign. it suits us great. I have no doubt that when Sheens dropped Morris, all he had to do was put Moltzen in his right spot of 6, and we would all be talking about how great a success it was moving Benji to 7.

The only area i believe we fall down in is having someone to close a game out. Just like Prince did in the 2nd half of the Grand Final. I still have a doubt on whether Farah and Marshall can really shut a game down by playing simple, no frills footy if thats whats required.
 
@king sirro said:
In my opinion, what we have now is 2 genuine organisers in Farah and Marshall who control things for us. For mine, Marshall is wearing 6, but the fact he's at first reciever just as much as 2nd, and is our main playmaker, to me, that makes him our halfback. His form didnt turn around last year because he was moved to 5/8, his formed turned around because of 2 things IMO, 1, just a coincidence, and 2, he had a better foil in Moltzen to work with rather than Morris getting in the way. Lets face it, Morris tried his guts out, but he got too involved, stuffing things up and putting pressure on Benji. Moltzen sits back more like a 5/8 and picks his times allowing Benji free reign. it suits us great. I have no doubt that when Sheens dropped Morris, all he had to do was put Moltzen in his right spot of 6, and we would all be talking about how great a success it was moving Benji to 7.

The only area i believe we fall down in is having someone to close a game out. Just like Prince did in the 2nd half of the Grand Final. I still have a doubt on whether Farah and Marshall can really shut a game down by playing simple, no frills footy if thats whats required.

Mate this is a top post. I agree with all of your points.

Paticularly the last one - we need to play the metres game when the result is on the line.
 
Yep, if Benji can eliminate his one mistake per game (take last week's kicking out on the full) then we will go a long way to closing out games.

I still think we don't force as many repeat sets as we should and we often look to score rather than trying to get another set.
 
@king sirro said:
In my opinion, what we have now is 2 genuine organisers in Farah and Marshall who control things for us. For mine, Marshall is wearing 6, but the fact he's at first reciever just as much as 2nd, and is our main playmaker, to me, that makes him our halfback. His form didnt turn around last year because he was moved to 5/8, his formed turned around because of 2 things IMO, 1, just a coincidence, and 2, he had a better foil in Moltzen to work with rather than Morris getting in the way. Lets face it, Morris tried his guts out, but he got too involved, stuffing things up and putting pressure on Benji. Moltzen sits back more like a 5/8 and picks his times allowing Benji free reign. it suits us great. I have no doubt that when Sheens dropped Morris, all he had to do was put Moltzen in his right spot of 6, and we would all be talking about how great a success it was moving Benji to 7.

The only area i believe we fall down in is having someone to close a game out. Just like Prince did in the 2nd half of the Grand Final. I still have a doubt on whether Farah and Marshall can really shut a game down by playing simple, no frills footy if thats whats required.

i agree sirro,and on benji,i think he finally got his depth right at first receiver.
he was too shallow early on,which is why we saw him crab across field so much.
he needed to read the play more to give himself room.
 
@hybrid_tiger said:
Yep, if Benji can eliminate his one mistake per game (take last week's kicking out on the full) then we will go a long way to closing out games.

I still think we don't force as many repeat sets as we should and we often look to score rather than trying to get another set.

that frustrated me last week.
when we got up 8-0 we then ran it on the last back to back sets.
at that stage we needed to play for repeat sets and break parra down.
with experience i think we should start to see this,and with that will come a team that doesn't give away 2 possession leads so easily.

the same can be said for farah the week before.up 12-0 with a penalty around half way and we fail to find touch.the roosters were gone and i doubt they had much left defending their line.
 
@king sirro said:
In my opinion, what we have now is 2 genuine organisers in Farah and Marshall who control things for us. For mine, Marshall is wearing 6, but the fact he's at first reciever just as much as 2nd, and is our main playmaker, to me, that makes him our halfback. His form didnt turn around last year because he was moved to 5/8, his formed turned around because of 2 things IMO, 1, just a coincidence, and 2, he had a better foil in Moltzen to work with rather than Morris getting in the way. Lets face it, Morris tried his guts out, but he got too involved, stuffing things up and putting pressure on Benji. Moltzen sits back more like a 5/8 and picks his times allowing Benji free reign. it suits us great. I have no doubt that when Sheens dropped Morris, all he had to do was put Moltzen in his right spot of 6, and we would all be talking about how great a success it was moving Benji to 7.

The only area i believe we fall down in is having someone to close a game out. Just like Prince did in the 2nd half of the Grand Final. I still have a doubt on whether Farah and Marshall can really shut a game down by playing simple, no frills footy if thats whats required.

Haha…knew you would post something good.....

Benji is there ......just wait a little longer....
 
@bonstonker said:
@king sirro said:
In my opinion, what we have now is 2 genuine organisers in Farah and Marshall who control things for us. For mine, Marshall is wearing 6, but the fact he's at first reciever just as much as 2nd, and is our main playmaker, to me, that makes him our halfback. His form didnt turn around last year because he was moved to 5/8, his formed turned around because of 2 things IMO, 1, just a coincidence, and 2, he had a better foil in Moltzen to work with rather than Morris getting in the way. Lets face it, Morris tried his guts out, but he got too involved, stuffing things up and putting pressure on Benji. Moltzen sits back more like a 5/8 and picks his times allowing Benji free reign. it suits us great. I have no doubt that when Sheens dropped Morris, all he had to do was put Moltzen in his right spot of 6, and we would all be talking about how great a success it was moving Benji to 7.

The only area i believe we fall down in is having someone to close a game out. Just like Prince did in the 2nd half of the Grand Final. I still have a doubt on whether Farah and Marshall can really shut a game down by playing simple, no frills footy if thats whats required.

i agree sirro,and on benji,i think he finally got his depth right at first receiver.
he was too shallow early on,which is why we saw him crab across field so much.
he needed to read the play more to give himself room.

hmmm, i didnt notice it at the time, but now that u mention it, he did stand too flat didnt he? Have to agree this could be a big reason his form turned around too.
 
I'm a big critic of Moltzen. I dont see him as an organisor or the guy to over-rule Robbie or Benji when the time is right. The second part of that comment is what really difines a Halfback in the modern game and the eras past. The role of the 7 to being a first reciever has changed, but the 7 still needs to direct the traffic through the middle, take the 5th Tackle option, work for the reset set of 6 when limited options are really there and have the confidence to over-rule your 9 and 6.

When Robbie and Benji are on fire like we saw last Friday, any 7 will look like a passenger. What stood out the most on Friday were 2 things. 1\. Why didnt Moltz take the 5th tackle options and work for resets instead of the ball going dead or a changover? Answer - Tim is lacking confidence/Tim needs a few more weeks to settle into the 7 role/Tim isnt a Halfback. 2\. Benji seemed to play wider and deeper with Moltz at 7 because they have an understanding or confidence that allows Benji to do so.

I'm not a person who listens or believes in winning combinations without both parties putting in equal workrate/support. The success of Moltz/Marshall is a combination which has worked and Moltz should be given a few more weeks to either gain confidence or settle into the role of Halfback. One thing is for certain though, Tim MUST take control of games at certain times and learn to over-rule Robbie and Benji to make the right decisions for the team, if we are gonna be a force in September…
 
Great post Watto. You are absolutely right that Tim needs to take control at times. In the second 20mins on Friday we needed our halfback to put the Eels to the sword. That didnt happen.
 
Fair dinkum, southern….take your Moltzen glasses off.....

Who threw that 30metre pass to Benji on his chest before he worked his little thing with Flanagan.....Beau Ryan?

Here's one..... bookmark it,,,,,Tim Moltzen will be the Roos halfback within 3 years....
 
You know what I like as I read through posts generally across most topics..is that we all generally agree and believe that we will be there in September. We will have some hiccups along the way butt we WILL be there! How can over a billion people be wrong? (Ok in reference to the last sentence, is quite possible - but not the first sentence)
 
@Geo. said:
Fair dinkum, southern….take your Moltzen glasses off.....

Who threw that 30metre pass to Benji on his chest before he worked his little thing with Flanagan.....Beau Ryan?

Here's one..... bookmark it,,,,,Tim Moltzen will be the Roos halfback within 3 years....

Geo what in my post was incorrect??

Did our playmakers close out the game in the second 20mins when we were all over Parra?
 
Ummmm…I seem to remember Benji running 60 to score from a scrum.....after Farah put in a kick for Lortay to score a try very few could....while Moltzen was at halfback.....

Put the to the sword.....we sliced their ego's off....

This was a bogy team here.....Wests Tigers past would have turned it up at 15-12....instead we beat them convincingly 23-12...a more accurate night with the boot and it would have been 31-12....

I didn't say your post wasn't accurate....just needed more positiive.... :smiley:
 
@Geo. said:
Here's one….. bookmark it,,,,,Tim Moltzen will be the Roos halfback within 3 years....

:O are you saying we will lose moltzen to roosters !?!?!?
I couldnt bare the sight of losing Moltzen to them… Let alone losing Moltzen at all ...
 
@KingOvKingz09 said:
@Geo. said:
Here's one….. bookmark it,,,,,Tim Moltzen will be the Roos halfback within 3 years....

:O are you saying we will lose moltzen to roosters !?!?!?
I couldnt bare the sight of losing Moltzen to them… Let alone losing Moltzen at all ...

kangaroos
 
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