Adam O'Brien replacement?

Billy said:
Crossland will be a very good backup hooker next year.
He has pretty much come into the hooker role this year with no experience and minimal training and he is doing OK. Our options this year were supposed to be Brailey and Mann, with Crossland maybe doing 20 minutes off the bench if Mann needed a rest.
Next year he will have a year of experience and I assume a full off season training mainly at hooker.
He isn't ideal this year, but next year he'll be as good as any 200k reserve grade hooker in the comp, so why would you replace him?
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I really hope this is true Billy, but he’s genuinely pretty bloody awful.

There’s a term among NBA fans, ‘Irrational Confidence Guy’. A guy who isn’t one of the team’s best players, but plays like he seems to think he is. For anyone who’s watched a bit of basketball, think JR Smith, Jamal Crawford, Jordan Poole. I think that term perfectly describes Phoenix.

The situation at the moment calls for a guy who keeps things simple, sort of the classic ‘focus on three things’ meat and potatoes #9: “I am going to make my tackles, I am going to get the ball where it needs to go, on time and out in front of the receiver, and I am going to run when I see a clear trigger to do so”. Let’s call it the Cory Paix approach. No one could call Paix an elite 9, but he facilitates an elite attack by doing the fundamentals well.

Phoenix plays like he’s watched tape of Api Koroisau and Harry Grant, and honestly thinks he can do what they do. And it’s not just that, of course he can’t, it’s also that he has in my opinion genuinely pretty bad instincts and feel for the finer points of dummy half play.

I mean, you’d think with how hard he’s hunting a crash ball try assists every game, that he’d eventually get one, yeah? Has he even come close? The dude is horrible. He seems like a good kid, but he should not be within cooee of the #9 jersey for a professional rugby league team.

I know I’ve only seen him against reserve grade competition, but I’m very confident Riley Jones will outplay him if and when he gets his shot, and he is as I understand it also a converted 9 rather than a guy who’s played there a lot. So there’s one sub-$200K reserve grade 9 who I think is better than Phoenix. There are plenty more I’m sure. Including, for example, the now-demoted Cory Paix…
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
I really hope this is true Billy, but he’s genuinely pretty bloody awful.

There’s a term among NBA fans, ‘Irrational Confidence Guy’. A guy who isn’t one of the team’s best players, but plays like he seems to think he is. For anyone who’s watched a bit of basketball, think JR Smith, Jamal Crawford, Jordan Poole. I think that term perfectly describes Phoenix.

The situation at the moment calls for a guy who keeps things simple, sort of the classic ‘focus on three things’ meat and potatoes #9: “I am going to make my tackles, I am going to get the ball where it needs to go, on time and out in front of the receiver, and I am going to run when I see a clear trigger to do so”. Let’s call it the Cory Paix approach. No one could call Paix an elite 9, but he facilitates an elite attack by doing the fundamentals well.

Phoenix plays like he’s watched tape of Api Koroisau and Harry Grant, and honestly thinks he can do what they do. And it’s not just that, of course he can’t, it’s also that he has in my opinion genuinely pretty bad instincts and feel for the finer points of dummy half play.

I mean, you’d think with how hard he’s hunting a crash ball try assists every game, that he’d eventually get one, yeah? Has he even come close? The dude is horrible. He seems like a good kid, but he should not be within cooee of the #9 jersey for a professional rugby league team.

I know I’ve only seen him against reserve grade competition, but I’m very confident Riley Jones will outplay him if and when he gets his shot, and he is as I understand it also a converted 9 rather than a guy who’s played there a lot. So there’s one sub-$200K reserve grade 9 who I think is better than Phoenix. There are plenty more I’m sure. Including, for example, the now-demoted Cory Paix…
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Not the way I see it.
I don't think Crossland is making many decisions at all yet.
I think he is giving the ball to who calls for it.
His "obsession" with crash plays is because his forwards keep calling for the ball.
He doesn't have the instincts of someone who has played and trained at hooker for a long time, but you can see he is slowly getting there. He has the basic tools - tackling ability, fitness and passing game - it will just take time to be an actual hooker.
I suppose Riley Jones might overtake him if he stays fit and keeps playing for the rest of the year. Riley is on a steep improving curve. The start of last season he couldn't lock down a spot in Flegg and was filling in for injuries mostly. Hooker isn't his best spot though. He is a running 5/8 who is being used at hooker because we need one.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
The situation at the moment calls for a guy who keeps things simple, sort of the classic ‘focus on three things’ meat and potatoes #9: “I am going to make my tackles, I am going to get the ball where it needs to go, on time and out in front of the receiver, and I am going to run when I see a clear trigger to do so”. Let’s call it the Cory Paix approach. No one could call Paix an elite 9, but he facilitates an elite attack by doing the fundamentals well.
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Sounds like Chris Randall and people hated that bloke.
 
Billy said:
His "obsession" with crash plays is because his forwards keep calling for the ball.
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I don’t think this is true - forwards run their lines, playmakers decide where the ball actually goes, a decoy line is only good if the forward actually looks like a legit option, so of course they’re trying to get into position to receive the ball… but I really doubt our forwards are excited to be repeatedly receive bad passes and get fed into three defenders, or think they’re likely to get a try out of that - but even if it was, so what? “Gets bullied by his forwards into throwing dumb crash balls which aren’t on” wouldn’t be a mitigating factor. It’d be a red flag.
 
OnTilt said:
Sounds like Chris Randall and people hated that bloke.
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The knock on Paix would be that his defence isn’t great, but sort of in the opposite way to Randall. Randall made a lot of tackles but I don’t think he was actually a good defender. Paix isn’t what you’d call a workhorse. But Paix’s pass from acting half is legitimately really good, way better than Randall’s, as is his decision-making.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
I don’t think this is true - forwards run their lines, playmakers decide where the ball actually goes, a decoy line is only good if the forward actually looks like a legit option, so of course they’re trying to get into position to receive the ball… but I really doubt our forwards are excited to be repeatedly receive bad passes and get fed into three defenders, or think they’re likely to get a try out of that - but even if it was, so what? “Gets bullied by his forwards into throwing dumb crash balls which aren’t on” wouldn’t be a mitigating factor. It’d be a red flag.
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We are talking about a guy who has had 8 starting games at hooker and about as many off the bench - and that's not just this year, that's lifetime. I never saw him play a minute of hooker in the juniors.
I think we can all see he has a massive L Plate on his back.
Of course he is being "bullied" by any senior player who gives him a call, and of course he'll keep improving with time.
I see him improving in most areas nearly every game and my expectations of how he'd go have been massively exceeded.
I think every person on here would have expected Mann to be our starting hooker if Brailey wasn't available during the pre-season, and I don't think anyone would want Mann to start at 9 now.
 
Billy said:
Not the way I see it.
I don't think Crossland is making many decisions at all yet.
I think he is giving the ball to who calls for it.
His "obsession" with crash plays is because his forwards keep calling for the ball.
He doesn't have the instincts of someone who has played and trained at hooker for a long time, but you can see he is slowly getting there. He has the basic tools - tackling ability, fitness and passing game - it will just take time to be an actual hooker.
I suppose Riley Jones might overtake him if he stays fit and keeps playing for the rest of the year. Riley is on a steep improving curve. The start of last season he couldn't lock down a spot in Flegg and was filling in for injuries mostly. Hooker isn't his best spot though. He is a running 5/8 who is being used at hooker because we need one.
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The very definition of a playmaker is to make the right plays and passes. Simply passing to “whoever calls for it” just shows how bad he is especially if you’re using that excuse for all these crash plays when you can see Ponga in the background getting annoyed for not receiving the ball.
 
Frank McWilliams said:
Still need another hooker behind Brailey and in front of Crosslands as we can’t be caught out again by another long term injury.
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I'd say Brailey has had enough leeway, time to move in another direction.

I'd be viewing Brailey as a hooker in rotation until his contract is up and move him on. We want Premierships not a hospital ward/charity service.
 
Billy said:
We are talking about a guy who has had 8 starting games at hooker and about as many off the bench - and that's not just this year, that's lifetime. I never saw him play a minute of hooker in the juniors.
I think we can all see he has a massive L Plate on his back.
Of course he is being "bullied" by any senior player who gives him a call, and of course he'll keep improving with time.
I see him improving in most areas nearly every game and my expectations of how he'd go have been massively exceeded.
I think every person on here would have expected Mann to be our starting hooker if Brailey wasn't available during the pre-season, and I don't think anyone would want Mann to start at 9 now.
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It’s like we’re seeing the exact opposite thing. I think he’s only getting worse every week. His best games were the first couple. This is why playing dummy half is so hard. Lots of guys can look okay there for 1-2 weeks. Maintaining your level - or even improving - while incurring the wear and tear of an NRL season, the mental challenge, opposition teams doing tape on you, etc, that’s the real challenge.

That’s Cam Smith’s GOAT case right there. He wasn’t just the best 9 ever, he was that good for 500+ games of first grade and rep footy. A position where being able to keep going for over 200 games is a massive achievement, and he could have done it in a dinner suit without getting dirty.
 
SportsFan said:
Des is taking the Titans job. He would've been my only replacement pick.
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Bugger! Was hoping we cut ties with AOB and get Des.

Now I hope we get both Madge as a head coach and look at John Morris as his assistant and keep Brian McDermott and Blake Green on as other assistants.
 
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