Dane Gagai

HarVeeGee13 said:
Dane Gagai @ the Knights:
128 games, 29 tries, 40 try assists, 52 line breaks, 75.63% tackle efficiency, 131 run metres per game.

Dane @ Souths:
74 games, 26 tries, 18 assists, 30 line breaks, 78.97% tackle efficiency, 121 run metres per game.

I can’t find tackle bust stats for his whole career but I’m pretty sure he’s consistently at about 5 per game.

Joey Manu, the player widely regarded as the best centre in rugby league:
96 games, 30 tries, 27 assists, 35 line breaks, 78.26% tackle efficiency, 96 run metres per game.

I guess it’s possible that Manu is staggeringly overrated...
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You've left his defensive stats out, and even those don't tell the full story as not getting a hand on your man doesn't constitute a missed tackle.
 
I included the only real defensive stat the NRL gives us.

Dane plays most of his footy next to a fairly small & light winger, and yet his team doesn’t leak a huge number of points down his side of the field. So I’m thinking his defence must be at least okay...

Fox Sports keeps a defensive try causes stat. I’ve got my issues with how they do it (fullbacks get credited with a lot for not stopping players who’ve made a clean break, which personally I think is absurd; Roger Tuivasa Sheck for example has a lot, and I don’t think any reasonable person would call him a bad defender), but it does line up with the eye test in some ways, e.g. Jason Saab is far and away the worst defender in the NRL with 11 try and 13 line break causes - if you’ve seen any Manly games, that absolutely lines up with what we’re seeing on the field. Luke Brooks, Scott Drinkwater and Kieran Foran are the worst halves in defence per Fox Sports, which also passes the eye test.

Enari Tuala is second among centres for defensive try causes after Moses Suli, with 7 in 5 games. Maybe not the rock he’s been painted as on these forums as. Either that or his confidence has taken a big hit after those bad games last season. Which is the big risk you take when you have a really inexperienced backline, they haven’t been there & done it all yet so one or two bad games and suddenly they’re totally off the boil.

Hymel 5 in 5 games, Star 3 in 4, Shibasaki 2 in 3, Bradman 2 in 2.

Gagai has registered 1 in 5 games. 🤷‍♂️ His wing partner AJ 4 in 5.

I of course remember some absolute howlers when Dane was with us, but this tends to be an area of a player’s game which improves the most with experience. Outside of getting steamrolled by bad 1-on-1 match-ups with much bigger guys, which happens to a lot of players, Dane’s come a long way.

No point going on about this anymore as what I say isn’t going to make us any more or less likely to nab him, but I don’t know why you bother signing a guy like Tyson Frizell if you’re not gonna take a throw at the stumps and chase a premiership now. And when we’re as heavy on players who are prospects/projects as we are like Dom & Star, you want them to improve I think both benefit from some time playing with an experienced high-level player (and Dane can easily play centre beside Star or shift to the wing beside Dom if there’s an injury or Dom is making a better case for selection than Star is).

I just think we’d be nuts to not at least come to the table with a fair offer.
 
slotmachine said:
I'm not sure a kid with 15 games under his belt who can't string more than 3 or 4 together without getting injured is the best centre in the comp just yet.
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I think when fit he’s shown himself to already be right up there, remarkably complete game for a teenager and should only get better, but happy to defer judgement till he gets closer to 30 or so games.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
“Far and away” the best centre in a comp which includes Zac Lomax, Latrell Mitchell (yeah I know he’s a fullback atm but he’ll be a rep centre his whole career like Inglis), Bradman Best, Josh Morris & Stephen Crichton?
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Yes, far and away the best centre currently playing today.

Lomax is a gun but he has only been doing it for 18 months.

Mitchell you’ve already answered yourself, he is a fullback and I might add not even a rep centre now. Not even close to the best.

Best, can’t string a run of games together and yet to play senior rep footy. Also has a very bad read for the game on the defensive end. He likes to leave his winger high and dry.

Josh Morris is still very solid but that’s it. Not even close to Manu.

Crichton is in the same bracket as Lomax.

Manu has been consistent for years on end.
 
Anyway my point in comparing Gagai to Manu wasn’t a simple “Gagai is exactly as good as Manu or even better”. Of course Joey is better, has a more well-rounded game, he’s bigger so he’s of course a better defender, all of that. I don’t know many who’d deny that. My point is that the knock on Gagai is that he’s an Origin specialist who doesn’t try at club level, doesn’t make things happen out there on the field etc. It’s just interesting that the guy who floats through games and doesn’t do much like Dane allegedly is profiles remarkably similar to the guy widely touted as the best player in that position, as both an individual attacker and defender - in some ways profiles even better - while also being a more prolific yardage worker.

I legit reckon if Manu plays for a bad team and has those stretches without a try involvement which are actually fairly normal for an outside back, he’d be slammed as a guy who doesn’t do enough, doesn’t get involved etc etc etc...
 
A good part of the negative sentiment for Gags on this forum comes from us having had a resident troll when Gags was here, who must have been related to be so passionate about the guy, or he was insane.
Anyway, at the time, any negative comment about Gags, was met with a barrage of hatred, so if you wanted to say something about him, you had to tie down your argument, because you were about to enter a flame war.
I assume that guy is now on a Souths forum, abusing them all for not resigning the best player who ever lived.
I stand by my opinion though, that Gags performed as a 300k a year player on double or triple that.
 
Hahaha fair enough. I’d put him somewhere between $4-500K but yeah he’s probably been overpaid in his career. It’s kind of interesting he’s managed to get himself $700K/season for so long. There’s definitely better outside backs who’ve never gotten that.
 
Why we signing Gags and not resigning Edrick Lee is crazy, having Edrick Lee changes soo much for this side. Lee and Best need to be in this team.
No way ill be spending overs for gags crap defense and to see his only good games played for origin.
If we going to pay overs for Gags ill rather keep Lee.
 
Ak-47 said:
Why we signing Gags and not resigning Edrick Lee is crazy, having Edrick Lee changes soo much for this side. Lee and Best need to be in this team.
No way ill be spending overs for gags crap defense and to see his only good games played for origin.
If we going to pay overs for Gags ill rather keep Lee.
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Because Edrick Lee has osteoporosis and we can’t afford to have a top back sitting in the crowd for 80% of the year
 
Please no. Gags never put in for us and quite simply is after a retirement cheque, we spent years cleaning out over paid and under performers and whilst Gags wasn't the worst offender was never good value.

Need a partner for Best and a backup for said person clearly Shibs and Tuala are rubbish - maybe Musgrove could be the backup?
 
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