Finals aftermath - X Factor - Brisbane vs Melbourne

L

lochygalvin

Dan Tolar
Melbourne just didn't have the x-factor as Papenhuyzen speed is gone after so many injuries
Brisbane have that x-factor everywhere
Papenhuyzen did some poor try saving tackles
Ponga would not make them either

But we have Best and Gagai as good x - factor
 
If they’re relying on 35 year old Gags for X Factor they’ve got serious problems.

Sharpe, Young, KP, Best even Brown are X Factor

I don’t think it’s a problem at all. It’s much more the lack of a Haas, Carrigan, Willison and Reynolds etc that are the biggest problems

There’s X factor in the team, the problem was we had a coach who didn’t know how to use it
 
Newygirl said:
If they’re relying on 35 year old Gags for X Factor they’ve got serious problems.

Sharpe, Young, KP, Best even Brown are X Factor

I don’t think it’s a problem at all. It’s much more the lack of a Haas, Carrigan, Willison and Reynolds etc that are the biggest problems

There’s X factor in the team, the problem was we had a coach who didn’t know how to use it
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Totally agree. We have some of the best attacking threats in the game. We just don’t have the fowards and halves. Hopefully Brown and Sandon will fix the halves with Sharpe and Gamble backups. I really hope Trey Mooney is a gun and Jsaf is our Alpha.
 
Melbourne's "four good footballers, no traditional #7" spine has been held up as the gold standard for X-Factor so consistently that it's more or less the entire basis for the argument that we should be burning entire seasons to turn Fletcher Sharpe into a half even though he can't pass or be a key general play kicker so I'm not sure "Storm have no X-Factor" should be the takeaway.

Add Eli Katoa to that and also Xavier Coates who for some reason they seemed to forget they like to kick to a lot... they've got X-Factor. A lot of it.

One way to read this grand final is that Reece Walsh played the game of his life, unlucky, come back next year.

Another is that their "best spine ever" contender got beaten, essentially, by one spine player who's better than all four of them (plus 50% of Ezra Mam) playing behind a more dominant pack and better yardage backs... for the second year straight.

They probably should have won anyway and lost it on a lack of composure, but also... how many spine reshuffles was it? Reynolds and Hunt were essential to them getting to the GF but kind of got carried in the grand final. Honestly imagine this game over again but with a fit Hunt and Reyno at 9 & 7 + a fully fit Mam and Walsh... Brisbane by 20? I think so.

For the second year straight Melbourne played their best game of the year in a prelim but guys like Josh King, Trent Loiero, Shaun Blore etc notably ran out of gas in the second half of the grand final... this team doesn't have two consecutive 80 minute performances in them against other elite teams.

About $4 million in cap space is better spent on JFH + Leota + Yeo + Cleary, or Haas + Carrigan + Mam + Walsh, than it is on Grant + Hughes + Munster + Pappy. That's my takeaway.

Does help to have Mariner, Karapani, Shibasaki making a massive contribution to go forward while taking up very little cap space though.
 
Grant is extremely overrated. You know Munster, Hughes will show up in the big games (besides last yrs final for Hughes), Grant continues to be a passenger in the big games, often making poor decisions.
 
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