Jacob Saifiti discussion

Daniel out performed Jake in his first game back. Jake isn't a rep standard forward and I'm kinda cut for NSW fans that Freddy has made what currently seems like a very poor decision in thinking Jake should play ahead of half a dozen other forwards who come to mind as glaringly better options for the team.
 
If you look at this decision in the context of Freddys MO for team selection the selection of Jacob makes perfect sense.

Freddy bases the pack around fast play the balls through the middle, in game one Paulo, Matterson and RCG were the three forwards with the slowest average PTBs - Paulo got a reprieve because he has done it for Freddy before while RCG and Matterson were promptly dropped.

Jacob has the fastest PTB out of our middles by far, in only 3 games this year have either Daniel or Klem registered faster average PTBs than Jacob and often the gap between Jacob and Klem/Dan exceeds 1s which is absolutely massive. Neither of the Safs have been at their best this year but Jacob has always been criminally underrated because he doesn't put out the same quantity of running metres/tackles etc as his brother. Jacobs ability to skittle defenders and find his front is unparalled in our side, putting up big stats is not everything in Rugby League and PTB speed is an area that doesn't get enough attention when evaluating a players performance.

Jacob has been on par and often better than Daniel over the last 18 months, he should've debuted for NSW when Dan was ruled out game 3 last year - he wouldn't have been my first pick this year but when you look a little closer it makes a lot of sense from Freddy and I wouldn't be surprised if he kills it.
 
Jake doesn't skittle defenders. He hits and dives to his stomach and pushes for the PTB. That's why he has few offloads, few post contact metres and few total runs metres. It's not a bad thing, it's his style and it works for the team because Klem and Dan push through contact to get us up the park, but you don't want the whole team trying it.

He's a good forward. Makes few errors, is a good defender and always does his job. And plays to a script. But suggesting he has been on par with Dan is unfair to Dan. Miles apart imo
 
He’s coming off the bench too … I personally don’t think it would make too much sense for NSW to pick Klemmer for that role specifically. Jacob knows how to come on and create a bit of an impact, he won’t be playing huge minutes, so I think he should go well. The faster play the balls will help create that impact.

Sure if you want a starting prop who’s going to crank out big metres, Klemmer would have been the man for that job.
 
jamesgould said:
He’s coming off the bench too … I personally don’t think it would make too much sense for NSW to pick Klemmer for that role specifically. Jacob knows how to come on and create a bit of an impact, he won’t be playing huge minutes, so I think he should go well. The faster play the balls will help create that impact.

Sure if you want a starting prop who’s going to crank out big metres, Klemmer would have been the man for that job.
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Klemmer won't get back into that team anytime soon.

Jacob deserves his spot, damn Lee should be on the wing for QLD I think the NSW team is fine.
 
KnightsUnite said:
Klemmer won't get back into that team anytime soon.

Jacob deserves his spot, damn Lee should be on the wing for QLD I think the NSW team is fine.
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Jacob doesn’t deserve his spot at all just like McLean was lucky to get the call up. Both of them should be in NSW 3rd string side.

Lee isn’t anywhere near the level that is Taulagi and Cobbo. One good game against the side coming last isn’t deserving of a origin call up.
 
Jacob has been named to start in Origin 3. What a wild ride that'll be for him, just thrown straight in to the wolves.
 
I don't think his bump and drop will work against a quality set of committed forwards. It's something that has marginal affect against tired forward in FG. He'd be better served running it straight and pumping his legs like his life depends on it.

Who knows, maybe he will.
 
Joshhh said:
Jacob has been named to start in Origin 3. What a wild ride that'll be for him, just thrown straight in to the wolves.
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Ok I thought they were going for a bench specialist, but this makes zero sense. He's not even good enough to start for us.
 
Jacob is definately capable of mixing it with the best forwards i remember when he played for fiji against australia he had about 3 runs before he went of injured but every run the australian forwards had a really hard time containing him.
 
I do think Jacob is capable of playing at this level. This year hasn't been his best, but hoping the occasion can lift him. Similar vibes to Daniel's first selection, I think the majority of people were like who is this random guy they've plucked out of Newcastle, but he proved himself at that level with time. Rooting for Jake to do the same.
 
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