Kalyn Ponga discussion

Cameron Smith never had concussion issues in his career, likely made thousands more tackles than the next most made by any other player, and could have played his whole career in a dinner suit without getting it dirty. You look at him now and he does not look like a guy who played about 500 games. Yet no one would ever call him soft or a bad defender. Best tackling technique in the history of the sport by a mile.
 
Billy said:
He's 2 inches taller and 9kg heavier than Kurt Gidley, who could tackle anyone, and stick like glue.
He's much bigger than Milford, Clune, Brailey, Mann and about the same size as Crossland and a bit smaller than Clifford.

Size isn't the issue. It's whether he is tough enough to do the job.
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But doesn't have the heart that Gidley had!
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Cameron Smith never had concussion issues in his career, likely made thousands more tackles than the next most made by any other player, and could have played his whole career in a dinner suit without getting it dirty. You look at him now and he does not look like a guy who played about 500 games. Yet no one would ever call him soft or a bad defender. Best tackling technique in the history of the sport by a mile.
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Trevor Gillmeister would like a word.
 
Didnt he defend in the middle at his first state of origin appearance?... I think he will defend better closer to the middle then out on edges where he often gets caught out of position.
 
jamesgould said:
Trevor Gillmeister would like a word.
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Doing your job and barely ever making defensive mistakes while also helping your team win the ruck AND never ever getting hurt so that you’re able to play way more games than any other player and be the most instrumental player in the winningest team in the NRL for far longer than anyone else did it > highlight reel tackles.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Doing your job and barely ever making defensive mistakes while also helping your team win the ruck AND never ever getting hurt so that you’re able to play way more games than any other player and be the most instrumental player in the winningest team in the NRL for far longer than anyone else did it > highlight reel tackles.
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But it was good to see "the AXE" chop em in half. 😂
 
Les Misérables said:
As sub par as Gagai would be at fullback he's still the second best option at the club behind Ponga for next season. Glaring hole in the roster
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I'd like to see him there before saying he'd be subpar. No more defending out wide, just run the ball back and follow the play. His last stint here he had some good games at fullback.
 
None of us are doctors (I don’t think), but he’s copped a lot of concussions recently … they’re becoming more and more frequent. Does he get one more shot? If he comes back and is concussed a week or two after returning, his long term future would have to be in question.

Personally I think after his great first year for us, sides wanted to shut him down and he got a lot of cheap shots which the refs did nothing about. If we were in today’s environment that might not have happened and he could possibly not be having these problems now.
 
jamesgould said:
None of us are doctors (I don’t think), but he’s copped a lot of concussions recently … they’re becoming more and more frequent. Does he get one more shot? If he comes back and is concussed a week or two after returning, his long term future would have to be in question.

Personally I think after his great first year for us, sides wanted to shut him down and he got a lot of cheap shots which the refs did nothing about. If we were in today’s environment that might not have happened and he could possibly not be having these problems now.
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Spot in post. It’s also why he was gun shy to run it back in that position. It’s all past tense now though, he’s been very eager for first contact in 1st two games. I think he need to not lead the contact and transfer it to enthusiasm in joint line speed.

If drs say he’s good to go next week or two, need to tackle with fellow players. Not rush out.

Likes of ficus e and Keary have suffered but still playing. Err on side of caution, but hopefully still a strong safe future for the kid.
 
Agree 100%. We’ve seen boxers once known for having really good chins cop one or two really bad KO’s… and then after that become way, way more susceptible to it, almost like their body is in some sort of physical spiral where it’s shutting down to protect itself every time they take any sort of hit in the head. I worry KP is in this sort of situation. It was open season on him early in his career and all anyone did about it was praise him for his toughness that he kept getting back up.

No use over-reacting just yet, the other possibility is that sometimes when you produce a random data sample you get a big clump of similar data all clumped together, and it’s a bit of a fluke that it’s happening a lot at the moment.

All the club can really do is follow the NRL protocols and relevant medical advice.
 
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