Recruitment And Retention Discussion
- Thread starter HarVeeGee13
- Start date
Thieves Like Us
David Fairleigh
That would be my first choice. Might lose a bit in yardage but hopefully not that much. Sharpe won’t bash through people but can run around them to get us on the front foot.
I’ve said on here before that I’d like to see Marzhew change into a Talakai type #17 for us.
KPGreatness
Todd Bates
Yes, he is our weakest link, slow, lazy in defence and shocking in the air, Holbrook got rid of him during his time at the Titans, Sharpe or Gags will take that spot.
It’s embarassing that some here want to keep picking him, despite teams LITERALLY targeting him, it’s a free try if you can land the kick on him and halfbacks where doing just that, if they couldnt break through us they just went to Marzhew.
With Aoake, De Coursey, D’Arce, Latu and Votano id rather just get rid of him all together many teams dont have wingers getting 200+ metres a game and those wingers were dunking on Marzhew so id ship him out, he is a liability that costs us more games than he wins them
HarVeeGee13
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
Yep and people who think Sharpe can’t be a good go forward winger have very short memories.
Agree re marzhew, id still like to see young go to the left though, it should lessen the quality of shape coming at him in defense and he will get a heap more space outside best. From memory sharpe also only played right side on the wing? Someone will need to make the change.
It's just people's opinion, feel free to disagree with them, but no need for the insults.
Celticman98
Timana Tahu
He isn't that good.
MullosLefttoRight
David Smith
During Sharpe's 7 games on the wing he produced an average of 134m per game, while averaging 1 line break per game - note that 3/7 of those games were against bottom 4 teams who were out of finals contention when these matches were played.
Top 50 players by avg run metres this season contained 23 Wingers who played more than 5 games. The lowest of those 23 averages was 154m. We're working with a small sample size, but there's really no evidence capable of supporting the conclusion that Sharpe is a good yardage winger. Sharpe will be better placed now after 2 seasons of fulltime training and experience playing against men, but there's no guarantee he ever becomes "good" in yardage.
The benefit of Sharpe's yardage from the wing is play 3-4 runs where he gets into dummy-half off a quick PTB when sets already have momentum from a strong play 1-2 carry. He also provides an excellent early shift option due to his pace and evasiveness, so defences can't be as compressed - both relevant benefits but not your typical play 1-2 reliability.
As for covering Marzhew's 20 carries for 190m+ each week, and particularly his extremely effective play 1-2 carries - Sharpe will not be a replacement for this output, indeed based on this sample he will likely be in the lowest echelon of wingers for yardage. That's not to say that Sharpe isn't in our top 2 wing options - I personally have him in a wing spot over Marzhew at the moment, but yardage is a genuine factor of particular prominence due to the weakness of our middle next season.
Likewise for Marzhew, defensive considerations and his aerial inability should also weigh heavily in selection discussions. However, statistically, nobody in our squad is capable of replacing his yardage input, and in my opinion that input has heavily supported our forward pack for 3 seasons now. It may be embarrasing, but my preferred approach is to look at a complete picture of every player, and consider available evidence to inform my opinions. Pretending a few kids with half a season of decent Cup footy under their belt can be the solution to our problems isn't an overly compelling answer IMO.
Beatell
Darren Albert
Good analysis thanks.
KPGreatness
Todd Bates
Whilst an in-depth view is always good, i also believe people do make this to complicated.
Your complete assessment as impressive as it is further proves my point of Marzhew, you are making the arguemnt of “pick Marzhew purely off the back of his metre game” while no one is disputing his metres and how important they are with our forward pack, but others make the argument when does it become way to much if a liability to the point teams can easily beat us based of that one aspect, you can physically see halfbacks target the everliving crap out of him as they know Marzhew doesnt stand a chance all they have to do is place it well.
I like to look at complete footballers or those that are more complete to make a more balanced team, while not many in the comp can outdo Marzhew meters, many can out do Marzhew on others, from defensive capabilities, in air ability etc, with Marzhew in, the team becomes unbalanced as they have to try to make up for what he lacks and they just can’t.
So I raise the point do we as a team and fanbase accept that we will have the biggest weak point in the entire competition next year that will lead to us leaking points and very possibly losing games because of it, in order to keep his metres in the team?.
As I’ve stated before Holbrook was not impressed with him at all and got rid of him, I doubt after the year he has had that Holbrook would have changed his mind, now the Titans got around the metre game by throwing the ball around a lot, which completely negates the need of wingers to get 180+ metres a game, as you’ll grab metres by getting line breaks and finding tired defenders and be able to push them back easier in contact
If he decides to go this route again (which still works aka Dolphins) than Marzhew will instantly be surplus and Sharpe would be an instantly better choice thanks to his speed.
It’s how he ran the Roosters attack as well. And it all makes Marzhew irrelevant, Marzhew fit for AOBs “dig in and beat them up” style but Holbrook doesn’t like that style.
HarVeeGee13
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
Don't care what the numbers say. Mark Nawaqanitawase averaged 138 metres per game. Enari Tuala 151. The numbers say Tuala is therefore a better yardage winger. However, I've watched them both play, and I know that's not true. I watched Sharpe last year and I know his carries were good.
But even just going off numbers alone, are you really telling me that going into first grade with never having trained there and coming up with said numbers isn't good? Or that you'd expect a guy who ran for 272 and 192 in his two games at fullback this year to be *** on kick returns and play 2/3 carries if he's on the wing?
But even just going off numbers alone, are you really telling me that going into first grade with never having trained there and coming up with said numbers isn't good? Or that you'd expect a guy who ran for 272 and 192 in his two games at fullback this year to be *** on kick returns and play 2/3 carries if he's on the wing?
To me it comes down to does Marzhew’s meters from kick returns out weigh his errors, poor defence and inability under the high ball….. all signs point to no. He is easily replaced
Don’t forget we signed Kepaoa
IMO he is an upgraded version for Marzhew, so Marzhew is further down the pecking order next year
Don’t forget we signed Kepaoa
IMO he is an upgraded version for Marzhew, so Marzhew is further down the pecking order next year
mozza
Game on broheim
Takes one to know one.
Good Times
Keith Beauchamp
Moses back to Anasta: "I know you are, you said you are, but what am I?!"
Les Misérables
Mark Hughes
Anasta happens to be 100% correct
Brad tighe
Craig Kimmorley
Anasta is an idiot though. Everything he says is dumb.
HarVeeGee13
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
Stopped clock
MullosLefttoRight
David Smith
Firstly, I'll agree generally that numbers certainly aren't the sole factor for consideration, there's always room for nuance and the eye-test. In the case of Nawaqanitawase, his season average is biased by the games he spent at centre where his yardage output was vastly reduced, and there was a clear case of him getting more comfortable with his role on the wing across the season with his output subsequently improving. Comparitively, Tuala was often given a distinct role to replace Montoya or Kiraz so upped his workrate accordingly, without running the numbers I would guess if you compared their games on the wing Nawaqa would come out on top anyway.
Sharpe's fullback play is very high involvement with lots of support play providing opportunities against a broken defensive line, so I do think it's a fundamentally different proposition to his metreage from the wing. Even still I think it's fair to acknowledge that 272 came against the Panthers Cup team, in a performance that was accordingly an aberration from the rest of our season.
His kick returns will be quality, we know he's very evasive and can punish teams if provided with open space - I don't think that idea will face much resistance. To address your core question directly - yes, I am saying that Sharpe struggles with early set carries against a set defence, he's not built for running directly into forwards and routinely gets dominated in contact within those situations. As I suggested in the initial comment, he has a unique ability to get into dummy-half following a dominant carry and exploit a missing marker and lazy A defenders, this shouldn't be disregarded but it isn't the standard situation of yardage - and these opportunities are extremely rare against top 4 teams.
Ultimately, in a discussion of "good" yardage, the bar set by wingers in the modern game is so high that none of the above - Nawaqanitawase, Tuala, or Sharpe really fit within that "good" tier. Top 20 in the modern game requires an average of just under 160, so while I do believe Sharpe will improve following another off-season, I struggle to see him finishing 2026 in that 160+ tier.