Season player reviews

nighttiime said:
Just my **** takes on how everyone went this year

Mitch Barnett: Had a decent season when playing 13, tough runs, good offloads and some big hits. Unfortunately doesn't have any ball playing ability that most teams are moving towards. I don't rate him at all playing in the second row. He runs bad lines, his timing is always off and his strong, in your face defence necessarily disappears when he plays here. I'm not sure we should be looking to resign him tbh despite him being a leader of the team and setting some aggression. He's too small to play prop, not a good second rower and doesn't fit the modern archetype of a lock. He's served the club well though and always puts in.

Bradman Best: Started the season absolutely on fire. Then got injured again and again and when finally came back his form turned to ****. A lot was said about how we were playing and that we were getting him the ball in bad positions, which I agree with. However, he had lots of dropped ball, missed passes, ran bad lines and took on the outside of defenders when he should have cut in. I'm happy to put it down to second year syndrome and move on. Still have a sky high ceiling and look forward to watching him improve next year.

Jayden Brailey: Solid and reliable, without setting the world on fire. Not much needs to be said tbh, he played a 7/10 almost every game of the year. Brailey really needs to work on getting away a tackle 4 kick and some running/playing out of half when markers aren't set properly. If he can add this to his game he'll be one of the premier 9's in the comp, he already has one of the highest tackle efficiencies and best service going around.

Jake Clifford: When he came down he really surprised me with what he brought to our team. Added some calm and structure to our halves, and having a good second option for kicks really improved the efficacy of our kicking game. I hope O'brien was managing him and working on his confidence by simplifying his role, because there is no other good reason as to why he stopped doing his spiral bombs in the last 5 rounds. We saw cleary and moses use them to great affect and we had arguably the best torpedo kicker in the comp and didnt let him use it?? was utterly baffling. Defensively he really impressed me. I thought he almost always made the right decision when he chose to shoot out and shut down a play.

Phoenix Crossland: When I watch phoenix I see a young halfback who has the ability to be a no frills role player and organiser. He has a good kicking game, can run and take on the and hold his own in defence with his large frame (I kind of see him has a poor mans cherry-evans). With the signing of adam clune i'm not sure what the plan is for crossland, I assumed he would be the NSW cup half and step up to first grade in times of injury. I don't see the point of having them both in that same role, with both in the squad there's going to be limited game time in nsw cup for our developing 19-20 year old half back.

Lachlan Fitzgibbon: I think fitzy actually has a high ceiling if he could just get rid of the silly stuff from his game. He's prone to an error with ball in hand, jumps out of the defensive line too often and over uses his inside-out line in the attacking third. He had an injury plagued year and got a contract downgrade which I believe is a smart move from the club, I think he represents good value on a small contract.

Tyson Frizell: We finally got a hard hitting big and atletic backrower who can bend the line back. Unfortunately the modern game is more suited to a back-rower who knows when to pass and play the ball and can change his line to get a quick play the ball not just pick up post contact meters. He was still a massive improvement over what we had beforehand and he put in the work week in week out. I just worry how much we paid for him and how much value he represents for his representative pay check.

Bailey Hodgson: Very much a project player. Only played limited games in NSW coming off his surgery. Not much to say but he seemed very busy around the ruck and high effort in support play which are both good signs. Looks forward to seeing him put on some muscle and replacing Tex Hoy in the squad.

Tex Hoy: Was a flat track bully in juniors and seems the same now. Doesn't do enough work around the ruck, doesn't run it back hard (even though he has a big frame), just tries to dance around and look good. I don't have many good things to say about him happy to wave him out the door.

Hymel Hunt: Solid winger in almost every respect. has the odd bad game but Hunt is one of my favourite players in the squad. Was the only player all year who took an effective hard run out of our red zone. It's obvious watching our games that kickers target ponga and tuala.

Brodie Jones: Made a spectacular debut and had a few admirable performances where he played out of position. In the game against the broncos I thought he was really poor, missed timing, ran really bad lines. I'm willing to give him benefit of the doubt though. My major concern is seemingly his inability to bend the line back on a tough carry.

Josh King: It's been said here many times but he rose to a new level this year right as we lost him to Melbourne. Would love to retain him but I understand that when we probably told him he could look elsewhere he looked easily replaceable with a young guy with more upside.

David Klemmer: My nickname for dave is dave2d he has not dimensionality to his play. No footwork, no offload, no passing just runs hard and straight. That's fine for a player making 400k but with the coin he's on he's seriously underperforming (I know it's not his fault we paid overs to get him here and the game has changed around him). We should be looking to offload him to a struggling club imo. In saying that he made fantastic meters and made tackles at a high efficiency, which is what we needed at many times this year with Dsaf and Jsaf were out.

Edrick Lee: Poor Edrick, I just hope we see him play again some day. If he's fully recovred and gets a full offseason in I'd be happy to have him run around for 200k. If we had a fully fit and firing edrick this year we'd have looked a whole lot better. Adds a kicking attacking option, is great in defense and can make meters coming out of our end. Unfortunately his bones are made of chalk.

Kurt Mann: I have a glass half empty view on kurt. People often recall his good defensive game against kikau as a redeeming quality, but if you go watch that game back kikau got knocked the fu*k unconscious at teh beginning of that game and didn't know where he was the next 70 minutes. I said before that he's not skilful enough to play in the spine and too small to play in the outside backs. I honestly can't believe he resigned him even for minimum wage.

Jirah Momoisea: He looks like an athlete albeit a very raw and inexperieced one. I think he has a very high ceiling and look forward to seeing him progress.

Brayden Musgrove: I think he probably was never going to make it in first grade, he'd already had a number of opportunities and at different clubs to prove himself. That being said he was done no favours by being asked to play wing when he's a bonefide center. He just looks like such a good athlete who has so much potential but cant seem to put it together.

Mitchell Pearce: There's so much to say and so much that's been said on mitchell. I'll keep it short and say he had a **** year cursed by injury. If we hadn't have downgraded his contract i'd be calling for his head, but I think we have him at the right price for next year. We don't have anywhere enough experience in the halves to let him go early.

Kalyn Ponga: An elite 5/8 trapped at fullback. He is the worst defender at fullback in the comp and one of the worst at supporting around the ruck. Luckily he's an absolutely elite ball player. Everyone talks how cody walker's passing and pass selection running left side plays is the best in the comp but Ponga does that same role just as well only from fullback. For me he has to move there, he's just so poor in so many other fullback roles. Negativity aside he's by far our best player and we're a bottom 8 side without him.

Daniel Saifiti: One of the premier props in the competition, if he didnt get injuried he was a lock for Austrlaian prop. Leads with his actions. He has great late footwork for a big man, finding quick play the balls, but also doing all the dirty work a good prop should. Would love to see him develop a consistent offload.

Jacob Saifiti: Closed the gap a considerable amount on his brother this year. He got rid of the shocker performance he was prone to. Same feedback as Dsaf, would love to see an offload and just keep making small improvements to his already great all round game. If he can achieve that he could play origin next year.

Simi Sasagi: I could just copy and paste what I wrote about Momoisea here, a big athletic back who is extremely green. Looks like he could be anything with some more experience. No idea what his best position will be but looks a talent.

Pasami Saulo: in his brief appearances when he came back from injury at the end of the year he looked quite solid. He's hasnt set the world on fire for me so far. I think he deserves another year to prove himself before i'd consider letting him move on.

Gehamat Shibasaki: good luck and good bye

Sauaso Sue: Did exactly what we expected of him and at the right price. Was a solid rotation prop.

Starford To’a: Star looks like a great athlete, fast, strong. He comes up with a few too many errors and lapses especially in his defensive positoning. I had high hopes for him this year but he's at major risk of losing his spot to dom young next year.

Enari Tuala: I commented early in this thread that tuala is just a bog average winger. He's good with the ball in hand but doesnt offer any target for a high ball, but due to his small size is poor in goal line defence and gets pushed back carrying out of the red zone and on kick returns. He keeps his spot on the left wing but I cant see him keeping it long term if dom young or toa steps up.

Connor Watson: He had good patches and bad patches this year. At times he lit the field up with his agile runs through the middle third and filled in admirably if someone went down. I really see connor as a slightly better version of kurt mann though. Not quite good enough to lock in a spine position and too small to play lock or center. I think letting him go was ultimately the right decision. We should be aiming to sign a genuine ball playing lock and have kurt mann on minimum wage or a young upcoming player like sasagi in the 14.

Dominic Young: Huge frame, athletic and great top speed. There's a lot to like about young dom. He got a lot asked of him this year filling in at wing when he's only ever played center before. I think the extended pre season he's had will be of great benefit to him, a bit of size and strength will help with his carries and his agility to turn around and chase a grubber behind him. I can see him replacing bradman when he's injuried for half the year or tuala on the wing.
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Good read, don’t 100% agree with everything (biggest one is Kalyn Ponga’s D, IMO his ability to read the kicking game of the opposing halves, kick defusal success % and his aptitude at in-goal escapes are all elite, and I define these as the main KPIs for fullback defensive play… that’s even before I get into other fullbacks like Dufty, Walsh, Allan, Latrell etc who a bigger liability and/or more slack when it comes to tackling a player on a breakaway), but broadly speaking it feels like we see the same strengths and weaknesses in the side.
 
On Clifford: I was very, very keen for us to get after him (was assuming we’d be priced out of Matt Burton), even though I felt like there were pretty clear holes in his game. At the Cowboys he would literally disappear for long periods in games, particularly in the attacking 20 where he’d almost look afraid of the ball, and he’d let Drinks & Val do their thing. As a ball player generally he was so often a stand flat footed and pass merchant, despite being a big, strong body who naturally attracts defenders when he engages the line. But someone as big and athletic as he is, who’s got a kicking game that good that young, both power and finesse… they don’t come along often, you can count the other guys like that on one hand. I was prepared to cop a half season of a sentient boot with little creativity because I felt like just fixing the kicking game and having a guy who can be at least competent at the rest to play with Pearce, that would help us hugely anyway, and the coaching staff could bring the rest of his game along.

I can’t say I picked that he’d be the next best attacking option in the team after Ponga. Not saying he came down and played like prime Benji Marshall, but Adzy gave him some freedom to actually play footy and he was consistently dangerous. And we went from being by far the worst team at snagging tries from kicks to an actually pretty good one. But he looked so much better with us so quickly that Adzy surely can’t take too much credit. Only explanation is that at the Cowboys they sent him out there in handcuffs, or with so many conflicting messages about how to play that it paralysed him.

How on Earth do the Cowboys not get slammed for their recruitment & retention failures as badly as the Tigers are? Like, it looks so obvious that Jake is going to be a really, really good player, way more than you or I could pick just watching him on TV, but I was absolutely fanging for us to sign him, and I was far from the only one. The Cows worked with him every day and they couldn’t pick that he was the future of their club. Staggering.

I was expecting it to be a signing which would need to be defended, instead he’s quickly become a fan favourite. Wouldn’t bet against him winning a DB Medal over the next couple of years.
 
Clifford is a different player than I thought he was.
From his games against us, I thought he had a fairly low involvement rate, but his kicks and runs in try scoring areas were inspired. His efforts in defence looked sub par. I basically thought he'd be a very good partner for Pearce - with Pearce doing most of the work and Clifford throwing in some quality alternate options.
He's turned out much better than that. Once he does an off season with all the guys and learns how to link with them all, I'd be very comfortable with him being our main playmaker, with Clune or Crossland as backup.
 
My main concern about signing Clifford was at the Cows he seemed to miss a lot of tackles and was poor in D.
He hasn't shown that here.
His D has really impressed me.
 
Well krusty at the Cowgirls lazy forwards were leaving the little guy to do the work. Hence their outstanding record of recent times.
 
member 2299 said:
Well krusty at the Cowgirls lazy forwards were leaving the little guy to do the work. Hence their outstanding record of recent times.
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They'd done the same to JT late in his career. Unfortunately that mirrored the forwards we had here who shortened Joeys career by letting him do their defensive work.
 
Owey said:
They'd done the same to JT late in his career. Unfortunately that mirrored the forwards we had here who shortened Joeys career by letting him do their defensive work.
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Difference between joey and JT is joey could actually defend. Andrew never shied away from it but was definitely helped out by the likes of simmo etc during his career.
 
member 2299 said:
Yes Dan. Defensively JT was hidden away on the wing.
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That’s simply not true. JT never shirked from his defensive responsibilities. He just wasn’t as good as Joey in front on defence. No shame in that but you never saw him hide.

Was also one of, if not the best scrambling half of all time. Popped up anywhere on the field and often saved a try on the other side of the field. He never gave up on a single play and that’s why he got the media hype and lovefest.
 
CBM is correct on this one. Few players have read the game as well as JT and he was there to save some blushes for his teammates all the time. If he flies across field and gets his body in the way to stop a break, gets bumped off like a child, but slows the guy down enough for other defenders to reel the guy in, it’s just as much a try save as any other, despite the Twitter memes. And he was always the last guy chasing a runaway.
 
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Season Review: Jacob Saifiti

Jacob Saifiti had a season to remember.
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Jacob Saifiti review.

Points out that his form and stats improved once he got the starting spot.
It's a hard call for Klemmer. He also looks better when starting.
 
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Season Review: Jayden Brailey

Jayden Brailey has been a continual performer for the Knights in 2021.
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Jayden Brailey.
Says he got 4 forced drop outs.
That's surprising - I barely remember him kicking, so he must have a pretty high success rate when he does.
 
cowboyman said:
That’s simply not true. JT never shirked from his defensive responsibilities. He just wasn’t as good as Joey in front on defence. No shame in that but you never saw him hide.

Was also one of, if not the best scrambling half of all time. Popped up anywhere on the field and often saved a try on the other side of the field. He never gave up on a single play and that’s why he got the media hype and lovefest.
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Not denigrating JT's effort in defence because you are right, he didn't shirk it, he just wasn't very good.... but I think Turvey (Steve Mortimer, for those that wouldn't know) was streets ahead of him in the scramble and probably the best half back I've seen in that defensive role.

Admittedly that was when bootlace tackles weren't 'penalised' like they are now by refs waving 6 again less than 1/2 a second after a players been cut to the ground because he hasn't released quick enough.

I always find it funny around the talk about how to lower the risk of concussions in the modern game, yet it is no longer 'popular' to reward good, low, one on one cover tackles as one of the easiest ways to minimise concussions in rugby league.

Anyway, that's my little rant for the day....think I'll go and have a Bex and a good lie down 😉
 
Winning percentages in 2021

Mitchell Pearce 67% - 12 games
Jirah Momoisea 67% - 3 games
Chris Randall 60% - 5 games
Hymel Hunt 59% - 17 games
Bradman Best 59% - 17 games
Jake Clifford 54% - 13 games
Kalyn Ponga 53% - 15 games
David Klemmer 52% - 21 games
Jesse Sue 52% - 23 games
Jacob Saifiti 52% - 21 games
Mitch Barnett 50% - 24 games
Daniel Saifiti 50% - 20 games
Lachlan Fitzgibbon 50% - 10 games
Brodie Jones 50% - 22 games
Josh King 50% - 18 games
Jayden Brailey - 48% - 23 games
Connor Watson 48% - 25 games
Enari Tuala 48% - 25 games
Tyson Frizzel 47% - 19 games
Kurt Mann 45% - 22 games
Pheonix Crossland 44% - 9 games
Brayden Musgrove 43% - 7 games
Tex Hoy 38% - 8 games
Star To'a 33% - 12 games
Dom Young 33% - 6 games
Jack Johns 17% - 6 games
Pasami saulo 0% - 3 games
Simi Sasagi 0% - 2 games
Shibasaki 0% - 3 games
Matt Croker 0% - 2 games
 
I mentioned in another thread Mitch's win rate this year. For players that have played 10+ games, no one comes close.
 
Not a big fan of those type of stats, makes those that played without the upper 5-6 critical position types look bad and those that played with a full squad look good. I know that having a full spine, Ponga, Clifford, Pearce and Brailey is more likely to have better results but if you played in one or two games without some of that four you look like sh*** and if you played a few with all four you look good stats wise
 
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