Taufua is great but....

[maxta]

I completely understand your thread, and I completely disagree (is that allowed?). His negatives far and away outweigh what positives he has in his kit bag.

Just like 95% of the other wingers in the game, he can finish, yes. But so could Robertson, Hicks, Williams. That doesn't make a great winger. It's the other things - catching, positional play, defensive work, communication with his centre and fullback, his support play, his metres after impact, his play the ball speed - so on and so forth.

Frankly, overall as a player, in my opinion he's a 4/10. There are some damned good wingers going around @maxta.

Now, to address your comment, "go back & come back something original", not exactly sure what your trying to say there, but the fact that I'm disagreeing, makes the reply original.

Have to ask though, with say 80% of the people in the thread(s) over the past few days commenting on his hands for feet, and feet for hands, why was it me your got all stroppy about when I stated the same?

Is it because I said DCE has been down and is out of form? Do you disagree with that?

Firstly enjoy healthy debate with varied opinions...pretty boring if we all had the same ideas.
Secondly, I was the person who created the thread relating to his poor hands at crucial times & his poor defensive reads....so really don't need you to preach these factors.
The area I disagree with your post is placing him in the "most wingers can finish" call....imo finishes plenty others can't.
Taufua has power that only Semi & Manu could replicate & also only a few who could get to the line with no room, again - that's my opinion for right or wrong.
DCE??
Why did he become a part of the debate...seems a bit personal?
If you were after my opinion on DCE, not overly impressed by his form, but he will improve dramatically through the season on the back of a more fluent go forward in the middle.

 

[Ryan]

Firstly enjoy healthy debate with varied opinions...pretty boring if we all had the same ideas.
Secondly, I was the person who created the thread relating to his poor hands at crucial times & his poor defensive reads....so really don't need you to preach these factors.
The area I disagree with your post is placing him in the "most wingers can finish" call....imo finishes plenty others can't.
Taufua has power that only Semi & Manu could replicate & also only a few who could get to the line with no room, again - that's my opinion for right or wrong.
DCE??
Why did he become a part of the debate...seems a bit personal?
If you were after my opinion on DCE, not overly impressed by his form, but he will improve dramatically through the season on the back of a more fluent go forward in the middle.

Name a few wingers that lack capacity to finish in this NRL? They have come through the ranks at that level for a reason @maxta . I also bet you a fair heap of them can catch a hell of a lot better than Taufua !!

Lets look at last round alone. With Aubusson & Ferguson playing centre, Taufua's opponents were SKD and Tupou from memory. Are they finishers?

Prior to that it was The Sharks. They had Sosaia Feki & Valentine Holmes. Are they finishers?

I could go on, but you get my drift.

Last season, Taufua (in a 16 team competition), was 35th in try scoring in the NRL, right next to Gavin Cooper. Brett Stewart was 8th, Steve Matai was 39th.

The season before, he was 44th. Hiku was 6th playing on the wing, and Matai 19th, so you can't say we weren't scoring tries.

Therefore, no way to I consider him an elite finisher. What good does it do to make after impact metres, when he drops the damned ball 3-4 times per match on those carries? His ability to catch a high ball, and be sound defensively is deplorable at best !

PS: The reason I asked about DCE, is because you asked if I wanted to have a dig at anyone else, and apart from those two (and to a lesser degree Myles), I've been very positive.

Got my numbers from here btw:
https://www.totalfootystats.com.au/

 

[Steve76]

His time is up..
Can't tackle, can't catch and way too slow.

 

[Shoe1]

His time is up..
Can't tackle, can't catch and way too slow.

He has wonderful hands if given no time to think.

 

[HoldenV8]

Jorge.....

He's a punishing defender, but his defensive reads of late have been horrible at best.

He has great hands when a try is on offer, but in general play he's got arguably the worst hands in the NRL.

Under a high ball he's also horrible. When he keeps his feet on the ground, generally he is ok at catching a bomb, even under pressure. But when he jumps for the ball (which is what he normally does) he usually either spills or or simply gets nowhere near it.

When he actually keeps hold of the ball, his runs are strong and he runs hard which takes pressure from the forwards early in sets. But again, that depends on his hands. As we saw on Saturday night he can (and sadly often) can easily undo any good work he does by handing over possession.

For someone who was talked about as a possible Origin player a few seasons back, he has definitely gone backwards in his game. But in all seriousness, who have we got who can do a better job? Wiliame hasn't shown anything in first grade other than a so-called losing curse, and neither Lavaka nor Goodall have done anything in NSW Cup to show that they would be a better option.

And for all of that.....he's currently leading our try scoring with 3.

 

[maxta]

Name a few wingers that lack capacity to finish in this NRL? They have come through the ranks at that level for a reason @maxta . I also bet you a fair heap of them can catch a hell of a lot better than Taufua !!

Lets look at last round alone. With Aubusson & Ferguson playing centre, Taufua's opponents were SKD and Tupou from memory. Are they finishers?

Prior to that it was The Sharks. They had Sosaia Feki & Valentine Holmes. Are they finishers?

I could go on, but you get my drift.

Last season, Taufua (in a 16 team competition), was 35th in try scoring in the NRL, right next to Gavin Cooper. Brett Stewart was 8th, Steve Matai was 39th.

The season before, he was 44th. Hiku was 6th playing on the wing, and Matai 19th, so you can't say we weren't scoring tries.

Therefore, no way to I consider him an elite finisher. What good does it do to make after impact metres, when he drops the damned ball 3-4 times per match on those carries? His ability to catch a high ball, and be sound defensively is deplorable at best !

PS: The reason I asked about DCE, is because you asked if I wanted to have a dig at anyone else, and apart from those two (and to a lesser degree Myles), I've been very positive.

Got my numbers from here btw:
https://www.totalfootystats.com.au/

Last year was a tough season to mark a Manly winger with the lack of quality ball they got, don't expect you to get that....anyway the thread is actually about how bad Taufuas handling has become & how against a better opposition, will be punished for it...& his defensive blunders rushing in off his wing....still a powerful winger regardless of his faults, most would recognise this.
Fact is, there seems to be a lack of options for backup so really hope the problems are rectified....quickly.
DCE ,Myles....maybe Brown & if we get really honest, those first 2 rounds Lyon was looking ordinary.
Personally think the team is a long way from the formidable team that builds by round 20....& I think Taufua will come good....though will always have that error in him, but will still be in the 17.
Only time will tell.

 

[NewwyEagle]

No "buts" about his performance tonight. He was great running the ball out and even made a few good catches. If we can learn to spread quicker when we're in the opposition twenty there won't be many wingers stopping him.

 

[maxta]

Powerhouse effort - a couple of times on tackle 6 was waiting for that cutout pass to get him 1 on 1 with that winger from 5-10 out....Try time I tell y'all!!!

 

[double hoops]

I have said it for years. Move Jorge to centre. Transition won't be seamless, but he would end up be a better centre then he is winger.

 

[HK_Eagle]

Kudos to Jorge tonight. He put in a very good game after the poor last showing. Having said that, he needs to build consistency now. We need to see that kind of solid performance on a week-in-week-out basis. That will be the real test for him. Nevertheless, Great stuff tonight JT

 

[R3]

I couldn't fault his performance last night, Everyone played so well in a losing side, I'd like to think DCE would have made a 4 point difference at least. Api and Walker stepped up admirably and Snake and Parcell took control when they needed to. I hoped Feliti would add a bit more flare but he looks like he's been instructed to play a simpler forwards role despite the halves situation we were facing. Jorge seemed motivated and in control of any attention the bunnies threw at him.
I know I've barely mentioned him on his own thread but that was a step back in the right direction.
*Also-
What do people think of the idea of grabbing the second Walker at the bunnies? Can't be any worser back up half than I.John, Moltzen or Hynes and he's off contract.. If we don't have a truly emerging half jumping out and Baz wants to blood Hynes in NSW Cup this year, I'd shed the first two blokes for Cody in order to shift Dillon to the centres. Plus he has a slight Manly connection with some good family friends of mine haha "get in his ear"

 

[Chip and Chase]

I have said it for years. Move Jorge to centre. Transition won't be seamless, but he would end up be a better centre then he is winger.

That's a no from me, I love Horhay but he has no passing game so I can't see him being any good at centre. Wing is his best spot IMO.

 

[HoldenV8]

As bad as Jorge was last week, he was just about spot on last night.

I don't remember him dropping the ball once. His runs were strong, though he wasn't called on to do much defence because Souffs attack had next to nothing after that first 8 minutes.

The good thing was that knowing they weren't getting much ball from Walker, he and Skivy went looking for work last night.

 

[ricardo]

Rotate him through the second row then.

 

[ricardo]

Who replaces him, Hex?