Back 5 with Koula returning ?

[CRPSI eagle]

Change and opportunity has has never hurt anyone rather than running out with same formula week in week out that doesn’t work. Some players just don’t have it and unfortunately we have a few that continually get picked every week.

 

[Terry Zarsoff]

Unless they are in front Garrick misses them anyway, has cost us countless games with his ****e conversions.
I would much prefer DCE or Brooks to kick.

He misses some from out wide, as do most goalkickers.

 

[danny-boy]

There’s already a thread for this discussion where a vast majority of people (40-50%) voted on Garrick missing out at full strength.

edit: found it.

The hard question

Id love to have Gaz on the left wing again for years to come but If he is still convinced he is a centre id let him go attempt it at another team. Great winger, but struggles to make the correct defensive reads 1 man in. Has been the goal kicker for years now but 75% conversion rate this year...

silvertails.net

 

[Lloyd]

There’s already a thread for this discussion where a vast majority of people (40-50%) voted on Garrick missing out at full strength.

edit: found it.

The hard question

Id love to have Gaz on the left wing again for years to come but If he is still convinced he is a centre id let him go attempt it at another team. Great winger, but struggles to make the correct defensive reads 1 man in. Has been the goal kicker for years now but 75% conversion rate this year...

silvertails.net

I can’t really understand the negativity around Garrick. Surely we are not blaming him for our defence out wide. It has been poor for years. I think koula has been far more disappointing this year. I don’t think he has improved as hoped for. I would actually move Garrick to the wing due to his head knocks if nothing else.

 

[maxta]

I can’t really understand the negativity around Garrick. Surely we are not blaming him for our defence out wide. It has been poor for years. I think koula has been far more disappointing this year. I don’t think he has improved as hoped for. I would actually move Garrick to the wing due to his head knocks if nothing else.

I'm with you....
Early day's Gaz had many issues to sort out, these days a far better allround quick outside back and actually pretty tough too....was on the soft side like most rookies, but has added a much harder edge to his game and the rest has improved on the back of this factor

 

[Rocky]

Unless they are in front Garrick misses them anyway, has cost us countless games with his ****e conversions.
I would much prefer DCE or Brooks to kick.

So you would prefer inferior goal kickers to kick for goal?

Hmmm.

 

[Ohgeez]

So you would prefer inferior goal kickers to kick for goal?

Hmmm.

Dce has a higher goal kicking % this year but overall Garricks would surely be higher? I actually agree with CRPSI that Garrick isn’t a great kicker, especially in the big games when heat is on. Going 1/5 against Penrith really gave us no chance to win that game & we only lost by 10

 

[Scorpio]

Unless they are in front Garrick misses them anyway, has cost us countless games with his ****e conversions.
I would much prefer DCE or Brooks to kick.

Career NRL goal kicking percentage:
Garrick: 76.8%
DCE: 72.9%
Brooks: 69.7%

For comparison here's the career average of the main kickers for our last two premierships:
Matt Orford: 71.5%
Jamie Lyon: 73.8%

 

[Rocky]

Dce has a higher goal kicking % this year but overall Garricks would surely be higher? I actually agree with CRPSI that Garrick isn’t a great kicker, especially in the big games when heat is on. Going 1/5 against Penrith really gave us no chance to win that game & we only lost by 10

Garrick can be a streaky at times but either way he has clearly better stats than DCE.

 

[CRPSI eagle]

So you would prefer inferior goal kickers to kick for goal?

Hmmm.

No, we just don’t need a mediocre player doing it. We have to accept we have better to fill that position end of story.

 

[CRPSI eagle]

Career NRL goal kicking percentage:
Garrick: 76.8%
DCE: 72.9%
Brooks: 69.7%

For comparison here's the career average of the main kickers for our last two premierships:
Matt Orford: 71.5%
Jamie Lyon: 73.8%

Lyon and Orford could have one leg and you would pick them!
Sorry Garrick is not in the same company.
I would take them at 10% kicking rate.

 

[Ron E. Gibbs]

If we ever do have a fully-fit group of players, it will be a difficult choice for the coaches.

I know he's got the least experience, but I'd have Lehi Hoppa ahead of everyone in our backline, with the possible exception of Turbo. He might not get a starting spot, and I'm still not sure where his best position is, but his talent and effort are both phenomenal. His ceiling is higher than the rest. Kid was born to play rugby league, and he needs to be part of the NRL team every week, even if it's from the bench.

 

[Top End Eagle]

Lehi 19, Tolu, 21, Jason 23, Tommy 23, Clayton 24, Reuben 27, Tommy 27. Very close Jaxson and Ray

They're a squad. HIA means you have to think of them that way. Think of them as three quarters rather than wingers or centres or fullbacks. It will sort itself out. Reubens getting better at centre and seibs is realising he can use others there when he's not playing well.

A bit of overdue luck with injuries and this team could put the sort of form in the board to make Mitchell's uncle slot him in next to his old mate Luke after DCE retires playing under either BRad or Seibs Mitchell's choice.

 

[Rocky]

No, we just don’t need a mediocre player doing it. We have to accept we have better to fill that position end of story.

Right, so its actually not about the goal kicking part of it.

 

[HoldenV8]

Right, so its actually not about the goal kicking part of it.

Garrick could score 5 tries, create line breaks and tries at will all while kicking 15/15 goals in Canberra on Saturday ... and I get the feeling CRPSI would still claim he played like 💩

 

[Scorpio]

Change and opportunity has has never hurt anyone rather than running out with same formula week in week out that doesn’t work. Some players just don’t have it and unfortunately we have a few that continually get picked every week.

No, we just don’t need a mediocre player doing it. We have to accept we have better to fill that position end of story.

Lyon and Orford could have one leg and you would pick them!
Sorry Garrick is not in the same company.
I would take them at 10% kicking rate.

You've clearly made up your mind up that you want Garrick out, so I'm not going to try to change your mind there.

But if goal kicking was such an easy task to execute game after game, year after year, then why hasn't DCE or volunteered to be the first choice kicker for the last 10 years, or anyone else in the past 5 years? This is not a slight on him as he is clearly a capable kicker and has stepped up when needed.

I suspect the answer is that it isn't an easy task, it comes with extra responsibility, it requires extra practice at training every week, and the kicker has to do it after running many kilometres and getting belted every single week.

 

[HoldenV8]

You've clearly made up your mind up that you want Garrick out, so I'm not going to try to change your mind there.

But if goal kicking was such an easy task to execute game after game, year after year, then why hasn't DCE or volunteered to be the first choice kicker for the last 10 years, or anyone else in the past 5 years? This is not a slight on him as he is clearly a capable kicker and has stepped up when needed.

I suspect the answer is that it isn't an easy task, it comes with extra responsibility, it requires extra practice at training every week, and the kicker has to do it after running many kilometres and getting belted every single week.

Funnily enough Reubs wasn't a goal kicker coming up through Gerringong and the Dragons juniors. He played 27 NSW Cup games for both the Steelers and Dragons and never took a single kick at goal.

Garrick's kicking in the years he's been at Manly (since 2019) has been:

2019 - 65/85 (76.47%)
2020 - 41/60 (68.33%)
2021 - 121/148 (81.76%)
2022 - 57/75 (76%)
2023 - 63/83 (75.9%)
2024 - 54/71 (76.06%)*

Not bad for someone who wasn't a goal kicker before joining Manly. And he only took over the kicking in 2019 because DCE got one of his rare injuries and was out for about 5 or 6 games.

For the record, when everyone is fit and available for selection, despite proving that he should be in first grade, it'll be young Hopoate who will miss out. Turbo ain't being moved (after having once again proving to the "move him to centre" mob that he's a fullback). Saab isn't going anywhere from the wing. The only change I would actually make is I would move Koula to the wing and bring Talau in to partner Garrick in the centres.

Seriously, other than his pace, what does Koula really bring?? Its can't be his passing game, he doesn't really have one. Defensively he's OK but the truth is that for all the bagging Garrick gets in here for his defence, Koula misses more tackles and makes more ineffective tackles than Garrick does. Honestly we'd be better served with Koula and his speed out on the wing IMO.

 

[The Who]

Being a goal kicker is stressful and takes a person with a strong mind and nerves of steel. It's one of the few times in a match of RL that a player has time to think of the consequences. Nothing can replicate this; you have to experience it when the result of a goal kick means something.

 

[manly al]

Funnily enough Reubs wasn't a goal kicker coming up through Gerringong and the Dragons juniors. He played 27 NSW Cup games for both the Steelers and Dragons and never took a single kick at goal.

Garrick's kicking in the years he's been at Manly (since 2019) has been:

2019 - 65/85 (76.47%)
2020 - 41/60 (68.33%)
2021 - 121/148 (81.76%)
2022 - 57/75 (76%)
2023 - 63/83 (75.9%)
2024 - 54/71 (76.06%)*

Not bad for someone who wasn't a goal kicker before joining Manly. And he only took over the kicking in 2019 because DCE got one of his rare injuries and was out for about 5 or 6 games.

For the record, when everyone is fit and available for selection, despite proving that he should be in first grade, it'll be young Hopoate who will miss out. Turbo ain't being moved (after having once again proving to the "move him to centre" mob that he's a fullback). Saab isn't going anywhere from the wing. The only change I would actually make is I would move Koula to the wing and bring Talau in to partner Garrick in the centres.

Seriously, other than his pace, what does Koula really bring?? Its can't be his passing game, he doesn't really have one. Defensively he's OK but the truth is that for all the bagging Garrick gets in here for his defence, Koula misses more tackles and makes more ineffective tackles than Garrick does. Honestly we'd be better served with Koula and his speed out on the wing IMO.

Seems at this stage at least that Garrick has made a pretty decent fist at playing in the centres but then the choice between Koula and Talau for the other centre spot .
Tend to think that an opposition backline would be more concerned trying to handle Koula there, and sure that he can get back to a slightly better level in defence
Talau has obviously shown some good touches finishing and safe play on the wing . Defence seems also to rate O K there
.Then trying to accommodate Lehi , Well , there could be more difficult matters to deal with

 

[Tragic Eagle]

Form warrants selection. Their positions are theirs to keep or theirs to loose. Thats real competition for selection. The others need to play with Phenomal form in Reggie’s to be crying out for selection. Lehi was fortunate that Koula was still out now he needs to earn it again.