Ballin selfish< Hodges selfish

[Fluffy]

Ballin just ****ed over a try worse than Hodges has ever done.

Just saying, a little less fatigued means better options taken....

 

[sadseaeagle]

yes

 

[Kiwi Eagle]

Ballin has always had next to nothing in attack, but he just seems so much slower these days. Personally I'm not sure I would have extended his contract as far as we did, not even sure he is in the top 8 hookers in the game these days, he is certainly nowhere close to the top 3 of Smith, Farah and Luke.

The side needs some spark out of dummy half, which is exactly what we had in 2008 with L'Estrange and we were so much more potent

Even defensively Ballin was off his game tonight, pretty sure he made a poor attempt on Scott for the 1st try and missed another for a Taumalolo break

 

[eggson]

Hang on, doesn't < mean less than?

 

[Ryan]

Love him, but he has the slowest legs in the entire NRL. Does the 50 metre dash in 11 minutes 57 seconds stat.

 

[MANLY4LIFE]

Ballins last tackle options killed us and so did the dalai,s love child tonight

 

[eaglebuzz]

Did Hasson even take the field tonight?

Why the hell wasn't Hodges on the bench?

 

[Scorpio]

Hodges needs to be on the bench - end of story.

 

[Pepi]

Can anyone name a hooker with less of an attackIng game? Sure he is up there defensively but he is a liability in attack

 

[Eagleman]

Matty B will struggle to hold his spot next year. Although Im not sure Hodges is the answer either but he does deserve to be on the bench at least at the moment.
Not a lot of options avail' coming off contract this year but next year there are a few.
I would consider - Apisai Koroisau, Kierran Mosley, Nathan Peats or James Segeyaro.

 

[malroon]

Are you F&%KING serious , the man done 54 tackles , what do you want him to do, leap tall buildings with a single bound...???

 

[Paw93]

I agree he's slowing down but he is consistently one of our best defensively. Having said that, I don't think he's an 80 minute player anymore. Age is catching up to him and we will need someone like Hodges off the bench when he tires out.

 

[sheridanstand78]

It's important to understand that Marty B has a. Defensive role to play. That's his role now. We need a nippy and smart dummy half alternative. I hope this is done cause the better teams and the not so good teams are killing us at the ruck.

 

[Clivus00]

I dont think the team should waste such an important position on an attacking liability.

 

[cherry_poppins]

I dont think the team should waste such an important position on an attacking liability.

Suffice to say I'm not a massive fan of Matt in attack, his entire career has been solid without being spectacular

But a liability? Are you even serious? I thought it was a good idea as he has no real form for it like a few

 

[rifraff]

There is no doubt he has been a rock.I am finding it hard to think of another dummy half who is less of a threat though. We see so many hookers making game changing runs. Get the backrowers to make the extra tackles and get a bit more attack with the quick play the balls

 

[The Who]

We simply must have Hodges on the bench. It's obvious. So why can't our highly paid coaching staff see this?

 

[Ralphie]

I don't think age has anything to do with it. In 2008 when he was 7 years younger than he is now, Matty B was starting Hooker and Heath LeStrange was an interchange for him late in each half. This was very very effective at the time and would be again.

The only problem is our coach doesn't see it that way. He would rather see Hasson sit on the bench for 70+ minutes instead.

Edit: My Bad, Hasson played 13 minutes last Saturday night.

 

[Fluffy]

and thats the frustrating thing, we arnt weakening a position to achieve flexibility.

I would expect Hodges could make 5 tackles and 3 runs for 20m as a backrower if Tooves wanted him to do this anyway

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

We simply must have Hodges on the bench. It's obvious. So why can't our highly paid coaching staff see this?

He's an option but it's hardly an obvious mistake to leave him off.
When we come up against giant forward packs we need for an extra forward 'in case of emergency'. The pressure the cows put on with Taumololo, Scott, Tamou & co was huge, but we repelled them, applied pressure of our own to force errors, and scored enough tries to win the game.