Blacktown Sea Eagles (Barely)Live on Foxtel - Saturday 12:30

[Woodsie]

@Bearfax In my opinion your optimism and support of T. Wright is justified ...

My firm belief is that beside a bit of physical strength, the big issue he has to deal with is the mental adjustment required going from an age superstar to an NRL regular.

An age superstar regularly goes through a game making breaks, running freely and generally "doing it easy" for 60mins and toughing it out for 20mins. And these are habits and expectations developed over 10 years.

A good and even very good NRL player on the other hand generally needs to grind it out for 78mins for a couple of mins of stardom. That mental toughness and expectation of having to grind away every game is a big step for those players used to "starring".

A case in point may be young Kelly ... he was (and is) being bashed with limited space and constant defensive demands ... I believe he is only now fit and strong enough physically and mentally to accept the long grind for the short, 2 mins a game stardom.

Tom has all the talent req'd to excel ... but it will be his mental toughness, or lack of it that will be the decider. I also think Baz knows this, some kids are men at 19 ... others take a few years more.

I wish him every success.

 

[smithy]

Didn't see any of the game at all and haven't read all of the comments on here, but are we really slitting our wrists because our reserve grade team, who is weakened by the NRL squad having big injury troubles, losing to the reserve grade side that's NRL side is relatively injury free and was near the top of the table all of last season ?

What is with the using a bit of perspective? Thats no fun, its much easily to pull apart and destroy a severely undermanned team! to add to the sense of reason we fielded 3 players from our Top 30. They fielded 7 players from their top 30 including all their forward pack. People commented we were gassed early. Perhaps has something to do with the fact that only 3 of our players had a full NRL preseason. The rest are part time footballers, some of which didn't come on board until after pre season. We will more than likely struggle with a severe lack of depth moving forward due to injuries, the release of players and the poor attitude of others. Anyway, enough of the sense, continue the bashing.

 

[Supreme Leader]

The only one to impress in that team yesterday was Shipley, rest were very average. I was impressed with his game minutes. In the first half he did 4 tackles in a row and often 2 in a row.. For a forward good effort.

 

[manly al]

Certainly hoped for and expected a better performance and some of their more established players were noticeably down on form and for whatever reason the team effort was just lack luster all round . Lack pf possession , quite a few guys gassed as a result , a disrupted side and that did play disjointed , well of course it can and does happen at this level and when club depth is strained a bit . T .Wright "s one on one defence was generally O K , pass selection , yeah pretty ordinary but just like Anderson , Sulli and Fainu just has too much individual ability and talent to still not be considered future i st grade players and all should still get their opportunity with Manly . Very hard for any team to perform when they get most of the fundamentals out of whack and have limited possession .

 

[maxta]

Tom Wright had his moments yesterday, but they were individual apart from a deft grubber for Anderson to pounce early.
He has some great skills but as a modern half he lacks organisational ability.
This does not mean he can't play in the halves, in fact behind a dominant pack that paved a solid platform could terrorise the opposition, just imo his abilities are more suited to the centre or even fullback.
The Manly team led early and had numerous opportunities in the NZ red zone but there was no cohesion in the side....all over the shop with pass and hope rather than building pressure and seemed to be waiting for an individual effort to score points.

 

[smithy]

Tom Wright had his moments yesterday, but they were individual apart from a deft grubber for Anderson to pounce early.
He has some great skills but as a modern half he lacks organisational ability.
This does not mean he can't play in the halves, in fact behind a dominant pack that paved a solid platform could terrorise the opposition, just imo his abilities are more suited to the centre or even fullback.
The Manly team led early and had numerous opportunities in the NZ red zone but there was no cohesion in the side....all over the shop with pass and hope rather than building pressure and seemed to be waiting for an individual effort to score points.

Agree on the assessment of Wright. The irony is TB also agrees and has stated that he sees him as a centre at NRL level. So why do we persist in playing an potential NRL centre with limited League experience at 6 rather than let him develop as a centre. Add also that we play a 9 in Lussick as our other half and its little surprise we lack alot of direction in NSW cup.

 

[simon64]

Well that was underwhelming!!

Underwhelming Mark ?
It wasn't that good.
We were beyond poor.

 

[Smokin Joe]

Agree on the assessment of Wright. The irony is TB also agrees and has stated that he sees him as a centre at NRL level. So why do we persist in playing an potential NRL centre with limited League experience at 6 rather than let him develop as a centre. Add also that we play a 9 in Lussick as our other half and its little surprise we lack alot of direction in NSW cup.

Yeah,unfortunately unless we bring up some Workers players from RMC there are not really any other options,we just have to deal with it for now....

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

So why do we persist in playing an potential NRL centre with limited League experience at 6 rather than let him develop as a centre.

My guess? To get him in the game.
At 6 he'll touch the ball many more times than if he was waiting out in the centres. True, he won't be learning the intricacies of defending in the centres, but on the other hand, he will be getting a lot more practice tackling the big boys. It's all about fast-tracking his development.