Cooper Johns

[TheSoaringEagle2023]

Barring injury, DCE & Turbo should be available for Friday 9 June v Dolphins. As Johns was hooked in the last match, I expect Arthur would be the next half in line. In Lawton is fit, he will likely be selected as 14 - otherwise Weekes. It appears Seibold is reluctant to promote GCKT.

Im of the same view that GCKT will find it harder to crack the team, considering Weekes promotion didn't pan out well. With the season on the line and the team on the fringes of the top 8, any experimentation now with new players would be on the back burner until next season. Lawton and Arthur will share the duties as the 14. As crazy as it sounds, I still believe Seibold will at some stage persist with Cooper for the 2 and 3 origin games, even if its on the bench.

 

[40 nil]

With the season on the line and the team on the fringes of the top 8, any experimentation now with new players would be on the back burner until next season

Let's hope GCKT gets an opportunity. Early in the season, Seibold expressed a high opinion of him.

Although there has been a few club debuts this year, Fainu is the only rookie who has debuted so far. It appears he is more likely to establish a regular place in the seventeen than most of the others.

 

[ricardo]

Prefer to see what Croker can do at half (with Gordon CKT at hooker)

 

[Waz13]

Some might suggest he'd be stupid to not hook him with 80 to go. All the evidence of his 'ability' was there prior to yesterday.

Agree, should never have been picked imo - couldn’t believe he was. But for whatever reason (only the coaching staff will know) he was. At least they made the call to hook him and not keep him out there. That said surely that’s enough to see him not picked again.

 

[Waz13]

Nice way to put it. He's not trying to be rubbish, the fact that Manly have actively looked for a better back up cannot do his confidence any good whatsoever.

He's probably footy smart enough, and has plenty of support (as you say). He needs to dominate a NSW cup side and guide it around for a couple of season competently, at the very least learn to put those with more skills in positions to contribute. At the moment, he unfortunately makes those around him play worse. You don't need speed and skill to guide a team around - just make intelligent decisions and have a decent attitude in defense.

If he can do that, and maybe knock out 50 or games over a few years, he can be coach one day. But at the moment, he cannot play FG again until he shows something of value.

A mates son who’s now in the Newcastle system watched quite a bit of him in qld cup and said he was very good at that level. It is quite a jump from Q cup/nsw cup to 1st grade. More so for a half I’d imagine. My biggest issue with Johns is he’s a total liability in defence. He’s one of the worst tacklers I’ve seen in grade in a long time. That’s the biggest issue I had with his selection last week. Who cares if Arthur was new and didn’t know the attacking plays etc, at least he can tackle. Just sit him on one side tell him to distribute the ball and do his job defensively with Koula and Guac. He does that and we prob would have won.

 

[NREagle]

Agree, should never have been picked imo - couldn’t believe he was. But for whatever reason (only the coaching staff will know) he was. At least they made the call to hook him and not keep him out there. That said surely that’s enough to see him not picked again.

My guess is that if Arthur had been with us for a few weeks instead of days then Johns would have missed out.

Gotta feel for him though - signing someone mid season to do your job can't be great for the confidence.

 

[JakeyB789]

Im of the same view that GCKT will find it harder to crack the team, considering Weekes promotion didn't pan out well. With the season on the line and the team on the fringes of the top 8, any experimentation now with new players would be on the back burner until next season. Lawton and Arthur will share the duties as the 14. As crazy as it sounds, I still believe Seibold will at some stage persist with Cooper for the 2 and 3 origin games, even if its on the bench.

What I don't get is that GCKT would literally be the easiest player to blood, we could have him at 14 and actually play him 20-30 minutes in his preferred position unlike what we were doing with Weekes. He's even played hooker for longer in his young career than Croker has!!

I like Lawton but he is more of just a solid player and is similar to Croker at hooker, and Arthur taking up a bench spot was one of the main reasons Parra fans turned on him. We've desperately needed a bit of spark at 9 for years now and there's too much pressure on the rest of the spine to create. But Seibold's reluctance to take chances, coupled with the fact Johns keeps finding his way back in the side reminds us of why things went south so quickly at the Broncos

 

[TheSoaringEagle2023]

My guess is that if Arthur had been with us for a few weeks instead of days then Johns would have missed out.

Gotta feel for him though - signing someone mid season to do your job can't be great for the confidence.

Can't be great for your confidence if you are a Blacktown workers player doing well or knocking on the door.

 

[TheSoaringEagle2023]

What I don't get is that GCKT would literally be the easiest player to blood, we could have him at 14 and actually play him 20-30 minutes in his preferred position unlike what we were doing with Weekes. He's even played hooker for longer in his young career than Croker has!!

I like Lawton but he is more of just a solid player and is similar to Croker at hooker, and Arthur taking up a bench spot was one of the main reasons Parra fans turned on him. We've desperately needed a bit of spark at 9 for years now and there's too much pressure on the rest of the spine to create. But Seibold's reluctance to take chances, coupled with the fact Johns keeps finding his way back in the side reminds us of why things went south so quickly at the Broncos

I agree with all your points and would want Gordy to be promoted to add some spark. But as it stands Croker / Lawton are the incumbents and will be for some time. Seems like Seibold only wants the attacking outlet to come through Schuster / Turbo. Pretty one dimensional if you ask me. If you look at Penrith they had their greatest success with Api, Luai, Cleary , Yeo as their attacking outlets. They seem to look off the pace without Api.

 

[Nordburg]

Can't be great for your confidence if you are a Blacktown workers player doing well or knocking on the door.

Who is doing well at Blacktown?Are you watching every game?Blacktown have won less games than Manly’s first grade,so they’re hardly carving up the competition.I’m no fan of Johns and didn’t want him anywhere near Manly when they signed him and my mind has not changed now,but to suggest someone is knocking on the door at Blacktown is far fetched.

 

[TheSoaringEagle2023]

Who is doing well at Blacktown?Are you watching every game?Blacktown have won less games than Manly’s first grade,so they’re hardly carving up the competition.I’m no fan of Johns and didn’t want him anywhere near Manly when they signed him and my mind has not changed now,but to suggest someone is knocking on the door at Blacktown is far fetched.

I have been actually, I have watched most games, have you?. Jake Toby, Gordon, Stuckey, Fumalalo, Matterson, Myers deserve a chance.

 

[BOZO]

I have actually been actually, have you?. Jake Toby, Gordon, Stuckey, Fumalalo, Matterson, Myers deserve a chance.

The Good news is
We do have promising players waiting in the Wings

Jack in the box Toby has plenty of energy is always involved and influential in the game

The Speedy and skilful up and coming Sensational Myers would be a breath of fresh air to the slow Predictable and one dimensional Parker

Gordon is the mesmerising spark we lack in the middle and would be a great impact bench option at this stage

Fumalalo , Matterson and Stuckey also offer a solid foundation

 

[Forster eagle]

My guess is that if Arthur had been with us for a few weeks instead of days then Johns would have missed out.

Gotta feel for him though - signing someone mid season to do your job can't be great for the confidence.

Agree totally....Johns shouldn't get another run in 1st grade...just a little below that standard. Think its a moral that Jake Arthurs will turn into something, given 1. he left Parra and 2. The Parra fans bagged him out.

 

[winnyason]

Elgey was a good player. I think he also had a mental health issue which led to his early retirement, rather than ‘he wasn’t good enough’.

Just imagine if he had joined Manly as ostensibly planned in 2012 and DCE had joined the Old Coast. We could have enjoyed considerably more salary cap space to hang onto/recruit other players in the interim.

I don’t want to join the Johns’ pile on, other than Cooper started out ok yesterday, but sadly his head dropped after a few defensive lapses. Perhaps Arthur should have come on earlier, e.g. for the start of the second half.

Kane was a very good talent imo. A Goldy kid so he wanted to get home

 

[TheSoaringEagle2023]

A mates son who’s now in the Newcastle system watched quite a bit of him in qld cup and said he was very good at that level. It is quite a jump from Q cup/nsw cup to 1st grade. More so for a half I’d imagine. My biggest issue with Johns is he’s a total liability in defence. He’s one of the worst tacklers I’ve seen in grade in a long time. That’s the biggest issue I had with his selection last week. Who cares if Arthur was new and didn’t know the attacking plays etc, at least he can tackle. Just sit him on one side tell him to distribute the ball and do his job defensively with Koula and Guac. He does that and we prob would have won.

Koula was doing his best to help Johns out in defence and as a result he gets scapegoated by the commentators for the missed tackles he shouldnt have to make.

 

[BOZO]

Koula was doing his best to help Johns out in defence and as a result he gets scapegoated by the commentators for the missed tackles he shouldnt have to make.

I am big Koula fan and I am not going to defend him for some ordinary defensive lapses last week
Koula has shown us that he is better than that
Koulas best last week was not good enough to the Manly Premiership Benchmark winning standards

Cooper Johns has a famous name and he is also playing for the famous Manly club
and the focus on him is not unexpected and he is playing well below expectations
Cooper has had 2 years being nurtured in one of the best Nurseries in the NRL the Melbourne storm system and so he has had a very good grounding
Personally from what I have seen i do not think that Cooper will be taking a 30 player roster position next season
To keep improving we need to let go of some players with limited Speed , Skill, and Strength and upgrade them with more quality players .
There are no names out there in parks playing big games and the smart recruiters find them

Nothing personal here , Its just pure passion for Manly winning
But when we have Passive centres like Parker
and other teams have the Dynamic Chrichtons the Manus , the Fanworth , The Grahams , The staggs , the Bests the Gagais the Holmes , the Tomikos ,the Talakais , the Olams etc ...
Its a no contest

 

[TheSoaringEagle2023]

I am big Koula fan and I am not going to defend him for some ordinary defensive lapses last week
Koula has shown us that he is better than that
Koulas best last week was not good enough to the Manly Premiership Benchmark winning standards

Cooper Johns has a famous name and he is also playing for the famous Manly club
and the focus on him is not unexpected and he is playing well below expectations
Cooper has had 2 years being nurtured in one of the best Nurseries in the NRL the Melbourne storm system and so he has had a very good grounding
Personally from what I have seen i do not think that Cooper will be taking a 30 player roster position next season
To keep improving we need to let go of some players with limited Speed , Skill, and Strength and upgrade them with more quality players .
There are no names out there in parks playing big games and the smart recruiters find them

Nothing personal here , Its just pure passion for Manly winning
But when we have Passive centres like Parker
and other teams have the Dynamic Chrichtons the Manus , the Fanworth , The Grahams , The staggs , the Bests the Gagais the Holmes , the Tomikos ,the Talakais , the Olams etc ...
Its a no contest

Koula did have a poor outing, it wasn't the point I was making. Except it seemed that every tackle Cooper missed somehow found its way of blame at Koula's feet.

 

[BOZO]

Koula did have a poor outing, it wasn't the point I was making. Except it seemed that every tackle Cooper missed somehow found its way of blame at Koula's feet.

I understand your valid point and agree with you that Koula should also not escape criticism warranted for his below par performance

 

[Sidestep]

I’m 79 years old and I could have sidestep past Cooper John’s last week

 

[TheSoaringEagle2023]

I’m 79 years old and I could have sidestep past Cooper John’s last week