Garrick’s Stocks Rising

[Brisbane Tragic]

Are you sure? Surely Des is not that stupid.

We have two young fullbacks in Koula and Weekes that quite rightly should play ahead of an injured player.
Parker and Ben T are also available to play centre if Garrick is injured.

Or Garrick while an excellent winger is not an arseholes fullback.

Manly and Des have options, however we continue to pick the same safe options and no surprises we get the same result - LOSING

Well I have no inside medical knowledge from within the camp but if you watch him he hasn't stretched out and his pace and speed off the mark has been well down on normal - ever since that hip pointer issue. So I gather it is still there. He has been rock solid as normal but his line breaking and chasing ability has certainly been impacted. And sorry I disagree completely with you - Garrick is a fabulous fullback - he doesn't drop a high kick - when he is totally fit he is superb in taking up the hit ups and causing havoc out wide. He is not Tom... but nobody is. And again I disagree with you - Fullback play is not all about the attack - those young guns might and I say might be great in attack but the defensive coordination and responsibilities are huge and very very few young players unless they have been playing fullback constantly for quite a while can do the defensive side any justice at all. Garrick's only issues besides this fitness issue is under the high ball with inexperienced wingers or wingers like Jorge who have no confidence - then it can be a bit of a shambles back there.

 

[Deleted member 26876]

Definitely injured. Slow fullbacks are painful to watch but I don’t think we have anyone worth subbing in at this point. Might as well see if he recovers enough to get by each week and hope we pull off some late-season miracle to make the 8.

 

[XV-1]

Well I have no inside medical knowledge from within the camp but if you watch him he hasn't stretched out and his pace and speed off the mark has been well down on normal - ever since that hip pointer issue. So I gather it is still there. He has been rock solid as normal but his line breaking and chasing ability has certainly been impacted. And sorry I disagree completely with you - Garrick is a fabulous fullback - he doesn't drop a high kick - when he is totally fit he is superb in taking up the hit ups and causing havoc out wide. He is not Tom... but nobody is. And again I disagree with you - Fullback play is not all about the attack - those young guns might and I say might be great in attack but the defensive coordination and responsibilities are huge and very very few young players unless they have been playing fullback constantly for quite a while can do the defensive side any justice at all. Garrick's only issues besides this fitness issue is under the high ball with inexperienced wingers or wingers like Jorge who have no confidence - then it can be a bit of a shambles back there.

I agree he is safe catching the ball when it's kicked directly to him.

Haven't you noticed he never attacks the ball when he has to run and catch. He lets it bounce. Two weeks ago he let 3 kicks bounce and Roosters scored twice.
Game lost from those errors.

 

[Daddycool]

He’s definitely one more of our better players but not at fullback. It’s just history repeating itself, when Brett was injured in 2009-10 and Des decided Robbo was our best option. It was poor planning then and nothing’s changed.
Garrick is a very good winger and he’s much more valuable to us in that position. I realize he’s most likely playing injured but even when fully fit, he doesn’t have the lateral movement or agility necessary to play fullback.
If it was up to me, I’d have had Koula or Weekes in that position from when Tom got injured. However Des is unlikely to change his thinking, so I can see Garrick staying there (barring further injury) until the end of the season.

 

[Brisbane Tragic]

I agree he is safe catching the ball when it's kicked directly to him.

Haven't you noticed he never attacks the ball when he has to run and catch. He lets it bounce. Two weeks ago he let 3 kicks bounce and Roosters scored twice.
Game lost from those errors.

Against the Roosters they were very inexperienced wingers and that is what I said when he has inexperienced or poor wingers under the high ball he is a bit all at sea.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

He’s definitely carrying an injury , he was much better earlier on the season.

 

[HoldenV8]

Definitely injured. Slow fullbacks are painful to watch but I don’t think we have anyone worth subbing in at this point. Might as well see if he recovers enough to get by each week and hope we pull off some late-season miracle to make the 8.

We've seen a fully fit Reuben Garrick burn Clint Gutherson for pace on numerous occasions, especially last year. That Gutho literally ran around and then away from Garrick on Friday night tells me that Reubs is carrying an injury that is hampering his ability to hit his top speed because normally he'd have the former Cromer Kingfishers junior on toast.

As for our ability to make the top 8 this year ... I'll keep the faith until its mathematically impossible, but I agree it would take a miracle as things stand right now.

 

[Deleted member 26876]

We've seen a fully fit Reuben Garrick burn Clint Gutherson for pace on numerous occasions, especially last year. That Gutho literally ran around and then away from Garrick on Friday night tells me that Reubs is carrying an injury that is hampering his ability to hit his top speed because normally he'd have the former Cromer Kingfishers junior on toast.

As for our ability to make the top 8 this year ... I'll keep the faith until its mathematically impossible, but I agree it would take a miracle as things stand right now.

Yeah Garrick has some pace when 100%

 

[simon64]

Are people seriously heaping sh1t on Garrick ?

He's playing out of position and carrying an injury. Ok, he had a forgettable match on Friday night. But there's no way I'm going to be criticising Ruebs. He wasn't the reason we lost to the Worms.

Think back to the Cowboys match at Brookie last year when he ran pretty much the length leaving them clutching at shadows. Fully fit, he's a different player.

 

[eagleron]

Can only assume given the lack of other options it was deemed that an injured Garrick was better than the alternatives.

Doesn't make sense to me, Koula could easily have been switched to fullback and Burbo start in the centres and then there's Fulton and Weekes

 

[Rocky]

Doesn't make sense to me, Koula could easily have been switched to fullback and Burbo start in the centres and then there's Fulton and Weekes

I can only assume Garrick has been injured for awhile but still done a decent job at the back. so keep picking him.
Obviously this injury was seriously exposed against a good team the other night.

 

[aidos]

Don't forget the train and trial player we've acquired mate. Specialist fullback. Things are happening behind the scenes.

Most positions will be well and truly covered.

Sorry mate I must’ve missed this. Who’s the specialist fullback we’ve signed?

 

[XV-1]

Garrick tries his guts out every week and is much improved player.

But

Will he ever win a match with his goal kicking?

That pathetic choke of a kick he missed to not put Manly ahead 24 - 22 vs the Warriors was just bad. That he didn't kick it dead just made it worse.

Changed the momentum of the match completely. Then him dropping the ball lost the game in the very next set.

 

[CRPSI eagle]

He is not a first grade centre!

 

[40 nil]

He is not a first grade centre!

As we know, Garrick has only played four games as centre in the NRL. In the one of these, he had three tries, three try assists, five tackle breaks, one line break, two line break assists, 137 all run metres, 25 post contact metres + nine goals. I'm sure any first grade centre would be proud of those stats!

IMO, if he regularly plays centre, he'll have more try assists than any of our current centres. Also, I think he is much better centre or winger than he is fullback. However, he is a very useful backup in that position.

 

[madmax]

Garrick at Center makes Saab that much more dangerous!

 

[Ben]

Garrick tries his guts out every week and is much improved player.

But

Will he ever win a match with his goal kicking?

That pathetic choke of a kick he missed to not put Manly ahead 24 - 22 vs the Warriors was just bad. That he didn't kick it dead just made it worse.

Changed the momentum of the match completely. Then him dropping the ball lost the game in the very next set.

I feel his goal kicking is actually pretty good but had a few tough shots over the weekend.
Not sure how many kickers put the ball dead from sideline conversions.

 

[Sheikheagle]

I feel his goal kicking is actually pretty good but had a few tough shots over the weekend.
Not sure how many kickers put the ball dead from sideline conversions.

He is an excellent goal kicker. Even the best have off days.

 

[Nordburg]

He is an excellent goal kicker. Even the best have off days.

I separate the wheat from the chaff on Silvertails,by those that criticise Garrick’s goal kicking

 

[Eagle 1]

Garrick at Center makes Saab that much more dangerous!

Garrick is the Mr handyman in the backline, great fill in for fullback and centre. But to me he's a prolific out and out try scoring winger that usually nails most of his chances.