Garricks performance at centre

[Kiwi Eagle]

I watch the games, and then read the reaction on here, and it never marries up for me in regards to Garrick

Room for improvement, certainly plenty there. As dire as some like to make out, nowhere near it. People need to learn a little bit of patience, no better example than Steve Matai who was declared the worst defender in Manly history his first couple of seasons. Jamie Lyon was absolutely slammed as a 6 for a long time before we won a grand final with him there. See a similar comparison in Glenn Stewart and Ben Trbojevic, until 50 games into his career Glenn was just considered brother of and only here to keep Brett happy

Garrick is certainly no Shane Neumann, Branden Williame or Paul Stephenson

 

[manlyfan76]

If you can't pass to the winger, you should be the winger.

 

[MW66]

Still think he is a better winger than a centre and these HIA's are becoming a concern. What was obvious at the ground yesterday was how much our defence improved on the fringes when Ben T moved to centre. He may make it however he needs to really improve his defence (and to be fair so does Koula).

 

[Waz13]

From memory, they wanted Jorge Taufua to come in, don’t think the result would have been much different. You couldn’t have dropped Wolfie, that try he scored to seal the prelim was freakish

Jorge was on the other wing Kiwi. Scored the first try I think. Who would have been the alternative to Wolf? I can’t remember now.

 

[Kiwi Eagle]

Jorge was on the other wing Kiwi. Scored the first try I think. Who would have been the alternative to Wolf? I can’t remember now.

You are correct, I’ve blocked a lot of that day out ! Must have been Peta Hiku then

 

[Tragic Eagle]

Interesting fact:

The tackle efficiency of our "usual" wingers and centres in 2024

Garrick – 86.6% (200 made, 31 missed)
Saab – 82.8% (53 made, 11 missed)
Koula – 79.8% (107 made, 25 missed).
Talau – 73% (65 made, 24 missed)

There is something else to read from that ... our right edge defence, which includes DCE and Haumole, faces a lot more traffic than our left edge does and that could be for a number of reasons from the opposition thinking our right edge is weaker, to most of our opposition just having a natural tendency to "go left", as teams with mostly right hand dominant players tend to do.

These stats are misleading because they do not factor in misreads when players tackle nobody and that doesn't count as a missed tackle. There was a perfect example in the first half when St George butchered a certain try after Garrick again raced up out of the line into no mans land and didn't lay a hand on a player.

 

[HoldenV8]

These stats are misleading because they do not factor in misreads when players tackle nobody and that doesn't count as a missed tackle. There was a perfect example in the first half when St George butchered a certain try after Garrick again raced up out of the line into no mans land and didn't lay a hand on a player.

Yeah he does do that at times, no argument. But then, most centre's do regardless of their experience. Sometimes they get their target, often not.

Even Lyon and Matai missed their targets from time to time. In fact, IIRC it took Matai basically 2 years before he could even cement a first grade spot with us. He became a great defender over time but some of his early reads were horrible to say the least.

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

Jorge was on the other wing Kiwi. Scored the first try I think. Who would have been the alternative to Wolf? I can’t remember now.

Made me curious so I checked, Wolf and Jorge were the wingers in all 4 finals. Hiku played well at fullback in the first 2 finals while Snake was out.
(In the final round match our wingers were Wolfman and some guy called Gutherson (we lost that one to Panthers).

 

[Phobia]

Our backline come Rnd 18 against the Cowboys will be absolutely stacked, and for balance reasons Garrick will pretty much be a neccesity on the wing. I wonder what his actual contractual obligations are because last year, when Garrick was on this current deal, he played most of his games on the wing. I think it's one of two options:

1. Tom Trbojevic
2. Saab
3. Koula
4. Garrick
5. Talau

Aka the boring option. I really hope Seibold doesn't pick this.

1. Hopoate
2. Saab
3. Koula
4. Tom Trbojevic (played right centre in origin but I imagine defensively Koula would be better on the right, interchangeable really)
5. Garrick

Pretty stacked in my opinion. People are really giving Garrick a lot that he doesn't deserve. He tackles well. He attacks well. He's a good footballer. His only problem is his reads at centre. No way in hell is he a worse winger than Talau. That's just ridiculous.

Funnily enough having a good quality backline player not playing is actually a luxury a lot of clubs have, that we're just not used to. I'm very happy to have Talau in Blacktown given last year it was Harper we had waiting for us.

 

[Scorpio]

You are correct, I’ve blocked a lot of that day out ! Must have been Peta Hiku then

If true, I'm sure it inspired a lot of confidence in Wolfman, knowing his senior teammates were white-anting him by pleading with the coach to have him replaced...

 

[Kiwi Eagle]

If true, I'm sure it inspired a lot of confidence in Wolfman, knowing his senior teammates were white-anting him by pleading with the coach to have him replaced...

Yeah you would hope he didn’t know

Is definitely true, the words came out of Watmoughs mouth during a podcast 4-5 years ago