How much is that halfback in the window ?

[Sea Eagle 4 Life]

I despise Moses but he is miles ahead of DCE at this point.

Townsend has been a great signing for the Cowboys this year by playing a proper halfback role - putting in sensible kicks, organising the team around well and not overplaying his hand, which has helped Dearden go to another level. Fogarty and Ilias can both do this as well with slightly less effectiveness. On the other hand DCE is incapable any of these things.

If you take those guys out that is Flanagan, Clifford/Clune, Johnson, Sexton and Brooks that we would take DCE over. Incidentally those are the halfbacks for the bottom 5 teams who we are now only sitting above by a few wins. And all of these guys are on nowhere near the pay packet that DCE is on, bar Brooks (special case of Tigers being an even bigger basket case than us)

I worry for Foran leaving not because Schuster is replacing him, but because it leaves us without a half that can manage the game. DCE's inability to take control will likely pile more pressure on Schuster, which could see him come up with more errors for people to keep ****ting on him. All while they ignore the $1.2 million elephant in the room. Notice how Schuster's best games for us this year was when he could play his preferred 5/8 position while DCE was out for Origin?

I hope the contract extension is not set in stone and we can find a way to ship him out at the end of next year. Dolphins seem the best chance but I think they will be happier with O'Sullivan by that time. In the meantime we should give Jake the captaincy right now, look to bring Cust back from England and continue bringing through Latu Fainu and Humphreys in the hope one of them can be our next great halfback.

I know that DCE is no where near his best at the moment but the halves will always find it hard to dominate when the pack are making paltry metres each set.

As for Foz, you say that we will miss his game management. Well, against the Raiders he put up a bomb that way way too deep, was easily caught in the in-goal by Canberra & gave them 7 tackles from the 20. He also put in a kick (from our own 10 meter line!!!) to no one & found touch 30 metres from our line, gifting the Raiders another attacking set on our line, which they scored from, on the 5th tackle.

What I am highlighting is the DCE bashing is over the top & anyone can pick examples from any player making errors & executing dumb plays.

 

[Chip and Chase]

To win a premiership, which halfbacks would you prefer instead of DCE?

DCE is a very skilful player and has played some wonderful football over the years. However, he regularly has brain explosions which are detrimental to the team's performance. Cooper Cronk has said that DCE lacks composure under pressure (or words to that effect). I agree with this, even though...

silvertails.net

 

[Deleted member 26876]

I know that DCE is no where near his best at the moment but the halves will always find it hard to dominate when the pack are making paltry metres each set.

As for Foz, you say that we will miss his game management. Well, against the Raiders he put up a bomb that way way too deep, was easily caught in the in-goal by Canberra & gave them 7 tackles from the 20. He also put in a kick (from our own 10 meter line!!!) to no one & found touch 30 metres from our line, gifting the Raiders another attacking set on our line, which they scored from, on the 5th tackle.

What I am highlighting is the DCE bashing is over the top & anyone can pick examples from any player making errors & executing dumb plays.

Most games this year Foz has been mr dependable, and I don’t think anyone is surprised that he was playing bad in that miserable raiders game. Everyone was just in tatters

He’s generally got his close-range kicking down to pinpoint accuracy and is a composed figure on the field (even in the bulldogs’ dire side a few years ago)

 

[PONTIAN SEA EAGLE]

Is dce better at the moment than any of those halfbacks in the top 8 simmons mentioned above I doubt it.So why are we paying him all this cash try & offload him & free some cash Up.

 

[JenEagle]

Speaking of Dce and Cleary - I just watched the highlights from the semi final we played against Penrith in 2017.

What a load of rubbish that was. Straight after halftime disallowed try to uate. Try any day of the week then that peachey knock on which was a knock on any day of the week is called a try.

The eels game this year, the 2013 gf, the souths semi in 2019, this Penrith 2017 rubbish and the 2014 semi against the dogs where reynolds etc were so far offside when we went for a fg.

No wonder we are frustrated on this site.

 

[Budgie]

What I am highlighting is the DCE bashing is over the top & anyone can pick examples from any player making errors & executing dumb plays.

He is on

1.2 MILLION dollars per year.

There are 25 games in a year but his maximum is 22 due to Origin.

I know training, pre season, blah blah blah, but all of that is to support the game.

That's $54,545 per game.

Not only was he not worth 10% of that on Saturday, I struggle to think of a single game this year where he's come close to earning that.

 

[sharx]

I think this has been his worst performing year
He seriously needs to improve next year
Otherwise he and des will be goners
There is only so much that can be tolerated

 

[Chip and Chase]

He is on

1.2 MILLION dollars per year.

There are 25 games in a year but his maximum is 22 due to Origin.

I know training, pre season, blah blah blah, but all of that is to support the game.

That's $54,545 per game.

Not only was he not worth 10% of that on Saturday, I struggle to think of a single game this year where he's come close to earning that.

He had a blinder in the Canberra game in Mudgee. Coincidentally around the same time we extended his contract for another 2 years. Can't think of any off the top of my head, but surely he kicked a field goal too this year at some point.

 

[KNUCKLES]

He had a blinder in the Canberra game in Mudgee. Coincidentally around the same time we extended his contract for another 2 years. Can't think of any off the top of my head, but surely he kicked a field goal too this year at some point.

Against the bulldogs

 

[Budgie]

He had a blinder in the Canberra game in Mudgee. Coincidentally around the same time we extended his contract for another 2 years. Can't think of any off the top of my head, but surely he kicked a field goal too this year at some point.

$54,545 worth? Once or twice?
And my problem with all the field goal praise is, as our game manager, he shouldn't have us reliant on a field goal for a win so bloody often!

 

[Uk eagle]

With all the running down of DCE of late (and I'll admit he has left me feeling less than enthused at times this year as well) I got to thinking of who I would (and wouldn't) swap him for.

So I ran through the 7's at the other 15 clubs running down the table.

Penrith...Nathan Cleary....100% Yes. Best 7 in the game. Fair goal kicker too.
Cronulla....Nicho Hynes...Yes. Has youth on his side and a quality player. Should still be at Manly.
Nth Qld....Chad Townsend...No. Too old and solid at best.
Melbourne....Jahrome Hughes....Yes. Competitor. Really like him as a player.
Parramatta....Mitch Moses...No.
Roosters....Sam Walker...Yes. Besides being over 10 years younger, I love how he plays. Tough and great goal kicker.
Souths...Lachlan Ilias....No.
Canberra....Jamal Fogarty....No
Brisbane...Adam Reynolds...If he wasn't in his 30's, Yes.
St. George...Ben Hunt....Six of one, half a dozen of the other for mine.
Canterbury...Kyle Flanagan....No.
Newcastle...Jake Clifford....Bigger No.
Warriors...Shaun Johnson....Massive No.
Titans....Toby Sexton...Has potential but No.
Tigers...Luke Brooks....No. A myth.

I think half the hate comes from his pay packet which isn't his fault. But if you make 7 figures, you better be having a big impact on each game. And he just doesn't. He's supposed to be the team's rudder but he's just not all too often.

But in his defence, our forwards have been getting rolled over for the past 6 weeks. But how long can we use that excuse ?

You lost some credibility when you said walker is a great goal kicker. He can't reach the posts from the touchline

 

[Chip and Chase]

But in his defence, our forwards have been getting rolled over for the past 6 weeks. But how long can we use that excuse ?

We've been using it for 6 or 7 years now, that and the "he doesn't have a good 5/8 to help him" one. So I don't see any reason to stop using it.

 

[aidos]

You lost some credibility when you said walker is a great goal kicker. He can't reach the posts from the touchline

Well he had kicked 19 in a row before the other night, so he clearly can’t be too bad.

 

[Hibyemama]

Ive never seen him get tackled with the ball. he can play till he is 60. Its funny people reckons Foz is an old fella (he gives it his all). In fact DCE is older than Foz.

 

[Disco]

I think given our current situation you need to add the additional traits required over and above just playing ... for example ... if you consider how much impact on the team Chad Townsend has had .. you would raise his status a bit ...

Townsend has been a great signing for the Cowboys this year by playing a proper halfback role - putting in sensible kicks, organising the team around well and not overplaying his hand, which has helped Dearden go to another level. Fogarty and Ilias can both do this as well with slightly less effectiveness. On the other hand DCE is incapable any of these things.

I like the Townsend comparison in that 12 mobths ago Sharks where super keen to been rid of him then the Warriors (injuries a factor) werent plaing him in first grade.

People were in hysterics at the Cowboys spending 800k on him.....now he is killing it.

Shows the swings and roundabouts of the nrl

 

[Uk eagle]

I like the Townsend comparison in that 12 mobths ago Sharks where super keen to been rid of him then the Warriors (injuries a factor) werent plaing him in first grade.

People were in hysterics at the Coboys spending 800k on him.....now he is killing it.

Shows the swings and roundabouts of the nrl

I think Payton realised that he just needed someone to get his young team around the park and to play to the right tempo. DCE is a great player but he does lack the ability to calm the situation down, in fact he tends to make everyone panic by rushing around when he should be slowing things down

 

[robbiea]

Dce talks the talk about team this team that.
Dce plays for himself more so than the team.

 

[HoldenV8]

For those of you banging on about DCE, just consider this from Saturday afternoons game in Canberra.....

Out on our right edge, he was the only one doing anything worth a damn. Outside him he had a totally outclassed Tippy Toes and Burbo, and inside he had Olakau'atu who with 8 missed tackles and only 56 run metres was more there for the pay than he was the play.

The guy was on a hiding to nothing because no matter what he did or tried he was surrounded by either incompetence or indifference, yet in these forums there were and still are those throwing every knife they could find in his direction. Hell, there was even one point in the game where we were attacking their line. Foz had the ball and next thing Sips runs straight in front of him and causes an obvious and penalised obstruction. Yet in the game day thread people were literally blaming that on DCE and he wasn't even involved.

At least he was out there giving his all in a Manly jumper. That's a whole lot more than a lot of his team mates can say right now (did you see the look on Tom and Jake's faces in the stands on Saturday?? Not happy campers with what they were seeing). Even Manly's Immortal halves like Tooves, Des, Ox etc would look like chumps playing with this lot the way they have given up on this year.

Sorry, that's a 4 in the morning rant. I'll probably still think I'm right later though

 

[Rafferty]

I like the Townsend comparison in that 12 mobths ago Sharks where super keen to been rid of him then the Warriors (injuries a factor) werent plaing him in first grade.

People were in hysterics at the Coboys spending 800k on him.....now he is killing it.

Shows the swings and roundabouts of the nrl

I though the Deardon Townsend halves combo would be ordinary, they were both struggling before heading to the cows. I was wrong, thing is they both got a fresh start, went on a pre season fitness bender and clearly have a coach who structures their sides game plan and has them playing their roles, but the really big one for me is the team dynamic, the players respect Chad, he’ll take his medicine and his pretty much always the one motivating and driving the side and boys buy into it, sadly it’s just not the same with Chez and our team dynamic is rooted.

 

[ManlyTragic]

Craig Field was released from jail earlier this year and could be another option.

Well he can put some punch back into our attack! Imagine him and Manase together! They’d create carnage!

Just sayin’