New Winger - Jason Saab

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What happened to Saab coming to us an Garrick going to the dragons I thought it was a done deal ?

G'day mate ... welcome aboard .... Change of coaches ... I think new coach Griffin put the brakes on it ....
 
I know Reuben Garrick gets a bad wrap on here, especially for his defence. And I get that, his defence does kinda suck. Occasionally he can be good, that can't be denied and only would be by those who refuse to see it. But yes for the most part his defence shows why he is a winger and not in the middle tackling like Jake.

However.....however.....

I also think that a lot of it stems from our up and in style of defence and its something every single one of those who play wing for us including Garrick, Jorge, Funa, Hopoate, Miski and even Parker at times, suffer from. Up and in has a tendency to leave huge gaps out wide that unfortunately exploits the lack of pace in our outside backs. If we actually used a sliding defence, those gaps could be shut down before they even exist.

I'm not completely sold on the idea of getting rid of Garrick for Saab. I think Reubs could be seen as a lot better if we started to use a sliding instead of up and in defence. And I think people wouldn't be against him so much if we exploited his pace out wide a lot more than we currently do. It worked for the try he scored against the Warriors, but that type of play from us was a rare thing in 2020.

As for his goal kicking ... unfortunately we have struggled on that front since the day Matthew Ridge's contract ended. Other than the one year we had Ben Walker, and occasionally with Killer, we have struggled to find a consistently good kicker for the past 25 years. Reubs isn't the best kicker, even I will acknowledge that. He's nowhere near being up with the best, let along being the best. But as far as first grade kickers at Manly go he's actually the best we've got right now.

If Reubs is at Manly in 2021 I'd still fully expect to see him in the #5 jumper over anyone else we currently have in the squad.
 
I know Reuben Garrick gets a bad wrap on here, especially for his defence. And I get that, his defence does kinda suck. Occasionally he can be good, that can't be denied and only would be by those who refuse to see it. But yes for the most part his defence shows why he is a winger and not in the middle tackling like Jake.

However.....however.....

I also think that a lot of it stems from our up and in style of defence and its something every single one of those who play wing for us including Garrick, Jorge, Funa, Hopoate, Miski and even Parker at times, suffer from. Up and in has a tendency to leave huge gaps out wide that unfortunately exploits the lack of pace in our outside backs. If we actually used a sliding defence, those gaps could be shut down before they even exist.

I'm not completely sold on the idea of getting rid of Garrick for Saab. I think Reubs could be seen as a lot better if we started to use a sliding instead of up and in defence. And I think people wouldn't be against him so much if we exploited his pace out wide a lot more than we currently do. It worked for the try he scored against the Warriors, but that type of play from us was a rare thing in 2020.

As for his goal kicking ... unfortunately we have struggled on that front since the day Matthew Ridge's contract ended. Other than the one year we had Ben Walker, and occasionally with Killer, we have struggled to find a consistently good kicker for the past 25 years. Reubs isn't the best kicker, even I will acknowledge that. He's nowhere near being up with the best, let along being the best. But as far as first grade kickers at Manly go he's actually the best we've got right now.

If Reubs is at Manly in 2021 I'd still fully expect to see him in the #5 jumper over anyone else we currently have in the squad.
Thats why we need Saab. Jorge cannot be in our starting team over funa. I'd like funa and Saab as our wingers. Fingers crossed we get him.. he isnt happy there so why keep him
 
Thats why we need Saab. Jorge cannot be in our starting team over funa. I'd like funa and Saab as our wingers. Fingers crossed we get him.. he isnt happy there so why keep him

Is Saab the answer though. Because when it comes down to it he'll be playing the same up and in defence that screws with all of our wingers ... and when he lets in 2, 3 or 4 tries per game as a result people are going to turn on him like we've tended to turn on Reubes and Jorge.

I don't necessarily think that its poor defence from any of our wingers that is the biggest problem. Its the defensive structure of the team that often see's huge gaps left out wide that opposition teams exploit time and time again.

And time and time again our wingers get the blame when in reality they are not the actual cause or the actual problem.

Changing the wingers but keeping the same defensive structure is like continually changing the light bulb in a room because they keep blowing and expecting it to be better than the last when the real problem is the wiring. Seriously, you could put Josh Addo-Carr and Alex Johnston on our wings and while both would be a big attacking improvement, with our defensive structure they would still let in as many or more than they scored themselves.
 
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Is Saab the answer though. Because when it comes down to it he'll be playing the same up and in defence that screws with all of our wingers ... and when he lets in 2, 3 or 4 tries per game as a result people are going to turn on him like we've tended to turn on Reubes and Jorge.

I don't necessarily think that its poor defence from any of our wingers that is the biggest problem. Its the defensive structure of the team that often see's huge gaps left out wide that opposition teams exploit time and time again.

Time and time again our wingers get the blame when in reality they are not the actual cause of the problem.

Changing the wingers but keeping the same defensive structure is like continually changing the light bulb in a room because they keep blowing and expecting it to be better than the last when the real problem is the wiring.
Yes we need him jorge is no good and Garrick is the same. Saab is tall and fast. Great option for a cross field kick from foran.. just like he used to for Sir Jamie Lyon ;)
 
Yes we need him jorge is no good and Garrick is the same. Saab is tall and fast. Great option for a cross field kick from foran.. just like he used to for Sir Jamie Lyon ;)

Yeah and when he still lets in more tries than he scores because our defensive structure invites tries out wide ... what then?

The first time he rushes up and in and the opposition score out wide, just like with Jorge, just like with Reubs and any other wingers we have, he'll get crucified for it. And he'll get crucified for it every time it happens after that.

We can't always rely on having someone like Turbo at fullback to cover up the mess.
 
Yeah and when he still lets in more tries than he scores because our defensive structure invites tries out wide ... what then?

The first time he rushes up and in and the opposition score out wide, just like with Jorge, just like with Reubs and any other wingers we have, he'll get crucified for it. And he'll get crucified for it every time it happens after that.

We can't always rely on having someone like Turbo at fullback to cover up the mess.
Was Cartwright our defensive coach? I believe that was the case. With him gone, We may change our structures. I hope so because the up and in just doesn't work most of the time.
 
I really hate to say it, but I fully agree with what Zorba said a couple of weeks ago. Our up and in defence simply does not work. The fact that over the last 3 months of the season we leaked over 30 points per game with the vast majority of tries scored out wide, shows that.

We need a sliding defence that cuts off those gift tries out wide. But until we do our wingers no matter who they are will cop a hammering because most will see it as their problem and not a team one.
 
Yeah and when he still lets in more tries than he scores because our defensive structure invites tries out wide ... what then?

The first time he rushes up and in and the opposition score out wide, just like with Jorge, just like with Reubs and any other wingers we have, he'll get crucified for it. And he'll get crucified for it every time it happens after that.

We can't always rely on having someone like Turbo at fullback to cover up the mess.
Something that no defensive structure will fix is if your wingers are unable to compete with the high ball that leads to cheap tries .
We can put the blame on structures but when it comes to dropped balls and bad passes and missed one on one tackles its purely individual player performance.
This is the question that puts things in perspective
Which team would Hoppa ,Harper, Funa , Garrick , Jorge would break into another NRL team and in place of which player ?
and which one that is a contender like the Rabitts , Raiders , Roosters and Panthers ?
They would be hard pressed to break into any other NRL team .
 
I know Reuben Garrick gets a bad wrap on here, especially for his defence. And I get that, his defence does kinda suck. Occasionally he can be good, that can't be denied and only would be by those who refuse to see it. But yes for the most part his defence shows why he is a winger and not in the middle tackling like Jake.

However.....however.....

I also think that a lot of it stems from our up and in style of defence and its something every single one of those who play wing for us including Garrick, Jorge, Funa, Hopoate, Miski and even Parker at times, suffer from. Up and in has a tendency to leave huge gaps out wide that unfortunately exploits the lack of pace in our outside backs. If we actually used a sliding defence, those gaps could be shut down before they even exist.

I'm not completely sold on the idea of getting rid of Garrick for Saab. I think Reubs could be seen as a lot better if we started to use a sliding instead of up and in defence. And I think people wouldn't be against him so much if we exploited his pace out wide a lot more than we currently do. It worked for the try he scored against the Warriors, but that type of play from us was a rare thing in 2020.

As for his goal kicking ... unfortunately we have struggled on that front since the day Matthew Ridge's contract ended. Other than the one year we had Ben Walker, and occasionally with Killer, we have struggled to find a consistently good kicker for the past 25 years. Reubs isn't the best kicker, even I will acknowledge that. He's nowhere near being up with the best, let along being the best. But as far as first grade kickers at Manly go he's actually the best we've got right now.

If Reubs is at Manly in 2021 I'd still fully expect to see him in the #5 jumper over anyone else we currently have in the squad.

Fair assessment Holden.

I mean he's no world beater but I think circumstances have made him look worse than he is.
 

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