Slater & Snake in common

[MK Eagle]

The impact on their respective teams in recent times shows the importance of a quality # 1 in todays game.
Nothing against Whare who shows potential, but Snakes presence lifts the players around him to a higher level - same with Slater.
Many appreciate Snakes huge try tally & assists, also defensively the safest last line in the game.
Imo his biggest input is what we dont see - communicating to the players in front of him giving direction, constantly revving the boys up & most importantly - instilling confidence in the 12 players in front of him for 80 minutes.
At Storm always seen Smith as THE key factor with Cronk & Slater just his offsiders. Sure Cronk is good & Slater offers some freakish attacking attributes reserved to just he & Barba, but did not realise his impact on Melbourne was so dynamic till these last few weeks. While Smith is the oil that makes the machine run, Slater is the cog required to give it real impact.
Plenty they dont share like 1 is a grub & 1 is a champion - but when it comes to results - Manly & Storm are 20-30% better with them on the field.

 

[MPC75]

Agree. The impact of Brett is obvious by the last 5 halves of footy we have played without him. If we cast our minds back a couple of years when we didn't have him for 2 years and the result was that we bailed out pretty easily in the semi's. I am afraid that if we don't get him on the park soon, history will repeat itself.

 

[voicefromthehill]

The impact on their respective teams in recent times shows the importance of a quality # 1 in todays game.
Nothing against Whare who shows potential, but Snakes presence lifts the players around him to a higher level - same with Slater.
Many appreciate Snakes huge try tally & assists, also defensively the safest last line in the game.
Imo his biggest input is what we dont see - communicating to the players in front of him giving direction, constantly revving the boys up & most importantly - instilling confidence in the 12 players in front of him for 80 minutes.
At Storm always seen Smith as THE key factor with Cronk & Slater just his offsiders. Sure Cronk is good & Slater offers some freakish attacking attributes reserved to just he & Barba, but did not realise his impact on Melbourne was so dynamic till these last few weeks. While Smith is the oil that makes the machine run, Slater is the cog required to give it real impact.
Plenty they dont share like 1 is a grub & 1 is a champion - but when it comes to results - Manly & Storm are 20-30% better with them on the field.

If you get the chance spend an entire game just watching snake, forget everything else and see what he does. You are spot on, it is the things we don't normally see, watch the way he communicates to or defence, reads plays etc - he adds so much to our team

 

[torana355]

I was thinking the exact same thing lol. Both Manly and Melbourne clearly struggle without their number 1's. That being said Manly have talent all over the park unlike the Scum so we have no excuse imo. We need to start learning to play when Snake is not there as its hurting us bigtime.