https://www.seaeagles.com.au/news/2019/02/18/cherry-evans-its-hard-not-to-be-excited/ Good to hear from Cherry!
Can we start a betting comp on how many "um's" will be said each press conference? Between DCE and Desmond there is sure to be a few.
Good article https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/how-fans-finally-warmed-to-cherry-evans-20190309-p512xp.html
The Mad professor makes Sense ..... Returning coach Des Hasler will use Cherry-Evans predominantly on the right edge this season, rather than let him roam. Keeping him to the right side of the field worked in 2011 when they won the premiership together. It is also how he has been used along side Cameron Munster and Luke Keary respectively in the Queensland and Australian set-ups.
What sort of sport has rugby league become when you have to keep to one side of the field? It's not netball! With such gridiron-style rigid thinking we'll never see another Cliff Lyons or Phil Blake.
The sort of Structural game plan that win premierships , SOO series and Word cup games . DCE is also proven to be one of the most brilliant individual game breakers as well . There was no gridiron style rigid play from our Victorious team where DCE played on one side of the field and Foran on the other when we completely dominated and blew the storm off the park with the biggest ever Grand final winning margin in the history of the game . The proof as they say is in the pudding .
I’m pretty sure our halves were Johnny Gibbs and Alan Thompson when we beat storm 40 nil. Dce and foran weren’t around in those days of 2008.
Are you sure our halves were not Jonny Mayes and and ian Martin ? . I think Gibbsy and Thommo were at primary school in 2008 . You could be right though feathered friend .
This should make life harder for the opposition defenses. They won't be able to follow DCE around to shut down our attack if we have a potent left edge threat.
Kind of right Bozo - but its about playing unstructured in a structure Need a solid gameplan , but your marque players need to play whats in front of them within that structure. As an example you will have set plays depending on where you are on the field, but once there is a line break- instinct takes over Also in a tough game where both Team’s robotically play for field position, that 1 player with vision and instincts, can break the game open just from being unpredictable using talent you don’t train to defend against.
That was part of the problem, especially last year. Everyone knew that Cherry was going to get the ball on the last at least 90% of the time and it made it that much easier to shut us down because they kept on rushing up on him. It happened in 2016 also, at least until Barrett finally moved Killer to 5/8. Having Cherry on the right and either LG or Hodko on the left at least gives greater options, especially with last tackle kicks. As @BOZO said above, last year especially with no other real halves partner, DCE was running around in circles all over the field because he was basically our ONLY play maker for the entire bloody season with Barrett all but refusing to play a decent half alongside him. Yet despite that, to his credit Cherry still did well enough to win back his Qld Origin and Aussie test jumpers.
Croker tried and I'll never say he didn't give it all he had. But unfortunately all he had wasn't good enough. But he was also in an unenviable situation. He was only really brought to the club as a backup because we had Blake Green and Tom Wright was being seen as a centre. Then Green left, we missed out on Pearce, Lamb, Moylan and allegedly Carney, and Hastings had managed to get Barrett's nose almost completely out of joint (though not enough to not having him at least on the bench). With Walker also starting the year injured (PM's XIII legacy), that left only one half in the squad other than DCE who had actual first grade experience.....Lachlan Croker. Even if that experience was only one single game, it was more than anyone else we had. In effect he jumped from about our 7th choice 5/8 (factoring in those we missed out on such as Mitchell Pearce) to first choice before the season even started. It was never going to work, and didn't. Hopefully with LG, Hodko and even Cade Cust, we're much better off for halves options in 2019 because as good as DCE is, he simply can't do it all on his own no matter how good some of his team mates are. Even the great Thurston couldn't do squat with the Cows until he got on-field help from the likes of Morgan, Granville and Coote.
Croker was on a hiding to nothing. I shudder to think of the instructions he was under. He never had a chance under Barrett's tutelage and deserves a fair crack at something.
