Heckenberg
Reserve Grader
Tom is our senior player.
Tom is a Myth
- Thread starter The Royal Soup
- Start date
His defensive positional play on Friday night was very senior citizen like
Tom got injured when he put on strong defence against parra at bankwest a couple years ago and was then ruled out for the season. The same when he tore his pecs in Soo last year. so I believe he is playing a more tentative style to make sure he lasts the season. Cant really blame him. He is still a very effective and good player under the circumstances. he also dosnt run at 100% too for the same reason. I think what he is doing is the right thing for the club and the fans.
If he is not confident in his body then he needs to do something to address his mindset around it. It is going to be a big problem going forward if he is not 100% confident in his body and backs it.
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Once Was Brissie Kid
Reserve Grader
Grand finals appearances tally at the end of a Manly playing career says a lot as to who has been Manly's greatest ever fullbacks.
Graham Eadie 6
Brett Stewart 4
Matthew Ridge 2
Bob Batty 2
Ron Willey 2
Dale Shearer 1
Ron Beaumont 1
Shannon Nevin 1
Tom T 0
Graham Eadie 6 doesn't include the 1978 replay
Graham Eadie 6
Brett Stewart 4
Matthew Ridge 2
Bob Batty 2
Ron Willey 2
Dale Shearer 1
Ron Beaumont 1
Shannon Nevin 1
Tom T 0
Graham Eadie 6 doesn't include the 1978 replay
The thing is the game is very different to how it was when Snake was playing. Take the amount of times full backs now defend in the line - something I am not sure Snake every really did
LeonardCohen
Bencher
He looks like a guy that is scared to get injured…he plays with self preservation and the game of rugby league never rewards this type of attitude.
LeonardCohen
Bencher
Brett Stewart is light years ahead of Tom in one important aspect of the game; the ‘big game competitor’. Tom will carve up on a flat track but makes errors and does not pull off big plays in big moments under pressure, and sadly never has.
Snake on the other hand, was a ‘cometh the hour, cometh the man’ type. On the biggest stage in the biggest games, he iced moments that turned fortunes our way.
Snake on the other hand, was a ‘cometh the hour, cometh the man’ type. On the biggest stage in the biggest games, he iced moments that turned fortunes our way.
Turbo will never get to snakes level or have to face what Brett had to
I am resigned to turbo never winning a title with us
Turbo is playing at about 80% capacity. Even at 80% he is still pretty good. However where it really shows up is in cover defence and goal line defence. I would even extend to 'almost tries'. How many times in the last few weeks has Tom been tackled just short of the line - 2 to 3 times a game. Pre- injury he scores every time. At $300k-$400k you could cop it but at $1M it is sucking up a lot of cap.
Question for me is: Do I want 80% week in /week out OR do I want him to play at 100% (even though risk of injury goes up)? Simple - I want him flat out.
Question for me is: Do I want 80% week in /week out OR do I want him to play at 100% (even though risk of injury goes up)? Simple - I want him flat out.
Ron E. Gibbs
First Grader
Agree that it's a tricky one. Tom isn't playing great - and certainly nowhere near his past ability - but he is playing. That's the one real positive about his season so far: he hasn't got injured. The question is, do we have to settle for his current form to keep him out there?
LeonardCohen
Bencher
There’s losing and then there’s dropping a game that you were winning when up by 20 to zip on home soil against a team with two rookie halves, that came off a hiding.
I appreciate the sentiments of your post and we are often quick to catastrophism, but I don’t think last week’s game qualifies as such.
BirdMan4ever
Reserve Grader
lets not only foucs on last weeks game TT has been out of postion / last line of defence on MANY occasions. He has not improved in that dept. Ahhhh how many try savers do you recall that TT has made ???
StuBoot
Bencher
LeonardCohen
Bencher
Interesting that Cronk said the Dolphins don’t beat themselves and that is the sign of a team that’s finals bound…can’t say the same thing about Manly 😐
Tom must accept that his best years as our superstar fullback are behind him. He is no longer that guy. It's time he moved into centre and played a roving role similar to Manu. I think he would be absolutely sensational in that role.
Koula, on the other hand, should be our long-term fullback. He is becoming everything that Tom no longer is, in terms of defence, speed and his ability to cut through from the backfield. I also think we need to go back to Garrick on the left wing, with Tom playing inside him. Talau goes to right centre, and our back five looks like this:
Koula
Garrick
Turbo
Talau
Saab
Koula, on the other hand, should be our long-term fullback. He is becoming everything that Tom no longer is, in terms of defence, speed and his ability to cut through from the backfield. I also think we need to go back to Garrick on the left wing, with Tom playing inside him. Talau goes to right centre, and our back five looks like this:
Koula
Garrick
Turbo
Talau
Saab
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