Alan79
Kennel Legend
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2007
- Messages
- 13,538
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Hasler is the man. If he has faith in Reynolds over Mbye at this stage then it's pretty fair to assume that he's watched enough footage to have been convinced that Reynolds offers more.
It's entirely possible that the return of Reynolds is a smokescreen, but if he does play I'm willing to bet that he'll use his niggle tactics to throw Isaac Luke off his game, which in turn will really screw with the ability of the Souths pack to come close to matching ours. I despise Luke like Marley hates Reynolds, however i will admit that Luke has ability. I actually look at Luke as being similar in many ways to Reynolds. Both can do some things that motivate their team-mates in great ways, but they're both one angry pill away from taking things too far and giving away some penalties. I actually think that Reynolds offers a lot more though. His running game is good and at stages his support play can be sensational while his kicking game has slowly gone from average to strong. I think Reynolds still has improvement in him and given his determination to succeed i'd like to see if he makes the most of the opportunity to let Hasler know that he's still worthy of being our #6 after Mbye has shown his potential.
Mbye has played some decent football in the absence of Reynolds, but hasn't been as perfect as a few people would like to make out. I've seen him put some below par kicks in and at times he's opted to make runs on the fourth tackle when he should be keeping himself in a position to be one of two kicking options on the last. People critique Reynolds for making runs, but fail to see that Mbye has taken some poorly timed runs over the last few rounds that make it perfectly obvious that Hodkinson will be the receiver on the next kick and thus put some pressure on him. It's sad that people are willing to criticise the fact that Hodkinson never took a field goal attempt when he was under pressure from a flying Taupau last week, while they fail to notice that he used a set play that he and Reynolds have also used to give Mbye a pressure free attempt. Credit where credit is due really. Many halves in the game don't have the presence of mind or the selfless attitude to have these set plays planned. Hodkinson didn't win the game with his own field goal but he made it pretty ****ing easy for Mbye to take an uninterrupted shot.
Mbye has not really done much to warrant being dropped, but i don't think that he has really stood up and demanded that Hasler keep him in the side either. I don't know if the season will end with Hokk and Reynolds as our halves pairing, but I have faith in their ability to do the job if Hasler decides that they're who he wants to persist with. As a Bulldogs fan, all i can say is that you can love or hate anyone we have in the 17 at any given time, but the best thing to hope for is that they perform whenever they put on their jersey.
Anyway it looks like a strong team we are sending out this week regardless of the fact that we've had 10+ pages of debate about whether our halves are adequate. I think one of the most interesting match-ups for this game will be Lichaa vs Luke though given the fact that Lichaa has named Luke as a player who he tried to mould some of his game on. Who do you guys think will perform better? I have a feeling that Luke will have a shit week.
It's entirely possible that the return of Reynolds is a smokescreen, but if he does play I'm willing to bet that he'll use his niggle tactics to throw Isaac Luke off his game, which in turn will really screw with the ability of the Souths pack to come close to matching ours. I despise Luke like Marley hates Reynolds, however i will admit that Luke has ability. I actually look at Luke as being similar in many ways to Reynolds. Both can do some things that motivate their team-mates in great ways, but they're both one angry pill away from taking things too far and giving away some penalties. I actually think that Reynolds offers a lot more though. His running game is good and at stages his support play can be sensational while his kicking game has slowly gone from average to strong. I think Reynolds still has improvement in him and given his determination to succeed i'd like to see if he makes the most of the opportunity to let Hasler know that he's still worthy of being our #6 after Mbye has shown his potential.
Mbye has played some decent football in the absence of Reynolds, but hasn't been as perfect as a few people would like to make out. I've seen him put some below par kicks in and at times he's opted to make runs on the fourth tackle when he should be keeping himself in a position to be one of two kicking options on the last. People critique Reynolds for making runs, but fail to see that Mbye has taken some poorly timed runs over the last few rounds that make it perfectly obvious that Hodkinson will be the receiver on the next kick and thus put some pressure on him. It's sad that people are willing to criticise the fact that Hodkinson never took a field goal attempt when he was under pressure from a flying Taupau last week, while they fail to notice that he used a set play that he and Reynolds have also used to give Mbye a pressure free attempt. Credit where credit is due really. Many halves in the game don't have the presence of mind or the selfless attitude to have these set plays planned. Hodkinson didn't win the game with his own field goal but he made it pretty ****ing easy for Mbye to take an uninterrupted shot.
Mbye has not really done much to warrant being dropped, but i don't think that he has really stood up and demanded that Hasler keep him in the side either. I don't know if the season will end with Hokk and Reynolds as our halves pairing, but I have faith in their ability to do the job if Hasler decides that they're who he wants to persist with. As a Bulldogs fan, all i can say is that you can love or hate anyone we have in the 17 at any given time, but the best thing to hope for is that they perform whenever they put on their jersey.
Anyway it looks like a strong team we are sending out this week regardless of the fact that we've had 10+ pages of debate about whether our halves are adequate. I think one of the most interesting match-ups for this game will be Lichaa vs Luke though given the fact that Lichaa has named Luke as a player who he tried to mould some of his game on. Who do you guys think will perform better? I have a feeling that Luke will have a shit week.
