Ben Roberts - 2011 Discussion Thread

[The Greatest]

lol honestly, this whole Roberts debate is going to continue as long as he is with us, his too good to be in reserves imo and those brain snaps are exaggerated, he only ever did them a couple of times but people remember the bad especially because of the context of the game in which it occurred, in the end, it is out of our control and only Moore can decide whether he deserves a spot or not.

Completly agree.... and I trust KM to make the right decision..

 

[Bry]

I wouldn't be disappointed if Roberts was called back into fg but I doubt it will happen. Our left side attack is not what it should be because we go to Idris far too much. Keating has gone ok but I can't say I am overly excited by him. Roberts has his brain snaps but it has been a while since he has had one and we shouldnt forget that keating isn't immune from stupidity such as the Dragons game.

At the beginning of the season I was not worried about who got the call up and was happy to see how Keating went, but I am sort of missing Roberts with his explosive running down the left side linking up with Morris. Having Pritchard there as well would have made it even more destructive especially with Barba sniffing around off Pritchard so he could go to Morris or Barba on the inside, but we just seem to overplay the right side in attack this year.

 

[suiker]

I wouldn't be disappointed if Roberts was called back into fg but I doubt it will happen. Our left side attack is not what it should be because we go to Idris far too much. Keating has gone ok but I can't say I am overly excited by him. Roberts has his brain snaps but it has been a while since he has had one and we shouldnt forget that keating isn't immune from stupidity such as the Dragons game.

At the beginning of the season I was not worried about who got the call up and was happy to see how Keating went, but I am sort of missing Roberts with his explosive running down the left side linking up with Morris. Having Pritchard there as well would have made it even more destructive especially with Barba sniffing around off Pritchard so he could go to Morris or Barba on the inside, but we just seem to overplay the right side in attack this year.

Agree with your whole post.

I'm also disappointed that we haven't been able ot see what Roberts could do with Pritchard in the team and Barba at fullback and I miss the excitment is running game brought us.

 

[ThePedigree]

Yes I did go to all the trials... and No I don't go to training but I know enough players (clients and collegues) and I talk to them regulary that's how I develop an opinion.

I'll have you know that Keating was given the Job ahead of Morts, and only when he got injured Morts got the call up.

Did you know that we (Todd and his team) we going after Keating all along, but duped Parra into siging Morts by showing fake interest in him, it was a great plan plotted by Todd to get Keating for cheap which we did.

if you base your opinions on the general consensus from here then:

KM should be sacked, Pritchard should go back to Penrith, Hodkinson is the worst buy of the season, Roberts is the greates 5/8 to ever play the game, Barba is God, Goodwin should be hanged near warburton...etc etc...
seriously you should take it all with a grain of salt, put in prespective and make up your own mind.

Thanks for your input mate. And for the record I do make my own mind up. But when you have no TV or verbal record of a trial or 2, you do your best.

I still would have loved to see Roberts in this team and still think he should of been given first crack then dropped if need be. Nothing you say and no name dropping is going to change my mind because I do form my own opinion's. At the end of the day you can go on all you like about who you know and what you know. But it still doesn't mean anything to me. Let's agree to disagree go on our merry way and maybe one day we'll meet and have a beer or 2 over it and have a laugh. Or maybe not. PEACE.

 

[Rodzilla]

if you use the same standards for keating, then he has never had a good game

 

[RO11LR]

Roberts > the greatest

 

[Bry]

Agree with your whole post.

I'm also disappointed that we haven't been able ot see what Roberts could do with Pritchard in the team and Barba at fullback and I miss the excitment is running game brought us.

When Roberts got the ball and ran at full speed you could sense that something was going to happen (including a mistake at times) but I don't get that when Keating gets the ball. Its not until the ball goes to Idris that you sense something might happen. We don't need a right centre or winger in attack anymore They barely get the ball so we are wasting one of the better centres in the comp by going to Idris nearly every chance we get.

 

[suiker]

When Roberts got the ball and ran at full speed you could sense that something was going to happen (including a mistake at times) but I don't get that when Keating gets the ball. Its not until the ball goes to Idris that you sense something might happen. We don't need a right centre or winger in attack anymore They barely get the ball so we are wasting one of the better centres in the comp by going to Idris nearly every chance we get.

Yep exactly how I felt when Roberts had the ball too.

I'm getting sick of us constantly going to Idris - especially if it's off a bomb.

 

[SaMi..]

If Keating was to get injured this friday, Does Roberts get his shot? Or will Moore go with something else?

 

[Abdul..]

Please me tell why it wouldnt work Mr Moore

Because we have better players in those positions. He is a 5/8. Nothing more than that.

We have Stagg, Ryan, Pritchard, Payne, Millington, Eastwood, Foster & Idris. All ahead of him for a back row position.

He has Keating to beat for a 5/8 position. Tell me, which one is easier?

 

[Paint.]

Honestly, I dont get all the hate for Roberts on here?
I find that the same people who bagged Roberts all last season, all pre-season and all season so far, are the ones who think that Keating should keep his position regardless, when, in fact, we don't even know how well Roberts is going, we don't know how well he'll go in FG, we don't know what he can bring off the bench, we don't know what he can do for Morris, Pritchard, Lett, we don't know how his pace will be utilized.
I've said it time and time again - the last season he played (barring 2010, which he missed most of due to injury) outside a proven NRL-standard halfback, he had a hand in more than 40 tries. Morris got 23 and Goodwin got 21, and Roberts was the one who always got the ball to them.
And if you want to look at last year, sure, go ahead. Do you remember the Souths game, when he made his return from injury? Watch that match, and tell me the impact that he had off the bench. Go on, do it.

Roberts doesn't deserve to be in NSW Cup right now, because, quite frankly, he's not reserve grade quality, and anyone who disagrees obviously has some sort of hate for him. He at least deserves a shot in first grade - if you actually bothered to watch the trials, in the two games where Hodko played, the first one Roberts had it all over Keating, and Keating was slightly better than Roberts in the second.
Obviously though, this amounts to 7 minutes in 1 match, and NSW Cup for the other 7.

 

[Slippery]

Because we have better players in those positions. He is a 5/8. Nothing more than that.

We have Stagg, Ryan, Pritchard, Payne, Millington, Eastwood, Foster & Idris. All ahead of him for a back row position.

He has Keating to beat for a 5/8 position. Tell me, which one is easier?

He'd be pushing for a bench spot, not a starting one in my opinion. Therefore, you can eliminate Stagg, Ryan, and Pritchard.

You can also eliminate Idris because he is playing in the centres, as well as Millington being injured. Eastwood is playing a front row role from the bench, so really, the only person he is competing with is Foster.

 

[SaMi..]

He'd be pushing for a bench spot, not a starting one in my opinion. Therefore, you can eliminate Stagg, Ryan, and Pritchard.

You can also eliminate Idris because he is playing in the centres, as well as Millington being injured. Eastwood is playing a front row role from the bench, so really, the only person he is competing with is Foster.

Millington our for 4, Hodgson is gone for who knows how long. So does that leave him to compete with Armit and Foster ?

 

[aarooni]

been saying a long time that roberts spark is needed of the bench.theres no need for 4 fwds but some how moore wont have a barr of him.

 

[Ahecee]

Are we honestly talking about the same Roberts?? The one who gets brain snaps and pass to no one, and kicks on the first tackle?? In his best playing year 2009, Roberts couldn't even get a call up for NZ...

Are we talking about the same Keating who passes the ball to the other team, puts in grubber kicks from 10 out that rocket over the dead ball line, isn't the strongest runner, but doesn't have the greatest passing game either? In his whole career he's rep experience is just city v country which is the rep football you play when you aren't playing rep football.

Keating isn’t the best, or the worst, and neither is Roberts, but on balance I just think Roberts could do (and has done) more in the team.

TBH the debate is kind of pointless because Roberts isn’t likely to stay past his contract term this season as he’ll obviously want to be somewhere playing FG so this is another one that we’ll never really have a firm answer on.

Honestly, I dont get all the hate for Roberts on here?
I find that the same people who bagged Roberts all last season, all pre-season and all season so far, are the ones who think that Keating should keep his position regardless, when, in fact, we don't even know how well Roberts is going, we don't know how well he'll go in FG, we don't know what he can bring off the bench, we don't know what he can do for Morris, Pritchard, Lett, we don't know how his pace will be utilized.
I've said it time and time again - the last season he played (barring 2010, which he missed most of due to injury) outside a proven NRL-standard halfback, he had a hand in more than 40 tries. Morris got 23 and Goodwin got 21, and Roberts was the one who always got the ball to them.
And if you want to look at last year, sure, go ahead. Do you remember the Souths game, when he made his return from injury? Watch that match, and tell me the impact that he had off the bench. Go on, do it.

Roberts doesn't deserve to be in NSW Cup right now, because, quite frankly, he's not reserve grade quality, and anyone who disagrees obviously has some sort of hate for him. He at least deserves a shot in first grade - if you actually bothered to watch the trials, in the two games where Hodko played, the first one Roberts had it all over Keating, and Keating was slightly better than Roberts in the second.
Obviously though, this amounts to 7 minutes in 1 match, and NSW Cup for the other 7.

Couldn't agree more, if they had both had a shot and one outshone the other, fair enough, the part that gets me is we haven't seen the chemestry with Roberts and the other changes in the squad and while Keating has gone okay, there are aspects in both of their games that are very different. It would be great to see if Roberts could offer what I think he could. If it didn't work out fine, but it's that we don't seem interested in trying it out that gets me (the one time he was on the bench this year, Moore clearly wouldn't have used him if Morris wasn't injured, so that was just a waste of a spot)

 

[BaYry Ward]

We aren't having any major issues scoring points. In fact I think we are the most potent from long range that we have been in recent memory.

Our obvious problems are field position and building pressure. There isn't one game this year where we have had set upon set attacking the opposition and been denied by anything other than our own errors. The reason for this is the simple fact we have to try so hard to get to that end of the field to start with, not to mention stay there. The way people are going on in the 10 billion threads about our halves is ignoring the real issues regarding the team at the moment.

If anyone here thinks changing any of our halves is going to increase our defensive line speed, intensity in the first 20mins of a game, ability to stop the opposition forward roll on, reduce our unforced handling errors or limit our dumb penalties, can you please raise your hand so I can hit you with the fail hammer.

Hammering coaches and halves at the first sign of imperfection within the teams performance is an obvious display of a reluctance to actually look at the finer detail of how the team is playing. Basically it's a cop out. Try harder ffs.

 

[Breeding pups]

roberts doesnt set the world on fire with his form but is alot better than KRIS MOORE KEATING has ever been

 

[S4Sonny]

roberts doesnt set the world on fire with his form but is alot better than KRIS MOORE KEATING has ever been

 

[Berries]

We aren't having any major issues scoring points. In fact I think we are the most potent from long range that we have been in recent memory.

Our obvious problems are field position and building pressure. There isn't one game this year where we have had set upon set attacking the opposition and been denied by anything other than our own errors. The reason for this is the simple fact we have to try so hard to get to that end of the field to start with, not to mention stay there. The way people are going on in the 10 billion threads about our halves is ignoring the real issues regarding the team at the moment.

If anyone here thinks changing any of our halves is going to increase our defensive line speed, intensity in the first 20mins of a game, ability to stop the opposition forward roll on, reduce our unforced handling errors or limit our dumb penalties, can you please raise your hand so I can hit you with the fail hammer.

Hammering coaches and halves at the first sign of imperfection within the teams performance is an obvious display of a reluctance to actually look at the finer detail of how the team is playing. Basically it's a cop out. Try harder ffs.

You are so wrong, can't you see Orford is the reason Canberra conceded 49 points?

 

[nassman]

We aren't having any major issues scoring points. In fact I think we are the most potent from long range that we have been in recent memory.

Our obvious problems are field position and building pressure. There isn't one game this year where we have had set upon set attacking the opposition and been denied by anything other than our own errors. The reason for this is the simple fact we have to try so hard to get to that end of the field to start with, not to mention stay there. The way people are going on in the 10 billion threads about our halves is ignoring the real issues regarding the team at the moment.

If anyone here thinks changing any of our halves is going to increase our defensive line speed, intensity in the first 20mins of a game, ability to stop the opposition forward roll on, reduce our unforced handling errors or limit our dumb penalties, can you please raise your hand so I
can hit you with the fail hammer.

Hammering coaches and halves at the first sign of imperfection within the teams performance is an obvious display of a reluctance to actually look at the finer detail of how the team is playing. Basically it's a cop out. Try harder ffs.

Agree mostly, except I'd add our kicking game which has been a joke.