I've seen this said about him a lot and I don't know if I subscribe to it.
He is the type of winger that capitalises on opportunities - and is still one of, if not still the best at capitalising in the comp.
Last year the talk on here was that he was busted and past it when we signed him, which seemed plausible given the try-spell he started off 2022 with. He was overlooked for Origin and apparently "out of form", but really he just wasn't getting any good ball or opportunities. He had Schoupp inside him who wasn't a draw and pass centre, and we were incapable of shifting the ball without the defence being all over us. The only ball he got was from taking hit-ups out of yardage - which is the weakest aspect of his game, and if that's all he is able to do in a game, it makes him look very shit, and like he's not really having a go. But once Burton was able to create opportunities for him (mainly through kicks), Fox was suddenly back to his deadly best. The talk of him being busted or 'not the same since his injury' on here turned out to be typical kennel pessimism as he once again topped out the Telstra speed tracker at 38.7km/h, beating out his Storm best of 38.5km/h (2019).
I think this season it's been the same situation where he's had no opportunities to capitalise on. Yesterday he scored a 70-metre solo effort from an early shift into space, another from a Kikau draw and pass, and a final from a Perham line break and kick. Those opportunities have just not been there this season. Close to the line the ball tends to get tied up in crash-plays, and there is usually an error, or a poor end of set kick, rather than us shifting effectively from one side to another and getting the ball to the Fox without a defender in front of him.
The past two weeks Alamoti has shown a good catch and pass to get the ball to the Fox in space, which if executed closer to the try line would net a try for free.
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I think the Fox not succeeding in this line-break also gave the impression he's not 100%, but the height of the pass made him hop slightly and delay full acceleration, which allowed Cherry-Evans to break into a sprint sooner and cover just enough ground to spook him.
So the Fox being not himself or 'out of form' I think is the biggest symptom of our team's struggle in attack, just because his main/sole value is in capitalising off of opportunities. It was the same at Origin this year where he saw no ball. It's like Alex Johnston, who was completely invisible against us in Rd19 because he saw no ball. Yet at equal third on the try tally, I don't think many people think he is out of form, when he has the same minimal impact on a game as the Fox if he doesn't get good ball.
Funnily enough, Fox's strike rate is better this year at 0.73 than last year's 0.70.
