I realised something this past weekend that I don’t remember being mentioned on TK.
It was in relation to the many people raving about Brooks’ transformation since moving to Manly in contrast to the heavy criticism our Burton gets. Now, as anyone could tell from my comments, I think Brooks is just the flavour of the month and people are overrating his form, because of the storyline around him struggling at Tigers before.
Anyway, this isn’t about Brooks, but one key thing that I noticed which got me thinking is, he has the benefit of Trbo at Manly. Watching him yesterday most of what he did was just draw and pass to Tom who can then go himself or set up his outside men.
Just something to think about. Burto has copped a lot of criticism (some justified) but before judging him in the future, I think everyone should consider how important having a good, smart fullback makes to the halves.
It’s not just the five eighth and halfback job that’s been left up to Matt on many occasions, but he also hasn’t had very competent fullbacks either. I’m sure that the pressure to create has been a heavy burden, as he has been a constant while guys like Flanagan and Perham have come and gone, but like any good team, you need many hands contributing to be successful.
Eta: I should add that Taffy has chimed in well to the right side attack, but I don’t remember him popping up on the left.