Opinion Said it once say it again

[B-Train]

They struggle coz they don't turn good field position into points when they should be.

This is the problem. We get possession inside the 20m through penalties or mistakes from the opposition, but we have a relatively low conversion rate turning it into points.

Burton is good at the Hail Mary plays and might be good at 5/8th with a top shelf halfback in the team.

But we are kidding ourselves if we expect him to get any better without the right player at 7. Personally, I think we've seen his ceiling and I also feel he can do what he does at left centre allowing the more dangerous runner in Averillo to play 5/8th.

But that's only if we get a halfback that can guide the team and demand the ball

Hail Mary plays? How is a perfectly timed and weighted grubber to Fox a Hail Mary play?

We scored 4 tries yesterday. He played a part in all of them..

- The grubber for Fox

- The kick which took a lucky deflection for TPJ's try

- Ran a great decoy line on the short side scrum play which drew in two defenders and created the space for Fox to run away

- Threw a great cut out ball to Preston which created the space for Fox to make the break and set up Mahoney for his try..

That's 4 involvements for all 4 tries and no Hail Mary plays..

Averillo had found his home at centre and is not a better half than Burton. Burton has 7 try assists in his last 4 games so if he's struggling so much and still producing like that I can't wait to see what he does when he finds form and gets better help around him.

 

[Marki]

Last game against Titans everyone was praising Burton at 7 .. he stood up and practically won us the game ..

We know the opposition do their video home work … they know he and Mahoney are the pivotal points of our attack so obviously their game plan is to shut those 2 down as much as possible .. what we need is a 1, 6 and 13 that are also huge attacking threats … that’s 5 players setting up those around them plus attacking themselves from different areas all over the park, it spreads the defence and puts the opposition on a lot more alert than just 2 attacking threats ..

Burton can be a very good 7 for us, but it’s unfortunately not going to happen consistently after just 5 or 6 games ..

What’s more important is to find him a 1, 6 and 13 that are also attacking threats … because the ones we have right now offer zero in attack ..

If the rumours are true that we’ve signed Hame Sele, he looks a very good 13 ..

Hopefully Crichton is the gun attacking FB we’ve been looking for ..

Move Averillo to 6 … he’s now matured and could be lethal there.

Mahoney 9

Burton 7

And there’s our 5 attacking weapons .. that frees up Burton a bit to have more space to develop his game in the 7 position ..

Good points I think for this season.
But for the sake of this club moving forward, we need to find a proper halfback to structure our attack and then let form decide who out of Burton or Averillo should play 5/8th and who should play centre.

Averillo is the better runner and ball player. Burton the better kicker. Both can play to their strengths at either centre or 5/8th but Averillo at 5/8th makes better sense as he would touch the ball more and play closer to the middle.

Both have defensive issues that need work

 

[Marki]

People like DJDeep want to bench him and play Reynolds and Rajab. People need to get a grip.. Criticise him for not owning key moments or certain decisions but at least acknowledge the good things he does.

Little things he does like the great decoy line he ran for Fox's try off the scrum get overlooked. As does finding touch on the short drop out. Or the two try assists..

Instead let's forget all of that and only focus on the negative.

That's the thing.
All those plays he could do from his best position whitch is centre.

Valentine's Holmes does it for the Cows and QLD. Theres no shame being the kicker from the centre or wing spot.

Michael O'Connor and Dale Shearer did it in the 90's. Burton is of the same ilk.

 

[Memberberries]

I never watch full games of rugby league. Only the highlights.

About 95% of the trys the bulldogs let in, are soft rubbish where the opposition throws a dummy, then busts through the middle of the defence!

whoever the bulldogs have defending in the middle need to be coached to commit to the tackle.
What’s up with the new wave of 1st graders?
All a bunch of potatoes that make Martin Lang seem like a professor?

from what I have seen in the highlights it’s worse than U/6’s division 5 rubbish!

 

[EXPLORER]

He had 2 try assists today and has 7 try assists in his last 4 games but supposedly he's not a half...

Exactly right.
Unfortunately what these arm chair coaches here on the kennel don't understand is that Burton at 7 is what's needed right now to help build our young squads confidence in nrl level.

Our actual club coaches actually understand Burton is not a 7 but is actually a 6.
Sure he did a job in the centres for the panthers in a premiership winning team.
That doesn't qualify him a better centre than he is a 6.

What our club needs right now is an experienced organiser in 7 like Ben hunt.

We don't have an experience 7 like Ben hunt so we have to use what we have and make the most of it.

Arm chair coaches with no idea will never understand that.
I do enjoy giggling at their posts though.

 

[Roger the alien]

We've had too many reserve graders in the side like Perham, Waddell, Okunbor and Flanagan that wouldn't make any other team in the nrl yet here we are giving them starting spots.

 

[wendog33]

Exactly right.
Unfortunately what these arm chair coaches here on the kennel don't understand is that Burton at 7 is what's needed right now to help build our young squads confidence in nrl level.

Our actual club coaches actually understand Burton is not a 7 but is actually a 6.
Sure he did a job in the centres for the panthers in a premiership winning team.
That doesn't qualify him a better centre than he is a 6.

What our club needs right now is an experienced organiser in 7 like Ben hunt.

We don't have an experience 7 like Ben hunt so we have to use what we have and make the most of it.

Arm chair coaches with no idea will never understand that.
I do enjoy giggling at their posts though.

Yeah but Roo it's probably not doing Burto any favours playing 7 when he's not really a 7. We know he is just filling in but it's another case of playing players out of their best positions.

All indicators are that Burto's best strengths apart from his kicks, is his running game and he can't really organise to the extent this team needs with a poor spine.. His strengths are negated at 7 and he probably doesn't want the 7 on his back.

We don't have much but the team needs an organiser at 7. Burto will not be that player and his footy and progress is being stifled.

Problem is who plays 7. Having said that if Burto prefers 6 and wants it back, if he gets it back he needs to make it his.

I think of what we have put:
7. Nu Brown just to organise and dart over from dummy half
6. Burton so he can continue to learn 5/8.

Continue KO's development as 14.

Really a big lift is required by all the players and that could be achieved by dropping back the mistake riddled, non executing serial offenders to reserve grade.

 

[The DoggFather]

No it’s not

Ok

 

[SPEARTAKVIDREFS]

The problem is the same as it was before round 1.
We dont have an experienced first grade quality halfback.
Its a massive problem. Effects our attack, selection, reshuffling the spine, combinations, game management.
We have a soft forward pack.
Ciro cant get blood from a stone.
Im confident the Club has identified our weaknesses and is doing their best to recruit for the future.

Atleast weve had a few more wins this season sofar, Flano wont play 7 again, blooded some pups that stood up and Im sure people wont agree but instilled pride back in the jersey.

whatchyu gunna doo

 

[Bulldog Brower]

You could be critical of every player that takes the field if you want. I thought Okonbor had a solid game yesterday but when I see his stats he took just 5 runs and made 2 errors. Yet no one has said Anything about it because Burton didn’t ice the game on one set at the end. TK is crazy after a loss

I couldn't watch the game yesterday but noticed on the Rooters 3 2 1 thread that a number of Kennelers gave Okunbor points, in fact some gave him the 3 points for the game. If he took just 5 runs and made 2 errors, what did he do to make supporters think he had a good/solid game?

 

[GA45]

I couldn't watch the game yesterday but noticed on the Rooters 3 2 1 thread that a number of Kennelers gave Okunbor points, in fact some gave him the 3 points for the game. If he took just 5 runs and made 2 errors, what did he do to make supporters think he had a good/solid game?

Watching the game I thought he was better than his stats indicated. But that’s what I mean just because Burton didn’t go for a field goal in one set people are making him the scapegoat but without him we aren’t even in the game.Waddell was his usual crappy self, avo went back to not liking contact , we missed Reed due to a hia yet let’s blame one guy for the loss.

 

[SPEARTAKVIDREFS]

Watching the game I thought he was better than his stats indicated. But that’s what I mean just because Burton didn’t go for a field goal in one set people are making him the scapegoat but without him we aren’t even in the game.Waddell was his usual crappy self, avo went back to not liking contact , we missed Reed due to a hia yet let’s blame one guy for the loss.

I didnt notice this.
When he copped the high shot and we got the penalty, he tapped and ran straight at the defensive line instead of passing for someone else to take the carry. Exactlty what I wanted to see instead of him going into his shell like previous years.
He just never sees ball. Weve seen what he can do with space but he isnt being used.
Unlike others I dont want to see him moved to FB. It just wont work. I want to see him running out wide.

 

[GA45]

I didnt notice this.
When he copped the high shot and we got the penalty, he tapped and ran straight at the defensive line instead of passing for someone else to take the carry. Exactlty what I wanted to see instead of him going into his shell like previous years.
He just never sees ball. Weve seen what he can do with space but he isnt being used.
Unlike others I dont want to see him moved to FB. It just wont work. I want to see him running out wide.

He missed 7 tackles didn’t hit and stick

 

[GA45]

He’s our best centre and shouldn’t be moved to accomodate others. A lot of guys didn’t play that well yesterday yet we still led for 70 mins. And played majority of the game without a hooker.

 

[SPEARTAKVIDREFS]

He missed 7 tackles didn’t hit and stick

Really? Thats poor.

 

[fooch]

Give yourself a triple

 

[Marki]

To play 7 you need a big boot and strong running game .. Burton has both .. the passing game management and visual skills takes time and coaching .. something TK is not big on

Averillo missed 7 tackles today, so his defence isn’t great at centre anyway … personally I think he’d have more players around him playing 6 so therefore he’d probably be better defensively .. one things for sure he’d have his hands on the ball a lot more which would enable him to use his 2 biggest strengths … his running and attacking skills ..

Averillo played a couple of games at 5/8 before and did well till some bright spark moved him to 7, then centre, then reserve grade, then back to 7, then to FB .. now back to centre …. Funny enough no one’s ever put him back where where he was playing good footy, at 6, he’s a running 6 through and through .. blind Freddy can see that ..

If I could agree 1000%, I would.
Couldn't have written this post any better.

 

[Marki]

How many tries did Sherwin create through his kicking game? Who gives a shit how they are set up.. they're all worth 4 points.

Sherwins pass was equally good. It's his running game that was weakest but didn't need to use it frequently as he had Anasta at 5/8th and strong outside backs.

Remember.....he was a whisker from dethroning Andrew Johns from SOO.

It's disrespectful to even put Burton in the same conversation as Sherwin

 

[Marki]

T

Problem is there's no in between with some people. It's fine to be critical but to suggest he's not a half or should be dropped for Reynolds etc is absurd.

Then you defend him from such ridiculous comments and point out the good things he does and supposedly you're sucking him off..

I've been critical of Burton at times and acknowledge the things people complain about that he needs to improve. But I don't ignore the good things he does or all of the issues in the team around him either.

For whatever reason, Burton is the scapegoat and punching bag for a lot of people. Even when he wins us games, it buys him no leeway or support from certain people. Instead they sharpen the knife's for the next time he slips up or has a bad game.

There's no way you drop him.
But I'm not convinced he has the ability to be a regular halves player of a top 4 team. Not on this form.

He definitely needs to be in our 13. But long term I think there are going to be better options to play in the halves and he can still use his skill set in the centres.

It will come down to at what point will the CLUB realise this, or at what point will HE realise this.

 

[Marki]

I never watch full games of rugby league. Only the highlights.

About 95% of the trys the bulldogs let in, are soft rubbish where the opposition throws a dummy, then busts through the middle of the defence!

whoever the bulldogs have defending in the middle need to be coached to commit to the tackle.
What’s up with the new wave of 1st graders?
All a bunch of potatoes that make Martin Lang seem like a professor?

from what I have seen in the highlights it’s worse than U/6’s division 5 rubbish!

If you are watching only highlights, you are not acknowledging fatigue or niggly injuries or reasons why players are out of position.

At the very least you need watch a mini match but even that won't tell the story on fatigue or out of position players