Official Blayke Brailey

[davetherave]

This is something I don't get - and it might be because I've never played footy myself - but how does an player who has made it to NRL not know how to pass a football either side?

Isn't this a basic fundamental which is taught and honed through the junior ranks?

Depends on coach, and what works for the team on saying this Blayke had a quality junior coach

 

[gando2230]

Depends on coach, and what works for the team on saying this Blayke had a quality junior coach

His Dad.....

 

[Sparkles]

You see with a lot of players that their off-side pass doesn't have that spiral, it's more of a loping toss. It's just hard to do well.

 

[snowman]

You see with a lot of players that their off-side pass doesn't have that spiral, it's more of a loping toss. It's just hard to do well.

he is a dummy half, they should be able to pass adequately with both hands

 

[stormshark]

he is a dummy half, they should be able to pass adequately with both hands

Proficiently is the requirement.

 

[Sparkles]

I agree. I don't care what the pass looks like, as long as it's effective.

 

[snowman]

I agree. I don't care what the pass looks like, as long as it's effective.

thats the problem, its not effective from jayden - its poor and sloppy

 

[ouCh!]

thats the problem, its not effective from jayden - its poor and sloppy

Yeah i disagree. His service is generally crisp and accurate, hitting that zone just in front of the receiver, especially with our backline plays getting chad on the front foot. His goal line defense is an issue though and hes put through some shocking kicks, but his running game is starting to pick up. Blaykes defense is bloody impressive for a small bloke, and Jayden will never have his brothers swagger

 

[Thresher]

From dummy-half, Jayden secures the ball and passes in one movement, distributing the ball quickly.

Blayke pauses, giving the defence more time to encroach on our attacking space.

I still like Blayke more in the long-term because I think he has a more natural read of the game. He can see what the defence is about to do and make distribution decisions on the fly.

Jayden is more mechanical.

 

[BurgoShark]

People normally don’t pick a side to play based on preferred direction to pass a ball.

Generally your step would decide that, and to a lesser extend the preferred ball carrying arm

Also tackling shoulder. I'm guessing, but Wade possibly plays on the left because he defended better on that side when he was younger. It's probably harder (in my opinion) to learn to tackle on your off shoulder than to pass to your off side.

As far as passing is concerned, passing both ways is definitely a requirement. Like others have said a lot of junior teams just pick their best 3 passers as 9, 6 and 7 regardless of how they go elsewhere. Passing well is an under-rated and rare skill. It doesn't come naturally to most players.

 

[Milkshark]

Also tackling shoulder. I'm guessing, but Wade possibly plays on the left because he defended better on that side when he was younger. It's probably harder (in my opinion) to learn to tackle on your off shoulder than to pass to your off side.

As far as passing is concerned, passing both ways is definitely a requirement. Like others have said a lot of junior teams just pick their best 3 passers as 9, 6 and 7 regardless of how they go elsewhere. Passing well is an under-rated and rare skill. It doesn't come naturally to most players.

Maybe in the real young juniors but my experience with that is far from it. Ability, running style and body shape IMO is the deciding factor on what position you play.

 

[stormshark]

Maybe in the real young juniors but my experience with that is far from it. Ability, running style and body shape IMO is the deciding factor on what position you play.

Illmac agree, but not for Hooker/Halves it appears, contributing yes, but the Final and main criteria they seem to place above that is Passing( then defence also very high) which they say is Critical. My sons in a State team and I drive 2 other boys who play half/Hooker, and they (Shadow players) both have been told the main reason they missed out is their Passing.(Could of course be a smokescreen). Minor example I know, but the coaching is top notch.

 

[Milkshark]

Illmac agree, but not for Hooker/Halves it appears, contributing yes, but the Final and main criteria they seem to place above that is Passing( then defence also very high) which they say is Critical. My sons in a State team and I drive 2 other boys who play half/Hooker, and they (Shadow players) both have been told the main reason they missed out is their Passing.(Could of course be a smokescreen). Minor example I know, but the coaching is top notch.

My point is yes you have to be able to pass, but a back rower with a good passing game is not going to be a 9, 6 or 7 because he can pass. He will be a backrower that can pass.

Burgess above said ''junior teams just pick their best 3 passers as 9, 6 and 7 regardless of how they go elsewhere''.

That's a really young team that does that, you cannot do that later on.

 

[BurgoShark]

My point is yes you have to be able to pass, but a back rower with a good passing game is not going to be a 9, 6 or 7 because he can pass. He will be a backrower that can pass.

Burgess above said ''junior teams just pick their best 3 passers as 9, 6 and 7 regardless of how they go elsewhere''.

That's a really young team that does that, you cannot do that later on.

Really young teams don't have fixed 6's, 7's and 9's mate.

In my experience, for players between 13 and 20 most teams do one of two things:

- Put their star players in 6, 7 and 9 ... so they get lots of touches and win lots but everyone else gets starved of the ball (a.k.a. the Cam Smith or Shaun Berrigan approach), or
- Put their best passers in 6, 7 and 9 so that the ball finds its way to the better ball runners.

I don't think I have ever seen a back rower who was good enough at passing to consistently put guys in holes or throw 10-15m spiral passes both ways to a guy on the chest when shifting. Sure - at rep level there are probably some guys like that, but at rep level they are hand picking from hundreds or thousands of kids. If you took a random sampling from the local u16's in your area I reckon each team would have maybe 3-5 guys capable of doing it and maybe only one of them would not be playing in the spine. At the NRL level the only guys who can do it are transplanted halves. If it was such a common skill Wade Graham would be a run of the mill back rower.

 

[Milkshark]

Really young teams don't have fixed 6's, 7's and 9's mate.

In my experience, for players between 13 and 20 most teams do one of two things:

- Put their star players in 6, 7 and 9 ... so they get lots of touches and win lots but everyone else gets starved of the ball (a.k.a. the Cam Smith or Shaun Berrigan approach), or
- Put their best passers in 6, 7 and 9 so that the ball finds its way to the better ball runners.

I don't think I have ever seen a back rower who was good enough at passing to consistently put guys in holes or throw 10-15m spiral passes both ways to a guy on the chest when shifting. Sure - at rep level there are probably some guys like that, but at rep level they are hand picking from hundreds or thousands of kids. If you took a random sampling from the local u16's in your area I reckon each team would have maybe 3-5 guys capable of doing it and maybe only one of them would not be playing in the spine. At the NRL level the only guys who can do it are transplanted halves. If it was such a common skill Wade Graham would be a run of the mill back rower.

The real real young ones don't, I know that. I wouldn't even call that age group rugby league TBH.

I played my entire life, I played rep footy, played in the Sharks ranks. Never were the star players put in those positions just to get extra touches and win games. The best players I played with were backrowers who among other many qualities could pass the ball.

Maybe in your under 16 games the best passers get put in those positions ''some times'' but still I disagree. If the best passer is also the biggest player on the team, he is still not playing 6, 7 or 9.

So now your idea of being able to pass is ''consistently put guys in holes or throw 10-15m spiral passes both ways to a guy on the chest when shifting''. This isn't grid iron where you stand and pass to someone in space. The 6 and 7 especially need to be able to run and get to space also, have a step, have vision, be able to kick (bomb, grubber, down town). But in your eyes if you can pass you are a 6, 7 or 9.

I think we are talking about 2 different levels of footy, you are talking about club level, teenagers. My experience with club level is it is mates that want to play with other mates (many who haven't played a game in their life) and just have some fun. Basically 80-90% of team are useless.

When you start talking about older age groups and reps, you must have the real characteristics of a half or hooker.

 

[slide rule]

Seen a few adult body kids playing at 6 in the young grades.

Those big guys that just grow too fast. Hit 5’9 at 10 yrs old and then stay that size for life.

It’s good. The rest of the team just grows around them.

 

[Milkshark]

Seen a few adult body kids playing at 6 in the young grades.

Those big guys that just grow too fast. Hit 5’9 at 10 yrs old and then stay that size for life.

It’s good. The rest of the team just grows around them.

Which is why they are looking at changing the rules

 

[Tiger Shark]

Seen a few adult body kids playing at 6 in the young grades.

Those big guys that just grow too fast. Hit 5’9 at 10 yrs old and then stay that size for life.

It’s good. The rest of the team just grows around them.

There was a guy at my High School who was like this, was taller and bigger than everyone else in Year 7 and acted like it too.

As the years progressed he stopped growing and everyone kept growing.

Year 12 he's average height to everyone else.

Was dumb as ***** and was a massive nigel because he was a dick to everyone when they were younger.

Karma

 

[Milkshark]

I heard an interview with Marty Tapau this week and he said that 43% of all NRL players have Pacific Islander background. That's a massive amount.

If that stems down to the junior level then you can see why age group footy will soon be a thing of the past.

 

[BurgoShark]

I think we are talking about 2 different levels of footy, you are talking about club level, teenagers. My experience with club level is it is mates that want to play with other mates (many who haven't played a game in their life) and just have some fun. Basically 80-90% of team are useless.

When you start talking about older age groups and reps, you must have the real characteristics of a half or hooker.

Yeah - I don't think we disagree with each other. I think we are just be talking about different things. When I say "juniors" I don't mean "the Sharks SG Ball side" because they are hand-picked. What I mean is the local U14 "B" team, or the U16 girls team. In those teams you may have some kids who have played 3-5 years or more but I reckon you'd be hard pressed to find too many who can comfortably pass both ways.

When you start talking about older age groups and reps, you must have the real characteristics of a half or hooker.

Totally agree.

As for teams riding their best players ... it's rife. It was a running joke with Cam Smith back in the day that he was going to be the first halfback ever to go a full season without passing the ball. Shaun Berrigan was the same. Jock Madden (last year's Australian schoolboy 7) is probably even worse than both of them.