Snaggletooth
Oceanic Whitetip Shark
all last year was supporting Blayke over Jayden..........................so much superior, love him to pieces
Official Blayke Brailey
- Thread starter Proud Shark
- Start date
Tiger Shark
Jaws
Very happy with his performances this year. Only 17 games in, can only imagine how much better he'll be in another 50 or so. Excellent player.
No secret I've been a big fan of his for a while now. Glad he's showing the doubters. Can't believe there was people who thought losing Jayden was a bad thing.
No secret I've been a big fan of his for a while now. Glad he's showing the doubters. Can't believe there was people who thought losing Jayden was a bad thing.
snowman
Total gronk
Those same people want Chad in the team still
Super Impose
Great White
Sad state of affairs but a reality never the less.
What do you think Cam would have done in that situation ?
I don’t recall anyone being too passionate about losing Jayden?
A 10/10 effort from all three judges no doubt
HaroldBishop
Megalodon
Lewy just gave Jayden massive raps on Grandstand. What do these guys see?
Tiger Shark
Jaws
Took about two seconds to find this one. And if you go back heaps of people are doubting his credentials and ability to play 80.
CrazyMatt
Jaws
I acknowledged that reality in my initial post when I said “I know why” but it’s something I still don’t want coached into our young players, but again, I know why a lot of people feel it needs to be.
I love football (soccer) but the theatrical diving is an absolute cancer on that game and it’s clear League is heading down the same path. I hope our coaching staff are strong enough to resist the temptation to try to teach our young blokes that kind of garbage. But I don’t hold out much hope.
As fans we should always be advocating against that sort of crap, not encouraging it.
HaroldBishop
Megalodon
Doubting his ability to play 80, which I did, doesn't mesn people preferred Jayden. Sure, maybe a few, but I'd ssy most didn't care he left.
Well there you go
Tiger Shark
Jaws
I never quoted or mentioned you
HaroldBishop
Megalodon
No, but you were responding to Bort saying people weren't disappointed about Jayden leaving.
Very few were.
Sparkles
Jaws
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Who is Hank?
Sir Chadley
Jaws
A poster on Sharks Forever.
snowman
Total gronk
a relative of billy mag
BurgoShark
Super Moderator
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Gards - I'm responding to /elaborating on your comments from round 4 on Brailey.
There are two specific areas where Brailey's game differed in round 4 versus rounds 1-3.
1) There are a few ways NRL teams go about getting away from the markers (after your first couple of rucks or dummy half runs by centres/wingers). You can use your 13 in a ball distributing role (e.g. Radley, Jurbo or JDB), you can run a lot of play off your halves (e.g. Chad inside ball), you can have you halves engaging the line a lot (Canberra do this well, and the Sharks tried to play this way against the Tigers), you can play with good width of your 9 (like Parra with Mahoney) or you can have short and out-the-back options closer to the ruck and have your 9 engage your markers. This is what makes Cam Smith the GOAT. We haven't seen it from Sharks hookers very often, but there was a very obvious effort from the team to play this way against the Cowboys. It could be that Bomber thinks Brailey is ready to take on that role, or it could be that he just thought this style of play would work against the Cowboys - though we hadn't seen anywhere near as much of this through the first three rounds.
2) Positionally, the 9 plays like a "normal" 9 some of the time, and then plays a ball distribution role any time the ball is coming back to the middle of the field. This frees up the half on that side from having to run that extra play (so they can get ready for a shift, swap sides, etc.), and makes your 9 split time between dummy half and first receiver. It also means that no the rucks back to the middle (or just to the right of the goal posts in Melbourne's case) the 9 is there really early, and has the opportunity to make something happen if you get a quick play the ball. This was hugely noticeable against the Cowboys.
Here is Brailey on a shift to the left against the Bunnies (Wade's try). This play starts to the right of the goal posts and he gets to dummy half. Chad is first receiver and SJ is second receiver.
Here is Brailey against the Tigers (Dugan try). The play is at the extreme right of the field. Ramien gets to dummy half just before Brailey arrives, which takes Brailey out of play. We go from one half (SJ) to another (Chad) to get from one side of the field to the other.
Now here he is on a similar play against the Cowboys (Ronnie kick try). The half on that side (Moylan) stays on his side of the field, and Brailey is the second receiver. The structure was identical for long shifts all night, including on Ronnie's second try.
You could say "that's just good hooker play", but there are a lot of good teams who don't play like this. It's clearly a decision by the coach to have Blayke play this way. This particular structure wasn't there last year with Jayden and it wasn't maintained when Tracey came on.
There are two specific areas where Brailey's game differed in round 4 versus rounds 1-3.
1) There are a few ways NRL teams go about getting away from the markers (after your first couple of rucks or dummy half runs by centres/wingers). You can use your 13 in a ball distributing role (e.g. Radley, Jurbo or JDB), you can run a lot of play off your halves (e.g. Chad inside ball), you can have you halves engaging the line a lot (Canberra do this well, and the Sharks tried to play this way against the Tigers), you can play with good width of your 9 (like Parra with Mahoney) or you can have short and out-the-back options closer to the ruck and have your 9 engage your markers. This is what makes Cam Smith the GOAT. We haven't seen it from Sharks hookers very often, but there was a very obvious effort from the team to play this way against the Cowboys. It could be that Bomber thinks Brailey is ready to take on that role, or it could be that he just thought this style of play would work against the Cowboys - though we hadn't seen anywhere near as much of this through the first three rounds.
2) Positionally, the 9 plays like a "normal" 9 some of the time, and then plays a ball distribution role any time the ball is coming back to the middle of the field. This frees up the half on that side from having to run that extra play (so they can get ready for a shift, swap sides, etc.), and makes your 9 split time between dummy half and first receiver. It also means that no the rucks back to the middle (or just to the right of the goal posts in Melbourne's case) the 9 is there really early, and has the opportunity to make something happen if you get a quick play the ball. This was hugely noticeable against the Cowboys.
Here is Brailey on a shift to the left against the Bunnies (Wade's try). This play starts to the right of the goal posts and he gets to dummy half. Chad is first receiver and SJ is second receiver.
Here is Brailey against the Tigers (Dugan try). The play is at the extreme right of the field. Ramien gets to dummy half just before Brailey arrives, which takes Brailey out of play. We go from one half (SJ) to another (Chad) to get from one side of the field to the other.
Now here he is on a similar play against the Cowboys (Ronnie kick try). The half on that side (Moylan) stays on his side of the field, and Brailey is the second receiver. The structure was identical for long shifts all night, including on Ronnie's second try.
You could say "that's just good hooker play", but there are a lot of good teams who don't play like this. It's clearly a decision by the coach to have Blayke play this way. This particular structure wasn't there last year with Jayden and it wasn't maintained when Tracey came on.
Tiger Shark
Jaws
Nice post burgess. It's something I noticed in the Cowboys game a bit more than usual too. I think he did it a bit the first two rounds but certainly not as noticeable.
Like to see more clearing kicks from him too. He's got a decent boot and kicking from DH gives you a few extra metres advantage anyway.
Like to see more clearing kicks from him too. He's got a decent boot and kicking from DH gives you a few extra metres advantage anyway.
HaroldBishop
Megalodon
Wow that's very detailed. Nice work, Burgess.
Sir Chadley
Jaws
It certainly was. Not sure I understood it all but that's my problem.
Great work Burgess and gee wouldn't it be great if Blayke turned out to be half as good as the devil named Smith.
Sparkles
Jaws
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Great analysis, Burgess. Great to see still shots used for good.
If I'm reading you correctly, sounds like we're adapting to the new speed of the game in a new and interesting way. It's a great idea to do whatever you can to improve the speed of the play the ball, it's pretty much the most important part of the game now.
Having said that... Adding another ball player into our squad... I still think we already have too many!
If I'm reading you correctly, sounds like we're adapting to the new speed of the game in a new and interesting way. It's a great idea to do whatever you can to improve the speed of the play the ball, it's pretty much the most important part of the game now.
Having said that... Adding another ball player into our squad... I still think we already have too many!