Official Blayke Brailey

apezza

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With Brailey obviously copping a lot of traffic over the past few weeks (50+ tackles per game) I was thinking out loud whether we should try something different (to at least give Brailey a bit of a rest and make teams have to re-evalute their attack)

Once Dale is back what do you guys think of starting McInnes at 9 for say 25 mins then bringing on Brailey. See if that helps his running game etc.

Maybe give it a go for a couple of games?
 

BurgoShark

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With Brailey obviously copping a lot of traffic over the past few weeks (50+ tackles per game) I was thinking out loud whether we should try something different (to at least give Brailey a bit of a rest and make teams have to re-evalute their attack)

Once Dale is back what do you guys think of starting McInnes at 9 for say 25 mins then bringing on Brailey. See if that helps his running game etc.

Maybe give it a go for a couple of games?
I think we want Brailey playing 80 in the finals, but this would be a decent strategy if we want to give him a bit of a lighter workload over the next month to “keep him fresh”.

Though if that is the desired outcome I’d probably even go the next level and give Berrell a game or two down the stretch.
 

bort

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I think we want Brailey playing 80 in the finals, but this would be a decent strategy if we want to give him a bit of a lighter workload over the next month to “keep him fresh”.

Though if that is the desired outcome I’d probably even go the next level and give Berrell a game or two down the stretch.
You could give Berrell a game, which helps if we were to need him. But really you could give him the Trindall jersey on bench for a week or two too. If we can rest Blayke for him great, otherwise floating middle role it is. I think this is worth a look.

I do think there is probably games where a 8 BHU 9 McInnes 10 Rudolf 13 Finucane start could be a good go, have mentioned that since we signed Finucane.
Graham can pick up some slack at 13 if starting both means they both need a rest at same time.
 

BurgoShark

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You could give Berrell a game, which helps if we were to need him. But really you could give him the Trindall jersey on bench for a week or two too. If we can rest Blayke for him great, otherwise floating middle role it is. I think this is worth a look.

I do think there is probably games where a 8 BHU 9 McInnes 10 Rudolf 13 Finucane start could be a good go, have mentioned that since we signed Finucane.
Graham can pick up some slack at 13 if starting both means they both need a rest at same time.
Yeah that works too. Depends on the minutes I guess. I'm ok with Trindall or Tracey as an emergency hooker, but if I'm going in to the game with the express purpose of sitting Blayke down for 25-30 minutes, give me Berrell.
 

CrazyMatt

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I dont think it’ll get to the point where we’d need to give Brailey a game off or two but there’s no reason why Brailey needs to play 80 minutes every game before the finals when we’ve got McInnes. Might be worth giving him 20 minute spells a few games here and there before the finals to help him out a bit.
 

Sparkles

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I think we want Brailey playing 80 in the finals, but this would be a decent strategy if we want to give him a bit of a lighter workload over the next month to “keep him fresh”.

Though if that is the desired outcome I’d probably even go the next level and give Berrell a game or two down the stretch.
I feel like we need Blayke more in defence that attack, so I'm happy to see him play 80. He's proven to be a strong defender (i'm happy to discount the missed tackles as part and parcel of hooker defence) and it seems he's physically up to it, which was my main concern initially.

It's just another part of his game he seems to have developed really quickly to near elite level. The kid is a superstar in the making and he's almost there.
 

BurgoShark

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I dont think it’ll get to the point where we’d need to give Brailey a game off or two but there’s no reason why Brailey needs to play 80 minutes every game before the finals when we’ve got McInnes. Might be worth giving him 20 minute spells a few games here and there before the finals to help him out a bit.
There will be a plan in place for every player I expect. If the staff think giving him less minutes over the last 6 weeks will make him better (fresher) in the finals, they will do it.

Remember 2016 when Flanno started doing really weird **** with the minutes once a top 4 spot was locked in? I think there was a game where Fifita played 70 minutes or something. After the GF Flanno said that once they knew they would be in the top 4 they put together a plan for how to get every player peaking in the finals from a physical fitness PoV.

We are not in the same position this year, but they can definitely look at this sort of approach with some players.
 

bort

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Yeah that works too. Depends on the minutes I guess. I'm ok with Trindall or Tracey as an emergency hooker, but if I'm going in to the game with the express purpose of sitting Blayke down for 25-30 minutes, give me Berrell.
As much if not more than giving Brailey a rest it'd be about giving Berrell 20 mins or so of NRL so he's tasted it at least if he should be needed.
 

CrazyMatt

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Hope to god he learns from that. It’ll be hard to find a player who’s been baited as badly this year like what Ben Hunt did to Blaykey boy.
 
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