Fullback discussions in the wake of the Nathan Gardner knee injury

[Born&bred]

There is a lot of similarity between Gards and Pickerd IMO. Both pacy, small fullbacks who are very strong for their size. Pickerd runs better lines and will chime into the backline better but Gards has better footwork and is more x-factor. If Flano had the balls to play Gards I see no reason why he can't play Pickerd. Out of all the options mentioned I reckon Pickerd has more points in him. He is a try scorer who will be coming into a team that has conceded more tries than they have scored.

Spot on mate - there is no difference here from when Gards was promoted to 1sts.

 

[85Sharkie]

Also the whole letting bombs bounce thing has gotta be a gameplan for us cause there is no way a team would let bombs bounce that much!

 

[Born&bred]

Even though im a massive fan of Pickard i dont think he is ready yet (i hope im wrong though). Ive seen the 20's a few times this year and plenty of them last year and hes been one of our best players over that time but his positioning and decision making especially in defence can be pretty erratic even for toyota cup level. At fg level most teams would be able to exploit this pretty easily. If he was going to debut anytime this year (especially at fullback) the eels would be a good game to do so cause they are pretty ordinary this year and i doubt that they would be clinical enough to exploit his inexperience. Id be happier if he was left in toyota cup to continue devolping his game there and maybe even NSW cup next year before he gets brought up to fg.

Yeah - sounds like Gardner 2.0 though...

 

[josh11223344]

There is a lot of similarity between Gards and Pickerd IMO. Both pacy, small fullbacks who are very strong for their size. Pickerd runs better lines and will chime into the backline better but Gards has better footwork and is more x-factor. If Flano had the balls to play Gards I see no reason why he can't play Pickerd. Out of all the options mentioned I reckon Pickerd has more points in him. He is a try scorer who will be coming into a team that has conceded more tries than they have scored.

Agree on everything, I think pickerd has done just as much if not more than gards did in the NYC and is the same size if not better built than gards is/was. I won't be confident if matty wright is named in the 1, He is just not fast enough or good under the high ball. Although he has all the other skills.

 

[teflon77]

Even though im a massive fan of Pickard i dont think he is ready yet (i hope im wrong though). Ive seen the 20's a few times this year and plenty of them last year and hes been one of our best players over that time but his positioning and decision making especially in defence can be pretty erratic even for toyota cup level. At fg level most teams would be able to exploit this pretty easily. If he was going to debut anytime this year (especially at fullback) the eels would be a good game to do so cause they are pretty ordinary this year and i doubt that they would be clinical enough to exploit his inexperience. Id be happier if he was left in toyota cup to continue devolping his game there and maybe even NSW cup next year before he gets brought up to fg.

We might not have a choice. His negatives don't outway the positives IMO. ie Tries scored.

 

[85Sharkie]

Yeah - sounds like Gardner 2.0 though...

Yeah i know thats why im hoping we learnt from Gardner and dont through Pickard in to fg before hes ready.:hoping

 

[teflon77]

Yeah i know thats why im hoping we learnt from Gardner and dont through Pickard in to fg before hes ready.:hoping

And what is so wrong about Gardner? He has been the focal point of our attack since he came into grade, busts more tackles than our whole team put together and just about bleeds our teams colours.

 

[FoRzA aZzUrRi]

Easy decision for me, has to be Pickerd former Australian schoolboys player, has proved himself in lower grades, If Gards was out for 4-6 weeks Wright or Williams would be an ideal option but were looking at 4 months so why not blood a textbook fullback

 

[85Sharkie]

And what is so wrong about Gardner? He has been the focal point of our attack since he came into grade, busts more tackles than our whole team put together and just about bleeds our teams colours.

I totally agree with you on all those points plus i think his one on one defence is very good but im talking more about his positioning and decision making in both attack and defence. Gardner has devolped into a key player in our backline and hes going to be a big loss. But i believe he was thrown into fg before he was ready and he wasnt given a chance to rectify the flaws in his game in the toyota and NSW cup. Im just hoping we dont do the same thing with Pickard.

 

[Born&bred]

I totally agree with you on all those points plus i think his one on one defence is very good but im talking more about his positioning and decision making in both attack and defence. Gardner has devolped into a key player in our backline and hes going to be a big loss. But i believe he was thrown into fg before he was ready and he wasnt given a chance to rectify the flaws in his game in the toyota and NSW cup. Im just hoping we dont do the same thing with Pickard.

Geez mate I agree he has some flaws - but to say he was blooded too early is just plain wrong.

 

[ABshark]

If Flano had the balls to play Gards I see no reason why he can't play Pickerd. Out of all the options mentioned I reckon Pickerd has more points in him. He is a try scorer who will be coming into a team that has conceded more tries than they have scored.

Question is whether he will let in the most points too. I really don't know the answer. I think we'll see a more experienced option but Pickard and maybe Tutauha will be training there with the first grade squad over the next few weeks.

Mate, I predict we won't see Peach this year and he will be snapped up by another team. I know everyone is getting caught up in the Flanagan hype but IMO he is making some backwards moves as far as playing blokes like Taufua and Tagatese in front of Friz and Peachey. Just my opinion but we have to be the oldest team in the comp and the pathway to firsts is being blocked by players of similar styles who just are not making much impact.

Why even play Taga if you are going to play him tight as a prop. Wasted.

Haha, unnecessarily pessimistic I think mate. Cleary didn't play Johnson or Taylor til mid way through last year and they were hotter talents (at least Johnson was). Flano was pretty complimentary about Peachey when he was interviewed on the Barefoot RL Show and I'm sure the Club realises the value of having the name Peachey in the squad over the long term. Frizell- not so sure. He's getting hurt by Bukuya's outstanding form IMO but can't be far away given he was 18th man against the Cowboys the other week.

 

[Sir Chadley]

Ive been thinking of this lately and I am coming around to the Pickard idea. I know in some previous posts I was worried about throwing him into first grade to early, but my thoughts are to replace a fullback with a fullback and he is the only option. Being a rookie and given his chance he would be busting to get out there and give his best. The other advantage I see now is that not many other teams will know much about him and may take him lightly.

We'll find out tomorrow but I won't be surprised if he is named.

Is there any chance Gards might still be named until the results of his scans are known? This could also keep the opposition guessing until game day.

 

[85Sharkie]

Geez mate I agree he has some flaws - but to say he was blooded too early is just plain wrong.

Yeah maybe, its a subjective thing when to blood youngsters. I remember when he debuted and it was the right time for the team (we really needed his attacking spark) but im not sure if it was the right time for him and his long term devolpment.

 

[JimBob]

Pickard should get a run IMO.

 

[Hughesy215]

Pickard was playing in the centres in the 20's game against the Dragons... someone in the 18 jersey was at fullback

 

[DeathMoth]

Um, here ...



You didn't say he's as good, but you implied that Inglis to fullback was a venture into the unknown like Graham would be. The situations are not similar in any way. One is a guy who always played fullback until he played FG and the other is a guy who has never played fullback and has just found a niche in the back row. I guess I could have posted "the Inglis situation and thw Graham situation are not comparable" but you know what I mean.

... and while I appreciate the complements, the fact of the matter is that you asked a question - and I answered it. Chances are someone was going to give you an answer you didn't like. Remember, we're all Sharkies fans. We're supposed to get along

ah no, moron. the phrase "After recently seeing Inglis ruling at fullback, i was wondering whether someone like Graham would ever do good at the back" draws no comparisons between the two. it just states that i saw Inglis at full back, and it made me wonder how Graham would go. i drew no comparisons.

yeh, i'm happy with your answer, i asked because i wanted an answer. what i didn't want was to be held as though i was comparing Graham to Inglis, which i didn't do, and you're a moron for trying to prove me otherwise

 

[CrazyMatt]

I like Pickerd too, but if he gets picked this week, I reckon they'll shunt him on the wing with Wright at fullback. But at the moment the second best fullback at the club is Issac Gordon, I dunno what his status is injury wise, and the whole court case thing, but we need to get him in there as soon as possible.

 

[snowman]

as soon as possible is round 10

 

[BurgoShark]

ah no, moron. the phrase "After recently seeing Inglis ruling at fullback, i was wondering whether someone like Graham would ever do good at the back" draws no comparisons between the two. it just states that i saw Inglis at full back, and it made me wonder how Graham would go. i drew no comparisons.

yeh, i'm happy with your answer, i asked because i wanted an answer. what i didn't want was to be held as though i was comparing Graham to Inglis, which i didn't do, and you're a moron for trying to prove me otherwise

By starting your first post with "you ******rs are going to rip on me" and then calling me a moron, you are just trolling now. I'm pretty sure that counts as a personal attack there too champ (IIRC you can say my comments are moronic, but can't actually call em a moron).

As for the comparison, if you'd said something along the lines of - "the Brett Kearney experiment to fullback worked; maybe Graham could be tried there" my answer would still have been no, but it would have at least been a similar situation. Your explanation above implies that the first part of the sentence has no bearing on the second. Does this make sense to you?

"After recently seeing Inglis ruling at fullback, i was wondering whether I prefer bananas or apples"

Attack me all you like mate. Perhaps I misunderstood your first post, or maybe we could both have worded our posts better, but I'm pretty sure you understood that my response was in good faith and in no way meant to "rip on you". Ultimately, I think most here will agree that Wade Graham would not be a good choice at full-back so let's close the case and start watching NRL.com to see if Pickerd gets a call-up.

 

[slide rule]

After recently seeing Inglis ruling at fullback, I started to wonder whether Preston Campbell could have made it as a front rower.