Official Luke Metcalf

[bort]

Big show of faith to keep him in the 6 and a good sign for his prospects for next season. Hope he can bang out another quality effort this weekend!

 

[CrazyMatt]

Big show of faith to keep him in the 6 and a good sign for his prospects for next season. Hope he can bang out another quality effort this weekend!

Honestly I think most people would of blown up if he didn’t keep it for this week. Played to well to be dropped for Moylan who has only had less then a half of football since his return from yet another injury. Moylan off the bench for the rest of the season as far as Im concerned as he obviously cant play 80.

 

[Jaz]

Honestly I think most people would of blown up if he didn’t keep it for this week. Played to well to be dropped for Moylan who has only had less then a half of football since his return from yet another injury. Moylan off the bench for the rest of the season as far as Im concerned as he obviously cant play 80.

Hoping Moylan off the bench next year too. He's our best first receiver (if you ignore kicking) but his body's just not up to it, and it's too disruptive to the team.

 

[bort]

Hoping Moylan off the bench next year too. He's our best first receiver (if you ignore kicking) but his body's just not up to it, and it's too disruptive to the team.

I reckon you give him a chance to start the season if he goes well through preseason and then up to him to hold it.

He is 41st in the NRL for try involvements and only played 13 games - that's tries + TAs + TCs (try contributions)
He has 2 + 7 + 10 and leads our side by average.

Kennedy has 14 + 13 + 3 for our max and second by average but is weighted toward tries not contributions, so plays further down the chain than Moylan.

SJ was third by average and Trindall is 4th, Trindalls numbers are 3-10-4.

Tracey and Ronnie also rate well but carried heavily by their double figure try hauls.

Basically from a purely stats perspective Moylan makes great reads to get the ball into someone's hands to either score or set up someone else (that wonderful Moylan Kennedy combo that has been mentioned springs to mind)

Hynes is actually 10th overall for average involvements (6th for total) with 7 + 25+ 6 so he plays that second receiver role fantastically also. Helps that Storm are a powerhouse as Hynes' passes will convert more often.

Moylans average try contributions is 7th in the NRL with the leaders being the likes of Keary, Cleary, Reynolds, and... old mate doesn't have enough try assists Chad Townsend. Gamble actually sits above Moylan to and so do a couple nobodies (Tanah Boyd and some 1 game cowboy)
Names after Moylans on average for this are DCE Cody Walker and "I got dropped for Chad' O'Sullivan, Foran, Luai, Brooks, Radley, Drinkwater, Clifford then starts to get muddied by a lot who haven't played many games. SJ was equal 18th.

This kind of involvement is probably a big reason Moylan got re-signed and suggests he should be able to give a lot of quality ball to Hynes and Kennedy if he can stay healthy.

These numbers make a strong case for him to be in our 1st choice halves for next season.
If he can just ****ing do some goddamn kicking that'd be nice too

 

[Jaz]

Appreciate the researched and well thought out response, Bort.

To be honest I think it backs up my point – that when fit he's our best option. But given a 2 week hamstring injury floored him for 7 weeks, I don't think his body's up to it anymore.

Would be happy to start the season with him and switch him out when he's inevitably injured, but that will just put our next, longer term combination behind.

Anyway! Metcalf. Good player. Who reckons he can back it up with an equally strong performance this weekend?

 

[HaroldBishop]

Appreciate the researched and well thought out response, Bort.

To be honest I think it backs up my point – that when fit he's our best option. But given a 2 week hamstring injury floored him for 7 weeks, I don't think his body's up to it anymore.

Would be happy to start the season with him and switch him out when he's inevitably injured, but that will just put our next, longer term combination behind.

Anyway! Metcalf. Good player. Who reckons he can back it up with an equally strong performance this weekend?

I reckon he can. The only thing for him is don't try and do too much, reckon it's easy for a young player trying to impress to get carried away.

 

[Jaz]

I reckon he can. The only thing for him is don't try and do too much, reckon it's easy for a young player trying to impress to get carried away.

Agreed. Part of what made his performance on the weekend so good was that he played to his strengths.

If he can stick mostly to running but pop the occasional harbour bridge pass (which he's a special for) he'll be golden.

 

[bort]

Appreciate the researched and well thought out response, Bort.

To be honest I think it backs up my point – that when fit he's our best option. But given a 2 week hamstring injury floored him for 7 weeks, I don't think his body's up to it anymore.

Would be happy to start the season with him and switch him out when he's inevitably injured, but that will just put our next, longer term combination behind.

Anyway! Metcalf. Good player. Who reckons he can back it up with an equally strong performance this weekend?

I agree his legs are faaarked. I would never play him at FB again and always want to know exactly what my contingency was when he goes down midgame.
I think if he gets through preseason unscathed he will start and his position to lose. I am very realistic that he could lose it at any time due to being out for 6-8 weeks with a minor calf strain.

If Tracey does play centre one of Metcalf or Trindall will likely be on the bench still most games and likely will get a few starts through the season too as chances of Moyza playing 20+ are pretty slim

 

[Gards]

I am for sure leaning more towards Metcalf starting as our 6 and Moylan as benchy now - I feel there is more upside and less risk with this approach over the next 12 months

Gives Metcalf more FG experience leading into next season and the coaches a better understanding of how he handles it and areas to prioritise for improvement. We are unlikely to progress further than wk 1 finals anyway if we even make the top 8

Moylan would be doing well (based on his fitness history) to wear our jersey another 20 times so playing him from the bench avoids the squad/combination disruption he absence has traditionally caused

Metcalf in theory should murder the Brisbane defense with his pace and agility
Moylan is becoming more of a steady as she goes ball playing 6 that can turn on some footwork when required, he prob isn't going to blow away a team like he might have in early years but can chip away at them and keep them on their toes regardless

 

[Sparkles]

I reckon he can. The only thing for him is don't try and do too much, reckon it's easy for a young player trying to impress to get carried away.

Yeah, I think the one who keeps their composure the best will be the one who gets first crack. So far I'm rooting for Trindall as I think we could really use his kicking game, it's a big missing piece of the puzzle for us

 

[apezza]

Gee there is a lot of tyre pumping for Metcalf this week. I hope he lives up to the hype otherwise the board will be looking for new jobs next week.

 

[Proud Shark]

Mainly just a fluff piece but good to see him getting some traction. Hope we get pen to paper for an extension soon.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/he...piring-cronulla-s-charge-20210827-p58mhe.html

 

[egg]

Mainly just a fluff piece but good to see him getting some traction. Hope we get pen to paper for an extension soon.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/he...piring-cronulla-s-charge-20210827-p58mhe.html

Thanks for that , nice read
Loved these parts


He was a Cronulla junior, scored three tries in 2017 for the under-18s NSW Origin team, which was captained by Broncos rival Payne Haas, and spent three years learning about the art of halfback play under Daly Cherry-Evans.


With speed to burn - he is quietly confident he has his Cronulla buddies covered over the 50m and 100m - Metcalf will be a handy back-up option and potential utility for in-coming Cronulla coach Craig Fitzgibbon.

 

[bort]

What’s a try contribution bort? Anyone who touches the ball in the lead up? It must exclude dummy half passes though right? Otherwise the top of the list would be all hookers.

Sideline to sideline shift though 8 sets of hands… winger gets a try, bloke who threw the last pass gets ta, 5 blokes get tc’s, dummy half gets nothing. Is that how it works?

Not sure, it isn’t defined in the stats.
I’m assuming it is a mix of a judgement call by the stats team and the touch before the assist. Perhaps an element is things like LBAs, if Moylan provides an LBA then that player gets a TA for example.
Does seem to not consider a standard pass by hooker.

In theory the touch before the assist maybe did nothing but often it is just as crucial.
Like all stats it can be an interesting point of discussion but of course does not paint a full picture.
Be incredible if you could see the stats for Moylans try contributions and then actually click into it and watch them all (and same for other stats)

 

[bort]

A similar level of detail would almost certainly be available to the teams. Just not to us punters.

The software can track a single player during a 8pm game, then package up all of his touches, defensive involvements, lead runs, kick chase, etc. in time for him to watch it as a Mini-game on his iPad before he goes to bed that night.

Yeah I’ve been involved with that stuff briefly a while back with Western Force and someone else here has worked with it quite a bit
Fox, who post those stats and Try Causes, potentially pay to access that kind of stuff too

 

[bort]

Do they have game-by-game stats for this? If they do you could probably just re-watch the mini and figure out how they are assigning them. Something like Frawley’s switch of play on the game winner last night would be an interesting one to see. He definitely “contributed” to the try, but it went through another 3-4 sets of hands after him.

It’s also interesting that Radley is high up the list. I wonder if that reflects his involvement as first receiver on shifts.

I haven’t checked if fox publish game stats, I usually use the NRL match centre when checking game by game. They may, which would help answer that question. I cbf trying to check on a mobile.

I noticed Radley too, he plays a big role in a lot of their attack (when playing…)

 

[CrazyMatt]

Moylan had a good game but ****ing hell I felt bad for this kid. He was looking dangerous before he was hooked.

 

[Proud Shark]

He could have been worth getting back on after the second sin bin.

 

[apezza]

He could have been worth getting back on after the second sin bin.

Yeh I mentioned in game thread that they should have took Hiroti off, Tracey to Wing and Metcalf to centres. Worked well last week.

 

[Wiz]

Yeh I mentioned in game thread that they should have took Hiroti off, Tracey to Wing and Metcalf to centres. Worked well last week.

I like Metcalf with Trindall that’s a good halves partnership. Heaps of potential. Both are zippy and can kick too

On your point I still didn’t see anything that suggests Tracey is an ok option at centre. Zzzz