Official Matt Ikuvalu

HaroldBishop

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Well if it's not he's deserved his spot over the others then so be it. Gets my support.. till he drops it :)

Or it's to move Ronny to centres it gives us options instead of Tracey. Alot of people were keen on a centre instead of Tracey. Maybe it's Ronnie ?
Maybe. I've never seen him play there so can't comment.
 

Thresher

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You mean the majority of most wingers tries... yep.
Usually with a 5-try game you expect a bit of individual brilliance.

And when the 5-try game is being mentioned in order to demonstrate how impressive he possibly is, I'd expect some individual brilliance. Otherwise I'd just think that it was his lucky day.
 

bort

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Well if it's not he's deserved his spot over the others then so be it. Gets my support.. till he drops it :)

Or it's to move Ronny to centres it gives us options instead of Tracey. Alot of people were keen on a centre instead of Tracey. Maybe it's Ronnie ?
Ronnie is a bit of an allrounder, hasn't got anything he is elite at which has been a criticism on here by some but is pretty consistent and his biggest weakness is sometimes he gets too passionate. Hopefully with maturity and experience he can get a better grip on that.

One of the things he does do that stands out at times is his hard upright running. On kick returns he has made some good busts, on early tackle hitups he has been held up and controlled in tackle, even pushed back by more set defence line / with less run up.

He loses the strong part of that at centre and likely ends up with more of the weaker part unless he changes his run style to adapt, which he may well do. But yeah, basically I think centre takes away one of his better strengths with no obvious benefit other than allowing someone else to play wing.

I could see him converting to a good centre, but it's not a move I am overly excited about or that I envisage takes him to another level.
 

bort

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Depends what they are too. If he's diving for the corner or contesting a bomb 8-10 times per game and gets an error attributed to him because of it that hardly means he has poor hands. If he's spilling it 20 out on a simple hit-up a la Hiroti that's a different story.
His Errors - Handling Errors per game stats
1-1
0-0
2-1
4-2 (Eels loss)
2-2
1-0
3-3 (Raiders win)
3-1 (Titans win)
2-3 (Panthers loss - named reserve the next week)
2-2
3-3 (Cowboys win)
1-1 (after this didn't play for next 5 games)
1-1
2-2 (Titans win finals)
0-0 (Manly loss finals)

So that's actually 27 errors in 15 games (1.8), 22 being handling errors (1.47)
NRL stats website is counting his two unused reserve games as games played.
(I assume that handling errors are a subset of errors but maybe in addition to? has more handling errors than errors in one game v Panthers)

From the sound of roosters fans there was enough just plain bad handling to make an impression but of course some amount were likely very hard catches / very difficult put down attempts.

Keep an eye out for him in this highlight package

edit: I should add, I'm not trying to lash the guy, just discussing his signing. Assuming good price I don't mind the signing, probably be more useful than Chambers was. Just from what I have seen and roosters fans opinions I don't see him clearly beating Tracey for a centre spot or easily beating Ronnie for a wing spot. Will be more in the fight for a jersey than Hiroti though I imagine.
 
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BurgoShark

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His Errors - Handling Errors per game stats
1-1
0-0
2-1
4-2 (Eels loss)
2-2
1-0
3-3 (Raiders win)
3-1 (Titans win)
2-3 (Panthers loss - named reserve the next week)
2-2
3-3 (Cowboys win)
1-1 (after this didn't play for next 5 games)
1-1
2-2 (Titans win finals)
0-0 (Manly loss finals)

So that's actually 27 errors in 15 games (1.8), 22 being handling errors (1.47)
NRL stats website is counting his two unused reserve games as games played.
(I assume that handling errors are a subset of errors but maybe in addition to? has more handling errors than errors in one game v Panthers)

From the sound of roosters fans there was enough just plain bad handling to make an impression but of course some amount were likely very hard catches / very difficult put down attempts.

Keep an eye out for him in this highlight package

edit: I should add, I'm not trying to lash the guy, just discussing his signing. Assuming good price I don't mind the signing, probably be more useful than Chambers was. Just from what I have seen and roosters fans opinions I don't see him clearly beating Tracey for a centre spot or easily beating Ronnie for a wing spot. Will be more in the fight for a jersey than Hiroti though I imagine.
Cheers bort
 

Thresher

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Haha - a winger who l scores his tries down the wing? What is the game coming to?
My post was meant to suggest that the 5-try haul may not have been due to him being an exceptional player. So making the same point really.
 

Tatus

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Didn’t we get rid of a tall, hard running, error riddled winger?

Maybe Fitz just hasn’t spoke to him a lot, so he can still fix that when they are both here
 

Sparkles

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Usually with a 5-try game you expect a bit of individual brilliance.

And when the 5-try game is being mentioned in order to demonstrate how impressive he possibly is, I'd expect some individual brilliance. Otherwise I'd just think that it was his lucky day.
You mean like Staines against us?
 

bort

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no its not, everyone knew about it on friday
2 days before it was everywhere being announced as done?
So ‘everyone knew about it’ likely after he had already signed?
Unless first talks happened late Thursday it wasn’t exactly public knowledge for much of the process
 

snowman

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2 days before it was everywhere being announced as done?
So ‘everyone knew about it’ likely after he had already signed?
Unless first talks happened late Thursday it wasn’t exactly public knowledge for much of the process
so it hasnt been announced and was on a forum before the telegraph picked it up, but yeh, stealth as ****

if only the japs were this stealth at pearl harbour
 

bort

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so it hasnt been announced and was on a forum before the telegraph picked it up, but yeh, stealth as ****

if only the japs were this stealth at pearl harbour
First time you mention it on here you said he was already signed, so he was signed without any news about who may be talking to him in the lead up to him having signed anywhere. Looks like it was able to be kept close to the chest until deal done again.
Also Ikavalu not that exciting a story is likely a factor.

Maybe my WW2 history isn't great, didn't Japan **** up Pearl Harbour because the Americans weren't expecting an attack...
 

Shortfin Mako

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Maybe my WW2 history isn't great, didn't Japan **** up Pearl Harbour because the Americans weren't expecting an attack...
Yup, Americans were not expecting an attack and were caught off guard.

They (Japanese) did a good job on keeping the illusion that tey do not want a war though...
 
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