I wonder what this kid is doing 6.15pm Sunday night?that was the first thing I noticed too.
Don't even need the stats. For a kid who can run over anyone at will, I'd make him play halfback for 1/4 of the game - without a bib - to force him to pass.
Instead of "the best way to help the team is to have this kid always do the things he is good at", think "the best way to help this kid is for him to sometimes do things he isn't good at, so he becomes good at more things"
Official Siosifa Talakai
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andrew's_sharks
Great White
Watching his idol terrorise the warriors
If he can develop that into a skill and a habit while it's 'easy' maybe he won't have to quit when the other kids get bigger and just jogging largely isn't good enough anymore
BurgoShark
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He'll get a few more years out of the jogging. "Be big but don't necessarily running hard" is still successful for plenty of teenagers.
Sparkles
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Was thinking the same thing. It felt more like a game for a Talakai type. Though you wonder how we would have gone defensively with the speed of that game
I thought Staggs deserved his spot but Talakai may have been a better choice for a reserve. Crichton on the bench that could only cover centre was silly.
HaroldBishop
Megalodon
I wouldn't have had him on the bench but he covers wing and fullback as well.
had a bad first run and struggled to get into game.
Had power to get on outside but not speed to do anything with it and **** he looked small on the origin stage.
I'd have picked him too so can't really complain.
I definitely wouldn't have picked Talakai for right centre.
Speaking of Talakai some people really think he played 1.5 good games and has been bad since. He has been bad since compared to those games.
Run meters - averages first for centres
Runs - averages third for centres
Meters per run - averages 5th for centres
Runs 8m+ - averages 2nd for centres
Tackle breaks - averages 2nd for centres
1 pass hit ups - averages 1st for centres
Try assists - averages 2nd for centres
Line break assists - averages 1st for centres (Ramien is 2nd!)
Agree Crichton covers way more... the Crichton/Wighton thing was odd but I guess was correct in the end. Wighton played really well and we ended up needing cover at centre...
Sparkles
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Staggs might have carried an injury in... Which would have been just as weird.
And El-Borto, were those stats just for his post superhero games?
HaroldBishop
Megalodon
Yeah I don't get how some still don't rate him as a centre, he's absolutely killing it.
No that's all games so they are padded by his great games, but those are 1.5 (2) out of 12 appearances so would have been averaged down quite a bit.
That it also includes his two first games of the season which were 20 and 54 minute bench efforts, so particularly the first one would negate some of his heroics.
He hasn't scored himself since then but has 2 try assists, a line break, averages 4.4 tackle breaks
Making plenty of meters since those games too
You can get the sort of watered down stats from his Sharks profile https://www.sharks.com.au/teams/telstra-premiership/cronulla-sutherland-sharks/siosifa-talakai/
For full stats you have to go game by game.
They think if he can't do what he did those games he must be playing bad. He's probably the most aggressively marked centre in the game since then and still making a great contribution to a team which is desperate for go forward.
Wiz
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Talakai has been one of our most consistent and best players this year. I shudder to think what our year might have looked like without him so far, he creates even more for his outside player then he does for himself and that’s saying something . Weapon
Wiz
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The people that think he has been bad since aren’t real people.. can’t be
Jasonstevenswedgie
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not all of those 12 were at centre or have you taken that into account already?
Not all of those 12 were at centre no, as I said two were bench stints with one of those in particular really dragging his numbers down. I think they probably help average out his great games a little (although unfairly if we are just talking about him as a centre).
Another was an effort on edge where he made less meters than he has every single game at centre although did score a try.
I would be interested to see just his centre stats but I personally cbf'd sorting them from the other three games.
Sparkles
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It's funny that his superhero game sort of broke how we played for a bit. It's like we wanted to get him the ball all the time, and while he's good, he's not going to be playing like that every week. Then the other teams sussed it out. I wonder if that's why we're disjointed at the moment. We can't get the ball to Talakai and we don't seem to have another plan.
I think half the problem is that we are not earning the right to spread it to Talakai. We are trying to replicate without the middle dominance.
Yep, combine that with his heavily he is marked now and you realise he’s still actually going pretty well to be making the meters he is
