Official Teig Wilton

[Tiger Shark]

Funny note on Teig, apparently Mason and Horo off the levels podcast reckon the best way to improve our forwards would be to add some ball skills to the middle by running him as a ball-playing lock, shift McInnes back to the bench and put Talakai out on his edge.

I definitely like Talakai on the edge, I do also like him off the bench but 80 mins of Talakai is better than 50 mins of Talakai.

Not sold on Tieg at lock, he played a bit there for the Jets but that might have been injury motivated. I dont think Tieg's ball playing is much of an upgrade on Cam. Or if it's an upgrade we should probably aim higher.

Eitherway I think Cam is sticking around a few more years so a moot point, but always good to discuss.

 

[Proud Shark]

I don't see Teig as a ball player at all. I'm also still holding out hope Colquhoun will come back and solidify the future lock role.

 

[Tiger Shark]

I don't see Teig as a ball player at all. I'm also still holding out hope Colquhoun will come back and solidify the future lock role.

Yeah I was going to put in I hope JC takes that spot at some point. He's going to be good that kid but just needs to play some consistent NRL.

Hopefully not more bad luck for him.

 

[bort]

Yeah I was going to put in I hope JC takes that spot at some point. He's going to be good that kid but just needs to play some consistent NRL.

Hopefully not more bad luck for him.

2025 the year of Dykes and the ‘houn

 

[Gumby]

Not sure why that's a problem when they play on different sides?

That’s what I’m talking about. They’re both too similar on each edge.

Look at some of the top 8 teams this season and their back rower combinations. The ones who have that point of difference on one edge kill it down that side. We have the player there who can be that X factor and game breaker, feel he’s just wasted playing in the middle especially when we have AFB coming next season and hopefully a fit and healthy Uele. They’re our game breakers through the middle, we need the same on an edge.

 

[bort]

That’s what I’m talking about. They’re both too similar on each edge.

Look at some of the top 8 teams this season and their back rower combinations. The ones who have that point of difference on one edge kill it down that side. We have the player there who can be that X factor and game breaker, feel he’s just wasted playing in the middle especially when we have AFB coming next season and hopefully a fit and healthy Uele. They’re our game breakers through the middle, we need the same on an edge.

Let me preface this by saying I'd be onboard with starting Talakai on an edge
I have a strong preference for 80 minute backrower so I'd want him to be able to do that, but obviously Talakai is a weapon.

I'd just like some expansion on what you see as a point of difference player and how it has a dramatic impact.

Can you give some examples of a 'point of difference' player?
To me it has the feeling of when someone says we need more mongrel and what they actually mean is they want a better player - nobody asking for more mongrel ever suggested Jack Hetherington, they wanted AFB or JWH (but like, he shouldn't get suspended because we go off at Ramien when he does)

Storm have very similar backrowers, although Katoa is better. They score 44% of their tries on his side, vs 37% on Blores.
Angus killed it for Roosters, but he was the best backrower in the comp, they scored 46% on that side, vs 38% on the other.
Per the Dally M list - Kikau (+4%), Su'a (+14%), Young (-6%) - funnily enough I'd argue Young has the most varied skill set of the lot.

So Angus and EKat's sides had a decent bit of uptick but they are just extremely good. Sua had the biggest difference but that's the Lomax side.
Other than that the Rabbitohs left edge was dominant, and Fifita's side for Titans. We scored +5% on Wilton's side.

Around the league Nikora (best in the business) and Wilton's line running is highly rated and I've not seen the fact they both do it well as a negative myself, so I guess that's where I'm interested in some more info.

 

[bort]

The below goes a bit off track, was more out of my own interest to see how he stacked up statistically to some of his more fancied peers.
TLDR he stacks up really well actually in almost all the stats I looked at, Wilton is very 'solid'
Which is not a counter argument to Talakai could be better, he sits surprisingly well against other edge players though overall

Wilton made the 31st most tackles in the NRL this season, with the only consistent second rowers ahead of him being Nikora (6th) and E Katoa (30th)
Plenty had a better tackle effectiveness but some who didn't include E Katoa, D Fifita, Whitehead, Nikora, Martin, A Crichton, Su'a, Radley, Young, Kikau and at the very bottom of the Fox Sports 2nd rower list, sorted by tackle effectiveness (and sitting 389th in the NRL), Talakai

Wilton also sits 4th for second rowers for one on one tackles, 10th in the NRL, Nikora 12th.

He also only has 2 try causes attributed to him, to sit 410th in the NRL (that's a good thing) - Luke Garner probably the only pure 2nd rower with 10+ games better. In contrast Nikora sits 284th, which is still decent. And Talakai 278 despite some time at centre where he probably added a couple, also decent - presumably would be worse if he'd done the whole season at centre.

He averages less errors than a stack of prominent edge players, including Nikora

His run meters stack up fine and in terms of try contributions he's a bit lower (196th) but right there with Sua (189th), Kikau (196th), Murray (228th) and not crazy far behind A Crichton and Nanai (joint 151st).
Talakai 93rd and Nikora 94th

 

[Sparkles]

Careful - we haven't had much luck with trains lately....

Brings a whole new meaning to train and trial