Official William Kennedy

  • Thread starter Thread starter Deleted member T1
  • Start date Start date
Wilson said:
For the price he’s on, we should be immediately re-signing him for at least 2 more years.

More expensive options could be available, but that money is probably better spent upgrading other positions of need.

Will’s value for money could be a real asset
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Do you think he'd re-sign on the same money?

I don't personally. I think he'll be looking for an upgrade and longish term deal to set him up for post footy.
 
Proud Shark said:
Do you think he'd re-sign on the same money?

I don't personally. I think he'll be looking for an upgrade and longish term deal to set him up for post footy.
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Don’t believe it would be on the same amount, but noting his currently standing point is very low comparatively to the competition, any reasonable increase to that would still see him as value for money
 
Wilson said:
For the price he’s on, we should be immediately re-signing him for at least 2 more years.

More expensive options could be available, but that money is probably better spent upgrading other positions of need.

Will’s value for money could be a real asset
Click to expand...
Too bad he’s in the position of need
 
Wilson said:
Don’t believe it would be on the same amount, but noting his currently standing point is very low comparatively to the competition, any reasonable increase to that would still see him as value for money
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Yeah just thinking a lot of that value diminishes the higher you go. Say it was somewhere between 5-600k, I don't think that's the best deal for us, but we are in a bit of a bind.
 
JimBob said:
Can we hurry up and re-sign this bloke for 2-3 years at 400k a season?

Been our best this season and loves the club.
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Surely he doesn't sign that. I'd be shocked if neither Perth or PNG front up with more. Perth are currently proposing to play Meaney at fullback.
 
The thing that does my head in about Will is that he will play well all game, do some tough stuff with the carries, catch bombs under pressure or the odd good tackle but then randomly pull out the softest laziest **** ever when a try is about to be scored on our line

He will make a half hearted gesture or movement towards the ball carrier but it actually appears like he has no interest in making a genuine effort to stop the try. He just gives up or decides it isn't worth risking putting his body on the line for the small chance he might stop the try being scored.

Or he will sprint there "showing" urgency but then conveniently gets beaten rather easily while he flays an arm out

I think he is past his injury phase and seems ok taking contact in other parts of the game and unless I mistook him with Trindall (those fkn haircuts) I think he actually made a strong on the line tackle this game (hmm prob was Trindall lol) but then he shows us a piss weak effort earlier in the game

But it's not just a contact / tackling thing because last week he just jogs and stops as the Cowboy gets the ball down not offering Kafusi any help who was making the tackle solo

It's a bad habit / attitude thing he has always had in defense - needs to show more desire and commitment in these moments even if it doesn't stop the try at least make a genuine effort. At least he isn't playing around with the goal post padding anymore....

Rest of his game is going pretty good
 
Will was actually behind the ball so had to have high speed up to track across on the scrum play (pushing hard, sideline to sideline), he then had to dodge Taylan May coming through and Doueihi's momentum got halted by Hiroti which meant Kennedy, who was pushing hard sideways, overshot. Throwing a random arm out was all he could do.
Sifa coming in was the issue there.

The harsh truth is, Kennedy is not there to be even an okay tackler.
He is, by design, a significantly below NRL standard tackler. By 'by design' I mean he would spend a lot of time at training practicing other things instead of tackling.

In NRL games he has made 784 out of 1064 tackles (74%)
As an extreme example Blayke Brailey, who debuted the same season, has made more tackles than Kennedy's career total on three separate seasons. His career total is 6782 out of 7213 (94%).

So far this season it is 337 to 42 made, or 347 to 58 attempted. So far this season Blayke is 9 tackles shy of doubling Will's single season career high and we are only 1/3 of the way through, not including finals.

Will is not there to tackle. He has never been there to tackle. In games he is hardly asked to tackle. In training he often doesn't practice tackling.

Sure you can pick out individual times he could have done better, of course you can, often in high speed situations with varied angles or where he has to make decisions, because he gets put in those circumstances a lot when he is asked to tackle. Not saying he can't do better but he just simply isn't ever going to be making a lot of these tackles people complain about.
Keep in mind though, instead of practicing getting better at that, he is likely off working on catching bombs or executing sweep plays.

Kennedy attempts 7.5 tackles per game. Say on average he played 20 games a year from 5 years old to start of this season, that is 23 years, 480 games, a lifetime tackle attempt volume of 3,450. Or as an adult, 1500 tackle attempts.

James Tedesco has a lower tackle efficiency than Will this season. But career he has made 1170 of 1497 (78%), that's the difference of if Kennedy made just 5.5 more tackles per season. Be great if he could make them, be great if he could be more like Teddy in general, especially if paid like Kennedy still.

Jesse Ramien, with about 30 games played more than Will, has made 2346 tackles out of 2665 attempts (88%). He has had 250% the opportunity in game to make tackles, in one of the hardest defensive positions. It is part of his role to have to make those tackles.

This had been a bortGPT production on why expecting fullbacks to simply make a better tackle actually is asking a lot.
Also, had to beat your word count.
 
bort said:
Will was actually behind the ball so had to have high speed up to track across on the scrum play (pushing hard, sideline to sideline), he then had to dodge Taylan May coming through and Doueihi's momentum got halted by Hiroti which meant Kennedy, who was pushing hard sideways, overshot. Throwing a random arm out was all he could do.
Sifa coming in was the issue there.

The harsh truth is, Kennedy is not there to be even an okay tackler.
He is, by design, a significantly below NRL standard tackler. By 'by design' I mean he would spend a lot of time at training practicing other things instead of tackling.

In NRL games he has made 784 out of 1064 tackles (74%)
As an extreme example Blayke Brailey, who debuted the same season, has made more tackles than Kennedy's career total on three separate seasons. His career total is 6782 out of 7213 (94%).

So far this season it is 337 to 42 made, or 347 to 58 attempted. So far this season Blayke is 9 tackles shy of doubling Will's single season career high and we are only 1/3 of the way through, not including finals.

Will is not there to tackle. He has never been there to tackle. In games he is hardly asked to tackle. In training he often doesn't practice tackling.

Sure you can pick out individual times he could have done better, of course you can, often in high speed situations with varied angles or where he has to make decisions, because he gets put in those circumstances a lot when he is asked to tackle. Not saying he can't do better but he just simply isn't ever going to be making a lot of these tackles people complain about.
Keep in mind though, instead of practicing getting better at that, he is likely off working on catching bombs or executing sweep plays.

Kennedy attempts 7.5 tackles per game. Say on average he played 20 games a year from 5 years old to start of this season, that is 23 years, 480 games, a lifetime tackle attempt volume of 3,450. Or as an adult, 1500 tackle attempts.

James Tedesco has a lower tackle efficiency than Will this season. But career he has made 1170 of 1497 (78%), that's the difference of if Kennedy made just 5.5 more tackles per season. Be great if he could make them, be great if he could be more like Teddy in general, especially if paid like Kennedy still.

Jesse Ramien, with about 30 games played more than Will, has made 2346 tackles out of 2665 attempts (88%). He has had 250% the opportunity in game to make tackles, in one of the hardest defensive positions. It is part of his role to have to make those tackles.

This had been a bortGPT production on why expecting fullbacks to simply make a better tackle actually is asking a lot.
Also, had to beat your word count.
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Thank you!!! I 100% agree.

Although, you could have simply replied with:

"The harsh truth is, Kennedy is not there to be even an okay tackler."
 
apezza said:
Thank you!!! I 100% agree.

Although, you could have simply replied with:

"The harsh truth is, Kennedy is not there to be even an okay tackler."
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Probably correct, as I expect the cross section between people who need more explanation than that, and people who want more information than that, is probably very small haha
 
bort said:
Probably correct, as I expect the cross section between people who need more explanation than that, and people who want more information than that, is probably very small haha
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Wait for it.....
 
Bort, it doesn't explain why he shows no urgency - like last week on the try where Kafusi was hanging on and Will jogged over for smoko

I am not saying Kennedy is incapable of making a tackle or that he should be the best defensive player on your team (although it would be nice as he is the last line of defense), I'm also not suggesting he should be expected to cut down a powerful ball carrier a metre out from the line

However I don't expect him to dog it and be completely ineffective or barely even try make a legitimate tackle. He tends to go for the soft option like an intercept attempt or swipe at the ball and it never works

Sometimes he is really out of position behind our tryline and is he sprinting full pelt over to where he needs to be to help with the cover defense? Nope - the guy picks weird times to take it easy

His cover tackle attempts out wide are also pathetic. Gets swatted away like a fly and sometimes doesn't even need to be swatted his tackle effort is so feeble.

Defensive ability and technique still matters if you are a fullback, especially if you aren't an out and out X factor attacking fullback like say Drinkwater and considered more so a steady and reliable safe solid kinda fullback - all the more reason to have your defensive game squared away.

I'm not criticising his general effort levels - I just don't like how selective and random it is once the ball is near our try line.
I rarely see that sort of thing from other players in our squad
 
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