Official William Kennedy

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Gards said:
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
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How long was he jogging for? Angle I can see he jogs into frame with ref cutting him off and Reed already stretched out inches from scoring.
Much faster and he barrels into ref (and gets suspended again) and Reed still scores. Unless he was jogging from the start in which case his mistake was assuming Kaufusi (not being criticised for his defence) stops Reed Mahoney 1v1.

Hynes and Trindall show just as little urgency to stop by the measure of they can be seen walking once try is already a sure thing, from closer (but had to turn and react of course).

Gards said:
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
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I'd actually prefer our first line of defence be our best tackler, personally.

Gards said:
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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The underlined, these situations he is clearly beaten for numbers and just trying to make any play. I guess he could struggle to tackle the one player who by then has already passed it instead. The better option? Not convinced.
Force the pass and try and get a hand to it is a normal response. He is not a noted interceptor admittedly.

And all the bold is, imo, you assuming yes he simply should just be able to tackle whoever at any time despite most NRL players being there very specifically because they are hard to tackle and he is there in a position where defence has always been an afterthought at best.

The idea he should 'have his defensive game squared away' makes no sense to me - it is not what he is there for, it is not what he trains and practices. How would he just randomly square it away? Or should he do tackle practice all year every year with the forwards and not work on elements of a fullbacks game?
A few extra sessions of practice won't make him a substantially better defender. We are talking his whole lifetime of NOT focusing on it - why would that equate to being particularly good at tackling NRL players?

If any NRL player, including Will Kennedy, tried to run you over it doesn't matter how much effort you think you made you are getting bounced or crushed into the earth (big assumptions about someone I have never met or seen, but I'm comfortable it is accurate enough - or at least would be compared to 'the average person').

And none of this is even accounting for the fact many of his tackles are right on the tryline where a tackle that is fine elsewhere on the field would see them fall over and score so his options are restricted anyway.

I'm not trying to argue he is good for the position or even as good as he could be, I just read a lot that seems like it has unrealistic expectations.
Blaming him sprinting across field and being beaten back on the inside because of Talakai's misread on the Tigers scrum try is not, to me, something that particularly warrants criticism, but then it is also his fault Kaufusi couldn't 1v1 Reed Mahoney who he actually is bigger and stronger than, unlike Will in every single tackle he attempts (or near enough)? It is seeking to criticise him for something that is not a priority for him and never has been, and the clubs treats as not a priority, as every club does their fullbacks tackling.
 
fullbacks don't need to practice defense or tackling now (because it isn't going to help and it isn't their job anyway)

Bort reminds me of that bloke last week that tried to convince us all that Sifa isn't a problem in defense and it was just a misconception
 
Gards said:
fullbacks don't need to practice defense or tackling now (because it isn't going to help and it isn't their job anyway)

Bort reminds me of that bloke last week that tried to convince us all that Sifa isn't a problem in defense and it was just a misconception
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You say the first sentence I assume thinking it proves something, but yes, fullbacks will extensively practice other things before tackling.
Absolutely would be great if Kennedy was a better defender, and there is room for improvement no doubt.

I don't even know what to say about the second sentence, which is rare. You remind me of unrelated person from unrelated opinion I disagree with! I assume that is some kind of 'sick burn'?
 
bort said:
You say the first sentence I assume thinking it proves something, but yes, fullbacks will extensively practice other things before tackling.
Absolutely would be great if Kennedy was a better defender, and there is room for improvement no doubt.

I don't even know what to say about the second sentence, which is rare. You remind me of unrelated person from unrelated opinion I disagree with! I assume that is some kind of 'sick burn'?
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I think his browser wouldn't allow him to click 'Post Reply' with only one paragraph so it automatically just threw a random filler in!
 
To be clear, I'm not trying to take a stance Kennedy shouldn't ever worry about tackling and any tackle is a miracle, and I'm not trying to say he couldn't possible put in more or better efforts at times. He just, imo, gets called out way too easily on a lot of stuff where there is some justification for why the tackle failed. Including that, unfortunately, sometimes that justification is he is **** (by NRL standard) at tackling, and always will be, because he is a career fullback and hardly works on that skill and never has.

Fullbacks and not ever having a tackle focus was a topic of convo by a former player (I forget who) in relation to Ponga playing 6 and getting his head in the wrong spot a few times. I thought it was very interesting and it made a lot of sense to me.

If I think about training as I experienced it, having played hooker, second row, wing and prop, there is a big variance in the drills I spent time in.
And if I think about also training I have watched of Sharks and when doing prac with the Western Force way back when, it definitely also happens through a professional level.

I was just trying to share something that I had found interesting and realised was probably good analysis (imo), with some numbers to help demonstrate it. If it is an interesting consideration for anyone else who bothers to read it, great, if not, you're wrong and a bad person. (/s)
 
bort said:
To be clear, I'm not trying to take a stance Kennedy shouldn't ever worry about tackling and any tackle is a miracle, and I'm not trying to say he couldn't possible put in more or better efforts at times. He just, imo, gets called out way too easily on a lot of stuff where there is some justification for why the tackle failed. Including that, unfortunately, sometimes that justification is he is **** (by NRL standard) at tackling, and always will be, because he is a career fullback and hardly works on that skill and never has.
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Happens a lot on game day thread.

Take their first try yesterday - Sifa runs in which is waaaaay out of a normal defensive system leading to a try and someone immediately blames Kennedy.
 
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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I agree That try was all talakai. I have actually been impressed with will this year in terms of putting his body on the line in attack and defense
 
apezza said:
Happens a lot on game day thread.

Take their first try yesterday - Sifa runs in which is waaaaay out of a normal defensive system leading to a try and someone immediately blames Kennedy.
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Totally warranted.
Come on, he showed more commitment when he decided to kiss Hazelton's forehead.
 
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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Yep absolutely. Brailey is awesome.
 
His worst games are getting closer to his better games. And his better games are getting better then his best games last year. I'm happy with that.

Honestly, I'd rather a $700k centre than whoever we could get at that price at fullback (I'm kind of assuming will stays reasonably with of that).
 
Sparkles said:
His worst games are getting closer to his better games. And his better games are getting better then his best games last year. I'm happy with that.

Honestly, I'd rather a $700k centre than whoever we could get at that price at fullback (I'm kind of assuming will stays reasonably with of that).
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Who do you want at centre for 700k that you'd be okay with standing in the way of Gabrael?
 
I'm totally fed up with the ******* racißts here who bag Will Kennedy... He is the best fullback since the Peach.

I love everything he does.

At least he gives more effort than many. I'm looking at AFB, Number 7 and that clown in 3.
 
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