2018 in review - Blake Austin

[greeneyed]

2018 in review - Blake Austin

This is the sixth instalment of 2018 in review. As usual, now the Raiders' season is done, we are reviewing all 25 players who pulled on a green jersey in first grade in 2018. So far, we've looked at Jack Wighton, Nick Cotric, Jarrod Croker and Joey Leilua and Jordan Rapana.

Blake Austin was the Dally M five eighth of the year in 2015. But by 2018, his contract was ultimately not renewed. In 2019, he'll join the Warrington Wolves on a three year contract in the European Super League. Austin was offered a significant new contract by the Raiders in 2017, but he turned it down - with some reports suggesting he wanted to demonstrate on field he was worth an even bigger contract. Austin said later it was not about the money, but being sure he was happy at the club. In any event, subsequent offers were reportedly lower than the initial offer - and eventually, the Raiders took their offer off the table.

Austin played 22 games, with 17 of those games at starting five eighth. With the loss of hooker Josh Hodgson to an ACL injury, coach Ricky Stuart started the season by playing "three halves". Austin was named on the bench in the interchange hooker role for Round 1, but started at five eighth in a late change. But by Round 3, Austin had dropped to the bench role, and was then dropped to NSW premiership affiliate Mounties in Round 4.

He returned to first grade in Round 6 at five eighth - but was again dropped to the bench for the Round 14 match against the Bulldogs. He spent much of that game pacing like a caged tiger on the sidelines - and then sparked a miraculous comeback when injected into the game late. He ended up playing three matches on the bench, one at halfback and one filling in at left centre for injured captain Jarrod Croker.

Austin is a very dangerous attacking player, particularly when focused on his running game - but his strike rate fell in 2018. His total try involvements fell from 33 in 2017 to 20 in 2018. That ranked second at the Raiders, behind Aidan Sezer, but was outside the top 10 five eighths in the NRL. With five four pointers, he ranked eighth amongst NRL five eighths for try scoring, and equal eighth at the Raiders. He ranked inside the top 10 five eighths for line breaks, tackle breaks and offloads - but outside for average running metres, kicking metres and forced line drop outs. In most attacking categories, he was well off the attacking benchmarks set by the likes of Cody Walker and Luke Keary.

In defence, Austin had some major problems. He has repeatedly shown he can be a good defender one on one. But he also had significant issues in making the right defensive reads. He had particular communication issues playing alongside Joey Leilua - but his defensive problems weren't confined to those matches. He ended the season with more try causes than any five eighth in the NRL and more than any player at the Raiders. He finished equal sixth for most try causes in the NRL. Austin ranked fifth at the club for missed tackles, but ranked outside the top 10 five eighths on that score. His tackle efficiency rate fell from 82 per cent in 2017 to 78 per cent this season. His error count and discipline was fairly good, comparing favourably to players like James Maloney.

I rated Austin an average 5.8/10 through the season. I rated him an "8" for his amazing "cameo" appearance in the Raiders comeback against the Bulldogs at Belmore. Without him, the Raiders would not have won. However, there was a big difference between Blake Austin at his best and his worst this year. I rated him a "5" in six matches and a "4" in three matches - mostly on account of his defence. I've taken that into account in my overall rating.



Austin has gone to the Super League at the relatively young age of 27, but I think it'll be a good move for him. There is less focus on structure in attack and defence is less intense; his style should suit that league. I will not be in the slightest bit surprised if he makes a huge impact with Warrington, and wish him the best for the remainder of his career.

How did you rate Blake Austin's 2018? Tell us below.

Blake Austin's 2018: 5/10

2018 Statistics: (Stats from Fox Sports Lab)
Games: 22
Average minutes: 72
Points: 20
Tries: 5
Try assists: 9
Try contributions: 6
Total try involvements: 20
Total kicks: 78
Kick metres: 2055m
Average kick metres per match: 93m
40/20’s: 0
Forced drop outs: 5
Kicks dead: 2
Kick errors: 5
Total runs: 127
All run metres: 1414
Average metres per carry: 11.1m
Average metres per game: 64m
Tackle breaks: 62
Offloads: 13
Line breaks: 9
Line break assists: 11
Tackles: 260
Average tackles per game: 11.8
1 on 1 tackles: 41
Missed tackles: 47
Average missed tackles per game: 2.1
Tackle efficiency: 77 per cent
Try causes: 19
Errors: 18
Penalties conceded: 14

[edwahu]

3/10

For me a 5 is someone who has a close to neutral contribution to the teams performance, and since his defensive issues cost us a huge amount of games I can't give him more than a 3.

[Green eyed Mick]

3/10 is generous. He was our worst player.

[julian87]

His 17 and 18 were pretty much disastrous. It became obvious he wasn’t improving as a player. So I agree that for this season a 3 is generous.

I do hope when we look back on him that his legacy (though small compared to the greats) as a Raiders player is a good one. He was a great signing and played a huge hand in our mini post Campese resurgence. I still like what he offers as a player but seemed to lose his way a bit recently. A big what if of his career will be what he may have done as an out and out fullback.

I hope he carves in England.

[RedRaider]

The worst thing that happened to him was to win the Dally M in 2015. He cruised from that year on. Defences woke up to the right foot step. His line breaks fell and so did his confidence. His defence, always questionable, fell away. His ego in the stratosphere he could never understand that half the game is about defence. I expect him to shine in his first year in England and then as the plaudits fade so will his form. He was dropped this year for good reason. Other players injuries then kept him in the FG side. The shocking performances went on lowlighted by the lifting of a player up side down vertical and then questioning why he was penalised. He fed a scrum and the Raiders lost the feed - when does that EVER happen in the modern game. He didn't know that if you deliberately knock on you can be penalised. Generally over rated in player points match after match this year. The fact that he will no longer be with the Raiders in 2019 gives me greater confidence we can be a threat in September next year. At least whoever plays in 6 will have a go to the best of their ability. That was not the case with Blake for the past 3 seasons. 2/10.

[-TW-]

He won 5/8 of the year?

Also 1/10, and that's mainly for his 10 mins off the bench vs the dogs

He was horse ****

[greeneyed]

The worst thing that happened to him was to win the Dally M in 2015. He cruised from that year on. Defences woke up to the right foot step. His line breaks fell and so did his confidence. His defence, always questionable, fell away. His ego in the stratosphere he could never understand that half the game is about defence. I expect him to shine in his first year in England and then as the plaudits fade so will his form. He was dropped this year for good reason. Other players injuries then kept him in the FG side. The shocking performances went on lowlighted by the lifting of a player up side down vertical and then questioning why he was penalised. He fed a scrum and the Raiders lost the feed - when does that EVER happen in the modern game. He didn't know that if you deliberately knock on you can be penalised. Generally over rated in player points match after match this year. The fact that he will no longer be with the Raiders in 2019 gives me greater confidence we can be a threat in September next year. At least whoever plays in 6 will have a go to the best of their ability. That was not the case with Blake for the past 3 seasons. 2/10.

I guess Red wasn't happy with my scores during the year!

[Matt]

Austin was a massive part of our early season rut. His defense was diabolical. It ultimately got him dropped.

Lucky for him Sammys knee blew up a week later and he got a reprieve. His defense didnt really improve, even if his attack did. When Sammy came back, Austin was bumped to the bench. Only to get another reprieve when Sezer went down.

His highlight this yr was the Dogs game. That 15mins was ridiculous, but that was his contribution this season.

Id rate him a 2 or 3. He was really really poor.

[TongueFTW]

Agree with the GE write up.

One point though - I still believe our defensive issues are way deeper than a couple of players. They are a vicious cycle of:

* Losing the ruck and allowing a quick play the ball.
* Middle defender’s poor lateral movement meaning less numbers out wide.
* Halves and second rowers forced to make one on one tackles, gambling on which player to take.

We saw in the St George game that, when Blake got lucky and picked the right player (Tariq Sims mostly in this game), he had the strength and technique to put on a one on one stop.

Unless we address other structural issues, our poor defence will continue.

[Seiffert82]

Stuart stuck by him way too long. His confidence has been down for a couple of years and goodness only knows what the truth is between he and Leilua.

The way his time ended here is a real shame. At his best he is an absolute match winner.

Good luck in the UK Blake. Hold the line in defence, use your shoulders and the comp is yours to dominate.

[-PJ-]

Brake was bog.

Now watch him carve the ESL to ribbons

[greeneyed]

Generally over rated in player points match after match this year.

Sorry about that Red!

[dubby]

His ego was unjustified. Defensive liability, one trick pony in attack, and never looked likely to improve.

Very disappointing season. 3.

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[RedRaider]

Generally over rated in player points match after match this year.

Sorry about that Red!

You call them as you see them GE, but there were times this season where I thought he was rated 2 or 3 points higher than he should have been. The match where we are chasing to win and he put the player up side down to break our momentum by giving away that penalty and then did a chip and chase directly to the opposition to go with his usual defensive 'form' in the final few minutes of the match was a clanger imo. You will not be surprised to learn that I am happy he will not be with the Raiders in 2019.

[gerg]

0 from me. Showed in glimpses what he is capable of. So what the hell has he been doing for 2 years? I hate his show and go and I'm sure the players outside him do too. Ball hog, liability in defence and Ricky deserves to go down with him. Unforgivable to continue to select Austin, Paulo and Boyd for the 2nd half of the year, when he had Murchie, Guler and Knight available. Whitehead should have played 6 with any of those other 3 filling in for Whitehead.

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[Brew]

His best game was vs The Bulldogs at Belmore and I wished he played that role the entire season.


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[Ruben Daley]

I still have a soft spot for Austin and if I could choose one person to carve an opposition team, he’d be close to my number one.

But his defence killed us this year. There were periods where we’d almost be assured of two tries going through his channel. Like GE said, he can tackle. He has actually made some huge one-on-one tackles during his time here. But far more often he’s read it wrong or just seemed to tune out at a key time and we’ve been burnt.

I hope he kills it in the ESL and expect he will. I also expect he’ll get a call-up to return to the NRL before his three years are up. It just won’t be here.

I will also say the ludicrous halves arrangement for the first quarter of the season really limited any chance for Blake to do well - as well as hamstringing our whole season.

Good luck in England, mate.

[Northern Raider]

Why he wasn’t selected at 14 more I’ll never know. Showed in that Dogs game the impact he has off the bench. As a starter he was woeful this year.

[dubby]

NR, I think we had a number of options for 14: Hingano and Havilii spring to mind.

Frankly, Austin has more potential than Sam. But as we seen Austin was dropped, Sezer was injured, Hingano injured, form all over the shop from our halves was unreliable in.general.

I agree that Austin was probably a better option at 14, but other than reviewing every game to determine injury, form etc we only have hindsight to speculate on

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[EVH]

I also think that shoulder injury late 2015 stifled him. He beefed up to avoid future problems and lost that amazing agility that got him that Dally M positional, became a literal plodder. Gr8 line drop outs though, probably the best i have ever seen.

[Boomercm]

How good would he be with a well-defined role in an organised side? I expect him to come back to a team like the Storm in the future and win a premiership.

[Botman]

a **** show the likes of which we (hopefully) will never see again.
His last 2 years could not have been worse, i would conservatively estimate he cost the club at least 8 games with embarrassing defensive efforts over that period.

[kiwi raider]

Stuart was/is far too loyal to underperforming players , he was about 12 months too late dropping him.
I’m glad I’ll never have to watch him casually walking in the defensive line(what the **** was that Blake?) as if he’s got it all under control only for his opposite to get outside him or stand him up on the inside when Blake realises he needs to slide quick smart due to his earlier pissing around. We’ll be a far better team in both attack and defense without him

[-TW-]

I think it was a combination of things, he's never really recovered from the bad shoulder injury he had, and his head went up his own ass after 15.

[-PJ-]

But he did save that spectator a $2.30 bus fare that day.

Remember..picked up a fan on her way to The Fortress !!!

[Seiffert82]

Got busted in 2016, lost his confidence, the rest of the comp figured him out and it was all downhill from there.

Wasn't really from a lack of effort, he just lost the plot a bit.

[RTW]

Got busted in 2016, lost his confidence, the rest of the comp figured him out and it was all downhill from there.

Wasn't really from a lack of effort, he just lost the plot a bit.

It wasn’t mental...if it was Ricky would have got 10 people into the club to fix it.

[Woodgers]

It's pretty rare to see a player go from the level Austin was at in 2015 and 2016 to where he landed in 2017 and 2018.

From a supporters point of view I can hardly recall a player that polarised a group of fans so much, people either loved him or hated him.

I've always found it quite interesting that Austin can basically stink the joint up for 2 years but then some people measure his ability and standard as an NRL footballer based on the final 10 minutes of football at Belmore against one of the worst teams in the comp that was tiring. That said less about his ability and more about his general attitude to be an NRL standard footballer on a weekly basis. He came onto the field like a man possessed because he rode the pine for 70 minutes and he wanted to prove a point, if he played with that motivation more often things would have turned out differently for him.

He could be a good player in the ESL don't get me wrong (provided he puts some studs on his boots so he doesn't look like a baby giraffe attempting ice skating for the first time). His running game against poorer defences should serve him well. A potential problem is the media and public have picked up on this as well and he's already being touted as the next potential Man of Steel, is he going to roll up like he's king dingaling and just think he's going to kill it?

Simply put I don't think he has the tools to be an above average NRL player again. His running game is too predictable, he's not an organising half, his passing and kicking game aren't crash hot and he's a liability in defence. We dodged a major bullet when he knocked back our contract in early 2018.

[gerg]

I completely understand the point you are making but it's not that rare for players to totally fall off a cliff form wise. It's more rare for players to be consistently great, which highlights how good JT, Cam, Slater and a few others recently have been.

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[Seiffert82]

Got busted in 2016, lost his confidence, the rest of the comp figured him out and it was all downhill from there.

Wasn't really from a lack of effort, he just lost the plot a bit.

It wasn’t mental...if it was Ricky would have got 10 people into the club to fix it.

Maybe, but history suggests Stuart has struggled to get a consistently high level of performance from much of this squad, so I don't see Austin as an exception - just a really extreme example.