What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

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Where will the Raiders finish in 2019?

Minor premiers
1
4%
Top four
5
18%
Top eight
11
39%
Bottom eight
6
21%
Bottom four
5
18%
Wooden spoon/least wins
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 28

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Botman
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Re: What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

Post by Botman »

A few times this year is fine
Once a game or more is a problem, which is typically what Sam Williams has been
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Re: What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

Post by BadnMean »

Every half will get steamrolled a few times this year.

Sammy needs to concentrate on (and benefit from) knowing he is the starting half and doing his job for the team with short kicking, his nice passing game, steer us around and the odd field goal. He is capable of a good job on all of those, at his best. We've got to back him to put a solid season together. With our spine structure, that's what we need from him- our #9 and #1 are our trumps, Sammy needs more good games than bad and realistically most NRL halves will put on a stinker or 2, but let's hope no more than that.

There's worse defensive halves in the comp (and yes, better)- but Sammy needs to keep his head up, make his tackles, or even just make solid initial contact, work with his defensive partners (and I think he's a better communicator than Austin) and mostly concentrate on what he can do well. I'm hoping we're a bit hysterical about Sammy's defence - we've won plenty of games with him. Many sides would hide him on a wing for 3-4 tackles a set. Rick won't.
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Re: What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

Post by Dusty »

I can’t recall what happened this year. What sides of the field do Sammy and Aiden defend in?


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2020: 1. Nicol-Klokstad 2. Cotric 3. Croker (c) 4 Leilua 5. Scott 6. Wighton 7. G. Williams 8. Papalii 9. Hodgson (c) 10. Sutton 11. J. Bateman 12. Whitehead 13. Tapine ----
14. Simmonson 15. Soliola 16. Guler 17. Horsburgh
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Re: What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

Post by edwahu »

I don't think there are worse defensive halves than Williams tbh. He has bottom 5 stats and that's with Austin who was the easiest target in NRL history in the side. Our defense is so historically bad that I think we should have a minimum defensive standard and I don't think he meets it.
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Re: What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

Post by greeneyed »

edwahu wrote: December 28, 2018, 5:15 pm I don't think there are worse defensive halves than Williams tbh. He has bottom 5 stats and that's with Austin who was the easiest target in NRL history in the side. Our defense is so historically bad that I think we should have a minimum defensive standard and I don't think he meets it.
Not if you look at the Fox Sports Lab: https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl-pr ... nding=true

https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl-pr ... isAvg=true

If you look at comparisons with half backs...

James Maloney, Luke Brooks, Johnathan Thurston, Ben Hunt, Anthony Milford, Chad Townsend, Blake Austin, Shaun Johnson all had worse tackle efficiency than Sam Williams.

Maloney, Hunt, Brooks, Thurston, Johnson, Moses, Hughes, Nikorima, Sezer missed more tackles on average per match than Sam Williams.

Brock Lamb, Jack Bird and Blake Austin had more try causes per match than Williams, while Ash Taylor and James Maloney had the same try causes per match as Williams.

Maloney, Lamb, Austin and Johnson had more line break causes per match than Wiliams, while he was equal with Frawley, Taylor, Brooks and Croft.

Williams was not in the top five half backs on any of those stats.

Sam's defence clearly needs to be better, and he was pushed away too often, too easily, with a player on the way to the try line. He needs to improve, definitely. But there are bigger name halves with worse defensive records.
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Re: What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

Post by edwahu »

For mine Try cause and line break cause are the most telling defensive stats and you just listed him in the bottom 5 for both.
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Re: What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

Post by greeneyed »

edwahu wrote: December 28, 2018, 7:29 pm For mine Try cause and line break cause are the most telling defensive stats and you just listed him in the bottom 5 for both.
I just listed the big name players above him. Plus, many Raiders fans have been hanging out for a player like James Maloney and Shaun Johnson, but I think the stats show their defence is worse than Sam's.
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Re: What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

Post by edwahu »

greeneyed wrote: December 28, 2018, 7:33 pm
edwahu wrote: December 28, 2018, 7:29 pm For mine Try cause and line break cause are the most telling defensive stats and you just listed him in the bottom 5 for both.
I just listed the big name players above him.
If you exclude the players who played 1 or 2 games he is equal 5th worst for line break causes and 4th for try cause. Take Brock Lamb who played 5 games in the halves out and its worse.

The only worse defensive halves across the two stats combined are Maloney and Austin, and Elgey if you count five eighth. Maloney has massive upside compared to Sam and he is already as heavily targeted as he will be, with Austin gone I am sure Sam will get even more traffic over the course of the season.

I really hope he can aim up this year and Bateman can give him some protection but to me he sat in the same group with BJ, Paulo and Austin last year.
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Re: What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

Post by greeneyed »

edwahu wrote: December 28, 2018, 7:42 pm
greeneyed wrote: December 28, 2018, 7:33 pm
edwahu wrote: December 28, 2018, 7:29 pm For mine Try cause and line break cause are the most telling defensive stats and you just listed him in the bottom 5 for both.
I just listed the big name players above him.
If you exclude the players who played 1 or 2 games he is equal 5th worst for line break causes and 4th for try cause. Take Brock Lamb who played 5 games in the halves out and its worse.

The only worse defensive halves across the two stats combined are Maloney and Austin, and Elgey if you count five eighth. Maloney has massive upside compared to Sam and he is already as heavily targeted as he will be, with Austin gone I am sure Sam will get even more traffic over the course of the season.

I really hope he can aim up this year and Bateman can give him some protection but to me he sat in the same group with BJ, Paulo and Austin last year.
I'm not sure how you conclude when Williams is bottom five defensive halves when you look at all the stats together. Williams is certainly poor in defence at times, because his body is just not big enough. But I think we also should keep it in perspective. The stats certainly show he's not in the worst five defensive halves.
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Re: What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

Post by edwahu »

Stats are open to interpretation. We'll have to agree to disagree.
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Re: What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

Post by Botman »

A few points to make on this...
And i want to say off the bat that none of this is directed at GE, he's simply presenting the data.
greeneyed wrote: December 28, 2018, 5:36 pmJames Maloney, Luke Brooks, Johnathan Thurston, Ben Hunt, Anthony Milford, Chad Townsend, Blake Austin, Shaun Johnson all had worse tackle efficiency than Sam Williams.
Im not a huge fan of tackle efficiency stats. They provide absolutely no context. An inefficient tackle on a kick return or a hit up, which results in a net gain of +2 metres is treated the same in these terms as an inefficient tackle that leads to a much more damaging play. But even still, 6 of the 9 named might be below Williams but offer their football WAAAAAAY more in other areas. They make up for their deficiencies. Williams doenst.
greeneyed wrote: December 28, 2018, 5:36 pmMaloney, Hunt, Brooks, Thurston, Johnson, Moses, Hughes, Nikorima, Sezer missed more tackles on average per match than Sam Williams.
Rinse and repeat above except mistackles are probably the most useless stat of all time without context. I've railed against it for years. Again the bolded players make up for their issues on one side of the ball, so i dont really GAF about them. We see a dozen mistackles a game where the fullback beats the first defender on a kick chase, but is pushed toward the side line and is rounded up for zero or no gain on the play by other chasers. I couldnt give the faintest **** about that mistackle. Nor could i care if a player rushes out of the line, lays a hit, is bounced off, but holts the progress of someone like LoLo, for others to come in and clean it up. It's such a meaningless stat.

Croker is a great example. As i've said 1000 times, he's not Jamie Lyon. He'll never been a shut down defender, but idiots used to cite his mistackle count like it meant something, ignoring the fact he was the best kick chaser on the team, lead the kick chase almost every time, a lot of the time was the first defender against some of the best athletes in the game, with a ton of space... his job in that scenario is containment. He cut off the open side, force fullbacks to beat him on his weak shoulder but it hems them into the sideline for the winger and others to finish off. Mistackle but the job is done. And again, like almost every centre, he does get exposed and he does concede tries that he simply shouldnt concede. Certain match ups are a nightmare for him, others he owns (Idris and weird, Hodges he typically owned. Hurrell and Lyon have handed him his lunch)
greeneyed wrote: December 28, 2018, 5:36 pmBrock Lamb, Jack Bird and Blake Austin had more try causes per match than Williams, while Ash Taylor and James Maloney had the same try causes per match as Williams.
This is a much better stat, this is the sort of thing that matters. Who's making the errors that ACTUALLY matter? And now you see that list shorten dramatically. Now we're talking about the worst defensive half in the game (Austin), a certified spud in Brock Lamb and Jack Bird, who is surprising given he's a very good defender in space but i'd be inclined to put that down to a very unhappy situation for player and club.
greeneyed wrote: December 28, 2018, 5:36 pmMaloney, Lamb, Austin and Johnson had more line break causes per match than Wiliams, while he was equal with Frawley, Taylor, Brooks and Croft.
Again, much better stat. This is talking about the result. It eliminating the non factor stats and giving you false impressions. If Williams is in the top 5 or top 10 or top whatever. The stats and eye test tell you Sam Williams is basically conceding 0.8 tries and LB per game. Which is objectively bad and giving opposition teams, what probably equates to 6+ points per game head start and his attacking stats simply dont match up... for a team struggling to win close games, it's a major factor

Will he be an upgrade defensively over Blake Austin? Sure. But anyone professional footballer would be, as the stat lab shows. Sam Williams costs this team points, and he either needs to sort that the **** out, or he's gotta go.

And before anyone wants to come in here and turn this into a Sezer debate. He's an above average defensive half who didnt perform to the level expected in 2018 on that side of the ball. Which matches his offensive performance, which has been discussed. He's been extremely disappointing since arriving and his entire game needs to lift in 2019. But he's absolutely not in the same realm as Williams and Austin defensively. He's just not. Which is not to say he's adding value to this team right now, because that's not the case either.
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Re: What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

Post by Raiders_Pat »

All I know (and I know I've probably said this a hundred times) is that we are **** kidding ourselves if we don't pick up a serviceable half or at the very least a winger for some depth in the backs. Right now we're looking like starting Round 1 with depth players starting on the wing and at halfback.

We're so used to mediocrity being Raiders fans, but if any other club cut three starting players only to have one decent replacement, their fans would be outraged. I still can't work out how we're in the position we're in currently... it feels like we had absolutely no plan to compete in 2019. And it pisses me right off because we all know this club will give Ricky another chance even after he fails again next season.
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Re: What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

Post by Raiders_Pat »

We're discussing potential round 1 team lists with bloody Sam Williams as our starting halfback... **** is as grim as it gets. We've regressed back to the Josh McCrone days basically.
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Re: What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

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Raiders_Pat wrote:We're discussing potential round 1 team lists with bloody Sam Williams as our starting halfback... **** is as grim as it gets. We've regressed back to the Josh McCrone days basically.
Im every bit as concerned about our props.
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Re: What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

Post by Dusty »

I do feel we are a good prop short...
Our prop/middle depth for 2019 as it stands:
Papalii, Sutton, Soliola, Lui, Guler, Collins, Horsburgh, L. Bateman

There’s a few others on train and trial contracts I believe (R. Hunt et al.)

Hopefully Ryan Sutton can prove to be a good option there. It confuses me that Guler gets so much love with his 2 minutes of 1st Grade experience (yes, I agree there is potential) and Ryan Sutton, who has over 100 SL games to his belt seems to be considered way behind him in the pecking order.

I’d love to see these two push each other and form a great combination.

In saying all of this, if we had one more solid prop in the books (Joe O from Brisbane, Daniel or Jacob Saifiti from the Knights) I’d be much happier.


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2020: 1. Nicol-Klokstad 2. Cotric 3. Croker (c) 4 Leilua 5. Scott 6. Wighton 7. G. Williams 8. Papalii 9. Hodgson (c) 10. Sutton 11. J. Bateman 12. Whitehead 13. Tapine ----
14. Simmonson 15. Soliola 16. Guler 17. Horsburgh
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Re: What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

Post by Seiffert82 »

Pigman wrote: December 28, 2018, 11:13 am Sam Williams can hold his line all he likes
There is going to be 2-3 times every game where he’s going to get isolated on the goal line 1 on 1. Even bad halves can do that a few times a game

And unless we can trust Sam Williams to hold up and consistently make stops every game, the problems in defence are going to continue. If Sam Williams is surrendering tries regularly, we’ve seen that even the second best attack in the game won’t compensate for that
So until we get a better option, putting in an untried teenager isn't the solution. We just need to be more strategic in how we position our defenders on the goal line. This is not a unique issue among halves in the NRL. Most of them are bog ordinary defenders.
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Re: What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

Post by Seiffert82 »

Raiders_Pat wrote: December 29, 2018, 2:25 am We're discussing potential round 1 team lists with bloody Sam Williams as our starting halfback... **** is as grim as it gets. We've regressed back to the Josh McCrone days basically.
Ironically, David Furner got a Williams/McCrone halves combo to round 2 of the finals in 2012. With Buttriss as dummy half no less.

I'd be more worried about our coach than whether Sam Williams is good enough a halfback to take us to the finals.
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Re: What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

Post by Seiffert82 »

Just don't pair him alongside bloody Leilua in defence. That's when trust breaks down and all hell breaks loose. Williams should defend with Croker outside him and Bateman or Papa inside him. Run at me ****!

Just means Sezer becomes the poor fall guy for Leilua's **** reads.
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Re: What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

Post by dubby »

T_R wrote:
Raiders_Pat wrote:We're discussing potential round 1 team lists with bloody Sam Williams as our starting halfback... **** is as grim as it gets. We've regressed back to the Josh McCrone days basically.
Im every bit as concerned about our props.
Let's hope the poms go well.

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If you do not speak, you are not being neutral, but are contributing to the success of the thing you refuse to name and condemn.
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Re: What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

Post by dubby »

It goes without saying we are a deficient group.
Poor depth in the outside backs. Losing Rapa was huge.
Poor halves.
A good pack, but with unknowns thrown in.

It's up to Ricky and his staff to compensate for these.

When I get down and glum, I realise that this team were the last to beat the roosters in 2018, and they did it well, and without being at top strength.

Boyd and Paulo are 50-50 losses. Many lamented their lack of agility which disoriented our defence. Now we have smaller props, and we're in trepidation over the unknown form up in the middle.

I think we can make the 8. Sadly, I'm feeling it's a pos 10 again.


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The spiral of silence refers to the idea that when people fail to speak, the price of speaking rises. As the price to speak rises, still fewer speak out, which further causes the price to rise, so that fewer people yet will speak out, until a whole culture or nation is silenced. This is what happened in Germany.

If you do not speak, you are not being neutral, but are contributing to the success of the thing you refuse to name and condemn.
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Re: What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

Post by gangrenous »

dubby wrote:It goes without saying we are a deficient group.
I thought this thread was about the Raiders not us? Image
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Re: What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

Post by gangrenous »

Seiffert82 wrote: He was arguably the form fullback in the comp before getting his marching orders.
You could argue that, but I don’t think I’d be anywhere in the vicinity of convinced. I think talk of Jack’s form has grown and grown while he’s been out, well beyond what was delivered.
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Re: What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

Post by Botman »

Seiffert82 wrote: December 29, 2018, 7:54 am
Pigman wrote: December 28, 2018, 11:13 am Sam Williams can hold his line all he likes
There is going to be 2-3 times every game where he’s going to get isolated on the goal line 1 on 1. Even bad halves can do that a few times a game

And unless we can trust Sam Williams to hold up and consistently make stops every game, the problems in defence are going to continue. If Sam Williams is surrendering tries regularly, we’ve seen that even the second best attack in the game won’t compensate for that
So until we get a better option, putting in an untried teenager isn't the solution. We just need to be more strategic in how we position our defenders on the goal line. This is not a unique issue among halves in the NRL. Most of them are bog ordinary defenders.
Most are bad defenders. Very few are Sam Williams level bad. That’s the problem. Being a **** defender as a half is expected. Being that bad is unacceptable.

But I’m not advocating for O’Hagan or whatever the kids name is (like the club, I’ve checked out of the junior stuff)
But i can see why the club, and fans might be interested options in the halves that aren’t running it back for another year of Sam **** Williams haha
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Re: What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

Post by Botman »

T_R wrote: December 29, 2018, 6:25 am
Raiders_Pat wrote:We're discussing potential round 1 team lists with bloody Sam Williams as our starting halfback... **** is as grim as it gets. We've regressed back to the Josh McCrone days basically.
Im every bit as concerned about our props.
As well you should be. We’ve got hopeful options for sure but it could be a total and complete **** show. We basically need Gruler to kick on AND Sutton to be a serviceable player to even compete in the middle. Otherwise it’s going to be Papa and Sia carrying the load virtually on their own
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Re: What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

Post by Matt »

Pigman wrote: December 28, 2018, 8:18 pm A few points to make on this...
And i want to say off the bat that none of this is directed at GE, he's simply presenting the data.
greeneyed wrote: December 28, 2018, 5:36 pmJames Maloney, Luke Brooks, Johnathan Thurston, Ben Hunt, Anthony Milford, Chad Townsend, Blake Austin, Shaun Johnson all had worse tackle efficiency than Sam Williams.
Im not a huge fan of tackle efficiency stats. They provide absolutely no context. An inefficient tackle on a kick return or a hit up, which results in a net gain of +2 metres is treated the same in these terms as an inefficient tackle that leads to a much more damaging play. But even still, 6 of the 9 named might be below Williams but offer their football WAAAAAAY more in other areas. They make up for their deficiencies. Williams doenst.
greeneyed wrote: December 28, 2018, 5:36 pmMaloney, Hunt, Brooks, Thurston, Johnson, Moses, Hughes, Nikorima, Sezer missed more tackles on average per match than Sam Williams.
Rinse and repeat above except mistackles are probably the most useless stat of all time without context. I've railed against it for years. Again the bolded players make up for their issues on one side of the ball, so i dont really GAF about them. We see a dozen mistackles a game where the fullback beats the first defender on a kick chase, but is pushed toward the side line and is rounded up for zero or no gain on the play by other chasers. I couldnt give the faintest **** about that mistackle. Nor could i care if a player rushes out of the line, lays a hit, is bounced off, but holts the progress of someone like LoLo, for others to come in and clean it up. It's such a meaningless stat.

Croker is a great example. As i've said 1000 times, he's not Jamie Lyon. He'll never been a shut down defender, but idiots used to cite his mistackle count like it meant something, ignoring the fact he was the best kick chaser on the team, lead the kick chase almost every time, a lot of the time was the first defender against some of the best athletes in the game, with a ton of space... his job in that scenario is containment. He cut off the open side, force fullbacks to beat him on his weak shoulder but it hems them into the sideline for the winger and others to finish off. Mistackle but the job is done. And again, like almost every centre, he does get exposed and he does concede tries that he simply shouldnt concede. Certain match ups are a nightmare for him, others he owns (Idris and weird, Hodges he typically owned. Hurrell and Lyon have handed him his lunch)
greeneyed wrote: December 28, 2018, 5:36 pmBrock Lamb, Jack Bird and Blake Austin had more try causes per match than Williams, while Ash Taylor and James Maloney had the same try causes per match as Williams.
This is a much better stat, this is the sort of thing that matters. Who's making the errors that ACTUALLY matter? And now you see that list shorten dramatically. Now we're talking about the worst defensive half in the game (Austin), a certified spud in Brock Lamb and Jack Bird, who is surprising given he's a very good defender in space but i'd be inclined to put that down to a very unhappy situation for player and club.
greeneyed wrote: December 28, 2018, 5:36 pmMaloney, Lamb, Austin and Johnson had more line break causes per match than Wiliams, while he was equal with Frawley, Taylor, Brooks and Croft.
Again, much better stat. This is talking about the result. It eliminating the non factor stats and giving you false impressions. If Williams is in the top 5 or top 10 or top whatever. The stats and eye test tell you Sam Williams is basically conceding 0.8 tries and LB per game. Which is objectively bad and giving opposition teams, what probably equates to 6+ points per game head start and his attacking stats simply dont match up... for a team struggling to win close games, it's a major factor

Will he be an upgrade defensively over Blake Austin? Sure. But anyone professional footballer would be, as the stat lab shows. Sam Williams costs this team points, and he either needs to sort that the **** out, or he's gotta go.

And before anyone wants to come in here and turn this into a Sezer debate. He's an above average defensive half who didnt perform to the level expected in 2018 on that side of the ball. Which matches his offensive performance, which has been discussed. He's been extremely disappointing since arriving and his entire game needs to lift in 2019. But he's absolutely not in the same realm as Williams and Austin defensively. He's just not. Which is not to say he's adding value to this team right now, because that's not the case either.
^^^This
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What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

Post by gangrenous »

Summary: Half those stats are meaningless. The half that are meaningful show Williams is defensively crap. His company at being crap are mostly strong attacking weapons.
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Re: What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

Post by Botman »

gangrenous wrote: December 30, 2018, 7:04 am Summary: Half those stats are meaningless. The half that are meaningful show Williams is defensively crap. His company at being crap are mostly strong attacking weapons.
You could also have just said "Sam Williams is not particularly good and no team hoping to compete should be relying on him as a starter" but otherwise a very sound summation.
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Re: What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

Post by gerg »

We could focus on the shortcomings of the side or just drastically improve our defence to the point where one liability doesn't make a difference. Roosters have shown that it's possible to win with 12 defenders on the field.

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Re: What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

Post by Botman »

gergreg wrote: December 30, 2018, 10:51 am We could focus on the shortcomings of the side or just drastically improve our defence to the point where one liability doesn't make a difference. Roosters have shown that it's possible to win with 12 defenders on the field.

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That would require a competent coaching staff... though according to some on the GH, Trent Robinson cant coach so maybe we're ok.

I still sometimes think back on that Trent Robinson debate and laugh
:lol: :lol:
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Re: What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

Post by Seiffert82 »

Pigman wrote: December 29, 2018, 5:59 pm
Seiffert82 wrote: December 29, 2018, 7:54 am
Pigman wrote: December 28, 2018, 11:13 am Sam Williams can hold his line all he likes
There is going to be 2-3 times every game where he’s going to get isolated on the goal line 1 on 1. Even bad halves can do that a few times a game

And unless we can trust Sam Williams to hold up and consistently make stops every game, the problems in defence are going to continue. If Sam Williams is surrendering tries regularly, we’ve seen that even the second best attack in the game won’t compensate for that
So until we get a better option, putting in an untried teenager isn't the solution. We just need to be more strategic in how we position our defenders on the goal line. This is not a unique issue among halves in the NRL. Most of them are bog ordinary defenders.
Most are bad defenders. Very few are Sam Williams level bad. That’s the problem. Being a **** defender as a half is expected. Being that bad is unacceptable.

But I’m not advocating for O’Hagan or whatever the kids name is (like the club, I’ve checked out of the junior stuff)
But i can see why the club, and fans might be interested options in the halves that aren’t running it back for another year of Sam **** Williams haha
Yeah, but for arguments sake, my point is that Williams might directly cost us 4-6 points per game in defence (on average), based on straight-up missed tackles. Most halves may concede in the order of 3-4 points per game on average (dunno, just pulling that our of my **** based on try concession stats per game).

Do you screw around your entire backline, especially with Rapana already out, moving Wighton to the halves to shore up a few points per game in line breaks? If so, you then cross your fingers that Abbey or Cotric works at fullback and hope that either is as effective in defence as Wighton. I think that's highly unlikely. Or do you just bite the bullet and give Williams a bodyguard in defence and sort that **** out properly, like any decent coach would?

On stats alone, Sam may concede us 2-3 more points per game in comparison to other halves. I think we just have to wear it until we find a better all-round playmaker, rather than plug the hole in the short term with a better defender (like Wighton or Whitehead), who then completely **** up your attacking structure.

It's a false economy.
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Seiffert82
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Re: What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

Post by Seiffert82 »

When it's all said and done, IMO Leilua is our biggest problem in defence, closely followed by our immobility in the ruck area - which hopefully improves next season. Our halfback being a **** tackler is almost par for the course in the NRL.
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Botman
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Re: What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

Post by Botman »

Seiffert82 wrote: December 30, 2018, 4:40 pm Do you screw around your entire backline, especially with Rapana already out, moving Wighton to the halves to shore up a few points per game in line breaks? If so, you then cross your fingers that Abbey or Cotric works at fullback and hope that either is as effective in defence as Wighton. I think that's highly unlikely. Or do you just bite the bullet and give Williams a bodyguard in defence and sort that **** out properly, like any decent coach would?

On stats alone, Sam may concede us 2-3 more points per game in comparison to other halves. I think we just have to wear it until we find a better all-round playmaker, rather than plug the hole in the short term with a better defender (like Wighton or Whitehead), who then completely **** up your attacking structure.

It's a false economy.
Yeah look, i see that side of it too, and dont begrudge anyone who sits on it. The honest answer is that we dont have a particularly good answer unless Cotric is a pretty damn good fullback... which i think he could be but it would certainly take some time. Time the coach, probably does have, but shouldnt have.
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dubby
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Re: What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

Post by dubby »

Leilua is a terrible defender. But I'll be very interested to see how he goes sans Austin. That bloke was worse than Williams! At least Sam has heart.

It'll be interesting next year re defense. No more 115kg props , more mobile props instead.

This will require a whole new defensive coaching system.

This, my brothers, is a real test of our coaching staff.

And the likes of Red Raider will be first in the queue to determine its effectiveness.



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Re: What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

Post by greeneyed »

NRL "pundit" Jamie Soward believes Canberra should have attempted to sign Wigan half-back George Williams ahead of 2019

With the loss of Blake Austin, Jamie Soward believes Canberra is lacking a star half and thinks they should have made an offer to sign George Williams from the Wigan Warriors.

“No disrespect to Sam Williams or Aiden Sezer, but they just don’t scare me in terms of their attack. “The Raiders have missed their chance and I think it’s because they have not got a strike or a top 10 half-back over the last four or five years, and now they have lost their x-factor player in Austin.

Read more: https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/ca ... ie-soward/
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-TW-
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Re: What's your predicted Round 1 2019 team?

Post by -TW- »

After his hot take about moving wighton to the wing, he shouldn't be called a pundit
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