Rickmando wrote: ↑August 1, 2019, 9:07 am
Finite wrote: ↑July 31, 2019, 9:39 pm
GE can we lock this thread?
We love our Toots 2.0. I'll buy you a Cherry Ripe. You strike me as a Cherry Ripe man or maybe a Chikito...
Ridiculous. Locking this thread would be typical of the happy-clapping, untouchable, shooting Bambi context of any discussion about Croker on here.
The guy has had a few decent games lately. No arguments from me on that. But it’s such an obvious case of recency bias - “oh look, he’s not done the bad thing he’s known for, and he’s done a couple of good things, so let’s forget about it totally”.
It doesn’t mean that his critics (and there are more than a few) have suddenly forgotten about his obvious defensive flaw. Obvious, as in ten years of seeing the same thing. One thing that is certain, the flailing arm-air tackle will resurface again. And when it does, the discussion will resurface with it.
But at the end of the day - people on here are just venting their thoughts on a topic. The opportunity to do that shouldn’t be “locked”. The fanbois are going to point out all the things they think are important, the negos are pointing out the things they think are important. We aren’t going to agree, or convince the other side of our argument.
A few decent games...
For centre's he's sitting equal second for line breaks (among some amazingly hyped company- Mitchell, Fergo...) and try assists (but he can't set up his winger? Or has he actually improved that?).
And is about middle for most defensive stats. Tackle efficiency about the same as Latrell, Ramien, Morris. Line break cause- about middle of the pack. His worst would be try cause- where he is 13th on average per game. About the same % as guys like Garrick, Dugan, Ramien, Mbye, Waqa Blake. Plenty of room for improvement but same as some "top" and origin considered centres.
But he's also a key part of one of the best defensive teams in the comp and on an edge other sides have stopped attacking now because they don't get the rewards, done so with a rookie outside him + a blockbuster hitter inside him who is still adjusting to front line defensive patterns...
So we have one of the best attacking centres in the comp (somewhere in the top 5 easily), who is at least an average defensive centre. That's a good player. Objectively, that's what Joey provides too, just in a very different style, which actually gives our attack a nice balance of silky smooth + a great kick target and barging bullocks with a great offload.
Yeah I guess by now he's had a couple of hundred pretty decent games.
