Canberra Raiders forward Luke Bateman re-signs on one year deal

[afgtnk]

Dude's about as potent as a wet leaf of lettuce in attack and gets dominated in a tackle more often than not. That's always gonna be his let down.

He may be able to get to a Lui level where he can make a reasonable dint in the line but I don't see it happening atm. If he wants to become effective then to me he needs to start by putting on a few more kgs.

[The Nickman]

I wouldn't write him off too soon. Hes a former jnr qld origin player with oodles of potential. Still very young and could hit his straps at any time. Been plagued with injuries this year but maybe an off season might be the making of him. Agreed plenty of competition ahead of him but if he gets back, he'll bloody deserve it no doubt.

Welcome back, Mrs Bateman. You've raised a fine young man.

Plodder, but a tryer.

Hahahaha money every single time

[simo]

Dude's about as potent as a wet leaf of lettuce in attack and gets dominated in a tackle more often than not. That's always gonna be his let down.

He may be able to get to a Lui level where he can make a reasonable dint in the line but I don't see it happening atm. If he wants to become effective then to me he needs to start by putting on a few more kgs.

I think he needs to go the other way and work on his speed and footwork. Hes already tried putting on size but hes just an easy target.
I think his best role in the squad is as a training aid and first benchmark for younger players to surpass

[Finchy]

The thing is with Luke Bateman is that he looked so promising when he came into first grade initially. He was a Fensom upgrade.

Despite the fanboi love for Fensom at the time, he was a poor man's Josh Jackson (who is also over rated). He'd give away penalties, get smashed in hit ups and either drop the ball or get back slammed without making a dent in the line.

Yes he'd make 50 tackles a game, but if you're making that many tackles, people are intentionally running at you because you aren't hurting anyone.

Then Luke Bateman comes in, and was better. Then he kind of just regressed into Fensom and became completely ineffective.

It's telling that despite the "muppet" calls from Tuxy about people criticising Fensom, he never went on to achieve anything after leaving Canberra. Can barely crack first grade on the bench these days.

[simo]

The thing is with Luke Bateman is that he looked so promising when he came into first grade initially. He was a Fensom upgrade.

Despite the fanboi love for Fensom at the time, he was a poor man's Josh Jackson (who is also over rated). He'd give away penalties, get smashed in hit ups and either drop the ball or get back slammed without making a dent in the line.

Yes he'd make 50 tackles a game, but if you're making that many tackles, people are intentionally running at you because you aren't hurting anyone.

Then Luke Bateman comes in, and was better. Then he kind of just regressed into Fensom and became completely ineffective.

It's telling that despite the "muppet" calls from Tuxy about people criticising Fensom, he never went on to achieve anything after leaving Canberra. Can barely crack first grade on the bench these days.

Tuxys rugby league insights are pathetic quite honestly. Seems to have a lot of opinions with no idea how the game is actually played. Pretty common with most journos

[Northern Raider]

Dude's about as potent as a wet leaf of lettuce in attack and gets dominated in a tackle more often than not. That's always gonna be his let down.

He may be able to get to a Lui level where he can make a reasonable dint in the line but I don't see it happening atm. If he wants to become effective then to me he needs to start by putting on a few more kgs.

I think he needs to go the other way and work on his speed and footwork. Hes already tried putting on size but hes just an easy target.
I think his best role in the squad is as a training aid and first benchmark for younger players to surpass

With you Simo. There's only so much you can bulk up that frame and to put more on might only continue his journey to ploderville. He was a decent gap runner as a junior and had footwork to go with it. Turning him into a middle third grunt has not worked.

[Billy Walker]

I think his best role in the squad is as a training aid and first benchmark for younger players to surpass

Very harsh, quite true and extremely funny!

[dubby]

Glad to have you around, Luke.

Sent from my SM-G960F using The Greenhouse mobile app powered by Tapatalk

[afgtnk]

The thing is with Luke Bateman is that he looked so promising when he came into first grade initially. He was a Fensom upgrade.

Despite the fanboi love for Fensom at the time, he was a poor man's Josh Jackson (who is also over rated). He'd give away penalties, get smashed in hit ups and either drop the ball or get back slammed without making a dent in the line.

Yes he'd make 50 tackles a game, but if you're making that many tackles, people are intentionally running at you because you aren't hurting anyone.

Then Luke Bateman comes in, and was better. Then he kind of just regressed into Fensom and became completely ineffective.

It's telling that despite the "muppet" calls from Tuxy about people criticising Fensom, he never went on to achieve anything after leaving Canberra. Can barely crack first grade on the bench these days.

Way too harsh on Fensom and frankly untrue, IMO. He was brilliant at what he did, at a time when there was a place for a guy specifically to do all the dirty work no one else wanted to do.

The game then started to change rapidly towards the end of his time here, and guys like him started to become redundant. Metre eaters and attacking forwards were expected to play longer minutes and asked to do more of the gritty defensive stuff. A clear distinction between edge and middle forwards was made, and if you played in the middle, you need to be able to take the ball up strongly. He couldn't give us what a guy like Sia could.

Due to his playing style and physical attributes he hasn't been able to evolve like a few others who faced the same conundrum. Shouldn't take away from the fact that he was excellent in his designated role and crucial to the functioning of the side.

[Finchy]

The thing is with Luke Bateman is that he looked so promising when he came into first grade initially. He was a Fensom upgrade.

Despite the fanboi love for Fensom at the time, he was a poor man's Josh Jackson (who is also over rated). He'd give away penalties, get smashed in hit ups and either drop the ball or get back slammed without making a dent in the line.

Yes he'd make 50 tackles a game, but if you're making that many tackles, people are intentionally running at you because you aren't hurting anyone.

Then Luke Bateman comes in, and was better. Then he kind of just regressed into Fensom and became completely ineffective.

It's telling that despite the "muppet" calls from Tuxy about people criticising Fensom, he never went on to achieve anything after leaving Canberra. Can barely crack first grade on the bench these days.

Way too harsh on Fensom and frankly untrue, IMO. He was brilliant at what he did, at a time when there was a place for a guy specifically to do all the dirty work no one else wanted to do.

The game then started to change rapidly towards the end of his time here, and guys like him started to become redundant. Metre eaters and attacking forwards were expected to play longer minutes and asked to do more of the gritty defensive stuff. A clear distinction between edge and middle forwards was made, and if you played in the middle, you need to be able to take the ball up strongly. He couldn't give us what a guy like Sia could.

Due to his playing style and physical attributes he hasn't been able to evolve like a few others who faced the same conundrum. Shouldn't take away from the fact that he was excellent in his designated role and crucial to the functioning of the side.

Hey, you have your whipping boy (Sezer). My thoughts on Fensom's ineffectiveness pales in comparison!

[RedRaider]

I just hope he has a less injury affected season in 2020. It's ok having squad players in the 30, but at some point we need them to play. His work ethic will be a good example for the young forwards coming to the Raiders. I don't think it will be too long before there will be other young players who overtake him in the pecking order eg Lukes injuries this year gave opportunity to HorsPOWER and there is no doubt in my mind that HorsPOWER has far greater upside. I expect he will be mostly at Mounties.