Re: Stats from last night : Mon Sep 07, 2015 3:54 pm  

St pete wrote:

That's why I said over the past 2 month or so. I never said a pack should dominate every single week.

Part of the problem of us not getting good yardage has been our poor and repetitive style of play. Pushing everything up the middle on drop off passes has been easy to defend against.

The last 8 or so games we have struggled to make meters apart from alex and was merely pointing out that last Friday we seemed to be more of a unit and share the work out more.

We did look better, but we were also shifting the ball wider more often and better. That created gaps in the middle for our big forwards to make breaks and half breaks. I'm not sure that the lack of yardage in the pack has just been down to individual players.

Masoe tends to gets a pass from most because he does tend to show in big games and people remember him rattling players. I don't think his stats are great and some of that will be down to him, but I do also think he's been used poorly at times. Last year, when he needed to do big minutes (generally in games when we carried injuries) he did them.

Re: Stats from last night : Mon Sep 07, 2015 7:23 pm  

Twentyman wrote:

I wouldn't play Masoe again now. I'd tell him he can pack his bags and go home early. I'm baffled as to why posters on here defend him and make excuses for his lack of carries, blaming poor passes or whatever. It doesn't seem to limit Walmsley's impact if that was the case.

There's no reason why Masoe can't make a similar contribution to the team as Walmsley does. Walmsley's a big lad, like Masoe. Yet he doesn't shy away from the graft. He knuckles down and does a magnificent job. He appreciates how lucky he is to be at a club like Saints after learning his trade in Championship. So for me, it's an attitude thing. Mose is the Nani of Rugby League.

Comparing Masoe and Walmsley is silly. They are two completely different players with radically different physical builds.

Masoe is, what, 21, 22 stones?

How many forwards do you know who top out at a similar weight as Mose and do the same work as Alex Walmsley?

And before Mose's weight is used as a stick to beat him - yes. When he arrived he was clearly overweight. Right now he's close to optimum. He's certainly not failing his fitness obligation to the club.

Re: Stats from last night : Mon Sep 07, 2015 8:01 pm  

Mugwump wrote:

Comparing Masoe and Walmsley is silly. They are two completely different players with radically different physical builds.

Masoe is, what, 21, 22 stones?

How many forwards do you know who top out at a similar weight as Mose and do the same work as Alex Walmsley?

And before Mose's weight is used as a stick to beat him - yes. When he arrived he was clearly overweight. Right now he's close to optimum. He's certainly not failing his fitness obligation to the club.

20 stone apparently at 6"6 (and a half). Walmsley is 6"5 at nearly 18 stone. So admittedly I did get a bit giddy.

Re: Stats from last night : Mon Sep 07, 2015 8:14 pm  

I doubt Mose is 20st. I used to think Mal Meninga was big but Masoe makes him look like a halfback. The guy is absolutely huge.

We shouldn't forget the difference in shape, too. Ask any sports fitness conditioner. They'll all tell you the same. Certain body shapes are more effective than others - depending on the role.

You only need look at their legs. Walmsley's are much longer with less of a cross-section. He has an absolutely enormous stride. Probably why he covers so much ground so quickly.

Re: Stats from last night : Tue Sep 08, 2015 12:26 pm  

This is all about whether he deserves a place on the bench and although he is a bit of a fat pudding, on balance he is worth the bench place as he can offer something different if required during the game. Normally I would say that a 22 minute total mins player should be in the 17 but he can sometime do it for us.