Jump to content

Brits in the NRL


Recommended Posts

13 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

Plus Dominic Young and Herbie Farnworth. 

And Bailey Hodgson and Harry Rusthon who are in the top 30 squads for Newcastle and Canberra but yet to make their debut.

Don't forget Dean son of dogs legend Darren.

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites


11 minutes ago, Scubby said:

Don't forget Dean son of dogs legend Darren.

Just a little bit too Brittish and not quite British enough to be included in the list.

"The history of the world is the history of the triumph of the heartless over the mindless." — Sir Humphrey Appleby.

"If someone doesn't value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide to prove that they should value it? If someone doesn't value logic, what logical argument could you provide to show the importance of logic?" — Sam Harris

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dominic Young was the fastest player in the NRL this last weekend and Herbie Farnworth 3rd fastest.

Young is now the 4th fastest man in the NRL overall this year.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nrl.com/news/2021/06/23/stat-attack-sloan-stakes-claim-to-be-long-term-dragons-fullback/amp/

Wonderful to see some great young athletes from these shores in the NRL. 

  • Like 2

"The history of the world is the history of the triumph of the heartless over the mindless." — Sir Humphrey Appleby.

"If someone doesn't value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide to prove that they should value it? If someone doesn't value logic, what logical argument could you provide to show the importance of logic?" — Sam Harris

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, Dunbar said:

Dominic Young was the fastest player in the NRL this last weekend and Herbie Farnworth 3rd fastest.

Young is now the 4th fastest man in the NRL overall this year.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nrl.com/news/2021/06/23/stat-attack-sloan-stakes-claim-to-be-long-term-dragons-fullback/amp/

Wonderful to see some great young athletes from these shores in the NRL. 

Always found those trackers stats on speed a bit of a joke, I mean when you have Nathan Brown as the 4th fastest players in the NRL 🤣

Put the fastest players in the NRL together in a straight race, I doubt Young or Farnworth would even get near the top 10 fastest  

  • Like 1

St.Helens - The Home of record breaking Rugby Champions

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Saint Toppy said:

Always found those trackers stats on speed a bit of a joke, I mean when you have Nathan Brown as the 4th fastest players in the NRL 🤣

Put the fastest players in the NRL together in a straight race, I doubt Young or Farnworth would even get near the top 10 fastest  

But a Rugby League game is not a straight line race is it.  This is all about the top speeds that players hit in game situations and is far more relevant.

If Nathan Brown is the 4th fastest it means that other so called quicker players have either not had the opportunity to hit a higher speed in the game or have not put in the effort.

  • Like 2

"The history of the world is the history of the triumph of the heartless over the mindless." — Sir Humphrey Appleby.

"If someone doesn't value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide to prove that they should value it? If someone doesn't value logic, what logical argument could you provide to show the importance of logic?" — Sam Harris

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

But a Rugby League game is not a straight line race is it.  This is all about the top speeds that players hit in game situations and is far more relevant.

If Nathan Brown is the 4th fastest it means that other so called quicker players have either not had the opportunity to hit a higher speed in the game or have not put in the effort.

Wouldn’t surprise me if Dominic Young’s sprint last week, to then fail in the tackle, was up there as well.  Astonishing pace.

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Lowdesert said:

Wouldn’t surprise me if Dominic Young’s sprint last week, to then fail in the tackle, was up there as well.  Astonishing pace.

 

I expect that chase is when he recored that speed. Often it is without the ball that the highest speeds are hit. Again a demonstration of the effort plays.

Pity he didn't execute the tackle on Aitken, he probably went too soon after catching him easily.

  • Like 1

"The history of the world is the history of the triumph of the heartless over the mindless." — Sir Humphrey Appleby.

"If someone doesn't value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide to prove that they should value it? If someone doesn't value logic, what logical argument could you provide to show the importance of logic?" — Sam Harris

Link to comment
Share on other sites

35 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

But a Rugby League game is not a straight line race is it.  This is all about the top speeds that players hit in game situations and is far more relevant.

If Nathan Brown is the 4th fastest it means that other so called quicker players have either not had the opportunity to hit a higher speed in the game or have not put in the effort.

The speed a player has run in a game is a totally pointless stat to be honest.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, Davo5 said:

The speed a player has run in a game is a totally pointless stat to be honest.

Can you explain why it is pointless. I would have thought speed is a pretty valuable asset in the modern game.

Still, the speed a player runs in a game being totally pointless will be great comfort for Queensland going into game 2 on Sunday knowing that Tom Trbojevic and Addo-Carr can run quite fast is pointless. 

  • Confused 1

"The history of the world is the history of the triumph of the heartless over the mindless." — Sir Humphrey Appleby.

"If someone doesn't value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide to prove that they should value it? If someone doesn't value logic, what logical argument could you provide to show the importance of logic?" — Sam Harris

Link to comment
Share on other sites

55 minutes ago, Saint Toppy said:

Always found those trackers stats on speed a bit of a joke, I mean when you have Nathan Brown as the 4th fastest players in the NRL 🤣

Put the fastest players in the NRL together in a straight race, I doubt Young or Farnworth would even get near the top 10 fastest  

Herbie absolutely would be, he's top 5 at least. He's registered in the top 5 fastest speeds of the round in 7/12 rounds he's played, with only Josh Addo-Carr and Xavier Coates exceeding 7 top 5 places. The only players to register faster speeds are Addo-Carr, Coates, Saab, Tabuai-Fidow and now Young, the former four are all quite well accepted as being among the fastest in the game. Anecdotally, Herbie possesses very strong acceleration as opposed to the likes of Coates and Saab who appear to take more time but reach extremely high top speeds. 

Young has obviously had few chances to prove his speed but the chase on Aitken demonstrated how quickly he can gain ground on an opponent and already places his top speed within that top 5. Will be interesting to see if he can do this consistently as it looked like he had more in the tank.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

Can you explain why it is pointless. I would have thought speed is a pretty valuable asset in the modern game.

Still, the speed a player runs in a game being totally pointless will be great comfort for Queensland going into game 2 on Sunday knowing that Tom Trbojevic and Addo-Carr can run quite fast is pointless. 

They are not selected because they are a fraction of a second faster than another player,they are selected because they are fantastic RL players with a high skill set,I seriously doubt Fittler will have been studying a speed gun in his selection deliberations.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Davo5 said:

They are not selected because they are a fraction of a second faster than another player,they are selected because they are fantastic RL players with a high skill set,I seriously doubt Fittler will have been studying a speed gun in his selection deliberations.

That's a crazy circular argument.

Yes, they are selected because of their skill set but speed is one of them. Tom Trbojevic and Josh Addo-Carr would not be as good as they are if they were not as fast as they are.

And yes, coaches will pay massive attention to these types of stats. It is completely naive to think they wouldn't.

  • Haha 1

"The history of the world is the history of the triumph of the heartless over the mindless." — Sir Humphrey Appleby.

"If someone doesn't value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide to prove that they should value it? If someone doesn't value logic, what logical argument could you provide to show the importance of logic?" — Sam Harris

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Davo5 said:

They are not selected because they are a fraction of a second faster than another player,they are selected because they are fantastic RL players with a high skill set,I seriously doubt Fittler will have been studying a speed gun in his selection deliberations.

Speed is a fairly important factor though when it comes to judging any RL player, in particular a back. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Damien said:

Speed is a fairly important factor though when it comes to judging any RL player, in particular a back. 

Yes it is but do you really think a speed gun stat is a major selection factor when deciding a players inclusion.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, Damien said:

Speed is a fairly important factor though when it comes to judging any RL player, in particular a back. 

Not when their other main RL skill sets are poor - I give you Kevin Penny & Brimah Kebbie - lighting fast, pity they were pretty useless a passing, tackling & catching.

St.Helens - The Home of record breaking Rugby Champions

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just don't see anything special in Young to be honest. He always looks really ponderous and his positioning is poor. Huddersfield fans were raving about him a few seasons ago when he played against Saints, but he was absolutely awful that day with numerous dropped balls, missed tackles and poor positioning, with him at fault for several of the Saints try's.

He's getting his chance at the moment to show what he can do in the NRL but he's got a very long way to go.

St.Helens - The Home of record breaking Rugby Champions

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can I just point out that the stats I linked to are not measuring a players ability to pass, tackle or catch.  They are not describing what a great Rugby League player can or should be able to do or what their skill set is.

They are simply showing who are the fastest players in each round.

And I will maintain (but it does appear controversial on here for some reason) that being fast is actually quite a good thing... particularly for a Rugby League winger.

"The history of the world is the history of the triumph of the heartless over the mindless." — Sir Humphrey Appleby.

"If someone doesn't value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide to prove that they should value it? If someone doesn't value logic, what logical argument could you provide to show the importance of logic?" — Sam Harris

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Saint Toppy said:

Not when their other main RL skill sets are poor - I give you Kevin Penny & Brimah Kebbie - lighting fast, pity they were pretty useless a passing, tackling & catching.

Well something being a factor generally indicates that other factors are at play. In RL that is obviously many.

I've played with some supremely talented players that were far better RL players than some of those that made it professionally. They weren't quite big enough or fast enough though. Similarly we have professional RL players that can barely pass a ball 10 yards but are big and strong, players like the Stuart Fieldens of this world.

There is a reason why NRL clubs, and an increasing amount of Super League clubs, look at physical attributes first and foremost rather than a RL specific skillset. RL skills can be taught to talented athletes, particularly forwards and outside backs.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, Saint Toppy said:

I just don't see anything special in Young to be honest. He always looks really ponderous and his positioning is poor. Huddersfield fans were raving about him a few seasons ago when he played against Saints, but he was absolutely awful that day with numerous dropped balls, missed tackles and poor positioning, with him at fault for several of the Saints try's.

He's getting his chance at the moment to show what he can do in the NRL but he's got a very long way to go.

Here are the tries from that game.  Can you point out which of the 7 tries Saints scored Young was at fault for.

https://www.skysports.com/rugby-league/st-helens-vs-huddersfield/50466

 

  • Like 2

"The history of the world is the history of the triumph of the heartless over the mindless." — Sir Humphrey Appleby.

"If someone doesn't value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide to prove that they should value it? If someone doesn't value logic, what logical argument could you provide to show the importance of logic?" — Sam Harris

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

Can I just point out that the stats I linked to are not measuring a players ability to pass, tackle or catch.  They are not describing what a great Rugby League player can or should be able to do or what their skill set is.

They are simply showing who are the fastest players in each round.

And I will maintain (but it does appear controversial on here for some reason) that being fast is actually quite a good thing... particularly for a Rugby League winger.

Speed, stamina and skill, with speed being the only one that is natural.  Sure, you can make a player faster but they would never run as fast as a player who has had the same speed related training.

Youngs attempted tackle just backed up my comments on another thread though, that fundamental tackling skills are lacking these days and that the tackle from the rear especially is highly skilled.  His effort was too early but might have also been exacerbated by the risk of him tackling over the ball carriers shoulder and being called for ‘head high’.  Either way, his attempt was dunnage.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, Saint Toppy said:

I just don't see anything special in Young to be honest. He always looks really ponderous and his positioning is poor. Huddersfield fans were raving about him a few seasons ago when he played against Saints, but he was absolutely awful that day with numerous dropped balls, missed tackles and poor positioning, with him at fault for several of the Saints try's.

He's getting his chance at the moment to show what he can do in the NRL but he's got a very long way to go.

Wasn’t he 17 making his debut in that game ?

Given he’s only 19 and with a handful of first grade games behind him,having a way to go is hardly unusual,especially playing in the centres.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.