Quote Steve Ella's Beard="Steve Ella's Beard"And Richie Mathers is still actually a decent player, who's now doing a lot better and settling in more in his new enivornment. Phelps has, as far as i'm aware played 21 games at fullback last season and the odd one or 2 in Australia. As a youth he was a stand-off as has been said. I personally don't think circa 23 games over his entire career is enough to sufficiently assess. Tell me how many mistakes did he make last season that resulted in a try, and i'm talking genuine mistakes - where he was solely at fault (not a freak bounce, and not a situation where most fullbacks would have been beaten)? I'd be very suprised if it's many.
Clint Greenshields, Brett Hodgson and Brent Webb have all been playing full back for far far far longer than 23 games, they have years (10 years in hodgson's case in first grade alone) on Phelps in this position so it's not really an apples for apples comparison. Cam was a utility back for the club, who's played at centre, stand-off, wing (check out Clint's career and you'll see he wasn't always a fullback either) and oddly hooker that we've slotted into fullback 10 games into last season. So 10 games into the season the guy has played at fullback for one of the few times in his career, and he's gone on and performed well by most of our standards and actually shown a dimension to fullback play that we were solely lacking when both Richards and Roberts had played there. To be perfectly honest i'm pretty amazed he's done as well has he has given the situation and lack of experience, do you not think so?
How could I predict his defence will get better week in week out? Well tackling and catching technique can be worked on and developed, creative spark, and the other big quality for a fullback - bravery (and lets be fair he's got it in spades) can't really be, you've either got them or you haven't. I've gone over Bilko's match reports (to try and use some views that didn't have my own bias) and I can't really find a situation last year where defensive lapses by Phelps cost us a game. Now considering I think it's fair to expect Cam to improve in this position, my own conclusion is what exactly is there to be worried about?
The common theme over and over again, from my own views, from my friends and family (some of which are fans of other clubs), from match reports both on Bilko's site and in Newspapers, and from normally trying to watch a game at least twice if it was televised, is that poor kicking options and silly mistakes (multiple times per match by more than 1 player) by pretty much the entire team over the course of the season are what cost us games. Now what was the 1 position where we did make a signing this off season? Scrum Half in Paul Deacon, who's got a good kicking game. The club and coaches would seem to agree that we're not doing too badly at fullback either.
And that's why I'm not worried. At the end of this season both Cam's and multiple other players contracts are up and can be either renewed or released and replaced with another player. If Cam continues to develop at fullback then fantastic, if he doesn't then we look for a replacement at the end of this season. I think we're in a really good position.
Seriously who in Superleague is actually currently better at fullback overall? My view is:
Clint Greenshields
Brett Hodgson
Brent Webb
So that's 3 players and teams out of 14? Not too shabby really considering we're playing a guy who's had less than 30 games in that position. And out of those teams which actually had more success than us in Superleague last year? 1 - Brent Webb at Leeds Rhinos, who we'll all admit are on average better than us in a few areas (yet surprisingly we've still got a very good record against). Let's just see how Cam goes on this season, but if he's only as good as last season (and you'd honestly expect him to settle even more with more games at fullback) then we'll not be doing too badly in this position. I'd like to think we'll start to make some cheeky enquiries about Gareth Widdop long term
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God Help us if "Twosevenzero" sees This!
Phelps had a bit of a dodgy one today, and didn't the above let us know! He doesn't like him with a passion!
I can see both sides of the argument.
Against - I think he's got a fair few mistakes in him & he's not great under the high ball or one on one defence to be honest!
Positives - Good Pace,brave,scores tries & his most important facet is coming into the line & providing a 2nd option as a playmaker to the 6 or 7 which creates A LOT of tries and leaves space/options for our other players! Plus, better than anything we've had there since Rads (You could argue Richards but IMO although Pat is far safer defensively he doesn't offer much going forward in that position and he is a far better winger).
Overall I think he;s been a positive and like SEB says I don't think he's cost us any games even if he has come up with the odd individual error.
Twosevenzero on the other hand thinks he's a disaster waiting to happen and he will cost us a big one soon, I don't doubt that as it's a bit like goalkeeper in Wendyball, your bound to cost a game at some point, I think he's got the cahoonas to deal with that if/when it happens and learn from it without it knocking his confidence.
Overall Today, good to blow the cobwebs away & Both sides looked far more dangerous when playing towards the clubhouse end.
We gave away penalties whilst having Wakey pinned in their own 10/15 on 5/6 occasions and again near the Halfway on 4th/5th tackle about 4 times! This provided the platform for Wakeys attack and they capitalised on it mainly down our Left Side defence.
We only got the better of the penalties last qtr when we came on strong and looked like the team with the extra fitness etc. albeit with Wakey down to 12 for the last 6/7 mins.
[u
Negatives[/u
Phelps - 2 x mistakes for tries
Sam - But saying that he didn't do anything wrong, just quiet
Tommy - Not a starting 9 (I've expressed my views many times but IMO move him there last 10/15 of each half). What he does well from 9 he can do from 7 when he sees something on or can do better in last 10 of each half if needed. We need a steady 6/7 and until Deacon proves he's the better option it's Sam & Tommy for me!
Coley - Awful, a bit like the Coley of Old, His performances last season however mean he should still be near the starting 17 for the time being.
Penalties - Gave away far too many penalties letting Wakey out their own 10/20 and too many 4th & 5th tackle penalties which in effect gives back to back sets (At least 6 IIRC today).
Previous poster says penalties for lying on, I saw it as much for leaving hands in and being generally sloppy as much as lying on. Farrell gave 2 penalties away in his first 3 tackles for leaving hand in.
[u
Positives[/u
Goulding - Took both his tries well
Howarth - Did ok, looked out of his depth 1st hour but as soon as we started going forward he actually demanded the ball and layed a hand in the last 2/3 tries with some good balls.
Piggy - Looked far better in 2nd & 3rd Qtr with him on field.
Joel - 1 poor handling error but otherwise played Well and is a real handfull with his deceptive size.
Hansen - Some real good solid hits
Prescott - Disagree with Rogues, I think he put some great hard runs in and takes 3 men into the tackle nearly every time.
O'Carroll - Some good hits in defence when covering across and picking up the drop off runner. Not big enough for me though and doesn't worry the defenders enough due to his size. Good 5th prop for me.
Mossop - Real Handful going forward
Feka - deffo lost a couple of stone (I've heard its over 3 from his peak middle of last year) and was a real handful continually dragging 3 defenders sometimes 4 into the tackle. Good footwork and pace/offload for the late try by Goulding(IIRC).
3/4qtrs - once the forwards got us to the right areas we looked like we could score quite easily.
Overall for a 1st game run out - 7 1/2 out of 10.
Well worth the trip.
