Croker - Honest opinions need apply

[Deleted member 26876]

He ran across field a couple of times, stopped, turned and ran back to where he came from; not good at all. Play straight and direct!

He went for the hail Mary field goal in Golden Point; play to the corner and apply pressure.

He got caught with the ball in Golden Point when he was right in front of the post. He should have kicked the bloody thing regardless of how close the opposition were because any deflection would likely result in us getting the ball back and at best the ball goes over. He also wasn't standing deep enough.

I will never question his passion, desire or commitment, but he did not play a smart game and I am embarrassed whenever I see him crab back and forth across field. It's just about the dumbest thing a half can do in the NRL. It flies in the face of everything they train to do during the week.

Sure he did that on occasion like one or two times, although he wasn't directionless for the entirety of the game. Played part in some slick backline plays. Croker positioned himself well and had some good passes out wide multiple times, and his connection with our spine will develop dramatically in the coming season

 

[maxta]

Personally don't think Croker had anything to do with a few of the DCE decision things, as the forwards layed a great platform to give time and space and thought DCE went well anyways.
His game management near the end with a rushed angled FG attempt was a poor option when a ball on tghe ground or air was the better option, but who am I to judge - he kicks it he is a hero right??, but besides that he landed a pressure penalty to force extra time and looked dangerous on occasions....but not buying into what Croker did or didn't do effecting the DCE game, simply the fact it will take time for them to gel like any new halves pairing.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

NRL FOX .....

MANLY coach Trent Barrett says rookie five-eighth Lachlan Croker answered his critics in his first NRL game for the club in their golden-point loss to Newcastle.
The 21-year-old had plenty of involvement in his first competitive game for the Sea Eagles in place of the departed Blake Green, as he appeared to strike up a nice combination on the left edge with front-rower Martin Taupau. He also made a break of his own in Manly’s 19-18 loss, but accounted for five of the side’s handling errors in a problem that was systematic of the Sea Eagles’ attack at McDonald Jones Stadium on Friday.

“I thought he was good, especially defensively,” Barrett said. “He’s a tough little bugger. I thought he answered a lot of questions I didn’t have on him, but a lot of people did.

“I thought our attack was good. It will evolve over time. It’s hard to get any flow in your attack when you’re only completing at 67 per cent.”
The nephew of Canberra great Jason, Croker made his NRL debut for the Raiders in 2016 but never made a second appearance before moving to Manly in the off- season.

Meanwhile, Barrett was left to rue Manly’s poor completions post match, as they coughed up 14 errors, including a crucial Akuila Uate dropped kick in golden point.

It allowed the Knights to claim a repeat set, before Mitchell Pearce sent home his first field goal in Newcastle colours to claim the win.


The Sea Eagles also gifted the Knights a number of piggy-back penalties, rarely making Newcastle work it out of their own end despite winning the forwards battle for the most part.

There were positives, however, for the Sea Eagles

On return from last year’s season-ending knee injury, winger Jorge Taufua got through more than 225 metres and scored the team’s opening try. Youngster Brian Kelly also looked improved again at left centre, Jake Trbojevic offered plenty in attack as he regularly passed before the line and bench forward Kelepi Tanginoa went at more than 11 metres per run after impressing during the off-season.

“We didn’t give ourselves a big chance to win the game and we were still in it,” Barrett said.

“I can take a lot out of that knowing I’ve got a footy team that is going to rip in for each other and not give up.

“But we need to fix a few things with our ball control. I think we had two-three tries disallowed or balls dropped over the line, so it could have went either way. We won some of them last year. They’re hard to take.”

But Bozo the armchair / keyboard critics reckon he’s absolute crap, and surely they know better than the professional coaching staff??

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

I must say though I’m bewildered at why Hastings didn’t get the gig with Croker learning his stuff in the Reggie’s.

Plus he can kick goals.

All I can think is he must have seriously pissed off the other players or coaching staff.

 

[40 years an eagle]

He will be better next week.

 

[Tragic Eagle]

If Hastings is not being picked because he pisses people off what does that say about our professionalism?

 

[Simonmyers11]

After watching the Newcastle game, Croker seems to have good passing skills. He now needs to gain confidence within himself and his team mates, especially DCE and start to take at least 50% of each set of six and control the play. Can Croker kick the ball in general play? If he can't, Ivam not sure how he is going to succeed in the NRL.

Trouble is, Croker and DCE get zero help from our hooker Api. He has little ball skills.

Exactly. I love api but no where near the skillful player as a Cameron Smith who play like a half back.

I just want to see Crocker demand more touches. I'm sure he can do the job of just steering forwards and general kicking. That will be all that's asked of him in the next few weeks to step it up. Has the strength, size and running game.

If not Hastings looked sharp in reserve grade

 

[Jigzkiller]

But Bozo the armchair / keyboard critics reckon he’s absolute crap, and surely they know better than the professional coaching staff??

I'd be stunned if Barrett didn't say that. He did no more than I expected he was serviceable and I expect him to get better. He will not be a star but he didn't cost us the game on Friday and he is worth giving a decent run. I was more disappointed in Thompson expected more (maybe unfairly) and the coach for his use of the bench.

 

[BOZO]

But Bozo the armchair / keyboard critics reckon he’s absolute crap, and surely they know better than the professional coaching staff??

Please find me the post where I said Croker is absolute crap ?
I said and I will say it again , after watching a replay of the Knights game I don't think Croker is a superior player to Hastings and also Croker made very little impact on the game .
Have a nice day feathered friend

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

I'd be stunned if Barrett didn't say that. He did no more than I expected he was serviceable and I expect him to get better. He will not be a star but he didn't cost us the game on Friday and he is worth giving a decent run. I was more disappointed in Thompson expected more (maybe unfairly) and the coach for his use of the bench.

I’m mystified at the use of the bench, Thompson will improve as he gets used to the systems which would have been totally different.

As to Croker , I’m concerned at him being thrown in the deep end, if we lose say the first 4 games ( possible ) inevitably the blame will be at his feet.

That’s HUGE pressure on a rookie.

Hastings at least has played 30 odd ( maybe more) first grade games.

His non selection is the other thing that surprises me.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Please find me the post where I said Croker is absolute crap ?
I said and I will say it again , after watching a replay of the Knights game I don't think Croker is a superior player to Hastings and also Croker made very little impact on the game .
Have a nice day feathered friend

No mate, not having a go at you AT ALL , if you go back to the post I hit reply to it’s me saying “ but mate surely the keyboard warriors know more than the coach”, which is tongue in cheek for “ they know **** all really”.

I’m being critical of THEM not you!!

 

[BOZO]

I must say though I’m bewildered at why Hastings didn’t get the gig with Croker learning his stuff in the Reggie’s.

Plus he can kick goals.

All I can think is he must have seriously pissed off the other players or coaching staff.

Who knows why Hastings is not selected and Brown is selected every weekend .
I cannot recall a bad game from Hastings from the few opportunities that Trent gave him.

 

[BOZO]

No mate, not having a go at you AT ALL , if you go back to the post I hit reply to it’s me saying “ but mate surely the keyboard warriors know more than the coach”, which is tongue in cheek for “ they know **** all really”.

I’m being critical of THEM not you!!

Sorry , I misunderstood your post .
By the way Hasting has had 4 NRL years experience and has played 45 games and about half of those games were off the bench .
I agree with you that Croker needs to be given some time to settle in and I hope he gives us back match winning quality time in return.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Sorry , I misunderstood your post .
By the way Hasting has had 4 NRL years experience and has played 45 games and about half of those games were off the bench .
I agree with you that Croker needs to be given some time to settle in and I hope he gives us back match winning quality time in return.

Whilst not knowing the behind the scenes story I can’t imagine why TBaz went with the Rookie in the first place.

 

[Technical Coach]

The DCE we saw last night was the DCE who had Walker as his 5/8 partner for the first 10 games of 2016. He sucks at organising the attack but it was left to him to do that and as a consequence we saw the headless chook DCE re-appear.

For all of his good points as a player, that is the one aspect that really lets him down and its something that he has never been able to overcome. And it means that while he is at Manly, which is until he retires, his halves partner needs to be a Foran or Green type who will take charge of the team and allow Cherry to play his natural running game because if its left to him to run the team, God help us.

The problem is that Croker doesn't have the experience or confidence (yet) to be that take charge player.

I will say this though. While Croker is getting his experience and confidence at 5/8, because Baz will persist with him, he needs to get more help from Tom and Api.

Million dollar halves should have this part of the game in their repertoire on a consistent basis by their late 20's.

Daly is a smart well rounded mature guy, composed off the playing field but has always lacked that composed keep it simple presence on the playing field.

Just keep it simple, cut back in straighten and take the line on or step back in to turn the defensive line shoulders inwards and pass, ban all sideways crabbing at training drills.

Problem is he lacks ideas and options(in the moment) and is playing off the cuff, or even worse overly premeditated and predictable at times.

Players like Cronk etc keep it simple, have a plan A or B on every possession and that is it, along with surrounding himself with short genuine running line options.

Daly excels on flat wicket decks with the defensive line going backwards---with his skillset he can kill the opposition in that environment and pile on the points probably better than most.

Conversely he is probably overloaded with ideas but hasn't the right mindset or organizing skills in the heat of the battle to implement them correctly---coming across as lacking ideas but in essence the issue is over-complicating and not surrounding himself with options in the moment.

Crabbing cross field with under passes all day are fill in plays that are usually pointless---that is not composed marshaling of troops forward, shi^s me when he does that.

 

[bennyeagle]

Some good touches, some not so good touches, had 2 kicks, a small grubber and a small bomb. Needs to talk and command the ball more. Hastings must have messed up big time to not get a run because he was leaps and bounds ahead of everyone on the field for Blacktown

 

[Ron E. Gibbs]

Some good touches, some not so good touches, had 2 kicks, a small grubber and a small bomb. Needs to talk and command the ball more. Hastings must have messed up big time to not get a run because he was leaps and bounds ahead of everyone on the field for Blacktown

Yeah, let's hope Hastings keeps playing that well in reserve grade. He acknowledged that last year he wasn't at his best when he was playing reggies and he knows he needs to produce consistent performances.
I wish Croker the best and hope he gets a good shot at it, but it's nice to know there's a plan B.

 

[Chip and Chase]

I don’t understand what people’s expectation of Croker were on Friday. Is it his fault that he didn’t play a good enough foil to his more highly experienced and better paid halves partner ? Do we think he didn’t do what was asked of him in his SECOND only NRL game ? Be interested to hear what everyone thought his brief may have been. Personally I think he just does what he is told, it’d take some church bells to rock up and start dictating terms to DCE and to rip straight in to owning the game management and kicking game.

I might be wrong but I doubt baz threw him the keys and said “here you go mate, you’re driving this thing don’t f@&k it up”. It’s not his fault he got picked over Hastings, that’s Cletus’s fault by not forcing the coaches hand and making himself irresistible to the final 17. I’m happy to see how the Frog goes over the next couple of weeks, thought there’s enough there to build on.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

I don’t understand what people’s expectation of Croker were on Friday. Is it his fault that he didn’t play a good enough foil to his more highly experienced and better paid halves partner ? Do we think he didn’t do what was asked of him in his SECOND only NRL game ? Be interested to hear what everyone thought his brief may have been. Personally I think he just does what he is told, it’d take some church bells to rock up and start dictating terms to DCE and to rip straight in to owning the game management and kicking game.

I might be wrong but I doubt baz threw him the keys and said “here you go mate, you’re driving this thing don’t f@&k it up”. It’s not his fault he got picked over Hastings, that’s Cletus’s fault by not forcing the coaches hand and making himself irresistible to the final 17. I’m happy to see how the Frog goes over the next couple of weeks, thought there’s enough there to build on.

Frog....I think I like it!!

 

[HoldenV8]

NRL is not the place to experiment a rookie half unless he has superstar written all over him.

As I said, even those who had superstar written all over them from the juniors like Daley, Fittler and Lockyer weren't thrown straight into the halves when they hit first grade. Daley and Fittler each spent at least a couple of seasons in the centres only playing the occasional game at 5/8, while Lockyer was played at fullback for about 4 or 5 years before Bennett finally moved him to where everyone thought he should be.

I just think Croker has been thrown in too deep too soon. And yes, that is on Barrett as the coach.

Too much patience and the season is gone.

Welcome to 2016 Manly style. 10 weeks of Dylan Walker showing that he was an out of position centre all but killed our year before he and Killer swapped positions. I hope that either Croker does become what we need, or that Barrett does see the need for change (i.e. that he got it wrong) before its too late.

He got caught with the ball in Golden Point when he was right in front of the post. He should have kicked the bloody thing regardless of how close the opposition were because any deflection would likely result in us getting the ball back and at best the ball goes over. He also wasn't standing deep enough.

He literally had zero chance to kick that ball. He was 12 metres back from Api who fired a perfect pass to him, yet somehow the Knights line had managed to make up that 22 metres in less than 2 seconds from a standing start. As I said the other night, top fuel dragsters don't accelerate that quickly from the lights. They were so far offside it was laughable. Half of their line was already in line with Api when he released the ball.

But Bozo the armchair / keyboard critics reckon he’s absolute crap, and surely they know better than the professional coaching staff??

Not saying he is crap mate. I saw enough on Friday night to say that Croker will end up a solid first grade 5/8. But, but.....its just way too early in his development to expect him to come in and be the foil that DCE needs.

The coaching staff obviously see's more than we do which is why he's there. But that has put expectations on him, especially with us fans who are always more critical. And lets fact it, its not like Barrett and his staff haven't gotten things wrong before *cough Walker at 5/8 cough*.

For the record, Hastings has played 43 first grade games (21 from the bench), 41 more than Croker.