Where does Turbo Rate in Today??

[smithy]

Tom T is still struggling with injury, he hasn't trained at the start of the week in the lead up to the last couple of games. Its no doubt affecting his game. Is it a reason for dropping catches? maybe, maybe not although I think it is affecting his overall confidence as he cant do what he normally can. I think we do have to cut him some slack although we do desperately need him to play at a higher level this week.

 

[HK_Eagle]

Despite the Tigpie's early season success, I have been far from impressed by their FB (Thompson?). The games I have watched he has been full of errors or simply poor reads/decisions. Having said that, I'm not about to throw stones given our boy wonder's performances so far.

 

[midsteyne]

Ponga is a freak.

Until he starts reading his pressers
He is good but sometimes the rising star has second year syndrome ,wait till 2019 to really rate him.

 

[Woodsie]

When you are in a rut and the team isn't going well certain players .... usually the good ones ..... start to try too hard and involve themselves in everything to make a "difference" .... I believe there is an element of this in both Turbo's and DCE's play over the past 5 weeks ....

Often, this can actually makes things worse by disrupting teamwork ..... I have a hunch that Turbo and DCE need to relax a bit and have confidence in their team mates to do their jobs ..... and get back to concentrating on their roles ...

But I could be wrong ...

 

[Bearfax]

Turbo on his day is the best full back in the game today. Injuries seem to have held him back in recent years. He was almost untouchable against Canberra, but unfortunately picked up an ankle injury (again) that I believe has again restricted him and diminished his confidence since that time. A fit Turbo is No 1.

 

[BK13]

As much as Gus irks me with his comments, I did think on Sunday he nailed it. Tom is carrying the weight of the world at the moment.

Now to me that shows that at least he cares, and (like Jake) is getting annoyed with these poor performances and losses. And as such he is at times looking like he needs to win games by himself.

The whole hype around Tom must have some mental affect on a player too. And he was a shoe-in last year to play Origin until he got injured. Now to be honest he'd have to be an outside chance. He may be looking at this and think 'I'm 21 and my rep career is sliding'. He may be looking at the new kids like Ponga and see what he looked like 1 to 2 years ago.

To me Tom has to settle it down and first and foremost prove to be a solid defensive fullback, then let his brilliance work off the back of that.

 

[Stuey Davis’s Socks]

To me, Tom really needs to work on getting the basics right before anything else e.g keeping his eyes on the ball !

Each time Tom dropped the pill during the Roosters game, when you watch closely, he takes his eyes off it at the last moment while trying to catch it with hands only rather than focusing on the ball and drawing it into his chest. Get that right instead of focusing on flashy leaps that aren't actually necessary and we won't have massive momentum changes that more often that not lead to opposition tries. Surely Baz has noticed this.......... .

 

[Fluffy]

Ponga @ 600k or TT @ 900k - 4 months ago I wouldn't have even bothered questioning it.

My only problem with TT is that he is now chewing up 900k of our cap, but playing like 4-500k. Same problem I have with DCE chewing up 1.3m but playing like a 750 mid pricer ( I cant believe I wrote 750K is a mid pricer either).

Cest la vie.

When did Ponga give up 400K? Was originally reported at $1M a year

 

[Fluffy]

I think the reason most are disappointed with TT is that he doesn't seem to have improved on last year. Still making the same bad reads and poor errors at times yet now he is on the money to not be doing this.

 

[BOZO]

Its all in the mind . Tom Still has all the physical attributes and skill . Confidence and form is a mind thing .
Unless he has alzheimers , it will all come back to him and he will be the great Tom Turbo again.

 

[Andrew..]

Tom's form is in a lull but chronic pain can be a son of a bitch (not just psychically but also mentally) so I'm not going to suggest silly things like he needs more practice catching the ball when he's probably been doing it since he was knee-high to a grasshopper.
If we lose a few more games and missing the finals becomes a fait accompli then I hope the club gives Tom an extended rest in the back half of the season, he's our major investment and there's no point in beating his body up for zero rewards.

 

[EagleFlys]

When did Ponga give up 400K? Was originally reported at $1M a year

2.4 over 4, not 1m pa. However, he probably has incentives on number of games played and SOO selections built in too.