Thursday, April 22, 2004
Alias Lauitiiti & Jones
I've been playing and watching rugby league since I was 6 years old. In fact I've been watching it since the day I was born, though I imagine I wasn't really aware that I was sitting in the stands at Carlaw Park (RIP) watching my father play until I was a few years of age. I may not be a great player of the sport myself, but I reckon I have a pretty good idea of a good game or a good player when I see one. I've seen so many games of it from international level right the way down that I couldn't possibly count them.
And to be honest, what I've seen of Stacy Jones and Ali Lauitiiti in the last couple of years has left me wondering what the hell is going on?... and when will people shut up about how good they are?
It appears the latter question has finally been answered (and possibly the former, as it turns out big Ali doesn't care about his footie and Stacy's legs aren't twitching as fast as they used to).
Stacy Jones was a very good footballer as a kid. I should know, I played against him on more than one occasion and he used to cut us up a fair bit. Just as well I played alongside Robbie Paul, who did his fair share of carving himself. Everybody knew at the time that the two of them would make it to the top level and probably do pretty well for themselves, and everybody has been proved correct.
BUT Stacy Jones, after gaining all these plaudits in his first few years then started to gradually (rapidly more like it) turn to shit, until he had a mediocre season last year and has followed that with more of the same this year. Why it took so long to notice that instead of moving into the peak of his career Jones was in fact wreaking less and less havoc on the paddock is beyond me.
Quite often Jones gets compared to Andrew Johns. I've been saying for years that to compare him to Andrew Johns is insulting to Johns as a player in the extreme (and I hate Newcastle!). Johns is one of the greatest players of all time while Jones is one of the better players that New Zealand has produced. There's a rather large difference in there. Johns can smack people in defence, has one of the best kicking games going, passes beautifully, runs the same way and reads the game like Wally Lewis when he has the ball in his hands. He was, or is, the complete footballer. Jones on the other hand used to run brilliantly (though now he is losing his speed) and was a good support player. He also developed his kicking game over the years so that it has got to a reasonable level. However his defence has always been suspect, his kicking game used to be appalling (though is ok now as I said), and his passing has never been a great feature of his game. He reads the game ok, but nowhere near the level of the top halves in the game and if he doesn't get a whole lot better at it and damn quickly he will be going to play out his days in England. For those who don't know there is no such thing as defence in the English game and he will get a couple of extra seconds every time he gets the ball to decide what he wants to do. Not to mention more money.
Jones has really only played about two very good seasons at the highest level, followed by a couple of poor ones where he has largely been anonymous in games. That's not to say he wasn't getting the ball as much as he used to (in the halves it's kind of hard to avoid getting your hands on it once every set of six), just that he wasn't really doing anything with it. He's been cruising in my opinion. Catch and pass, kick on the last tackle, boring type stuff in other words. Anderson in many respects wanted somebody to play that type of game in the halves, but I just don't think it has suited Jones' style. It certainly has worked for the team though.
Moving on to Lauitiiti. The big guy was one of the most physically gifted players the game has seen when he first burst on to the scene. He's tall, he's got that Mark Graham lanky ball handling style about him and can run freely (read: like a flying windmill with legs). The only difference is that Graham made the NZ sports hall of fame and Lauitiiti never will because two good seasons in a sport that players are supposed to last at for at least 5 isn't really up to scratch.
When Lauitiiti was going at full steam and giving his all he certainly was right up there with the best forward runners the game has seen. But after he developed the cyst on his arm he just wasn't the same after recovering from it. He would do good things now and then, but predominantly just cruise, living on his reputation. And if his attitude is as reported and that he's just playing for fun, and doesn't care about winning or grabbing a premiership then the Warriors are doing the right thing in getting him out as quickly as possible. They need to make a statement to the other players in the club and young guys with aspirations of making the team in the future, that if you don't want to devote 100% of your energies to winning for the team and public then you can go and find a social team to play for. Hell, even most social teams I know do their best to win.
Apparently clubs are now queuing up for him, but if he doesn't care much for the result of games then he'd better take a good hard look at the NZ$500,000 apparently on offer from Wigan because he won't do much good in the NRL.
I was a bit worried about the Warriors team in the off season. The buys they made weren't big ones. They signed a guy on the strength of what he was like before a bad injury stalled his career and they grabbed Tony Martin for his goal kicking which was a good buy on the surface. But they needed to get in another couple of aussie stars with experience I felt. Kevin Campion did wonders for the team. I know the reasons why they let him go, but they needed to get another similar player in after him. It was so obvious last season that not having a player like him was holding them back from going all the way.
This season for the four games I can retrieve stats from, Campion is averaging 25.3 tackles a game and 8.3 hitups. The Cowboys (who Campion is playing for) have conceded the least number of points this year in NRL with just 90 from 5 games against. It's easy to see what effect he is having on an otherwise weak team. After browsing the Warriors tackling stats for their first 6 games I see that only on 12 occasions have players made more than 25 tackles in a game. So it would be a reasonable assumption that Campion would be the second or third top tackler for the Warriors in each game if he'd been in the side. All this from a guy who turns 33 in September and the Warriors released TWO seasons ago because he was running out of juice. They need a guy like him in the team to shame some of the other younger players out I think. Clearly all the toughness that he was touted as having taught the team has been lost in his absence.
Who knows, maybe they can get a bit of grit in the team and start winning more than they are losing, but it looks like it may well be a long season for the guys as they struggle to even get a sniff of making the playoffs. Fortunately the 8 team playoff system with just 15 sides competing means that they will still have a chance and hopefully the motivation for a while yet.
I'm not holding my breath though.
And to be honest, what I've seen of Stacy Jones and Ali Lauitiiti in the last couple of years has left me wondering what the hell is going on?... and when will people shut up about how good they are?
It appears the latter question has finally been answered (and possibly the former, as it turns out big Ali doesn't care about his footie and Stacy's legs aren't twitching as fast as they used to).
Stacy Jones was a very good footballer as a kid. I should know, I played against him on more than one occasion and he used to cut us up a fair bit. Just as well I played alongside Robbie Paul, who did his fair share of carving himself. Everybody knew at the time that the two of them would make it to the top level and probably do pretty well for themselves, and everybody has been proved correct.
BUT Stacy Jones, after gaining all these plaudits in his first few years then started to gradually (rapidly more like it) turn to shit, until he had a mediocre season last year and has followed that with more of the same this year. Why it took so long to notice that instead of moving into the peak of his career Jones was in fact wreaking less and less havoc on the paddock is beyond me.
Quite often Jones gets compared to Andrew Johns. I've been saying for years that to compare him to Andrew Johns is insulting to Johns as a player in the extreme (and I hate Newcastle!). Johns is one of the greatest players of all time while Jones is one of the better players that New Zealand has produced. There's a rather large difference in there. Johns can smack people in defence, has one of the best kicking games going, passes beautifully, runs the same way and reads the game like Wally Lewis when he has the ball in his hands. He was, or is, the complete footballer. Jones on the other hand used to run brilliantly (though now he is losing his speed) and was a good support player. He also developed his kicking game over the years so that it has got to a reasonable level. However his defence has always been suspect, his kicking game used to be appalling (though is ok now as I said), and his passing has never been a great feature of his game. He reads the game ok, but nowhere near the level of the top halves in the game and if he doesn't get a whole lot better at it and damn quickly he will be going to play out his days in England. For those who don't know there is no such thing as defence in the English game and he will get a couple of extra seconds every time he gets the ball to decide what he wants to do. Not to mention more money.
Jones has really only played about two very good seasons at the highest level, followed by a couple of poor ones where he has largely been anonymous in games. That's not to say he wasn't getting the ball as much as he used to (in the halves it's kind of hard to avoid getting your hands on it once every set of six), just that he wasn't really doing anything with it. He's been cruising in my opinion. Catch and pass, kick on the last tackle, boring type stuff in other words. Anderson in many respects wanted somebody to play that type of game in the halves, but I just don't think it has suited Jones' style. It certainly has worked for the team though.
Moving on to Lauitiiti. The big guy was one of the most physically gifted players the game has seen when he first burst on to the scene. He's tall, he's got that Mark Graham lanky ball handling style about him and can run freely (read: like a flying windmill with legs). The only difference is that Graham made the NZ sports hall of fame and Lauitiiti never will because two good seasons in a sport that players are supposed to last at for at least 5 isn't really up to scratch.
When Lauitiiti was going at full steam and giving his all he certainly was right up there with the best forward runners the game has seen. But after he developed the cyst on his arm he just wasn't the same after recovering from it. He would do good things now and then, but predominantly just cruise, living on his reputation. And if his attitude is as reported and that he's just playing for fun, and doesn't care about winning or grabbing a premiership then the Warriors are doing the right thing in getting him out as quickly as possible. They need to make a statement to the other players in the club and young guys with aspirations of making the team in the future, that if you don't want to devote 100% of your energies to winning for the team and public then you can go and find a social team to play for. Hell, even most social teams I know do their best to win.
Apparently clubs are now queuing up for him, but if he doesn't care much for the result of games then he'd better take a good hard look at the NZ$500,000 apparently on offer from Wigan because he won't do much good in the NRL.
I was a bit worried about the Warriors team in the off season. The buys they made weren't big ones. They signed a guy on the strength of what he was like before a bad injury stalled his career and they grabbed Tony Martin for his goal kicking which was a good buy on the surface. But they needed to get in another couple of aussie stars with experience I felt. Kevin Campion did wonders for the team. I know the reasons why they let him go, but they needed to get another similar player in after him. It was so obvious last season that not having a player like him was holding them back from going all the way.
This season for the four games I can retrieve stats from, Campion is averaging 25.3 tackles a game and 8.3 hitups. The Cowboys (who Campion is playing for) have conceded the least number of points this year in NRL with just 90 from 5 games against. It's easy to see what effect he is having on an otherwise weak team. After browsing the Warriors tackling stats for their first 6 games I see that only on 12 occasions have players made more than 25 tackles in a game. So it would be a reasonable assumption that Campion would be the second or third top tackler for the Warriors in each game if he'd been in the side. All this from a guy who turns 33 in September and the Warriors released TWO seasons ago because he was running out of juice. They need a guy like him in the team to shame some of the other younger players out I think. Clearly all the toughness that he was touted as having taught the team has been lost in his absence.
Who knows, maybe they can get a bit of grit in the team and start winning more than they are losing, but it looks like it may well be a long season for the guys as they struggle to even get a sniff of making the playoffs. Fortunately the 8 team playoff system with just 15 sides competing means that they will still have a chance and hopefully the motivation for a while yet.
I'm not holding my breath though.
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