Grand Final Player Reviews

[stormy]

luke ahead of CAMMY.. Name me one person (beside his mum) who would believe that.
marshall hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah...hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
baabaa is nowhere near as good as BILLY as we all witnessed in the GF

[Cherry_Poppins]

How about this for a joke, I just got the Grand Final Big League and they have a 2012 Team of the year in it, and not 1 storm player features. Barba is in ahead of Billy, Marshall at Half-Back infront of Cronk, Luke is the hooker ahead of Cam, and Dave Taylor got the nod before Hoffy. Seriously WTF!!?

Marshall was absolutely shit
Barba had a standout year,i can live with that given Slater and Stewarts injuries
Luke is a complete hack,anyone who thinks Smith is anything but the worlds best hooker needs to stop smoking dope
Dave Taylor is a pea heart deluxe,i'd have went with Watmough although he didnt play to his own levels set in 09
Wingers is a difficult thing to pick,i'm thinking Shandor did alright once he got to canberra and B Morris did alright,but
nobody set the world alight although Taufua was brilliant till he pulled a Carige-esque performance in the same game Carige did
Centre is easily Jamie Lyon without question,other centre would be Inglis but who knows after he shifted,Morris?
Prop is the kiwi bloke in the blues,was so beast for NSW

[brisbanestorm]

Smith a 9? His goalkicking was absolutely putrid. Yes in general play he was terrific, but part of his game is to convert kicks. He failed to do that so in no way does he get a 9. Other than that, great effort with the OP's summary. It's not easy and of course, it's just opinion.

Fair call about the goal kicking, I was happy to let it slide because the rest of the team worked hard to defend the slim lead. Is Gareth a right or left footed kicker? If he kicks with his right I think it should be back to the days of alternate kickers because personally I don't rate Smith's kicking that highly but I can't see him giving it up outright.

[yourhero]

Luke wasn't even first choice hooker at his own club for a number of weeks. There has to be the biggest agenda from whoever put that team together... Anyone rating Luke above Smith this year needs their head read. How can you call yourself a legitimate League journalist??? Benji over Cronk!? PUH-LEASE... I love Benji but he was very much hit and miss this year. Cronk had probably his best year for the Storm.

Dave Taylor played like a grub all year and his piss poor defensive decisions cost Souths numerous times. Hoffman, Myles, G Cooper, J Smith and a bunch more were well ahead of Taylor.

[yourhero]

I never rated Smith's goal kicking but it has improved a lot in recent years (last 2 games excluded). If he wants to do it, no-one will ever ask him to stop. Two bad games aren't a fair assessment of his ability.

[tugga]

How about this for a joke, I just got the Grand Final Big League and they have a 2012 Team of the year in it, and not 1 storm player features. Barba is in ahead of Billy, Marshall at Half-Back infront of Cronk, Luke is the hooker ahead of Cam, and Dave Taylor got the nod before Hoffy. Seriously WTF!!?

Marshall was absolutely shit
Barba had a standout year,i can live with that given Slater and Stewarts injuries
Luke is a complete hack,anyone who thinks Smith is anything but the worlds best hooker needs to stop smoking dope
Dave Taylor is a pea heart deluxe,i'd have went with Watmough although he didnt play to his own levels set in 09
Wingers is a difficult thing to pick,i'm thinking Shandor did alright once he got to canberra and B Morris did alright,but
nobody set the world alight although Taufua was brilliant till he pulled a Carige-esque performance in the same game Carige did
Centre is easily Jamie Lyon without question,other centre would be Inglis but who knows after he shifted,Morris?
Prop is the kiwi bloke in the blues,was so beast for NSW

I have no problem with Barba at full back either. Was clearly the standout player of the year. Agree also with your assessment on Marshall. Was shit this year.
Smith picks himself at hooker every time.

[Scooter]

Barba was a star this year (except for GF) clear winner of Dally M. Happy for him to be at fullback.

If Benji was the best half back the Tigers must have had a good year. How did the go in the finals? ... What they didn't make the finals you must be joking.

Smith definitely ahead of Luke.

Anyway I will take being the 2012 premiers over having players in Big League team of the year.

I watched last weekends Offsiders last night and Caroline Wilson said Carlton would prefer to be in Storm's position losing premierships instead of draft picks because apart from GI the Storm didn't lose any really good players because of the salary cap scandal. Richard Hinds put her back in her box to an extent by saying we lost a lot of role players and replaced them with guys like Noz who was off to captain coach Wagga. Here are some of the players we lost at the end of 2010 - GI (Aust and Qld star), White (NSW & Aus rep), Lima (NZ rep), Finch (NSW Rep), Hoffman (Aus and NSW rep - since back replacing Blair (NZ rep), Tolman (future NSW rep) and the list goes on.

Maybe AFL journos shouldn't pretend to know something about a subject they clearly don't know about. But that is no different to half the NRL journos I suppose.

[storming]

the only female footy journalist i take notice of is Erin Molan, she has a genuine interest in the game and doesn't tend to report about crap, just footy! how it should be

[Go Storm]

I never waste my money buying Big League and I rarely waste my time reading its articles.

Barba deserved the Dally M, but he was NEVER fullback of the year. If Billy didn't hurt his knee during origin 2 he'd have shit this award in. Why does missing 5 matches out of about 24 (incl test and 2 origins) exclude you from being recognised as the best player in a particular position?
As for this Big League review add 2 or 3 impressive performances, depending on when it was written, in the finals and there is no way anybody should be selected at fb ahead of Billy.

Was Barba QLD fullback in origin 1&2? No, Billy was
Was Barba Aust fullback in Anzac test? No, Billy was
Was Barba QLD fullback in Origin 3? No, Inglis was
Is Barba Aust fb in upcoming test? No, Billy is

Why don't QLD & Aust selectors pick the fb of the year to play fb? Because he's a pretender

The same can be said for Smith and for Cronk.

At least Aust selectors have acknowledged how good Hoffy's year has been. He, and Hinchcliffe, should be walk-up starts for NSW next year under Laurie Daley.

[Scooter]

At least Aust selectors have acknowledged how good Hoffy's year has been. He, and Hinchcliffe, should be walk-up starts for NSW next year under Laurie Daley.

Great to see Hoffy picked for Aust team. I agree based on Daley's comments in media during Origin this year he likes both Hoffy and Hinchy.

[mystormboys]

Just watched Foxsports news and it showed that Cameron had taken out the player of the year award what gives ??????????????????????

[Go Storm]

When is golden boot awarded? Smithy would have to be a shoe-in for this (parden the pun)

[yourhero]

the only female footy journalist i take notice of is Erin Molan, she has a genuine interest in the game and doesn't tend to report about crap, just footy! how it should be

Agreed. Erin Molan is a true professional. A genuine interest makes all the difference.

[Cherry_Poppins]

the only female footy journalist i take notice of is Erin Molan, she has a genuine interest in the game and doesn't tend to report about crap, just footy! how it should be

I liked the one from the fox sports show which was hosted by Brandy and Phelan last year,relative of a Manly great
and the current (At the time) media manager for GCT,also she was a good sort

[storming]

the only female footy journalist i take notice of is Erin Molan, she has a genuine interest in the game and doesn't tend to report about crap, just footy! how it should be

I liked the one from the fox sports show which was hosted by Brandy and Phelan last year,relative of a Manly great
and the current (At the time) media manager for GCT,also she was a good sort

i see what you did there