Jake Friend makes most of last chance and is key to Sydney Roosters premiership ho

[stephenj]

they may have the runs on the board but i wouldnt want either near my club, trobbo has style panache and intellect hes one of us!

[Guest]

they may have the runs on the board but i wouldnt want either near my club, trobbo has style panache and intellect hes one of us!

You Did a good job with Jakey.. mate you still playing golden oldies?

[Guest]

Picture this:

It's the end of the 2002 season and you're the Melbourne Storm. You just sacked your coach and are currently looking for a replacement.

Tim Sheens is available - a multiple Premiership winning coach. Also available and putting his name in the hat is a young upstart named Craig Bellamy.

Now do you go with the super experienced coach with an impeccable CV or the young upstart from Brisbane no-one has ever heard of?

The game of Rugby League evolves at an incredible pace; and every now and then comes along an innovative young coach at the cutting edge of player management and thinking about the game should be played. This is Trent Robinson.

And unlike Kevin Moore or Ivan Henjak he is here to stay because what he's done at this club is nothing short of remarkable. His new ideas and philosophies are also exactly what we needed. As such I wouldn't trade him for Bennet or Bellamy in a million years.

You could argue that we ended up with Robinson by accident. I don't think it was a long term vision. But sometimes accidents are the best thing that can happen, just like Penicillin!

robbo has been here for less than a year, he has exceeded expectations, yes, but taking a team boasting names like minichiello, Jennings, Maloney, pearce, JWH and SBW, means making the finals is expected.
the difference between robbo, and say, bennett, at the moment is that bennett has proved himself with squads like this. robbo hasn't. when robbo wins premierships, which im sure he will, we can laud him as 'the great accident' as you put it. but for now, he hasn't won anything.

[Guest]

I think Friend is the 2nd best Hooker in the comp ... after Smith. Whats made a difference is his knowledge of the game. He can pick and choose when to pass, run and kick and seems to select the correct option more often than not!

[Chook Norris]

He's quickly becoming the complete footballer pretty much. Glad he's focused more on his attack. Clearly paying dividends as is his rotation with Mortimer

[Rooster_6]

I love how some people think it's all just developed over one off-season.

Jake's been a very good player for a few years now. The biggest difference I see is on the back of good go forward he's been able to utilise his running game, which is only a small part of a dummy half's game but the way some people go on about it you could be fooled into thinking it's the be all and end all for dummy halves sometimes.

I still think the strongest part of his game is his defence, some of the cover tackles he comes up under fatigue from making 30+ tackles against blokes two times the size of him are remarkable.

The best addition to Jake Friend this season is the beard, the ability was already there.

[roosterproud]

6 NAILED IT BEAUTIFULLY.

remember all that bennets finals wins were because of having the Australian team(under the cap). he has a boring as bat shit game plan. the naughts have gotten no where with mr personality.

bellach has half the aussie side and is riding it til it dies. then we will see where he goes and who he takes.

our mate robbo is the new breed of coach. energy, playing players in their chosen roles and having great role models and assistants to personally help them. and anoth accolade of robbos is knowing how to get into the players/teams heads (with head ****ing them .ala smiff) he calm reproach is rubbing of on these guys .

[ism22]

Friend doesn't get enough credit nowadays. Has vastly improved this year. Very underrated now

I reckon Cameron Smith takes away a lot of his shine. He's just the dude who has been around and hasn't really been in a failing team yet (probably never will.)

IMO when Smith retires, as much as it pains me to say, Friend will play Origin and will possibly slice us up more than Smith.

He's a great player and from my 2 second meeting is a great bloke too (my wife loves him more than me.)

[Guest]

I love how some people think it's all just developed over one off-season.

Jake's been a very good player for a few years now. The biggest difference I see is on the back of good go forward he's been able to utilise his running game, which is only a small part of a dummy half's game but the way some people go on about it you could be fooled into thinking it's the be all and end all for dummy halves sometimes.

I still think the strongest part of his game is his defence, some of the cover tackles he comes up under fatigue from making 30+ tackles against blokes two times the size of him are remarkable.

The best addition to Jake Friend this season is the beard, the ability was already there.

Hi Rooster_6,

I agree with your sentiment about Jake "The Snake" Friend and feel he has been an under valued member of club for some time however he has improved areas such as his decision making which is not only more often than not the correct decision he now makes his decisions early and rarely is left confused as to what he wants to do which has probably let him down the most in his career. The fact that our team finally has some strong go forward merely adds to the illusion that he is playing better than ever because he is finally able to play with a running game.

I also believe that Trent "Robbo" Robinson has used Jake Friend more effectively than Brian "Smithy" Smith who preferred to have the dummy half running made by our outside backs and Jake Friend to be our distributing dummy half only in attack and tackle machine in defence. Robinson use of mid game breaks has allowed him to recharge for our final assault on the opposition. I would also wager that Robinson has implemented the tactic of Jake kicking the ball more often which did happen under Smith but was rarely utilized.

This is also why I believe that Sam "Victa" Moa should be played from the bench to add some strong running to our game while Jake Friend is off the field as this is not the strongest asset of Daniel "Morts" Mortimer's game who is at his core still a half which adds a different dimension to our attack while he is on the field.

[Guest]

Hi Rooster_6,

I agree with your sentiment about Jake "The Snake" Friend and feel he has been an under valued member of club for some time however he has improved areas such as his decision making which is not only more often than not the correct decision he now makes his decisions early and rarely is left confused as to what he wants to do which has probably let him down the most in his career. The fact that our team finally has some strong go forward merely adds to the illusion that he is playing better than ever because he is finally able to play with a running game.

I also believe that Trent "Robbo" Robinson has used Jake Friend more effectively than Brian "Smithy" Smith who preferred to have the dummy half running made by our outside backs and Jake Friend to be our distributing dummy half only in attack and tackle machine in defence. Robinson use of mid game breaks has allowed him to recharge for our final assault on the opposition. I would also wager that Robinson has implemented the tactic of Jake kicking the ball more often which did happen under Smith but was rarely utilized.

This is also why I believe that Sam "Victa" Moa should be played from the bench to add some strong running to our game while Jake Friend is off the field as this is not the strongest asset of Daniel "Morts" Mortimer's game who is at his core still a half which adds a different dimension to our attack while he is on the field.

Agree with this.

Jake is also getting some good second phase ball which he wasn't in previous years.

He is certainly playing with a lot more confidence as a result of the structure he is now playing in.

[Tommy Smith]

I don't agree that Friend has been a very good player for a few years now.

He had a good 2010, but in and around that he's been hugely inconsistent.

The most important part of a dummy halfs game IMO is his decision making. It's often unseen and hence goes unnoticed. He goes left, we get stuffed by a rushing defence and knock on; but if he goes right and sees the overlap we score a try. And vice versa.

It's rarely that obvious but it's still safe to say that every play, particularly in attack when they're not just handing off to a charging prop, comes off the back of the no. 9s decision.

And this year his decision making has improved out of sight. I'd argue that he's our most important player.

In fact he's the most improved player in the competition imo. Id rank him quite easily in the top 20 players in the NRL atm whereas before the start of the season he was flat out pushing for a spot in the top 100.

His defense has always been sensational. But his decision making questionable whereas now he's right up there with Cameron Smith.

[Guest]

The main thing that has contributed to his improvement IMO is his speed, he is so much quicker this season, his dummy half speed, his general running game, his decision making, everything! I thought they said that you can't coach speed, well Robbo has, but I also suspect that Keegan Smith's training & diet has had an enormous impact on Jakey, well done to everyone involved in turning a toiler into a little champ, but most congrats go to Jake himself!

[Guest]

Cameron Smith is the captain of Melbourne Storm and as such is in total control of the play and what play is on whereas Jake Friend is in the position of listening to his halves - of which the captain for the majority of his career played pivot - and would have to follow the calls for the ball. It appears that this season Trent Robinson has given Jake Friend responsibility of play calling and we are seeing much more precise decision making as a result.

[roostersrule2]

One thing I love about Friend and Smith does it too is their non-dirty niggle, they'll kick the ball away when possessions turned, hold up play etc.

[Guest]

It's nice to see people saying good things about Jake. For awhile he was a pariah. He was once a young boy in Sydney like a kid in a lolly shop now he has matured and developed into a young man that knows what he wants and hopefully he will achieve it.Has not been an easy road for him but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Love him to death.