Fergo

[HEGtheROOSTER]

Congrats to Fergo for winning the Harry Sunderland medal for Australia's best player on tour.

Looking forward to seeing that form replicated in the red, white and blue this coming season....

http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/f...20-gstmdt.html

[OMR]

It's amazing what good service from inside does to an outside back's form.

[Kingsgrove-Loiner]

Congrats to Fergo for winning the Harry Sunderland medal for Australia's best player on tour.

Looking forward to seeing that form replicated in the red, white and blue this coming season....

http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/f...20-gstmdt.html

I'm with ya, but most of his problems last year were in defence - a problem that he doesn't often have while he's playing for the Kangaroos.

[Chookies74]

I'm with ya, but most of his problems last year were in defence - a problem that he doesn't often have while he's playing for the Kangaroos.

I think that the off-season, where he stripped down to play fullback, ie less upper body strength adversely impacted his defence, physically and mentally.
He's bulked up again so I'd expect him to be solid in defence and awesome in attack in 17. Otherwise, he'll get to bullet.
MJ proved how crucial a strike centre is, esp 1 on 1.

[Easts75]

I think that the off-season, where he stripped down to play fullback, ie less upper body strength adversely impacted his defence, physically and mentally.
He's bulked up again so I'd expect him to be solid in defence and awesome in attack in 17. Otherwise, he'll get to bullet.
MJ proved how crucial a strike centre is, esp 1 on 1.

Rubbish. His size has nothing to do with it. It's his inability to read the plays, nothing else

[stephenj]

he plays on the wing for kangaroos so no need for centre typoe of defence! makes him look better, thats why skid thrives on the wing too? essentially we now need two good fencive bustling centres, much like jennings?

[Rooster_6]

I think that the off-season, where he stripped down to play fullback, ie less upper body strength adversely impacted his defence, physically and mentally.
He's bulked up again so I'd expect him to be solid in defence and awesome in attack in 17. Otherwise, he'll get to bullet.
MJ proved how crucial a strike centre is, esp 1 on 1.

Yep agree with this, not surprising he succeded on the wing. You can't underestimate how demanding making 15-20 tackles a game in the centres can be especially when you play with the physicality that Ferguson does. It requires a totally different type of endurance to playing fullbak.

Most fullbacks making the switch to the halves need a full season under their belt and it has everything to do with the defensive requirements. Centre is no different.

Will be interesting to see what Robbo does with him this year.

[Rooster_6]

Rubbish. His size has nothing to do with it. It's his inability to read the plays, nothing else

He's always been a poor decision maker, that's nothing new. A dip in form usually isn't the result of a career exisiting attribute/weakness unless there was a significant change in the way the game was played, which there wasn't.

[Jacks Fur Coat]

Good on him....i thought he was a busted bum with some displays this year...esp defensively. Feared he was without redemption.

But he has took it seriously and worked hard enough to do his national jersey and himself proud. ( take note skd and jwh).

[ism22]

My 50c...
- Playing for Australia is a massive step up (whether or not he's a centre)
- He largely played at FB for club level and kept getting shunted around. I think half the problem was that what Robbo REALLY needed was RTS and Jennings. Our whole backline was weaker, Jennings leaving was sudden and IMO we lacked the experience to cover for losing two international stars.
- We had a REALLY bad season. As such, Fergo was lumped with a big load of scrambling, ad-hoc defence. In previous years our team defence has been well structured and clinically executed. When we do better, Fergo will do better because he'll be able to focus purely on one job/position. This year his role was really just to be bold, to take risks to turn around our fortunes. I have no doubt that he was instructed to tackle early, tackle HARD (rather than safely) and go for intercepts all the time. It looked a bit silly because this is all risky stuff that can put us on the back foot if it failed. But we had already failed by the time he had to defend a silly/careless overlap. His role was to say to the opposition 'don't get silly or I'll rip you a new one' when teams were on a roll scoring try after try all over the field. I think this kinda ad-hoc, bold, risky play was often misinterpreted as a misread. No, he was instructed to take MASSIVE risks rather than just going through the motions of simple tackles (that might stop the guy but won't stir up the opposition). This year I expect our defence to be a lot more structured, and for Fergo to be able to settle down...

[Johnny Tobin]

Highest paid winger in the comp. If he can't hack centre he has to hit the road at the end of the year.

[Rooster_6]

Highest paid winger in the comp. If he can't hack centre he has to hit the road at the end of the year.

Wingers are more important to a teams success than centres these days IMO.

[Kingbilly]

Wingers are more important to a teams success than centres these days IMO.

Only to Ch9 commentators

[Cockadoodledoo]

Wingers are more important to a teams success than centres these days IMO.

Wingers are guys who hang around footballers. You don't pay them big money. Semi was on $250K this year. Even in the new salary cap, if you are paying more than $300K for a winger, you are paying too much.

[Rooster_6]

Wingers are guys who hang around footballers. You don't pay them big money. Semi was on $250K this year. Even in the new salary cap, if you are paying more than $300K for a winger, you are paying too much.

Maybe in the 90's and 00's.

The game has changed, wingers are crucial in the modern day game. Look no further than the Sharks and what their wingers did for them in their yardage sets this year.

A player like Josh Mansour at club level would be worth every cent of a 600k contract.

Time to stop dusting off the old cliches they're no longer relevant.