It's quite bizarre. I made a tally years ago of what happened to Melbourne players once they left Melbourne... most of them lost serious form and or picked up serious injuries. The role of the medical staff in Rugby League is massively underrated. It's not co-incidence that some teams have a 'horror run of injuries' year in, year out. Like the Tigers and Newcastle for instance. If I were Tedasco, I'd be shitting bricks right about now. He's next on the medicab for sure.
Dallas Johnson was good after going to England and then his first season at the Cows. He's declined since halfway through last year. Probably to do with age. His tackle count and defensive efficiency has decreased.
Yeah Johnson's decline clearly has nothing to do with leaving the Melbourne system so to speak, especially since he was the same player at Melbourne before they became the strong club they are.
Maloney, Folau, Inglis, Tolman, Lowrie, Johnson, White, Friend, Manu, Crocker, Smith, Lima... Probably missing a couple more.
I genuinely listed players who I thought went on to perform better or continue to perform at a similar level.
Why did Hala get subbed off so quickly? He comes on, makes an awesome run, and gets subbed off. Great work Griffin. Hunt and Maranta were the shittest though. Doubt it'll be long before Maranta is dropped now. Thaiday was disappointing too, kept giving away penalties. Parker and Hodges were excellent, and Gillett was great early on too.
Maranta gets worse every week. Happy to put my hand up and say I was wrong about that one. For now anyway; bloke is still young and obviously has a shitload of ability but he's clearly not up to the pace of first grade yet.
He might not play FG ever again. Who knows. I think for the sake of team balance we need a nigglet there. Hodges doesn't like white people, he might start passing the ball if there wasn't one of us outside of him.
He'll play again. Very, very determined individual. He'll back back for the post-Origin period I think.
I like to see him come back for at least 1 home game at suncorp so the crowed can give him a send off he deserves. Hope he can come back for more but not holdin my breath.
I definitely hope he does come back. His attitude has been great in his recovery. Even with all the set backs he hasn't complained, just said how determined he is to get back. But that injury would be pretty fucking difficult to get over. I kinda doubt he'll be leaping 5 feet into the air for a long time, and he probably won't have the same pace.
It's not even so much physical. It's mental, I think. It took a long time for Bowen to regain his confidence. Hoffman has only got back to his best this season. Tate and Hodges both took their time. It's a long and arduous process which goes on long after they return to the field, but if they have the determination, they'll get there and Jharal certainly has it.
