Player Pita Godinet

[Tyrael]

Friend is an 80 minute hooker, but doesn't mean you have to play him as an 80 minute hooker. Isn't it a great way to get players like Mara and Godinet a little bit of game time even if it is a 15 min spell? Friend has a lot of experience and should be able to mentor those two well.

 

[Spence]

I had a dream last night that Friend made 2-3 line breaks from dummy half, including one to score. So don't worry, he's got it sorted.

On a serious note though, I'm not sure yet whether I want to judge Friends ability to dominate the ruck until we have forwards willing to roll up their sleeves - sure Matulino and Lousi have been good, but not amazing enough to carry the team on their own. Same with a halfback without options, a hooker can't do it all on their own. That said, I'm a huge Friend fan, so I'm probably just making up excuses for him.

 

[Tyrael]

I only knew Friend from word of mouth really. He hasn't done anything on the park that I've gone WOW!

I'm dreading this weekend, we just can't lose. I'm depressed enough already as it is

 

[Danpatmac]

Really good team. On paper anyway. A coach with half a brain would take them to the finals easily.

Gutted.

 

[ToiletDuck]

Friend is an 80 minute hooker, but doesn't mean you have to play him as an 80 minute hooker. Isn't it a great way to get players like Mara and Godinet a little bit of game time even if it is a 15 min spell? Friend has a lot of experience and should be able to mentor those two well.

I guess then you lose being able to play that extra backrower/prop. In our case...Ta'ai, who is a backrower, yet plays 20 mins up the middle for 3 hitups, 25m and 8 tackles. So given it'd be at his expense, I'd be happy to trial the God in his place.

 

[Dankokoro 2.0]

I can't say i saw a huge amount of him, because i tend to pay not much attention to loser clubs like the Titans.. but i remember him doing a number on us a couple of times. Not so much with his dummy half running but more with his tricky set plays when we were defending right on our line. In fact i remember actually fearing him when we played them. I can't see the current Warriors orchestrating complicated set plays with multiple decoy runners etc with much effect though.

 

[ToiletDuck]

Yeah Friend is a good hooker, no doubt. He played some great games against us, one of those players that just excelled because he was smarter and had greater awareness. The same way Hindmarsh used to have greta games against us. They don't need to make 20 tackle busts and run 200m to be effective. Friend plays a structured game, and obviously had a good partnership with Prince. I thought he'd bring some much needed structure to our attack/direction. At this stage, he's doing what he can, and has been average. Yet I wouldn't back Cam Smith to be setting the world on fire in our team the way it's currently playing.

Haha did anyone see Friend get destroyed by Learoyd-Lahrs like 5 times against the Waiders? He'd run at Friend every time and Friend would just fly back a metre or two, but he got up and kept coming though, wasn't a pussy about it.

 

[Dankokoro 2.0]

Yeah Friend is a good hooker, no doubt. He played some great games against us, one of those players that just excelled because he was smarter and had greater awareness. The same way Hindmarsh used to have greta games against us. They don't need to make 20 tackle busts and run 200m to be effective. Friend plays a structured game, and obviously had a good partnership with Prince. I thought he'd bring some much needed structure to our attack/direction. At this stage, he's doing what he can, and has been average. Yet I wouldn't back Cam Smith to be setting the world on fire in our team the way it's currently playing.

Haha did anyone see Friend get destroyed by Learoyd-Lahrs like 5 times against the Waiders? He'd run at Friend every time and Friend would just fly back a metre or two, but he got up and kept coming though, wasn't a pussy about it.

haha i saw Friend fly back a couple of times, didn't know it was TLL doing it to him each time.

He's farkin tough tho Friend, he takes that shit front on

 

[2Big2Strong]

Oh yeah I really like Friend, as I noted earlier his distribution is so good. But I wouldn't mind a quick scooting bench hooker coming on late in both halves to test tiring defenses. Against the Titans Friend was running the ball plenty at tired defenders and nearly had them on the back foot, the only problem is that he's so small and slow that most of the time they'd just grab a thread of his jersey and dump him to the ground. I was hoping to see Lewis Brown doing more of this role but he's not really a hooker is he? He's a back rower playing hooker.

I'd also like to have a hooker with some form of kicking ability. It's a fact that the top 5 hookers in the NRL all have a kicking game. I've never seen Nathan Friend kick a ball.

 

[ToiletDuck]

Oh yeah I really like Friend, as I noted earlier his distribution is so good. But I wouldn't mind a quick scooting bench hooker coming on late in both halves to test tiring defenses. Against the Titans Friend was running the ball plenty at tired defenders and nearly had them on the back foot, the only problem is that he's so small and slow that most of the time they'd just grab a thread of his jersey and dump him to the ground. I was hoping to see Lewis Brown doing more of this role but he's not really a hooker is he? He's a back rower playing hooker.

I'd also like to have a hooker with some form of kicking ability. It's a fact that the top 5 hookers in the NRL all have a kicking game. I've never seen Nathan Friend kick a ball.

I remember him putting in a couple of effective grubbers from dummy half against us in the past, but no he's not likely to hit a 40/20 anytime soon. But really, between Johnson and Maloney we should have an adequate kicking game. In fact Maloney has been quite good over the past 2 seasons. And we know Shaun has an excellent short kicking game.

As for Lewis...yeah he's not a hooker. He's adequate cover in a dire situation, that's about it. He has no variety in his game. In fact his game at centre is much like his game at hooker, a lot of straight running from dummy half.

 

[AttilaTheGorilla]

I don't think it's neccessarily the hookers job to run from dummy half, even wingers or the fullback or Brown can jump in there quickly and go for a scoot if the opposition is on the back foot. I'm pretty sure this would happen, our forwards just haven't really been rolling through defenses this year to make much dummy half running possible.

 

[fanrrior]

I don't think it's neccessarily the hookers job to run from dummy half, even wingers or the fullback or Brown can jump in there quickly and go for a scoot if the opposition is on the back foot. I'm pretty sure this would happen, our forwards just haven't really been rolling through defenses this year to make much dummy half running possible.

True, but if the hooker doesn't take a run it tends to make him predictable. But considering Friend is so small that if he does run he's likely to just get smashed, I'd like to see him take just a few steps out of dummy half and then pass.

Or take advantage of his predictability and try the ol' dive for the try line tactic

 

[AttilaTheGorilla]

It would certainly help if he could take a few steps and at least put the defense in two minds. With our slow play the balls, even that has been hard to do, the markers would just grab him immediately.

 

[Blain]

I don't really see Godinet as a Hooker.. Am I alone here in saying that?

I've only heard of him playing 7, 6 and the odd time at Fullback. I'm not sure if he has the size or defence of say Heremaia who converted from halfback. I expect the hooker to do alot of tackling and surely Godinet isn't quite use to that.

Havili looks like a star, but needs to keep developing in NYC atm.

 

[Dankokoro 2.0]

I don't really see Godinet as a Hooker.. Am I alone here in saying that?

I've only heard of him playing 7, 6 and the odd time at Fullback. I'm not sure if he has the size or defence of say Heremaia who converted from halfback. I expect the hooker to do alot of tackling and surely Godinet isn't quite use to that.

Havili looks like a star, but needs to keep developing in NYC atm.

The few games Godinet has played in first grade his defense has looked very weak. And i wonder if it's going to improve very much, given he's playing half-back for the Vulcans and is probably not being forced in to a whole lot of defending..

But Alehana Mara is back from injury very soon (if not already), and he's our back-up hooker.. so maybe we will see him before we see Godinet, assuming he gets fit and his form is ok

 

[ToiletDuck]

I don't really see Godinet as a Hooker.. Am I alone here in saying that?

I've only heard of him playing 7, 6 and the odd time at Fullback. I'm not sure if he has the size or defence of say Heremaia who converted from halfback. I expect the hooker to do alot of tackling and surely Godinet isn't quite use to that.

Havili looks like a star, but needs to keep developing in NYC atm.

Hey Blain ! Welcome bro.

Godinet is a piss weak defender (well from what I saw last year, and then against Souffs in the trial this year). He's not a tacklebot up the middle of the park like a lot of other hookers. If he comes into the side it'll be for a short spell off the bench with a view to target tiring opposition forwards and provide an extra avenue in attack.

I'd entertain the Mara idea, though the dude seems to have had a lot of injury problems so early in his career...

 

[Blain]

Cheers TD! Nice to be here.

The thought of Maloney, Johnson and Godinet defending in the middle seems a bit dodge to me. Don't get me wrong, I like Godinet, he would be my first back up half, but not at hooker tbh.

 

[Tyrael]

My issue is how are they developing hookers if they have an 80 minute player? How is friend mentoring other hookers at the club?

 

[a.c.e]

I can't say i saw a huge amount of him, because i tend to pay not much attention to loser clubs like the Titans.. but i remember him doing a number on us a couple of times. Not so much with his dummy half running but more with his tricky set plays when we were defending right on our line. In fact i remember actually fearing him when we played them. I can't see the current Warriors orchestrating complicated set plays with multiple decoy runners etc with much effect though.

yeah those inside passes where hes darting from dummy across the face of the defence line and popping one on the inside.

Godinet would be great, Ive ever only seen him at hooker but know the guy covers and is better at other positions. I like his passing, ive said it before but his passing is crisp, comes off great in heavy traffic.

 

[wallacenz]

digging up this thread seeing its topic of the day

a hookers primary roles are distribution and defence and ive never seen godinet as a defender who can stop someone in a front on, one on one tackle.
put him on the field with johnson and maloney and we have points the opposition can target on both sides and down the middle.

with a better hooker, better halves and a better fullback who can all play 80 there is no reason to have him in the team