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Bang on the button again David, there was so many good performances its hard to give a man of the match but agree Bailey, Buderus and Ablett real class

Was talking to someone who was in the br after the game, apparently Kirke got McLennan's MOM - he said he played 3 positions in 35 minutes.

what does McLennan know?

Kirke is a good solid player. I haven't seen any criticism of him on here. Always seems to step up in the big games as well.

I Have

Just in case you're being serious for a moment (which is far from certain)

Delaney mark spot on

some ace work on King

Am I the only one who thought Leuluai was MOM?

I thought he was second, only beaten by Ablett. I find David's comments bewildering. Although to be fair he did miss a couple of tackles going for the big hits. But his influence on that match was far greater than some other players.

Bailey and Kylie were both brilliant.

I would have given them both a 9.

Awesome effort from Bailey to fill into Peacock's shoes early doors.

Ran the ball in hard, tackled everything that moved. By the end of the first half he was literally out on his feet.

I thought the forwards were fantastic considering losing Peacock, No Ali or Burgess, a half fit Eastwood and young Clarkson against a very good Wire pack.

Friday showed that Buderus & Diskin can work, also leaves the coach with a few decisions regarding 6,7,13

McGuire - Sinfield - Ablett looks very good to me but Burrow is too good to be left out

I'm a Bailey fan and I thought he was great on friday but the one thing he does not do is run the ball in hard.

Pretty disingenuous to dig up a quote that had nothing to do with Friday's match.

As for David's ratings, spot on aside from too high a mark for Eastwood and too effusive in his praise for Kirke.

Of course, he wouldn't be the first to do it would he.



So it wasn't spot on?



Did you miss some of his markings? or have you changed your mind since Saturday, considering the below post?

His 4 or 5 great drives covered up his short comings in that game. Yes he played well but after the 2 or 3 drives he had impact in with each spell he went missing a bit a la Paleasena. Looked out on his feet in parts too. Defensively flat footed at times also but he was solid. I think his mark is spot on.

He was certainly dead on his feet, and he certainly did miss a couple of tackles that should have been made. But you can not ignore the rest of his game because of it.

I keep hearing on these threads about the incidents that stats do not record, and game changing moments. Plenty came through Kylie on Friday, his influence on that game and Leeds performance was huge. Take his contribution out of that game, and the result would have been completely different IMO.

Phil Caplan in League Express gave MOM to Bailey

[i"..Bailey was a colossus helping his side to get over the early loss of Jamie Peacock- a different sort of hero to his father who part-grabbed the week's headlines"[/i

The point it rebutted didn't appear to only relate to Friday's match and your post was only used as an example of where Kirke had received criticism on this forum.

For me it is three things;
1. He lack of game time - he only plays 50% of the game at most - compare his game time to Bailey?
2. The number of times he makes a tackle but cannot get back in the line - on three occasions it took him 3 tackles to get back in the defensive line
3. The number of times he is exposed in the middle is a worry - Grix waltzed past him as if he wasn't there for the try?
4. Not playing the ball correctly 20 metres from your own line is unforgivable for a SL player - this is not the first time

Yes he made a huge impact ball in hand - but that should not obsure the tackling issues he has.

Just watch for the above during the Bradford game

Yup.

I would agree, his big hits kept lifting the fans and players.

Its a difficult one. A big hit can be very significant point in the game, and affect confidence on the part of both players. However, a big hit does not often bring a direct reward in terms of scores. Missed tackles, poor defensive movemnet do, and IMO outweigh some big hits

I thought it did in context.

However, whilst I am flattered, I am not the only one to post criticism of Kirke and, indeed, there was plenty of it from me and other posters relating to this Fridays match so, again, I wonder what your motive was in specifically dredging up an older post specifically from me?

Tell the truth, you have a man crush on me don't you?

On point 1 I would say his game time was handled correctly by McClennan to get the best out of him to help the team.

Point 2 is a fair observation. But you fail to take into account the effecitvness of the tackle made. Some of those tackles were huge, and influenced our performance accordingley. I take your point about time taken to get back, but would imagine other players may well have been the same in that position.

Point 3 is very unfair. Grix did not just waltz round Kylie, he waltzed round a couple of others also. It was a very soft try to conceede as a team, not an individual.

Point 4 again whilst correct, is unfair. He isn't the first to do that, and nor will he be the last. And he certainly wasn't the only Leeds player to make errors in his own 20 on Friday.

Your post comes across David as though you accept the big runs he made, but have failed to see the huge tackles he made, concentrating only on the couple of missed ones.

I still think his influence in that result was far greater than you give him credit for.