As per warriors.co.nz, Warren Smith in particular, a penny for your thoughts?
Congratulations to the club to finally putting a response together. If Smith showed any integrity to his job as an impartial commentator he would consider the below mentioned facts. Again in the Cowboys-Dragons commentary he used Manu Vatuvei as an adjective to describe a howler from Ty Williams. Shouldn't that realistically be a Matt Bowen or Shaun Kenny Dowell?
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Giant Vodafone Warriors winger Manu Vatuvei has been a media magnet yet again this week, which is now becoming a regular occurrence.
And the big man obliges whenever the interview requests come in (both in New Zealand and Australia), well aware what they're likely to focus on but happy to answer candidly just the same.
This week it was cover treatment in the Big League magazine with a strapline that leaps out at the reader.
It didn't exactly represent the true facts or indeed what the man himself said. But it was there: Manu Vatuvei - Dropped-ball 'king' taunts his critics: Catch me if you can!
It takes a bit of a serach to find the story relating to the cover. It's towards the back of the magazine with another provocative headline: I'll make you pay. Journalistic licence at work again. Nowhere does Vatuvei utter such comments and nor would he. That's not his style.
The feature by Ben Blaschke reads well, Vatuvei with plenty of comments about what he's striving to do, how he handles a setback and so on. Also included are some supportive - and questioning - comments by coach Ivan Cleary.
What is lacking is some nitty gritty detail. If Vatuvei has issues with errors, how do other players compare?
Maybe that's not included because the facts patently don't match up with the claims.
He's called the 'dropped-ball king'. That must mean he's at the top of the list - right? No, as it turns out, not that anyone else rates a mention, not even Hazem El Masri who made six - yes, six - errors in the Bulldogs' 12-40 loss to the Sydney Roosters.
After the first four rounds of this year's competition the list for most handling errors reads this way:
13 - Shaun Kenny-Dowall (Sydney Roosters)
11 - Ben Pomeroy (Cronulla)
10 - Brett Kearney (Cronulla), Manu Vatuvei (Vodafone Warriors)
9 - Hazem El Masri (Bulldogs), Daniel Holdsworth (Bulldogs), Michael Jennings (Penrith), Anthony Minichiello (Sydney Roosters), Matt Orford (Manly)
8 - Matt Bowen (North Queensland)
The first nine had played four matches, Bowen only three for his eight errors.
So then, Vatuvei must have been the category leader in 2007? Well, no again. Here's the list:
42 - Matt Bowen (North Queensland), 27 games
39 - Billy Slater (Melbourne), 23 games
38 - Kurt Gidley (Newcastle), 20 games
35 - Todd Carney (Canberra), 17 games
35 - Josh Morris (St George Illawarra), 23 games
34 - Wade McKinnon (Vodafone Warriors), 22 games
32 - Eric Grothe (Parramatta), 23 games
32 - Anthony Watmough (Manly), 26 games
31 - Krisnan Inu (Parramatta), 20 games
31 - Jarryd Hayne (Parramatta), 25 games
31 - Manu Vatuvei (Vodafone Warriors), 23 games
Food for thought? It should be.
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My response, good figures indeed, what I would be interested in though is also a performance indicator on tries per player error out of that list. I think Manu's errors are often made to look worse that we don't always respond as well as we make out to those errors.
Congratulations to the club to finally putting a response together. If Smith showed any integrity to his job as an impartial commentator he would consider the below mentioned facts. Again in the Cowboys-Dragons commentary he used Manu Vatuvei as an adjective to describe a howler from Ty Williams. Shouldn't that realistically be a Matt Bowen or Shaun Kenny Dowell?
-------------------
Giant Vodafone Warriors winger Manu Vatuvei has been a media magnet yet again this week, which is now becoming a regular occurrence.
And the big man obliges whenever the interview requests come in (both in New Zealand and Australia), well aware what they're likely to focus on but happy to answer candidly just the same.
This week it was cover treatment in the Big League magazine with a strapline that leaps out at the reader.
It didn't exactly represent the true facts or indeed what the man himself said. But it was there: Manu Vatuvei - Dropped-ball 'king' taunts his critics: Catch me if you can!
It takes a bit of a serach to find the story relating to the cover. It's towards the back of the magazine with another provocative headline: I'll make you pay. Journalistic licence at work again. Nowhere does Vatuvei utter such comments and nor would he. That's not his style.
The feature by Ben Blaschke reads well, Vatuvei with plenty of comments about what he's striving to do, how he handles a setback and so on. Also included are some supportive - and questioning - comments by coach Ivan Cleary.
What is lacking is some nitty gritty detail. If Vatuvei has issues with errors, how do other players compare?
Maybe that's not included because the facts patently don't match up with the claims.
He's called the 'dropped-ball king'. That must mean he's at the top of the list - right? No, as it turns out, not that anyone else rates a mention, not even Hazem El Masri who made six - yes, six - errors in the Bulldogs' 12-40 loss to the Sydney Roosters.
After the first four rounds of this year's competition the list for most handling errors reads this way:
13 - Shaun Kenny-Dowall (Sydney Roosters)
11 - Ben Pomeroy (Cronulla)
10 - Brett Kearney (Cronulla), Manu Vatuvei (Vodafone Warriors)
9 - Hazem El Masri (Bulldogs), Daniel Holdsworth (Bulldogs), Michael Jennings (Penrith), Anthony Minichiello (Sydney Roosters), Matt Orford (Manly)
8 - Matt Bowen (North Queensland)
The first nine had played four matches, Bowen only three for his eight errors.
So then, Vatuvei must have been the category leader in 2007? Well, no again. Here's the list:
42 - Matt Bowen (North Queensland), 27 games
39 - Billy Slater (Melbourne), 23 games
38 - Kurt Gidley (Newcastle), 20 games
35 - Todd Carney (Canberra), 17 games
35 - Josh Morris (St George Illawarra), 23 games
34 - Wade McKinnon (Vodafone Warriors), 22 games
32 - Eric Grothe (Parramatta), 23 games
32 - Anthony Watmough (Manly), 26 games
31 - Krisnan Inu (Parramatta), 20 games
31 - Jarryd Hayne (Parramatta), 25 games
31 - Manu Vatuvei (Vodafone Warriors), 23 games
Food for thought? It should be.
-------------------
My response, good figures indeed, what I would be interested in though is also a performance indicator on tries per player error out of that list. I think Manu's errors are often made to look worse that we don't always respond as well as we make out to those errors.
