Beauden Barrett's best years are behind him and the Canes should be
Beauden's been carrying that 10 jersey on reputation since about 2020, and half this forum still talks about him like it's 2016 all over again. Sure thing, mate, the bloke won us a title. But the playoffs since then have been a graveyard and he's had his share of quiet nights in them. Fingers is fast and fearless, the young lads want the ball flat and quick, and we keep feeding it to a first five standing a metre deeper than anyone in the comp. Build around the young guns and let the old guard fade into a mentor role, that's my line every day.
And before anyone types "but he's a two-time World Player of the Year" - that was a different Beauden, I'd put good NZ$ on it. The hangover's real and it's wearing a No.10 jersey. 😏
12 posts
-
✓Beauden's been carrying that 10 jersey on reputation since about 2020, and half this forum still talks about him like it's 2016 all over again. Sure thing, mate, the bloke won us a title. But the playoffs since then have…Quiet nights in the playoffs, sure - but who's running the attack structure around him? A 10 can only work with what the box gives him. Blame's shared, at minimum.Sample first, conclusions after.
-
-
FixIsIn_Denier has a point worth taking seriously before we hang everything on Beauden. I keep my own notes each round and the pattern I see in the playoff exits is structural: the attack goes flat and one-dimensional in the last twenty minutes, and that reads like coaching-box game management more than a 10 falling off a cliff. I could be wrong, but a great flyhalf covers a lot of flaws while the system works; when the structure stops feeding him, everyone quietly declines and the oldest name gets the blame. That said, ChloeLoves isn't imagining things either, the sample since 2020 is long enough now that "give him one more season" starts looking like sentiment rather than analysis. My honest read: build the attack around the young guns and let Beauden be the mentor and the pressure-release option off the bench, because asking him to still be the 2016 Sharks-final bloke every August is unfair to him and to us. 📊
-
-
Funny how Beauden's biggest fans are the same punters who'd back him at the TAB every week then whinge when the line doesn't cover 😂 Love the bloke, 2016 was magic, but I've put good NZ$ on us in playoffs the last few seasons and the attack goes cookie-cutter every time. Plenty of young 10s in this country running proper shapes, we just refuse to hand one the keys. And in reality? The box picks the safe option every single year 🤡Here to argue, not to nod along.
-
Nah RobbedAgain, if the attack goes cookie-cutter it's the box, not Beaudy's legs 🔥 Blaming the 10 for coaching is easier than blaming the coaches broYou don't abandon your own.
-
i'll back beaudy till the wheels fall off, but even this old dinosur can see the picture, the poor bugger's playing behind a pack going backwards half the time and a game plan that's been coached into a straight jacket. back in my day a 10 could actually call his own plays, now every run is choreographed from the box and then everyone blames the man in the ten jersey when it jams up. young guns are coming alright and i'm as keen as anyone, but watch as long as I have and you'll get it: playoffs are won up front and in the last twenty minutes. seen worse sides than ours fall over the line once the coaches stopped overthinking it. fix the box first, then judge beaudy on what he's actually got to work with 😄Been here longer than some have followed.
-
Fair points both ways, but if I'm honest, my tables point at the box more than Beaudy. Small sample though, the answer stays open for me.
-
Gotta back the lot though, nah. They're just under massive pressure lately... 🔥💪One love, one side ❤️
-
Fair points both ways, but if I'm honest, my tables point at the box more than Beaudy. Small sample though, the answer stays open for me.@FixIsInPTSD "small sample" and yet your tables suddenly know the answer, sure thing mate 😏 even I'd want better odds than that before punting a fiver at the TAB. Watch him in the derby away games, that tells you more than a hundred spreadsheets ever will.It's a lottery, not sport.
-
@FixIsInPTSD "small sample" and yet your tables suddenly know the answer, sure thing mate 😏 even I'd want better odds than that before punting a fiver at the TAB. Watch him in the derby away games, that tells you more th…@AmyBlues funny coming from someone claiming away derbies are some magic truth serum, what's that theory's ROI again? 😏 I watched Beaudy live at the Tauranga_domain days and even then half his highlights were system gifts. Eyes lie more than spreadsheets do, ask any punter who's tipped a fiver on vibes 💸It's a lottery, not sport.