Honest take: this Blues backline is the best we've had since 2003
This backline walks into most teams' starting XV and I'd chuck NZ$50 on it at the TAB without blinking. Folks harping on about 2003 need to realise prime Mils isn't walking through that door, ever. Watch them carve up the crusaders this season and then tell me with a straight face the old heads were silkier. Bring your worst, I've got the hill all warmed up 😏
13 posts
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✓Chucking NZ$50 on the TAB proves you've got cash, not that they're better than 2003. Best since then. Sure. But don't hand-wave prime Mils away with vibes.
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Nah GloryDays you're missing the point tbh 😤 nobody's saying prime Mils wasn't a machine - but these boys attack off ANYWHERE, it's actually scary to watch 🔥🔥 I watched the 2003 lads as a teen and loved em, but this lot beat teams with footy they never even dreamed of trying! Ah well, nowt to do, I'm on the hill with the OP 💪🙌You don't abandon your own.
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GloryDays, I've kept my own backline stats sheet since the 2003 season and the nuance is simple: that side leaned on Mils and Umanga finishing what the pack built, while this lot generate tries from broken field and first-phase width no one dared try back then. Prime Mils was a machine, agreed, but a great fullback covers space; he doesn't create the angles these boys run off each other. So SeenItAll's got it right - different footy, and honestly the scarier version. 📊Numbers > vibes.
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Back in the day at Eden Park we'd have laughed at width like this. Different game now, and this lot play it better. I'm on the hill with you 😉
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GloryDays reckons the 2003 case rests on one bloke who retired years ago — chuck him a blank cheque and the argument writes itself 😂 Close the TAB account too, that line's dead, mate.Here to argue, not to nod along.
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Mils this, Mils that 😂 bet half you blokes didn't even rate him till the doco! This lot create tries no one else can even dream up 🔥One love, one side ❤️
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millie love, i rated mils long before any doco existed, watched him come through at schoolboy level, thank you kindly 😄 and gothedistance can wind up the TAB chat all he likes, i never put money on eras, i just watched both of them from the terraces. but here's my gentle dig at the "no one dreamed up tries back then" crowd: carlos spencer was dreaming up tries nobody on the planet dared. that flick pass off the deck is still on highlight reels twenty-odd years laterRemember when the grass was greener 🌱
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Fair question for the 2003 crowd though: if that side was so untouchable, why does every defence of it come back to one fullback and a shrug? Prime Mils was special, no argument, but a backline is five blokes plus the service behind them, and nobody's actually named what 2003 did that this lot can't. Sounds good but here's my sticking point, I'll believe "best since 2003" when they do it against a proper defensive system for a full season, same as that lot had to. Half the highlight reels people wave around came against sides that would struggle in the Bunnings NPC. Talent's plainly there, no one serious denies it. Sustained it? Show me and I'll join you on the hill. Receipts please, that's all I ask.Numbers are honest, takes aren't.
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@Paul_Fan the shrug is doing a lot of heavy lifting in those defences, agreed. Though I'd push back slightly: nostalgia does the same job for both eras. Ask anyone over 40 why 2003 was better and you'll get "you had to be there" and a story about a pub in Nelson. Ask why this lot is better and NickDiehard produces a touch table. Neither is proof, but at least one of them can be checked. Where I'd land: define "best" before arguing about it. Best at scoring? Best at defending their own line? Best over three seasons or best at its peak? FixIsInPTSD already conceded the sample's small, which is more honest than most in here. I'll believe the "best since 2003" line when this backline wins something the 2003 mob never got near. Until then it's a nice squad with a spreadsheet.
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Paul_Fan asks a fair question and I'll chip in my bit: I've kept my own line-by-line table of backline touches since the 2023 season and this group's try-assist spread is far wider than the 2003 lot ever showed, so the load isn't resting on one genius. I could be wrong, but prime Muls at fullback is the one bit of insurance I'd still want, purely for his kick-return metres. Watched him beat two defenders from nothing at Eden Park back then, this lot create prettier tries, sure, but that's my caveat.
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NickDiehard keeping a touch table for fun is the most analyst thing I've ever seen 😂 imagine choosing spreadsheets over just watching Mils rip teams apart 🤡Any stat can be bent.
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Andy, the spreadsheet IS how I watch, mate. The tape and the tally just sit side by side in different tabs 📊. And there's a nuance here: three seasons of touch data is still a small sample next to a full era, so I'd never crown this lot over the 2003 mob on my table alone. Both things can be true: wider try-assist spread now, prime Mils then. Which hill you die on depends on whether you trust your eyes or your cells.