[PopTart]

Re: Chris Annakin. : Mon Aug 21, 2017 3:41 pm  

You can't just make him a hooker

Re: Chris Annakin. : Mon Aug 21, 2017 4:14 pm  

Well no not overnight but with right coach and the right attitude then there's no reason you couldn't make a hooker out of Annakin... but I think the more effective point is how hard Annakin would be to stop from close range picking and going with his power and lower centre of gravity...he doesn't have to play hooker to do that the team have to plan for it though.

Re: Chris Annakin. : Mon Aug 21, 2017 4:19 pm  

PopTart wrote:

You can't just make him a hooker

You can't just make him a hooker but he's been at the club for nearly a decade so we don't really have that excuse. Unless he's just not savvy enough to be a hooker (I've no idea either way) then I see no reason why he couldn't unless he himself isn't interested.

[PopTart]

Re: Chris Annakin. : Mon Aug 21, 2017 7:19 pm  

But that's the point. We have people who are savvy and have played hooker a lot and still aren't good enough for Super League.
Just having a powerful physique is not enough.

You'd be better starting with a savvy brain and taking it to the gym than the other way around.

I also think it's a pity he isn't a hooker but he isn't.
And if he is so powerful near the line like Cunningham, why doesn't he just take the initiative. I don't think I've ever seen him try.

Re: Chris Annakin. : Mon Aug 21, 2017 7:54 pm  

I thought Morton was going to go well. I remember his defence looked really good in those first few games, even though he wasn't the biggest. Then he cost us the cup game against Cas and that was the last we ever really saw of him.

Re: Chris Annakin. : Mon Aug 21, 2017 8:21 pm  

I like Anakin and I know some think he's a prop - I don't because his physique is not as big as his heart . I don't see him as a hooker because I don't really think he would be quick enough around the ruck.
I see him as a 2nd row or loose forward. I think his real potential would be playing out wide where power plays could break through opposing threequarters .

Re: Chris Annakin. : Tue Aug 22, 2017 8:01 am  

4foxsake wrote:

Well no not overnight but with right coach and the right attitude then there's no reason you couldn't make a hooker out of Annakin... but I think the more effective point is how hard Annakin would be to stop from close range picking and going with his power and lower centre of gravity...he doesn't have to play hooker to do that the team have to plan for it though.

That ship has failed some time since I'm afraid, Annakin had all the right attributes to be a very good hooker unfortunately the coaching staff either lacked the foresight or just did not have a support system to make it happen, had he been at a club with far more coaching facilities he would have had one on one coaching and a greater opportunity to be successful.

That team we are discussing proved beyond any argument they were better than all others, unfortunately after that season unlike clubs like Wigan, Leeds, and Wire most of those individuals had no support and nowhere to go, and because the club lacked the finances to take them to a higher level they just disappeared into the lower leagues where people just perceived that they had found their level.

Re: Chris Annakin. : Tue Aug 22, 2017 8:20 am  

chissitt wrote:

they just disappeared into the lower leagues where people just perceived that they had found their level.

Including every other SL coach out there? Surely if the clubs you mention had such advanced coaching methodologies, they'd have picked up these young superstars and contuinued their development - and they'd be putting in stellar performances every week, and we'd be rightly annoyed at the missed opportunities? As it is - most have indeed found their level.

Re: Chris Annakin. : Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:19 am  

Just because a player is not playing in SL does not mean that they have not succeeded, many of that team have had several years as paid RL players in League 1 , Championship etc and that achievement has my respect.

Re: Chris Annakin. : Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:31 am  

bellycouldtackle wrote:

Just because a player is not playing in SL does not mean that they have not succeeded, many of that team have had several years as paid RL players in League 1 , Championship etc and that achievement has my respect.

It has mine too - but that's different to seeing each of them as a missed opportunity who would have been the next Sam Tomkins, if not for the shortsightedness of, err, everyone else in RL.