During the final moments of Origin 2, many rugby league commentators, journalists, ex-players and fans were already flooding social media to express their opinions on who should replace Queensland halfback Ben Hunt.
The two obvious choices were whether to recall the experienced Daly Cherry-Evans after a three-year Origin hiatus or blood young superstar and 2016 Dally M Rookie of the Year, Ash Taylor.
Opinions were evenly split between the pair, with journalists and ex-players overwhelmingly in support of a Cherry-Evans return to Origin.
On the other hand, fans were quite scathing with their assessments of Cherry-Evans and overwhelmingly supported the move to debut Ash Taylor in the dead rubber fixture, with an eye to the future.
At the conclusion of Origin 2 in Sydney, a disastrous performance from Ben Hunt and a New South Wales series victory would have had Ash Taylor licking his lips at the prospect of Queensland’s number seven jersey becoming available.
Unfortunately for Taylor, it was quite evident in his performance the weekend before the Queensland team was announced for Origin 3, the pressure of high expectations had got to him.
It certainly looked as if he was desperate for an Origin spot, overplaying his hand, trying too hard to execute low percentage plays and showing a lack of patience.
Once team selections were made public and it was announced that Cherry-Evans had been selected ahead of him, the motivation for Taylor was to prove to the selectors that they had made the wrong choice, but again the pressure was too much and he produced another frustrating performance.
Taylor is often compared to fellow young gun, Nathan Cleary. Cleary was fortunate enough to capture the Blues’ halfback spot for this year’s Origin series. This doesn’t mean Cleary is a better player than Taylor.
(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
Ash Taylor finished first for try assists in 2017 and at the time of this writing, leads the competition in try assists thus far in 2018. The kid can play.
The obvious difference between the two is Cleary has the luxury of being the son of Ivan Cleary, who has almost 500 games combined experience as player and head coach.
He’s a part of a Panthers system led by Phil Gould, a man whose record speaks for itself and has arguably more rugby league knowledge than anyone else involved in the game.
He’s also had the privilege of playing alongside senior players such as Peter Wallace and James Maloney who both have a plethora of big match experience.
Ash Taylor on the other hand, came into a Gold Coast Titans system which was a basket case at the time, he didn’t have the players with big-match experience around him.
He suffered a tumultuous 1.5 years playing alongside Jarryd Hayne and all the distractions that came with his signing.
He’s also played under an experienced, yet unsuccessful coach in Neil Henry and now a rookie mentor in Garth Brennan.
Taylor needs help ascending to the next level. He requires guidance with what is required to become an Origin player.
Do the Titans look to employ a halves coach, in a role similar to what Andrew Johns has contributed to many clubs?
Does somebody like Scott Prince or Johnathan Thurston at season’s end put their hand up and offer to help with Taylor’s development?
Perhaps he needs another stint in Queensland’s pre-season camp, with a prime focus of working on his weaknesses and providing a clear path on what he’s required to do in order to be considered for future selection.
Whatever the solution, Ash Taylor needs a mentor.
It would be inconceivable if a player of his talent, is unable to reach his full potential.
Graham
Guest
That does sound like the ideal mentor
Adz Sportz
Roar Guru
Matty Johns does seem to have the runs on the board when it comes to successfully mentoring young halves. I watch a lot of Matty Johns on Fox League and he's very knowledgeable about the game, especially the pros and cons of the modern day structures that are taught to young halves.
Joe
Roar Rookie
Forget Andrew Johns....if its halves mentoring he needs than Brennan needs to send him to the other Johns brother Matty. You've asked a very good question there about the NSW halves that Andrew Johns has coached. Well the best 'self made' half in the game Cronk was mentored by Matty Johns. Munster when he need to transition from fullback to halves went to Matty for mentoring as well as Hughes who is now playing halfback for the Storm...not to mention Croft and Jacks. I think Taylor would benefit from a stint this off-season with Matty. Matty doesn't really change style a player plays...just uses their strengths and more importantly hammers down game management and decision making issues.
thomas c
Guest
Like the idea. But they'd need someone that fit the playing style. Andrew Johns seems surprisingly technical, able to breakdown play in real time and discuss weight transference and foot angle in terms of impacting defensive weakness. But other classic halves are pure instinct or maybe can't describe their mental process.
Forty Twenty
Guest
Manly had three halves emerge in the 80's who were pretty handy. The most gifted of the three was Phil Blake and anyone who saw him in his first couple of years at Brookvale Oval will never forget it. The best thing I've seen at that ground. The other two Toovey and Hasler went on to play for Australia and win a title or two. Another thing you don't forget from that era was the determination and toughness of these two. Ash Taylor has them well and truly covered for talent but so have plenty of halves over the years. Hasler in particular built a career on fitness , desire and toughness. Taylor needs a dash of Toovey and Hasler in his game. Fulton was tough and skillful but he couldn't mentor Phil Blake into an Australian team.
Don
Roar Rookie
The Broncos never thought that they would lose Hunt. I think Kodi was supposed to play the old Ben Hunt role and come on at hooker to inject some speed and creativity at dummy half. And then they recruited Jack Bird to play 5/8 maybe with a plan to move Milford to half? It was hard to see that working... When they are “on” Milf and Kodi are dynamic. But when you need to get repeat sets, apply constant pressure and grind a team down they are not the pair to do it. It’s not helped by the fact the hooker hasn’t got a good short kick in his arsenal either.
Graham
Guest
Definitely It might not help that lockyer is a selector who was practically a mistake free selector who often played percentages
Graham
Guest
Its not just.a great kicking game he is also near the top for line break assists
Nat
Roar Guru
Kevvie was the one guiding Milford and Hunt to the '15 GF, then he took the Qld gig. Those two were supposed to be the combo for the next 5yrs so Bennett lets Taylor go (while contracted). Not sure if Kodi was ever supposed to be the starting half, more an attacking utility but since Hunt took the big offer... He's good/instinctive but still learning the management role that comes with the position. .
Adam
Roar Guru
Don't get me wrong I rate the team's performance over that time. I was more talking about the halves mentoring that was meant to be irresistible for someone like Ash Taylor. Because the way I see it Milford and Nikorima are probably the most naturally talented halves pairing in the competition and should really be shutting the gate on most teams
Adz Sportz
Roar Guru
He really is the type of player who will have 2-3 brain explosions, make an error or 2 but will also produce 4 try assists and the match winning field goal all in the same game. Perhaps taking the risk and selecting him for Qld/Aus will bring out the best in Ash, being a part of those professional environments with world class players around him
Adz Sportz
Roar Guru
Some fair points. Although from my perspective, Taylor is probably gifted with more natural talent than any half, with the exception of perhaps Maloney and Cleary, than any other half NSW has produced since Joey. Pearce for example is a great clubman, won a premiership with a team of champions around him, a very good player in his own right, but I think Ash is more skilful than Pearce, but doesn't have his experience or his luxury of playing with a great team with a great coach and a winning culture when he was with the Roosters. Those other names mentioned, I think Joey and JT are the rare exceptions. Cronk had the privilege of being part of an excellent system at the Storm lead by arguably the best coach of this century. Stuart, Fittler, Daley etc all played with experienced players around them at strong successful clubs. It's not a case of Ash needing someone to hold his hand to the top, more like an experienced ex-half who can sit down with him for 1 session a week, dissect his most recent game and his game as a whole and discuss areas where he can improve etc
Nat
Roar Guru
Last 3? Prelim final, Semi Final and Grand Final. I can give you 12 other teams who would like to be in that world.
Adz Sportz
Roar Guru
The Taylor/Roberts combination was going quite well before Hayne came to town. In my opinion, it looked quite obvious that Hayne was a bad influence on Taylor, especially on the field. Getting into his ear too much, perhaps over calling him for the ball. I could be wrong, but it's certainly what it looked like. Word is the Brimsom is being groomed to be the Titans next long term option as fullback. So eventually Taylor will need a new halves partner, perhaps someone with big match experience
John
Guest
"Someone outside his immediate circle needs to look at Taylor objectively and work out what form of support is best for him." That's the interesting part, last year he would have had Garth's ear. Since Garth is the coach this year, you wonder if he found a replacement for what Garth would have brought?
Adam
Roar Guru
And how well has mentoring at the Broncos gone over the past few seasons? The halves pairings at the Broncos over the last 3 seasons has hardly set the world alight.
Adam
Roar Guru
4. learn some patience and stop trying to force a big play all game
Don
Roar Rookie
Good story Brian. Forget that the Broncos actually gave Ash Taylor permission to seek a spot at other clubs whilst still contracted as they believed Hunt and Milford would be their long term halves pairing. Maybe he would have learned some halves play under Kevin Walters’ limited stints at the Broncs but he wasn’t going to learn game management from Milford or Hunt, both of whom clearly aren’t competent in that area.
Albo
Guest
Spot on Forty Twenty !! Taylor does not need any mentoring, he just needs to work on the weaknesses in his game, that he would be fully aware of already. Right now I think he is rather overrated by many, purely on the back of his very good short kicking game that produces these great try assist figures. But this is only a small part of what would make him a great halfback . He has plenty of deficiencies in his game. My mentoring advice to him would be threefold : 1. Lose some weight and increase your mobility to run with the ball to add variety to your game. 2. Hit the tackling bags to improve your at times, dodgy defence. 3. Adjust your first receiver positioning and runners timing so as to eliminate so many forward passes and wasted hit ups. Get the teamwork right. Basically, keep working on improving your game with personal development of your skills and game control, and in combination with your improving Titans team mates.
Brian
Guest
He had the opportunity to do that at the Broncos, instead he jumped on the Titans' mega dollars without considering the downside, which is him being THE man in a horrible side whilst simultaneously having to learn how to actually play the game. If QLD RL hire a specialist coach for him it will be a rort.