Noah Balta - Welcome to Tigerland | PUNT ROAD END | Richmond Tigers Forum
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Noah Balta - Welcome to Tigerland

Must be kept permanently in the backline
Developing Rance like qualities for sure
 
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Thought he was great again tonight, we'd be lost without him in the backline. Magnificent goal as well, made the distance easily from 55. That's 2 weeks running he's been superb.
 
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Form has increased due to being played permanently in defence

That's it 100%
Better for him and better for the team if he's a full-time full back and a zero time ruckman (but with permission to roll forward and kick the occasional booming goal of course)
 
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That's it 100%
Better for him and better for the team if he's a full-time full back and a zero time ruckman (but with permission to roll forward and kick the occasional booming goal of course)
Bloody ripper of a goal that covered 55metres with ease.
Short to kick out to Balta at CHB and let him have a ping at goal every now and then. That’d break it open :)
 
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That's it 100%
Better for him and better for the team if he's a full-time full back and a zero time ruckman (but with permission to roll forward and kick the occasional booming goal of course)
Yep. hopefully as experience builds will pick the perfect times to head downfield. Makes him even more a threat.
 
Bloody ripper of a goal that covered 55metres with ease.
Short to kick out to Balta at CHB and let him have a ping at goal every now and then. That’d break it open :)
He gets compared to Alex a lot, and it is a valid one with the role he plays and the way he plays it, but he’s got something Alex never had: that kick.
 
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Bloody ripper of a goal that covered 55metres with ease.
Couple of steps n a gentle toe poke, 50 metre goal. Now if only Noah could figure out how to consistently hit 30 metre passes that don't somehow go 40 metres it would be bloody brilliant.
 
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I really want to see him and Jack/Martin/Lynch work together because his ability to send the ball sixty metres with ease will really hurt defenders who will misjudge it most of the time. Would be great to have them work defenders under the ball when they look up and see it is Balta with ball in hand. Push up to create space at the back where no one thinks it is going. Then Boom! Balta hoofs it to the far goal post. Easy mark and goal.
 
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Rance wasn’t that great in his first 50 games plus even at his peak, he was challenged by the monster key forwards. He had poor games too & noticeably dropped away in the 2018 season including a really poor prelim.

He was/is the best Richmond key defender I’ve ever seen in 40 years of going (better than Francis Bourke), and it’s unfair & unrealistic to compare Balta to him.

Balta’s two great strengths as a key back are his marking (especially contested) & ability to match the monster key forwards. He’ll get better countering the lead as he gets more experience. We’re lucky to have him.
Both have similar qualities. The most significant is their position on team. Both hate to lose and would never give up.
Balta is nowhere near Rance ... yet.
 
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Balta really improved last season as the main brick in defence, he’s also been back to his best the last couple of weeks, on both occasions there’s been no DTLD in the team , appears to thrive with the responsibility
 
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