Even as third tall he needs to sort out a lot of things about his own game. It’s not the quality of his opponent that makes him lose contests it’s him.
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Pick 63, 2017 Ben Miller - Welcome to Tigerland.
- Thread starter an_oxford_man
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I was finally convinced last year that he a genuine reliable tall but boy has he fallen away back half of this year. As others say probably a symptom of the demise of the whole on field quality. But plenty he can work on himself.
Agree - he’s 198cm & athletic & generally coordinated. But he gets lost in positioning too often. Loses touch/bearings with opponent & has no idea where the ball is. That’s disastrous.
While this is true, some of his efforts where he gets pushed out of the way are simply woeful. Really needs to improve this aspect of his game.
Has the tools, needs to learn how to use them.
DS
I think it is a coaching issue That is, he watches his opponent to much and not the ball. All gun backs watch the ball first and have an awareness of there opponent second.
Miller is a big man, a big unit, a co ordinated player for his size, has decent skills,
But he has hardly any physical presence. You dont notice him the way you should notice him.
He needs mongrel in him, he needs to go at the footy and the contested pack at the footy mot waiting for ther ball to come to him.
Too many Tigers players wait for the footy weay too many reactive players no t enough pro active players.
Pro Active players and a pro active game plan brought the RFC 3 flags,.
Needs to up his presence and go harder at the footy.
But he has hardly any physical presence. You dont notice him the way you should notice him.
He needs mongrel in him, he needs to go at the footy and the contested pack at the footy mot waiting for ther ball to come to him.
Too many Tigers players wait for the footy weay too many reactive players no t enough pro active players.
Pro Active players and a pro active game plan brought the RFC 3 flags,.
Needs to up his presence and go harder at the footy.
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I have wondered if it was a gameday / coaching thing where our players stand off instead of attacking the pill. It has been noticeable for a greater part of the season to forget
Big summer for Ben , he’s drop of in form over the second part of the season has left his spot in the 22 for rd 1 venerable imho, if Gibcus wasn’t coming back from a knee I’d say Miller would be out .
Plenty of possible options to replace Miller on the list , hopefully Benny gets his mojo back
Plenty of possible options to replace Miller on the list , hopefully Benny gets his mojo back
This last season he has improved out of sight overall so lets hope we see further improvement over the close season. He can do it especially if someone changes his mindset
Biggest queries ive had on Ben’s career has been his commitment at the high ball , thought he improved dramatically early in the season , no doubt a coincidence, however after his contract extension imho he dropped of his intensity
He’s going to have to be Rance 2 for the first month next season then.
Doubt that will happen, ideally he would be a depth player but that won’t be the case for a couple of seasons
Both Dave and Dylan had great marking judgement and could manouvre opponents out of the way to take defensive marks. Miller is not good at these skills. He's been with us long enough to see them so is it a coaching issue? Perhaps he should stick to defensive spoiling for a while with a 'golden fist' like Rance used to do?
Overall I think Ben's had a decent season & has been one of our most improved players.
Playing in our backline this year has been a challenge for even our best.
Stalwarts Broad, Vlastuin &
It's been such a disjointed season with players being shuffled in & out.
Miller has taken on some big roles this year, probably above his pay grade to be fair.
My hope is that he'll be better for the amount of work he's had this year.
He's played 21 games in 2024. Previous best was 13.
I always hark back to what our previous Premiership defences talked about & that was playing a lot of games together as a unit & building trust in team mates so they didn't even have to think. Even the most challenging of circumstances they could work their way out of trouble.
Rebuilding a defence like that is going to take time & experience. Yet we're still on the tail end of what was..
This holds true not just for the defenders, but both the mid and forward groups as well, then add to that the connection and understanding that the defence has with the mids and the mids with the forwards for the field transition process. Much of the games are played virtually by instinct these days, that's why coaches rarely make much in the way of tactical moves on game day, it *smile* with the positioning, structure n system that they drill over and over again.
We got the pleasure of watching what happens when massive injuries rip apart any possibility of properly initiating any structures and systems all year long. We were basically forced to use every player on our senior list while having only 1 player play the entire season. Even a Carlscum has wobbled n virtually fallen out of flag contention because of their injury issues, just barely arsed their spot into the finals. Smelbourne, niggles to Gawn, Brayshaw gone from their mid while Clarry has struggled with his issues n then Peetracca = massive mid field problems, chuck in some Lever n May injuries n the years turned to *smile*.
Structure's a little bit wonky, players aren't quite in the spot they're supposed to be in, players hesitate for a half second because someone's stagnant when they should be moving, players begin to lose a little trust in what they're supposed to be doing. There's a hundred things can go wrong n it doesn't take much to end up looking fairly incompetent in a hurry.
All the coaches have their preferred game styles that they drill down into their players over a few years and then if it's a little new or innovative and most importantly they have the overall talent and discipline to execute properly. They play finals n chase flags.
Moggies high speed n control flicking the ball around for 500 possessions per game.
Clarko's cluster to strangle and pinch a flag, then his old fashioned hard nut horrible hawks, with a batch of premium players.
Lyon's control system that couldn't quite get him a flag with the Saints ( good list ) never worked well at the Frockers ( moderate list )
Dimma's chaos theory, just get it forward n lock it in.
Mitchell n whatever he's got the Hawkers doing these days, all of a sudden it's clicked n they're barn storming this year
I have been a long time supporter of Ben Minson. I rate him now a likely delist in 25 or 26. And sincerely hope we have better prospects by then.
As for Young and Whatsisface they look like Clarke potatoes to me. And miles worse than Minson. Leading to another thread.
As for Young and Whatsisface they look like Clarke potatoes to me. And miles worse than Minson. Leading to another thread.
