Wests Tigers playmaker Luke Brooks has all the potential — now he must realise it

LUKE Brooks has immense talent, and when the Tigers playmaker realises his full potential, he’ll be the Blues’ No.7. It’s time to go to the next level, writes MATTHEW JOHNS.

IT’S time for Luke Brooks to take his game to the next level.

I take special note of young playmakers. I watch how their game develops, how their confidence grows, how they handle periods of adversity, how they react when they get hit, get criticised or lavished in praise.

Luke Brooks has immense talent. I truly believe that when the Tiger’s playmaker realises his full potential, he’ll slot straight into the Blue’s No.7 jersey.

It’s time for Luke Brooks to deliver on his vast potential.

But the Tigers need Luke to take the next step in his career now, which is the ability and want to dictate contests.

Brooks too often allows the style of a contest to dictate his involvement.

For instance, if it’s a tight midfield battle, Luke will tend to drift out of the game, content to let the game continue in its form. If things aren’t going his way, he’s discouraged too easily.

Then other weeks the game will open fast and free-flowing, and Brooks is in the thick of the action, running, passing, chipping and never off the ball.

The great playmakers don’t allow themselves to be dictated to. They dictate the terms of the contest. It’s a learned skill, one playmakers develop as they gather experience.

The great Allan Langer dictated how the Broncos played right through the 1990s. Jonathon Thurston sets the agenda and the tempo every time he plays.

Manly’s Cliff Lyons couldn’t be discouraged. Cliffy took risks, one moment he’d throw a pass to nobody, the next he’d lay on the most beautiful piece of ball playing you’d ever hope to see. That was Lyons every week.

When you played Freddy Fittler you knew his greatest weapon was his huge left foot sidestep, and he knew you knew, but it didn’t stop him from using it.

Young Luke Brooks looks to be a real thinker — well of course he is, he’s a halfback. But maybe he thinks too much.

The modern game can be so structured. I can imagine a young playmaker finding it stifling.

To pull a team together into a structure takes a lot of thought and a lot of energy, and as a result I see so many modern playmakers being reluctant to venture outside the box.

As you get older, you view structure as a safety net, a guide. You venture away from it, and come back to it if things start to get a little loose.

In the modern game, with faster rucks and more tired middle defenders, a playmaker is disadvantaging himself and his team if he only plays within the structure, and most do.

Structure is slow. Few sides are capable of fast, structured football — Melbourne Storm and North Queensland Cowboys are exceptions. For the rest you see the big set piece coming from a mile away.

There’s a time and place during matches to put on the big structured set sequence, a tap start, maybe receiving a line drop out from a repeat set.

But in the current game, speed and footwork through the middle is king. The playmakers who terrorise the middle defenders and make them miss are getting the best results.

Luke Brooks has the perfect physique for this kind of football. Fast, thick through the hips, a great centre of balance.

I’d love to see Luke build his game through running the football as opposed to finessing it sideways. I guarantee, when your running game is firing, everything else will start to fall into place.

Brooks needs to become a leader on the field.

For young playmakers my advice is always this: get into the thick of the contest early, run the football, get hit a few times, hear yourself talking aggressively. Make a few mistakes, be a little guilty of youthful exuberance.

Enjoy yourself, don’t fret over the scoreboard. If you get beat, then make sure you go down fighting! Just don’t disappear from the contest.

I was extremely happy to see Luke Brooks and Mitchell Moses re-sign with the Tigers. This combination has enormous potential.

Mitchell has been one of the most improved players of 2016. His first year in first grade was difficult, while he had the skill, he lacked the physicality, but that has certainly changed.

Brooks and Moses should mean a great future for the Tigers.

While Luke Brooks looks an introspective, thoughtful character, Moses oozes self confidence. It’s a nice mix.

Much has been spoken about the Farah-Brooks-Moses on-field relationship. Can they make it work?

Of course they can, it has the potential to be one of the best attacking combinations in the NRL. They just need to work out how they get the very best out of each other.

On Friday night the Bunnies will want to play physical, while the Tigers will be desperate to play fast.

Luke, get out there and dictate terms.

Originally published as Wests Tigers playmaker Luke Brooks has all the potential — now he must realise it