Round 5 V Eels

[Abacus]

If we were playing our best footy in round 5, I'd be worried.

To be able to say we're 4 from 5 and not playing our best footy - that's got to be fairly unique for fans of this club.

 

[martielang]

I know I’m going against the grain but I still don’t mind Peach at 6, he’s not playing the standard 6 role, more just an extra running lock, but given we’re playing mostly up the middle it’s still effective.

While our execution was poor yesterday, I personally didn’t look at the game & wonder where we were going to find our points, like we all did for large parts last year. We just dropped a lot of ball & hardly had any field position that second half.

 

[mxlegend99]

Its easy to know where our points will come from. Penalty goals.

1 try a piece against Eels. We won by 6 on penalty goals. Same story in Round 1.

We easily have the best goalkicking team in thr competition. What is it... 1 miss between Cleary and Maloney in 5 rounds? And that miss was a stupid penalty goal to attemp considering the streak Cleary was on.

 

[franklin2323]

I know I’m going against the grain but I still don’t mind Peach at 6, he’s not playing the standard 6 role, more just an extra running lock, but given we’re playing mostly up the middle it’s still effective.

While our execution was poor yesterday, I personally didn’t look at the game & wonder where we were going to find our points, like we all did for large parts last year. We just dropped a lot of ball & hardly had any field position that second half.

May is our backup half and injured. So 2 out of our top 3 halves are out. Anyone's attack will suffer in those circumstances

 

[franklin2323]

Before yesterday we had won 9 out of last 36 at that hole of a ground.

2016 - lost to WT there
Last year smashed by Souths there. Lost to Parra. Beat dogs
Then of course this year lost to the dogs this year.

Given the players falling over. Dropped ball etc maybe the grass is longer there or something. Who knows

Add to that Cummins/Perenara refs and that win is the same as a 50 point win

 

[Abacus]

I know I’m going against the grain but I still don’t mind Peach at 6, he’s not playing the standard 6 role, more just an extra running lock, but given we’re playing mostly up the middle it’s still effective.

While our execution was poor yesterday, I personally didn’t look at the game & wonder where we were going to find our points, like we all did for large parts last year. We just dropped a lot of ball & hardly had any field position that second half.

Can't agree with you on Peach. Mind you, if Blake is not out injured next week I think we persist with it.

It seems that Peach starts to struggle fitness-wise in the last 20 minutes or so. Last week there were 3 or 4 lazy attempts to tackle where he just stuck a hand out.Yesterday he seemed to be blowing hard and struggling to get onside.

Agree with you regarding our general play. We seem to have more structure - having Yeo and Kikau on the edges certainly helps stretch the opposition's defensive line. Hopefully we'll see a few more gaps closer to the middle as a result.

If we can get the back 3 back to relatively mistake free, the rest of the team seems to be doing their job well.

 

[betcats]

Luai or Egan HAS to start while Nathan is out. That attack was awful. Jimmy needs to be better

Maloney was good you and mx are ridiculously harsh. Maloney landed every Knick on a dime,every bomb came down within a metre of the try line and he defended really well, scored half our points and set up the try.

Crichton doesn’t look like a first grader? He’s slotted in seemlessly, what mistakes has he made that our other experienced wingers never make?

 

[Abacus]

Its easy to know where our points will come from. Penalty goals.

1 try a piece against Eels. We won by 6 on penalty goals. Same story in Round 1.

We easily have the best goalkicking team in thr competition. What is it... 1 miss between Cleary and Maloney in 5 rounds? And that miss was a stupid penalty goal to attemp considering the streak Cleary was on.

I agree. Its good to see us taking the penalty goals. Puts pressure on the other team when we take the first 2 points and then keep taking them as they come along.

And to be fair, the penalty goals were taken 1) first points of the game, 2) the last play of the 1st half, and 3) to take the team to a 6 point lead in the last 5-10 minutes of the game. Hard to argue these tactically.

More possession and less errors should see us produce more tries.

 

[franklin2323]

Maloney was good you and mx are ridiculously harsh. Maloney landed every Knick on a dime,every bomb came down within a metre of the try line and he defended really well, scored half our points and set up the try.

Crichton doesn’t look like a first grader? He’s slotted in seemlessly, what mistakes has he made that our other experienced wingers never make?

He has made less mistakes than Mansour and Edwards have over the same time.

 

[umina panther]

Maloney was good you and mx are ridiculously harsh. Maloney landed every Knick on a dime,every bomb came down within a metre of the try line and he defended really well, scored half our points and set up the try.

Crichton doesn’t look like a first grader? He’s slotted in seemlessly, what mistakes has he made that our other experienced wingers never make?

Just doesn't look powerful or fast. Completely non threatening but he has been safe. He's only a kid and will improve but I just don't see a long first grade career for him

 

[franklin2323]

I agree. Its good to see us taking the penalty goals. Puts pressure on the other team when we take the first 2 points and then keep taking them as they come along.

And to be fair, the penalty goals were taken 1) first points of the game, 2) the last play of the 1st half, and 3) to take the team to a 6 point lead in the last 5-10 minutes of the game. Hard to argue these tactically.

More possession and less errors should see us produce more tries.

Hard to score points only having 45% possession

 

[Abacus]

Maloney was good you and mx are ridiculously harsh. Maloney landed every Knick on a dime,every bomb came down within a metre of the try line and he defended really well, scored half our points and set up the try.

Crichton doesn’t look like a first grader? He’s slotted in seemlessly, what mistakes has he made that our other experienced wingers never make?

Spot on re both players. I've not really noticed Crichton (apart from his hair flying around on hit ups), so he must be doing something right.

The past couple of weeks have started to show Maloney's value. Great work by Gus to get him to the club. In attack we're reliant on him and he's doing his job well defensively and through his kicking game.

 

[Abacus]

Hard to score points only having 45% possession

Agreed. We contribted to that through errors. Fix those up and we'll have more opportunity for more points.

 

[Abacus]

Just doesn't look powerful or fast. Completely non threatening but he has been safe. He's only a kid and will improve but I just don't see a long first grade career for him

Maybe, but doing a pretty fair job. Very early to call for a kid after 3 FG games.

 

[franklin2323]

Agreed. We contribted to that through errors. Fix those up and we'll have more opportunity for more points.

After we got the penalty goal we dropped the kickoff. 1st set after halftime messed the kick return. That sort of stuff kept us under the pump

 

[Abacus]

After we got the penalty goal we dropped the kickoff. 1st set after halftime messed the kick return. That sort of stuff kept us under the pump

At 1 point in the 2nd half (I think just after Merrin's offload that Maloney knocked on) I think we had 4/8 completed sets.
We did a lot of defence in our own 20 yesterday - I think it was mentioned as 40-odd tackles. I'll take a 12-6 win under those conditions.

 

[franklin2323]

At 1 point in the 2nd half (I think just after Merrin's offload that Maloney knocked on) I think we had 4/8 completed sets.
We did a lot of defence in our own 20 yesterday - I think it was mentioned as 40-odd tackles. I'll take a 12-6 win under those conditions.

Yep the whole game we were defending our line. Top 4 should be our aim so whatever gets a win while Cleary is out

 

[kinghippo]

One thing that hook has got right lately is the forward rotations ( apart from taking RCG off last 10, but to be fair he was looking pretty tired). Not trying to work 4 forwards into the game gives them all more minutes and it is working nicely.
Egan will get his time, and the game yesterday was a defensive slog fest not really suited to a rookie. Wallace had a pretty good game.
The peachy debate will be a thing all year, he did enough to be there again if needed but if a centre position is open it would be crazy not to move him.
A home game against the pantherette titans is as safe as it gets to put lua in or give Egan big minutes.

 

[OldPanther]

At 1 point in the 2nd half (I think just after Merrin's offload that Maloney knocked on) I think we had 4/8 completed sets.
We did a lot of defence in our own 20 yesterday - I think it was mentioned as 40-odd tackles. I'll take a 12-6 win under those conditions.

Same here. It's been good to see the improvement in defence. Last year we lose that game.

One thing that hook has got right lately is the forward rotations ( apart from taking RCG off last 10, but to be fair he was looking pretty tired). Not trying to work 4 forwards into the game gives them all more minutes and it is working nicely.
Egan will get his time, and the game yesterday was a defensive slog fest not really suited to a rookie. Wallace had a pretty good game.
The peachy debate will be a thing all year, he did enough to be there again if needed but if a centre position is open it would be crazy not to move him.
A home game against the pantherette titans is as safe as it gets to put lua in or give Egan big minutes.

I normally wouldn't agree with taking RCG off but I think the extra effort in defence gassed him. Looked absolutely wrecked when he came off.

 

[superpanther]

I agree, that type of dogfest game we would have lost previous years even under Ivan!!! I have not seen our forwards hit with so much impact since probably 2003