Match Discussion: Round 21 vs Eels @ Bankwest Stadium

[Knight Vision]

I mentioned this last week to a pretty frosty reception, but I agree with you. He had a hot run of form when Ponga got here, and nothing since the opposition figured that play out.

he makes little contribution and only makes up the numbers most of the time. Has few errors but vanilla stats to say the least. Glasby MK II .

At least Barny is having a right old crack and consistently makes more yardage, aggressive in D.

We notice Barny more because of the odd error or missed tackle because he is in the game having a go. .

 

[mozza91]

We’re blaming Klemmer now? What the f**k is wrong with our fanbase?

 

[Spot On]

Klemmer is about the only player not to have gone backwards - yet.

 

[Loose Cannon]

We’re blaming Klemmer now? What the f**k is wrong with our fanbase?

“We” is a strong term.

 

[perverse]

he makes little contribution and only makes up the numbers most of the time. Has few errors but vanilla stats to say the least. Glasby MK II .

At least Barny is having a right old crack and consistently makes more yardage, aggressive in D.

We notice Barny more because of the odd error or missed tackle because he is in the game having a go. .

Agreed, and I'm not even a Barney fan... but at least he has a genuine crack and imposes himself on a match. Fitz sits in his corridor and doesn't affect a match in the slightest unless Kalyn puts him in a gap (which is rare as f**k in 2019).

As you said, I think he escapes criticism because he doesn't do anything glaringly or obviously wrong.

 

[Loose Cannon]

2 tries from 2/4 well placed kicks all season from Pearce, and Barnett freakish stuff.

That is our season.

Rely on that sh*t.

Got the Titans covered for the spoon, but will lose Old Boys day.

Apologies.

Watching the replay, Ponga kicked the second.

 

[Silent Knight]

Hello darkness my old friend...

 

[Spot On]

Pffft, our season went down the toilet weeks ago.

I'm done. Time to burn it all down, salt the earth, and start a new rebuild.

Just absolutely putrid tonight. A half decent 10 minutes surrounded by 70 of absolute puke

Are you ok, mate?

This whole saga seems to have broken you.

Do you need someone to talk to? There are brilliant phonecounseling services available

 

[Knight76]

Early season "experts" tipping us top 4, certainly top 8.

Ain't it great now being one of the mathematical mob.

The main difference tonight was their kicking game compared to ours. Whenever they got near our line, they may not have been able to break the line to score, but there end of set attack kicks were leagues better than ours. As was their long kicking game and medium as well for that matter.

Pearce really is not doing the fundamental things right that a team needs from their half to put a good end to sets whether that be finishing on our 40 or their 20. 4 forced drop outs to 1! When we do get down their end and have a chance to build some pressure, our end of set option is invariably poor. Watching Parra attack our line I was comfortable our D would hold them out, but when the last arrived I was nervous everytime due to their potent kicking.

Ponga - Outstanding talent but if he wants to command 1.5mil a year he needs to be the complete player which he isn't there yet. His kicking options when he gets the ball on the last, are generally poor, and he has the occasional rush of blood early in the tackle count and puts a kick through, generally just handing the ball back to the opposition when we had a whole set at them. Tonights game really needed a flash of Ponga brilliance to get the Knights the win but when receiving kicks with open field to run at, he canters along looking for someone 30m away to give the ball to.

We conceded 8 penalties to their 4 so got done again, hard to secure field position and get on the front foot when your consistently giving the opposition free sets. Another 8 errors for the match on top of that and our completions at 80% vs 89 for them and thats the ball game.

The energy was there tonight, the execution wasn't. Pearce and Ponga for mine are the two most responsible for our fortunes, so shoulder most of the blame.

 

[Bartwah]

Wish we had 15 other players with the heart of this bloke. I’m gutted for him more than anything

 

[Zoidberg]

Wish we had 15 other players with the heart of this bloke. I’m gutted for him more than anything

That’s how it appeared to me watching it live, nothing to do with the scuffle in the last minutes, he was gutted we lost and season is done.

 

[Swarzey]

Look at that. Klemmer is so f**king pissed off at the state of the team that he's not even waiting until it's private to let Saifiti know what he thinks about it. Keep getting told everything is fine but when I see that, I can't help but wonder what they're watching.

Shits f**king broken.

 

[aqua_duck]

Early season "experts" tipping us top 4, certainly top 8.

Ain't it great now being one of the mathematical mob.

The main difference tonight was their kicking game compared to ours. Whenever they got near our line, they may not have been able to break the line to score, but there end of set attack kicks were leagues better than ours. As was their long kicking game and medium as well for that matter.

Pearce really is not doing the fundamental things right that a team needs from their half to put a good end to sets whether that be finishing on our 40 or their 20. 4 forced drop outs to 1! When we do get down their end and have a chance to build some pressure, our end of set option is invariably poor. Watching Parra attack our line I was comfortable our D would hold them out, but when the last arrived I was nervous everytime due to their potent kicking.

Ponga - Outstanding talent but if he wants to command 1.5mil a year he needs to be the complete player which he isn't there yet. His kicking options when he gets the ball on the last, are generally poor, and he has the occasional rush of blood early in the tackle count and puts a kick through, generally just handing the ball back to the opposition when we had a whole set at them. Tonights game really needed a flash of Ponga brilliance to get the Knights the win but when receiving kicks with open field to run at, he canters along looking for someone 30m away to give the ball to.

We conceded 8 penalties to their 4 so got done again, hard to secure field position and get on the front foot when your consistently giving the opposition free sets. Another 8 errors for the match on top of that and our completions at 80% vs 89 for them and thats the ball game.

The energy was there tonight, the execution wasn't. Pearce and Ponga for mine are the two most responsible for our fortunes, so shoulder most of the blame.

Whilst I agree Pearce and Ponga need to shoulder a lot of the blame I think the coaching isn't up to scratch either. The gameplan has not evolved beyond one out running, quick PTB and then pass to Ponga and hope for the best. We can accuse the players of not executing the game plan but the past 2 weeks it doesn't actually look like we've had much of a gameplan. I mean last night we literally did not manage a single line break in 80 minutes, the past 2 weeks we've scored 3 tries total, 2 off cross field bombs and one individual effort from Ponga, it became obvious how one dimensional our attack is in the last 10 minutes when we were chasing points, we couldn't even get past halfway and we never even tried to chance our hand on the last. There seems to be zero cohesion in attack, we shift the ball out wide when we run out of ideas instead of because there's any real opportunity, we don't have any athletes out wide that can actually create something or make the most out of a half chance. We don't have any forwards that can create something out of nothing in terms of being able to break the line with footwork or sheer power nor do we have a forwards who can create an opportunity with an offload

 

[Burns]

Look at that. Klemmer is so f**king pissed off at the state of the team that he's not even waiting until it's private to let Saifiti know what he thinks about it. Keep getting told everything is fine but when I see that, I can't help but wonder what they're watching.

Shits f**king broken.

Makes me sad.

 

[Bartwah]

Look at that. Klemmer is so f**king pissed off at the state of the team that he's not even waiting until it's private to let Saifiti know what he thinks about it. Keep getting told everything is fine but when I see that, I can't help but wonder what they're watching.

Shits f**king broken.

Wait, where did this happen? I must’ve missed it

 

[Zoidberg]

No charge for Ponga’s “shoulder charge”. Can’t believe how many idiots on Facebook think it was.

 

[Knight Vision]

Whilst I agree Pearce and Ponga need to shoulder a lot of the blame I think the coaching isn't up to scratch either. The gameplan has not evolved beyond one out running, quick PTB and then pass to Ponga and hope for the best. We can accuse the players of not executing the game plan but the past 2 weeks it doesn't actually look like we've had much of a gameplan. I mean last night we literally did not manage a single line break in 80 minutes, the past 2 weeks we've scored 3 tries total, 2 off cross field bombs and one individual effort from Ponga, it became obvious how one dimensional our attack is in the last 10 minutes when we were chasing points, we couldn't even get past halfway and we never even tried to chance our hand on the last. There seems to be zero cohesion in attack, we shift the ball out wide when we run out of ideas instead of because there's any real opportunity, we don't have any athletes out wide that can actually create something or make the most out of a half chance. We don't have any forwards that can create something out of nothing in terms of being able to break the line with footwork or sheer power nor do we have a forwards who can create an opportunity with an offload

Good points but do you really think the game plan changed from our 6 game winning streak to now ?

What we've seen in the last few weeks is early season Pearce, the usual SOO Pearce. A passive passenger, the half back who, with little game awareness, failed to target Thurston with one arm, the half back who sat back and let Maloney steer HIS side to a GF win.

It is Pearce's job as Captain and half back to lead with energy and to create, second half in particular his kicks were predictable, zero creativity, constantly kicked to the right corner with the same result each time. He is the man calling the plays, he's the guy responsible for running the team. He barely looked interested.

The teams mental toughness is perfectly matched with that of its Captains.

 

[Knight Vision]

No charge for Ponga’s “shoulder charge”. Can’t believe how many idiots on Facebook think it was.

That its even being talked about should ring alarm bells throughout those who love the game. I understand the media need drama and controversy but given the NRL's propensity for reactive management to media reporting, the media need to be careful they dont ruin the great game.

It will be touch footy soon.

 

[Yosh]

Do we have a game plan?

It's all good blaming Pearce but every 5th tackle kick that goes straight to the fullback but 90% of his kicks were from out half. Our forwards made like 30m a set and were dominated most of the time. It's not the lack of talent but the lack of variety. We literally just run one up. If we from the forums got together, we could defend against the Knights.

Pearce had two attacking kicks and one went too far but the other was a try assist.

The one time Watson got clear and had the day defenders on the back foot, Pearce got a good kick in between fullback and wing.

Get some variety into our attack, one prop passing to the other, the forward running one two passes out or some dummy runs and we will see Pearce play well again.

Another problem is the defense. We were dominating defensively for those six weeks but that's gone now... We defended well ten minutes and that's when we scored..

Get some attacking and defensive structure and we will have our players dominate.

 

[Knight Vision]

Another problem is the defense. We were dominating defensively for those six weeks but that's gone now... We defended well ten minutes and that's when we scored..

For those beautiful 6 weeks are defense was a form of attack- it was good to watch.