2016 R8 vs Canberra

[Ron's_Mate]

NRL: Tigers at crossroads after awful Raiders loss Jon Tuxworth
Published: April 23, 2016 - 9:44PM
The Wests Tigers' 60-6 thrashing by the Raiders in Canberra was as meek a surrender as it gets.
And coach Jason Taylor was in no mood for defending the lack of defence as his side crashed to a sixth consecutive defeat.
Two weeks ago after a loss at Newcastle, then their fourth on the trot, Wests Taylor fronted the media and urged his team to play tougher.
He got it from his troops last week despite losing to Melbourne in golden point, but the defeat proved too hard a mental barrier to overcome in the capital on Saturday.
The Raiders were always going to come out breathing fire after their coach Ricky Stuart put them on notice after last Sunday's 40-16 home loss to Cronulla, which came after a 36-6 loss at Parramatta.
The Tigers expected the backlash but the steely resolve they showed against the Storm was nowhere to be seen in the capital.
On Anzac Day weekend, they surrendered meekly. The soft underbelly that has hampered the young Tigers' progress was exposed again.
The Raiders ran for nearly 700 more metres as their forwards responded to the challenge issued by Stuart this week.
At the start of this year Taylor yielded to the request of his young playmakers Mitch Moses, Luke Brooks and James Tedesco to play with less structure and more freedom.
He took back the ownership after the shock loss to the Knights, but the bad habits returned against the Raiders.
Canberra piled on 38 unanswered points in the second half to register the sixth biggest win in the club's history, and their biggest over the Tigers.
Adding salt to the wound, the Tigers lost captain Dene Halatau (thumb) in the opening stages and centre Kevin Naiqama to a knee problem late.
They have just five days to find a solution to the defensive frailties before they face fellow strugglers Souths on Friday night.
"It wasn't good enough from us tonight, it was a game we were just completely outplayed physically, and it starts and ends there," Taylor said.
"We weren't here mentally, it's a really poor showing from us, we're better than that and the only thing we can do now is respond.
"We'll have a team out there ready to represent the Wests Tigers jersey in the fashion it should be represented, because it wasn't done tonight."
"We're working really hard and the guys have fought hard and been on the wrong end of some scorelines consecutively on the back of some poor decision making, but absolutely no lack of effort.
"We couldn't get up for this game, they were too big and strong for us and we couldn't pick ourselves up after last week's golden point game.
"Our fans deserve better, we play in five days' time against Souths and they're in the same boat as us. It's bloody tough."
The first three tries the Tigers conceded were off simple dummy half passes from Raiders hooker Josh Hodgson, and it didn't improve from there.
"We couldn't get ourselves up mentally for this challenge tonight. They were up for it on the back of some big losses and we couldn't go with them," Taylor said.
This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...after-awful-raiders-loss-20160423-godnc5.html

 

[Clifferd]

Addo Carr in state cup today - 3 tries

Michael Chee Kam - 2 tries playing centre

Josh drinkwater 1 try also 6/7 goals

Carr > Rankin
MCK > Lovett
Drinkwater > Moses/Brooks
And obviously Simona comes in for Milone is what id like to see

 

[macnaz]

Makes sense to all of us Clifferd.

 

[macnaz]

Taylors quote.
"We'll have a team out there that will be ready to represent the Wests Tigers' jersey in the fashion that it should be represented because it wasn't done in the fashion it should tonight."


So lets see how many of the same crew are there next week.

 

[Tigerted]

Clifford these changes must be made.

Drinkwater should come in for Brooks but there's no way in the world either one of the protected species 6 & 7 will get dropped.

 

[Tiger05]

I think at least one of the halves have to be dropped and more changes need to be made. JAC needs to come in. Some changes also need to be made to the forwards.

 

[Clifferd]

Anything other than a mass dropping of 4-5 players is a disgrace.
It's been long overdue to start dropping players who just aren't up to it, which was weeks ago

Bit hard on Lovett atm because he was one of only 3 or 4 players who tried their guts out yesterday.

 

[Tigerted]

Agree Lovett had a dig as he always does.One thing I've always liked about this kid is he always tries his best in contrast to a bludger with a bit of talent like sironen.

If Taylor doesn't make these obvious & necessary changes I suggest he submit his resignation Friday morning b4 he gets sacked.

 

[Tiger05]

Lovett really has a go but doesn't have any impact on the game. Impact to me can mean just putting a good solid hit on. He just basically makes up the numbers. He does try hard but I think we need more.

 

[Tigerted]

Unfortunately tiger05 Lovett is a nsw cup std player due to his lack of impact.Its a reflection of our poor roster that Kyle is in the 17 albeit he always puts in.

 

[Tiger05]

Unfortunately tiger05 Lovett is a nsw cup std player due to his lack of impact.Its a reflection of our poor roster that Kyle is in the 17 albeit he always puts in.

I agree. He doesn't seem to be an NRL level player at this point. I think some of this though comes down to Taylor. Pick Chee-Kam, Fine or someone else and see how they go.

 

[Tigerted]

Taylor has no further choice but to promote players like chee kam & JAC for the Souths game.We also need some forwards with grunt.I just don't know who in the forwards in nsw cup would best serve our NRL team.

An absolutely necessary change to the NRL side has got to be Littlejohn but it won't happen coz all hell will break loose @ camp concord leisure centre if either of the precious halves were dropped !

 

[Old Time Tiger]

Yes let's see how they go. Surely Aldo Carr and Chee Kam can claim to be juniors somehow.

Today they scored 5 tries between them.

It was an afternoon to remember for the Wests Tigers, as they put their stamp on the Intrust Super Premiership NSW competition with a convincing upset over the Wentworthville Magpies.

The Tigers left side completely tore the Magpies apart, with their centre-wing combination amassing five tries between them in the 40-14 showing.

Josh Addo-Carr scored a hat-trick in his return match from the NRL, while his centre Michael Chee Kam bagged a double himself with some brilliant service all afternoon by the in-form halfback Josh Drinkwater.

The victory is the Wests Tigers third for the season; while this was only the second time the Magpies have tasted defeat in 2016.

The Magpies coughed up possession around the halfway line in the early stages of the match, and the Tigers immediately capitalised on the field position with a Chee Kam try.

A penalty off the ensuing set followed by an error coming out of trouble let the Wests Tigers on the attack again on numerous occasions, and Drinkwater took advantage of the situation by putting in a nice cross-field kick behind the defence, only for Addo-Carr to reel it in with one hand and plant the ball down.

Drinkwater went incredibly close soon after with a show-and-go that almost broke the Magpies defence, before a couple of centimetres were the difference between a Manaia Cherrington try and a double movement on the next play.

The Tigers were at it again the next time they were on the attack, as Drinkwater threw a wonderful ball to put Chee Kam on the outside of his opposition defender, which created an over for Addo-Carr to bag his second try and increase their lead to 16-0.

Tries began to become clockwork for the Tigers, as in the 28th minute, Cherrington put in a neat grubber from dummy-half for Drinkwater to win the race to the ball, plant the ball down and increase the margin to 22.

In the 32nd minute, Addo-Carr recorded his hat-trick when he showed blistering speed and agility to grasp a Drinkwater cross-field chip on the run, evade the defence and get to the line.

The Magpies finally got on the board with five minutes remaining in the opening half thanks to Scott Schulte, who ran a perfect line onto a brilliant Mitch Cornish face-ball.

A freakish accident occurred off the kick-off set. Mitch Cornish sold a dummy on his inside to a charging Kaysa Pritchard, only for them to collide into each other’s legs, which caused a minor delay in the match shortly before the half-time break.

11 minutes into the second half, it looked like Bureta Faraimo had scored the Magpies second try, only to be stopped by some Matthew Eisenhuth cover defence that was nothing short of outstanding.

His good work was undone moments later, however, as the Tigers almost immediately coughed up possession and Honeti Tuha crossed in the opposite corner to reduce to deficit to 28-8.

Schulte scored the Magpies third consecutive try with a long-range effort off a scrum, and suddenly the momentum began to swing the way of the home side despite still trailing by 14.

The Tigers had not scored for a while, so they decided to revert to what worked for them so well in the first half. Josh Drinkwater put in another cross-field chip for Addo-Carr, who over-head threw the ball to Chee Kam for his second try of the afternoon.

To put the nail in the coffin in the dying stages of the match, Asipeli Fine crashed over after some nice lead-up play by Drinkwater, before a consolation try against the run of play to James Hasson made the final score 40-18.

 

[Ron's_Mate]

Wests Tigers coach Jason Taylor and players given five days to turn NRL season around Brad Walter
Published: April 24, 2016 - 10:00PM



The future of Wests Tigers coach Jason Taylor and a number of the club's players may be decided during the break for the NRL's representative round if the team's performance does not improve against South Sydney on Thursday night.
Despite five consecutive losses before Saturday's 60-6 capitulation in Canberra, Tigers chief executive Justin Pascoe said the club had been pleased with the effort and commitment of the team but the effort against the Raiders was "unacceptable" and couldn't be repeated.
"The standards that we hold ourselves to were not met and the whole coaching staff and playing staff now have four or five days to turn that around and prove to our fans that it really did hurt last night – as it should," Pascoe said. "We are expecting a huge improvement.
"Of our five prior losses, I believe that realistically we could have and should have won four of those games so, in terms of the overall season, while the win-loss ratio is not in our favour, the intent and effort and commitment through those first seven rounds has been at a standard we will continue to work with, but last night wasn't at that standard.
"[The players] are hurting and should be embarrassed about it. That level of performance, regardless of whether you get a win or loss, is unacceptable."
After starting the season with wins over the Warriors and Manly, the Tigers have lost to Gold Coast, Parramatta, Cronulla, Newcastle, Melbourne and Canberra but, before Saturday night, their biggest losing margin had been 12 points when beaten 30-18 by the Titans and last weekend they were defeated in extra time by the Storm.
Pascoe said there had been no indication such a heavy defeat was coming and Taylor and his players would be doing some soul searching to determine what had gone wrong.
From the opening try by Canberra back-rower Elliott Whitehead in the third minute, the Tigers were never in the game and the statistics from the match told the story as six Raiders forwards ran more than 100 metres with the ball, whereas prop Ava Seumanufagai was the only member of the Tigers pack to do so.
Clearly they are missing injured captain Aaron Woods up front but NSW hooker Robbie Farah is yet to experience a win in six matches with the Tigers this season and rookie halves Mitchell Moses and Luke Brooks were ineffective behind a beaten forward pack.
"We are not looking for excuses," Pascoe said. "They are doing some internal analysis and will continue to do so during the week but we were pretty confident going into the game that everyone's head was switched on and, if you have 100 per cent effort and commitment, you are not going to complain.
"We're really proud of what we have been able to achieve on and off the field over the past six months and how we have been able to establish and buy into all these standards, so to then go out last night and not achieve any of those standards was nothing other than disappointing and unacceptable."
While most of the blame for the performance has been directed at the players, Taylor is the man in the hot seat and another heavy defeat against Souths on Thursday night will see pressure on his job sky rocket.

With the Tigers having 18 days before their next match against Canterbury on May 15, that would be the obvious time to make decisions on retaining Taylor, Farah's future beyond this season and if Moses and Brooks are to be the club's long-term halves combination.
Moses and Brooks have until June to take up option clauses in their contracts for a 12-month extension and it is expected they would want to know who the coach would be next year before making a decision.
Fox Sports commentator Braith Anasta, a former Tigers player, said they "look like a team that doesn't have belief in their coach".
But former Australia captain Brad Fittler believed the players needed to be accountable.
"I think there were four or five tries scored from within five or six metres [of the try line]," Fittler told The Sunday Footy Show. "It doesn't show much commitment. It is not Jason's fault.They were not having a go there. It was just awful."
Todd Payten, Ivan Cleary and Geoff Toovey had been mentioned as possible replacements for Taylor but Pascoe insisted the club had not considered appointing a new coach.
"[Taylor] is contracted until 2017 and it is not one individual who creates yesterday's results, it is a collective force and everyone needs to stick together and work together to improve that and rectify that," Pascoe said. "We will continue as an organisation to add support and capability to the football department."
The Tigers welcome back centre Tim Simona from suspension for the match against Souths at ANZ Stadium.

This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...o-turn-nrl-season-around-20160424-godv72.html

 

[Old Time Tiger]

I deleted the game so can't go back to it. Looking at some of the player stats from the game:

Tackles / Missed tackles & previous weeks v Storm
Farah 41 / 3 & 45 /1
Sironen 37 / 3 & 34 / 1
Lawrence 36 / 1 & 38 / 2
Sue 33 / 1
Naiqama 33 / 3

Runs / Run metres
Moses 2 / 7 can someone say this isn't true, it's hard to believe & 4 / 31
Brooks 11 / 85 maybe madunit is right about him playing at 5/8 & 10 / 130
Milone 4 / 24 :roll: & 9 / 78


Interesting.

 

[Tiger05]

I deleted the game so can't go back to it. Looking at some of the player stats from the game:

Tackles / Missed tackles & previous weeks v Storm
Farah 41 / 3 & 45 /1
Sironen 37 / 3 & 34 / 1
Lawrence 36 / 1 & 38 / 2
Sue 33 / 1
Naiqama 33 / 3

Runs / Run metres
Moses 2 / 7 can someone say this isn't true, it's hard to believe & 4 / 31
Brooks 11 / 85 maybe madunit is right about him playing at 5/8 & 10 / 130
Milone 4 / 24 :roll: & 9 / 78


Interesting.

The stats are interesting because they take all the bullshit out of the situation that people go on with.

For instance Naiqama was great. Sironen wasn't bad defensively but his run metres were terrible. Brooks really had a go but Moses did nothing.

Robbie is not the player that he once was and he has some massive flaws in his game but you can't blame him for the loss unless you are appealing to the argument that Robbie runs the club and is white anting all the coaches.

 

[Old Time Tiger]

Give Me A Crack

Josh Drinkwater did not hold back when boldly declaring his ambition to play in the NRL.

Currently biding his time in the Wests Tigers Intrust Super Premiership NSW side, the crafty halfback walked off Ringrose Park yesterday with his head held high after yet another dominant performance, and made his intentions very clear.

"I want to play NRL, I’m ready to play NRL week in, week out.” Drinkwater said to NSWRL.com.au after his sides 40-18 victory over Wentworthville.

“If there’s a club out there looking for a halfback, I’m ready to go.”

There is little doubt that Drinkwater has the ability to play top-level Rugby League, backing up his stellar 2015 season with a strong start to the year.

Despite the Tigers only sitting in sixth position, Drinkwater has already formed successful combinations with new recruits Josh Addo-Carr and Michael Chee Kam, and they were on display at Ringrose Park yesterday.

Three perfect cross-field chip kicks led to three tries shared between Addo-Carr and Chee Kam, while he also had a hand in two more for the newly found pairing.

“Foxy [Josh Addo-Carr] is a weapon, he played NRL last week, so he’s full of confidence,” Drinkwater said.

“Chee Kam has come to left centre and he’s a great player, I’ve had Asipeli [Fine] on my side for two years now so we’re forming a good combination.”

“We are getting continuity with each other and the more we play with each other, the more our combinations are going to work and hopefully it builds.”

The win – orchestrated by Drinkwater – comes as a relief for the 23-year-old, whose side had strung back-to-back frustrating losses before their bye last week.

Drinkwater played a part in six of yesterday’s tries, however he was adamant there was significant room for improvement due to the fact the Tigers let the foot off the gas after leading 28-4 at halftime.

“We’ve come off a bye and a couple of losses, we spoke all week about getting a good performance in,” Drinkwater said.

“I thought we started really well, we completed most of our sets in that first half and that set it up for the game. We just got into a bit of habit [when] everything was working for us and that was never going to work for 80 minutes.

“We spoke at halftime that we had a lot of possession in the first half and a lot of things went our way, [and] that it’s going to even up. Unfortunately didn’t react to it, but we still came away 40-18 against Wenty who are coming second on the ladder, it’s a good result.”

With the Wests Tigers NRL team under-performing, it is refreshing to see a player from the club in such a key position in tremendous form, and the door for another first grade match is opening with every dominant performance Drinkwater puts forward.

http://www.nswrl.com.au/news/2016/04/24/give_me_a_crack.html

 

[Tigerm]

Well, at least the chooks got done, we live again (without the spoon) for another week.

 

[Tigerted]

The chooks next massive win is in round 13 against the team they own !

 

[Ron's_Mate]

Blame us for poor NRL form, not Jason Taylor: Wests Tigers players Michael Chammas
Published: April 25, 2016 - 8:36PM



Wests Tigers' senior players believe the pressure mounting on coach Jason Taylor is warranted but insist the players are to blame for the embarrassing loss to Canberra last weekend.
The Tigers have now slumped to six consecutive defeats after bursting out of the blocks with back-to-back wins to open the season, leaving a cloud over the future of Taylor heading into Thursday night's showdown against the out-of-sorts South Sydney.
Fairfax Media understands Taylor's job remains safe – for now – but a repeat of the unacceptable performance against the Raiders in the nation's capital could spell danger for the coach.
Despite recent close losses, Tigers powerbrokers have been quietly pleased with the attitude of their young side, but the capitulation against Canberra has given them cause for concern.
Vice-captain Dene Halatau understands the pressure building on Taylor but insists the playing group must accept the accountability for the shellacking at the hands of the Raiders. "I think he knows as a head coach that there's going to be pressure on him, especially when he has taken over a squad that a couple of years ago was in a similar sort of a hole," Halatau said.
"It was always going to be tough going. But he's a pretty positive guy. He doesn't let us show that he's under pressure. He turns up every day wanting to work and he expects the same from us. It's naturally going to come from the media, there's going to be pressure on him, but he wasn't out there on the weekend missing tackles and letting in tries. That's an effort thing from us. We said after the game we have to stick tight more so than in previous losses, because it was a pretty tough result to swallow."
Fellow vice-captain Chris Lawrence echoed the sentiment, labelling Thursday night's clash against South Sydney as judgment day for the Tigers.
Lawrence believes heads will roll if the Tigers don't aim up against the under-siege Rabbitohs at ANZ Stadium. "That's when changes have to be made," Lawrence said when asked what another big loss would mean.
"As players, if we can't rectify that and if we can't improve performances, all our heads are on the chopping block ... I think there has to be pressure on everyone. There's always going to be pressure on a coach regardless of what the scoreline is if it's a loss. Given it was such a bad loss, there's always going to be people under pressure.
"But, to be honest, it's got nothing to do with the coach. As players we have to take ownership of that performance and rectify it ourselves. We have to look at ourselves as individuals first. There's no point people pointing the finger or playing the blame game with the coach. It's us as players. We have to look at our own attitude."
There has been a suggestion Taylor has lost the support of the playing group, but Halatau insists that is not the case. "I've read that's the case but it's definitely not," he said. "We're all on board, we're all working together and we all want to win football games."
This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...lor-wests-tigers-players-20160425-goefqs.html