First part of our season over - Review

[Eddie.]

I think its fair to Say when looking at the draw the first 7 rounds was certainly our best part of the draw.

Should we be happy with 3-3, 8 points??

Well i remember before the season started the general concensus was that we had to get at least 3 wins from our first 6 in order to ly a platform for the season. On one hand we could say were unlucky not to be on 10 or 12 points and leading the competition. on the other hand our victories against the sharks and cowboys were less than impressive and we certainly got them on the right day in terms of the quality of football they dished out. With the injuries we have had and the lack of combination with such a new team i think we should be thankful for the draw we got and be happy with 8 points.

Will injuries kill us off?

Well there certainly not helping. However i believe if our key players ( Hodgson, Prince, Sattler, Skandalis) in key positions remain healthy then we will still be a handful. if these guys start dropping it could get ugly

Who have been the standouts

Brett Hodgson - What we have been crying out for for a long time. Very reliable, well positioned, great support player. his confidence is back and he has improved with each game with his involvement level increasing all the time

Scott Sattler - i think Satts form has been outstanding. He has lead the team exceptionally in the absense of Senter and seems to be a real communicator constantly giving encouragment to younger players. I think he has proved to be more than a workhorse so far, seems to be a very strong player and has a solid passing game ( putting Hodgo through gaps a few times this year) and the ability to offload. Handy with dropouts and bombs as well. Been worth every sent, bought professionalism to the club

Jason Moodie - playing in a team not known for attacking prowess moddie has proved he is a CLASS winger. His tries against the cowboys were game breaking and done all of his own accord. A great leaper for the high ball, also knows when to come inside as a winger and pick up some good meters.

The Guys Improving

Scott Prince - Coming down from brisbane and coming off a string of injuries and a disrupted pre season Prince was never going to set the world on fire from the start. On sunday he showed what he can do when the forwards actually give him some TIME. has a good long kicking game, can throw some intelligent short passes. although inconsistent so far is starting to take the line on more.. needs to work on short game and getting repeat sets. i hope he is a career half for us

Bryce gibbs - The first couple of games gibbs proved to be a bit raw. Dropepd ball and concedding penalties. this was only though exuberence though and good to see has hasnt lost confidence or his aggressive style of play.

dissapointments

Dan Fitzhenry - ok in several positions, not good enough to consistently hold a spot in any, only still there through dreadful injury toll.

John Wilson - Where has last years form gone, he did feed alot of Fitzy grubbers but also showed ability to run good angles and hit holes. hes been very quiet and dissapointing

Ben galea - hasnt done much in 18 months now. Has become to much of a ball player when i beleive he is more of a ball runner


The next phase of our season...

Panthers (a)
Roosters (a)
Raiders (h)
Dogs (a)
Eels (h)
Strom (a)

How about that for a run :shock:

Need a couple of wins in those six

Acid test this week at penrith prk, to tell you the truth though im really looking forward to it and i think the boys will be fired up for a big one. i think it will be a close game..

 

[CULLUS.ONLINE]

Panthers (a) - winnable if we keep the role on from the manly game
Roosters (a) - we had luck last year, but doubt it will happen again. Then again, we were able to beat the broncos and the bulldogs away last year.
Raiders (h) - definatly a winnable game. They are a good side, but i personally belive that they are on par with the tigers
Dogs (a) - refer to roosters game
Eels (h) - at Leichhardt, we will win this one and MUST win this one. Showed that they were good in the first part of the year but have dropped off in the last few rounds
Strom (a) - tough, but fingers crossed

With Benji coming back hopefully he can add some spark in the halves (i am sure he will be bloody trying!!!!).

Panthers (a) - W
Roosters (a) - L
Raiders (h) - W
Dogs (a) - L
Eels (h) - W
Strom (a) - L

3 from 3 will see us running at 50% win rate WHICH IS ENOUGH to get you into the 8. After that we will have Senter, Payten and Richards back or close to coming back!

 

[HappyTiger]

I think realistically we need to win 2 of those games.As long as we are competitive in each game we'll be in with a shot.

 

[holla4amarshall]

i like what you say eddie although your a bit tough on fitzy
he's been making good metres in every game and he's dancing works if he has support. look at the berrigan try on the weekend lockyer done a fitzy shuffle and passed to gordy then went through hands and they score a 70m try
if we won the games when he was at 5/8 you would have left him there even if he played exactly the same game
our benhc will give us a shot v's panthers
hope we have no injuries

 

[bonstonker]

results wise i am pretty happy where we are at.my best case scenario was 4 wins and we should have won either the bunnies or broncos game.where we are on the ladder seems about right.

the reynolds injury might end up being our turning point in the season.this time for the better,as prince really came out of his shell and took it upon himself to get some positive results.
pre season i said prince takes 6-7 weeks to find his feet,he did at the broncos and cowboys after positional changes and instantly fired.so going on sunday,the prince is back and hopefully injury will not.

i also think that come from behind win was great for us mentally going into the next 8 weeks.we have been an overly conservative team so far and now have more confidence in the player beside them to try more moves and offloads.
we will be behind in alot of matches over the next 8 weeks but they will have more confidence in themselves to come back even if they are down 14 points with 15 to go against these teams.

we must win both home games and then hope for an upset win away.
i'll be happy with that,but more importantly we will need the injury gods to finally ease up on us and start attacking some teams who have got through pretty unscathed like the panthers,sharks,broncos,cowboys,bulldogs and raiders.

at least senter,payten,micky b and benji should all be coming back into the team during our tough stretch.
can't wait to see a prince and benji combo for over 12 weeks,that would be nice.

we can overcome this tough couple of months,but if we get a couple more key players injured, we will find it all too tough in the end.

 

[Mighty Tiger]

We where speaking to Senter on the weekend and he hopes to be back in 2 weeks time against the Roosters ;-)

 

[simon says]

Nothing against Daz,but we really need Payten,Benji and Richards back.Especially the first two.

Once we get Benji back we will have(what I believe to be)our halves combo sorted.Payten for that muscle up front,and Richards for the muscle out wide.

As previously stated,if the injury gods can take a rest,and we get these fellers back(especially Payten and Benji)I reckon we are going to be going OK.

But the next 6 weeks are going to be vital.Its not inconceuvable that we could lose all 6 and be on the same points we are on now and gone for the season.We must win 2.......and It would have to be out of Parra(who are beatable and at home),Raiders(also at home)and Dogs(who havent been going that well and are beatable even though they are on top of the comp.

So if we can be on ten-twelve after this stretch we are in busuness.6 we are finished.

 

[Snide the Tiger]

It is awful to have to concede that we are likely to benefit from the misery of an injured player - but you are right in saying that Reynolds injury could be the positive turning point of our season bonstonker!!

Prince just needs a good link man inside or outside him - not a bloke who runs sideways searching for straight runners that simply are not there!!

 

[bonstonker]

:lol:

reynolds being injured was a positive for prince,because it made him actually do something,but it is not positive that reynolds is out for the rest of the season.
prince was terrible for the first 6 weeks,and so were our forwards,yet reynolds is the problem. :roll:
what is wrong with reynolds drifting looking for support,i thought the backs were supposed to support their 5/8,not just stand their like a kangaroo in headlights. :roll:
by them doing nothing makes him an easy target,and as i have said for too many years,we do not have enough players in motion.
he has had no support from the forwards,no support from his outside backs and no support from a half who somehow gets applauded here,yet showed us nothing in 6 previous weeks.


the tigers were dominant only when we had all the ball and that was during our 4 try spree.
manly played perfect footy for the 1st 15min of the second half,then they dropped it on the 3rd tackle and then fell away.the next 15min was all tigers,we had all the ball and completed all 11 sets while manly had 6 sets and coughed up the ball on the 1st tackle twice and again on a 3rd tackle.

none of this had anything to do with reynolds being on or off the field.
i notice when ben was off the field in our other matches the tigers were not putting up any points.in the dragons game prince was moved to 5/8,not because reynolds sucked,but because prince sucked at half.

after saying all of that,if i said i was happy with reynolds this year,i would not be telling the truth.but i wouldn't be writing him off as a player like some have.

his defense has improved,and as i said in another post he is the best in the backline this year on tackles made and missed ratio and one of the best in the nrl for 5/8.
his kicking was not up to scratch but his attack was difinately hampered by his team mates.he did try to do too much at times,but seeing as his halfback wasn't willing to do much,you can't blame reynolds for trying to put some spark into the team,even with a non existent forward pack.

i am happy that reynolds injury made prince get more involved and gain some confidence,but i am not happy that reynolds growth has been hampered yet again and that we now have 1 less half in the club.

 

[vlad]

the game against the roosters will be less than 24 hours after the city v country clash and hopefully they'll have a few guys backing up.

Although we'll probably have 2 of our key players , Hodgo and Skando backing up too.

 

[OVP]

dont forget guys/girls, that the Tiges had the second best defence in the comp prior to this week, and i think you are 3rd all up now. Not a bad effort at all ... congrats and the very best of luck for the remaining games

We'll probably see u in the 8 i hope

 

[Suzie]

I hope you're right OVP