Four from Eleven, Griffin is a dead man walking.

[YoungPanther]

Not defending Hook because he carries ultimate responsibility for the rubbish we have been serving up.

I still believe missing Sauce has really hurt the team hugely.

Last year we had DWZ and then Sauce (or vice-versa) who shared the first 2 tackles and really bent the line. Amazingly enough, our 2 wingers have always run harder than our forwards. Now we don't have Sauce, our go forward is rubbish. Tamou has been soft, Latu isn't the same as last year and I believe all due to us not getting them going backwards early in the set. Even on Saturday Bryce had 2-3 on him every time and he made some bad errors due to the pressure. I think our forwards should be shouldering a lot more responsibility and the blame as well.

Again, this may be Hook's fault but we rely heavily on Sauce and DWZ for their go forward.

 

[Panther_Daz]

Griffin has changed the way we attack over the off-season.


Our attacking structure in the oppositions 20m line has no depth to it.


It is almost a straight line and that is the reason our first and second receivers keep getting caught with the ball.


We have the best centre in the comp at setting up his winger in Whare (look how good Simmons looked outside him). However he needs time and space to execute this. He has been tackled just 10 times in the past 2 weeks and most of those would be dummy half runs.


I watched the Sharks closely last week. When the ball was played under the posts the likes of Bird, Leutele and Feki were around the 30m line. They then had players running on to the ball, some running decoys and the halves had options.


We have a bunch of guys standing flat which gives our playmakers no options but to get tackled themselves. Look how many times Cleary and TMM were caught with the ball against the Storm. The Storm have the best line speed in the comp.


We only look good against defensive lines that don’t race up and are disorganised. That is why we carved up the Tigers and Knights. Even Hiku’s try on the weekend was because the Eels retreated and tried to show us the sideline. If they jammed up on the edges the ball would never have got to Blake who then passed it to Hiku.


There is no runners hitting a hole, no decoys, no options ‘out the back’ because we stand so flat and even our offloads have been coached out of the team.


Our NSW Cup team are playing the exact same way and they are struggling to score tries too.


We have no chance of beating any team who races up and jams us on the edges or have good defensive structure and organisation. Teams like the Sharks and Storm have worked us out. We have only scored 4 across the 4 games against the Dragons, Roosters, Storm and Sharks this year.


Last year we beat top 8 teams just 4 times. Broncos twice (one of which was 23-22), Titans 15-14 and Raiders 19-18 in Bathurst.


The reason we beat the Broncos twice as they tend to sit back in defence and don’t wrestle. We are a chance at beating them this week for that reason.


We have the natural ability in guys like Moylan, Cartwright, Peachey etc to carve up the bad teams and teams out of the running for the 8 like the back end of last year.


Against good teams we need to change our game plan which I am not too sure Hook is capable off. We can’t play the same way against the Knights as we do the Storm.

 

[BxTom]

One thing against that Cleary theory is that Nathan re-signed after his dad was sacked. From memory it was quite soon after too.

Why is against that theory?

Tom

 

[Panther_Daz]

Oh and I forgot to mention in my long post above.

Dropping CHN was all on Griffin too. He has been our best player over the past month yet he was dropped so Hiku can play edge backrow off the bench. Embarrassing.

 

[billypilgrimnz]

Oh and I forgot to mention in my long post above.

Dropping CHN was all on Griffin too. He has been our best player over the past month yet he was dropped so Hiku can play edge backrow off the bench. Embarrassing.

That was one of the stupidest selection decisions in a long, long time.

 

[herbert henry1908]

Why is against that theory?

Tom

I'd assume Nathan's closest advisor is his dad. If his dad thought it was too early for him to play FG I think the chance is decent he would've left the club.

 

[Fangs]

Griffin has changed the way we attack over the off-season.


Our attacking structure in the oppositions 20m line has no depth to it.

Very true.

Puts a lot of pressure on our 9 as well. Any time Wallace is slow with his service our halves get caught.

Add in the fact that your coach tells you not to use a grubber inside the 20 and there is really no way out. I thought we would have changed tact after the Melbourne game in which we were brutally exposed in attack.

 

[herbert henry1908]

So begs the question, what's the possible benefit of flattening the attack? What exactly is Griffin hoping to achieve here?

 

[Panther_Daz]

So begs the question, what's the possible benefit of flattening the attack? What exactly is Griffin hoping to achieve here?

From what I've heard is he is relying on a dominant pack. Getting quick play the balls which can lead to quick shifts where the defensive line is caught out and not able to get in our face.

He wants his forwards to focus on landing on their belly and to cut back on offloads.

In other words, there is no Plan B if we don't dominate up the middle.

 

[Panther_Daz]

Add in the fact that your coach tells you not to use a grubber inside the 20 and there is really no way out. I thought we would have changed tact after the Melbourne game in which we were brutally exposed in attack.

We had to kick behind the Storm early in the match to make them think twice about jamming us but we never did.

 

[betcats]

They pathetic attacking structures aren't even our biggest issue, the fact that we can't tackle or hold the ball are more concerning imo. How the club expects fans to put up with the garbage being served up and subsequent excuses being offered is beyond me.

 

[ashton]

The bottom line is Griffin is not an NRL coach. Gus needs to sack him ASAP.

 

[BxTom]

I'd assume Nathan's closest advisor is his dad. If his dad thought it was too early for him to play FG I think the chance is decent he would've left the club.

His father was against him playing NRL, Nathan wanted to play NRL. They were in disagreement. I assume by the fact that he is in the team that Gus disagreed with Cleary senior and hence he is no longer the coach.

Tom.

 

[Rowdy Panther]

Oh and I forgot to mention in my long post above.

Dropping CHN was all on Griffin too. He has been our best player over the past month yet he was dropped so Hiku can play edge backrow off the bench. Embarrassing.

That decision is inexcusable. Absolute ridiculousness.

Less embarrassing is not picking Kikau ahead of Leota and Brown on the bench. Anybody who has even half watched him play can see he has a lot more impact coming off the bench. Nothing against Leota, I thought he was strong against Parra, or even Brown, but neither are 125kg of muscle with good footwork.

 

[Rowdy Panther]

This is the NRL360 rumour mill at work. I wouldn't believe their rumours any further than I could throw Sam Kasiano.

Having said that if I were the coach of Penrith and I had a resource such as Phil Gould available I'd pick his brains occasionally too. It all depends whether or not Gould is forcing himself on Griffin, if you get my meaning.

Gus said himself that he ran a training session with them once last season, and we went on a bit of a run after that and we looked really slick in attack - at the back end of the season.

He also stressed that he wasn't treading on Griffin's toes, he asked if it was all right if he could have a bit of input once and Griffin was all for it.

 

[Whino]

Hook has lost the dressing room and the fans.
I haven't felt this upset about losses,team selections, lack of effort since Elliott was our coach.
I don't want to believe another word that comes out of his or the players months about we can turn our season around just be patient bullshit.

 

[Frankus]

Forget the team selections, structures and ability to adapt on the run for a second.

This incompetent pack of dodos can't make simple tackles or hold onto the f**king ball. Its like watching Charlie Chaplin and the 3 Stooges in colour.

 

[herbert henry1908]

They pathetic attacking structures aren't even our biggest issue, the fact that we can't tackle or hold the ball are more concerning imo. How the club expects fans to put up with the garbage being served up and subsequent excuses being offered is beyond me.

Big believer that errors come from a lack of confidence & confidence comes from the top down.

 

[herbert henry1908]

His father was against him playing NRL, Nathan wanted to play NRL. They were in disagreement. I assume by the fact that he is in the team that Gus disagreed with Cleary senior and hence he is no longer the coach.

Tom.

You're talking about a kid who still lives at home. If his dad advised against staying at the panthers b/c it was too early to debut I'm willing to bet he'd follow his dads advice.

Is there anything other an speculation to back up this theory on why Cleary was sacked?

 

[Munted]

It all depends whether or not Gould is forcing himself on Griffin

Filthy.