Your RD 1 2018 line up

[OldPanther]

Penalties 5-0 in the final 10 minutes. Possession Raiders 100%. They could not score a try. The two JFH penalties were borderline at best. The one against Cleary was ridiculous. All five were late in the tackle count. There was a doubtful six again in there too IIRC. Having led 18-0 the Raiders were completely shot with 10 to go. It was as clear a stitch up as I've ever seen.

The same thing happened against the same opposition, under the same ref, in a final in 2010, after we'd come back to trail by 2 through two Sandor Earl tries. On that occasion, we didn't deserve to even be that close.

I was sure at least 1 of JFH was shoulder not head high.

 

[Kilkenny]

While we are still a young side, most of our youngsters have had at least two seasons of NRL under there belts, (Edwards, May, and CHN only one) so it is not unreasonable to expect them to perform more consistently at a higher level week in week out. If we get a little bit of good fortune and do not incur to many serious injuries to key personnel then we should be expecting significant improved performances from the team as a whole. We have good depth, good mix of youth and experience and on the back of two final's appearances it is not unreasonable to expect us to be competitive for a top four position. If I have a concern about our ability to really compete for the premiership then I think our biggest weakness is the lack of a quality world class centre. Blake, Whare and Peachy will do a job I am sure but probably aren't at the same level of some of the better centre's in the game.

 

[kinghippo]

Centre is a funny position in today’s game, and generally very weak throughout the competition.
I would argue that Blake, peachy and whare are some of the best going around but have been underused with a lack of early ball.
Who would you have out of any centre in the comp?
Roberts for that speed, walker maybe, leilua on a good day, Chambers is decent, Dugan is glass.
really there are not many dominant centres around that don’t either have defensive issues or mistakes in them.

 

[franklin2323]

Centre is a funny position in today’s game, and generally very weak throughout the competition.
I would argue that Blake, peachy and whare are some of the best going around but have been underused with a lack of early ball.
Who would you have out of any centre in the comp?
Roberts for that speed, walker maybe, leilua on a good day, Chambers is decent, Dugan is glass.
really there are not many dominant centres around that don’t either have defensive issues or mistakes in them.

Dugan, Hayne. GI all play FB at club but centre in SOO. Says all you need to know about the centre quality in the NRL

 

[snickers007]

NRL.com has a feature up at the moment about Best & Worst Defensive Centres in the NRL:
https://www.nrl.com/news/2018/01/19/the-best-and-worst-defensive-centres-in-the-nrl/

Obviously there are flaws in the methodology used to create the rankings, but it's interesting nonetheless.

 

[betcats]

NRL.com has a feature up at the moment about Best & Worst Defensive Centres in the NRL:
https://www.nrl.com/news/2018/01/19/the-best-and-worst-defensive-centres-in-the-nrl/

Obviously there are flaws in the methodology used to create the rankings, but it's interesting nonetheless.

Not surprised to see Peachey ranked ahead of Whare for their defensive efforts at centre last season despite the fallacy round here that Whare is our best defensive centre...that was four years ago.

 

[MrBlack]

Who would you have out of any centre in the comp?
Roberts for that speed, walker maybe, leilua on a good day, Chambers is decent, Dugan is glass.
really there are not many dominant centres around that don’t either have defensive issues or mistakes in them.

I would take Jennings back. He is in career best form.

 

[mxlegend99]

Not surprised to see Peachey ranked ahead of Whare for their defensive efforts at centre last season despite the fallacy round here that Whare is our best defensive centre...that was four years ago.

Exactly.

The real shock isnt the order in which our centres ranked... its how small the difference is defensively between all centres that don't play for the Storm.

Whare had some ripper defensive efforts. But so did Peachey. They both also had shockers. But somehow only Peachet gets called for it.

Blake never really had a defensive shocker until asked to play with one arm. He did have some bad moments though. But honestly I think every player in the team did at some point.

 

[mxlegend99]

Dugan, Hayne. GI all play FB at club but centre in SOO. Says all you need to know about the centre quality in the NRL

Not one of them will be first choice fullback in 2018 though.

Youve also named players who until recently were must pick players. Position be damned. Hayne before 2014 was the most important NSW player. We just picked the next 16 nest players and used him wherever.

 

[betcats]

Exactly.

The real shock isnt the order in which our centres ranked... its how small the difference is defensively between all centres that don't play for the Storm.

Whare had some ripper defensive efforts. But so did Peachey. They both also had shockers. But somehow only Peachet gets called for it.

Blake never really had a defensive shocker until asked to play with one arm. He did have some bad moments though. But honestly I think every player in the team did at some point.

I don't know what it is but our whole defensive structure or something is rubbish. Hook got the effort where it needed to be defensively last season but there was something off with it. Our edges always look shaky and we just couldn't finish tackles through the middle, late offloads killed us last season and teams that held the ball and ran hard through the ruck usually had a lot of succuss against us, there are a lot of shirt grabbers in our side.

 

[franklin2323]

Not one of them will be first choice fullback in 2018 though.

Youve also named players who until recently were must pick players. Position be damned. Hayne before 2014 was the most important NSW player. We just picked the next 16 nest players and used him wherever.

Not saying I'd agree with it but it is the way it was done. For me the guys playing the position week in week out against those same guys. Should get the game

 

[franklin2323]

Not surprised to see Peachey ranked ahead of Whare for their defensive efforts at centre last season despite the fallacy round here that Whare is our best defensive centre...that was four years ago.

The best comparison will be when GI comes back. He will be no where 100% but will get better as the season goes on. Doesn't make Fuimaoano a better centre then him

 

[betcats]

The best comparison will be when GI comes back. He will be no where 100% but will get better as the season goes on. Doesn't make Fuimaoano a better centre then him

There is not much of a comparison between GI and Whare imo.

If Whare gets better this year good for him I am not saying that cant happen, but he certainly was not better last year. He offered less than Peachey at centre on both sides of the ball he should of been playing reserve grade all year bar injuries.

 

[franklin2323]

There is not much of a comparison between GI and Whare imo.

If Whare gets better this year good for him, but he certainly was not better last year. He offered less than Peachey at centre on both sides of the ball he should of been playing reserve grade all year bar injuries.

Whare was in NSW Cup only cameback when Edwards got injured. Looking at the list above. Matterson and Aubusson should be centre over Latrell Mitchell? The 2 games he played v Sharks and Storm were very ordinary so not sure where they got those stats from. When he was used properly off the bench he was very dangerous. We will see this when he gets the 14 for NSW.

Whare had a few shockers too. The thing for him was the Mid season test and WC. As well as the semi proved he still can play well. Maybe it's confidence with the knee. Mansour wasn't that sure under the high ball

Certainly by round 5 will be either be saying the 5 year deal was a masterstroke or a dud deal

 

[betcats]

The main problem I have with Whare is that we shuffled Waqa and Peach all over the place in the early part of they year to fit Whare in when it was clear our best pairing was Peachey and Waqa, they had earned the right to start the year there again and surprise surprise after trying out every other combination super coach realised that Peachey and Waqa should be the centres.

It was obvious after round 1 Whare should of been in reserve grade. You don't have the luxury at this level of experimenting for half a season and only deciding on your best lineup after the halfway point. That is just ridiculous.

 

[franklin2323]

The main problem I have with Whare is that we shuffled Waqa and Peach all over the place in the early part of they year to fit Whare in when it was clear our best pairing was Peachey and Waqa, they had earned the right to start the year there again and surprise surprise after trying out every other combination super coach realised that Peachey and Waqa should be the centres.

It was obvious after round 1 Whare should of been in reserve grade. You don't have the luxury at this level of experimenting for half a season and only deciding on your best lineup after the halfway point. That is just ridiculous.

Form and behaviour moved Blake around. He was part of the Moylan dropping. He too was coming back from injury so was down on form.

Peachey in round 3 a few errors cost us the game. He passes to Blake at the end we win. Round 5 again an unmarked Blake ignored. Given a bath by Chambers. Round 6 missed the game injured - meanwhile Whare has his best game in a few years. Round 6 given a bath by the Sharks then was on the bench the next few games. Played a big part in the comebacks v Warriors and Broncos. Scored the winner v Canberra.

So hardly both in great form themselves to be fair most of the guys started poorly. So shuffling was needed at the time we slowly made changes until we found our best side.

 

[betcats]

Form and behaviour moved Blake around. He was part of the Moylan dropping. He too was coming back from injury so was down on form.

Peachey in round 3 a few errors cost us the game. He passes to Blake at the end we win. Round 5 again an unmarked Blake ignored. Given a bath by Chambers. Round 6 missed the game injured - meanwhile Whare has his best game in a few years. Round 6 given a bath by the Sharks then was on the bench the next few games. Played a big part in the comebacks v Warriors and Broncos. Scored the winner v Canberra.

So hardly both in great form themselves to be fair most of the guys started poorly. So shuffling was needed at the time we slowly made changes until we found our best side.

Round 1 waqa played in the centres and Whare played on the wing(and was poor) so round 2 we switch Whare to the centres and move Waqa to the wing. That had nothing to do with the behaviour or what happened in Melbourne, he was already on the wing when he got dropped for that. Our lineups are changing dramatically each year under griffin he cant settle on a lineup to sae his life. He thinks the answer to everything is change when the reality is the best teams have the least change.

Why does Griffin get so much benefit of the doubt around here? he has not done anything in the nrl and barely did anything in the lower grades, what team has Griffin ever lead to a premiership? I seriously think he only got the job because Gus and he have the same manager. Since he has arrived we have offloaded so much talent and most of yet to hit there prime. That's not good no matter what spin you put on it. He seriously creates his own excuses by continually changing things and getting rid of players. And after all that there is every chance we will be looking for two new halves in two years given Maloney is old and Nathan likely will be the most in demand half in the comp by then. All these changes and they haven't even secured our future long term, that seriously worries me.

 

[franklin2323]

So you would of been happy after Round 1 to leave things how they were? The best teams have the best players so are settled but still have a huge turnover.

We had the 2nd youngest team last year. Similar the year before until we get experienced we will be up and down that is why we went and got Tamou, Merrin and Maloney.

The general rule is you don't play proper footy until after 50 FG game. Blake and RCG passed that last season. Surprise surprise had their best seasons to date. besides them only

McKendry (injured)
Browne
Tamou
Merrin
Yeo
Bryce
Wallace
Whare
DWZ
Mansour

Passed that magical 50 game mark no coach could do more with that so far... As more guys get experienced then can judge the skills or lack of them from the coaches.

Personally I have Gus higher on the must go list

 

[seal]

Our top 30 squad is up on the Panthers website and is as follows (by position):

FULLBACK
Dylan Edwards

WING
Dallin Watene-Zelezniak
Josh Mansour
Tyrone Phillips

CENTRE
Dean Whare
Tyrone Peachey
Waqa Blake

FIVE-EIGHTH
James Maloney
Jarome Luai
Tyrone May

HALFBACK
Nathan Cleary

PROP
James Tamou
Moses Leota
Nick Lui-Toso
Reagan Campbell-Gillard
Sam McKendry
Tim Browne

HOOKER
Peter Wallace
Sione Katoa
Wayde Egan

SECOND ROW
Bryce Cartwright
Corey Harawira-Naera
Corey Waddell
Isaah Yeo
Jack Hetherington
James Fisher-Harris
Jed Cartwright
Viliame Kikau

LOCK
Kaide Ellis
Trent Merrin

Very light on outside backs and props, way too many second rowers rowers…

 

[TheFrog]

Why does Griffin get so much benefit of the doubt around here?

29 wins from 50 games at 58%. Second only to Ron Willey (who was sacked it must be said).

2 finals appearances in 2 years @100%. Gould equalled this (having taken over a side that was already a regular in the finals) but then failed in his next 2 years.

His track record of on-field success is the equal of any coach in our history and far better than most, and has been achieved with a bunch of rookies, in the main. That is why he gets the benefit of the doubt.