Rd20: Parra v Roosters GAME DAY thread @ Mackay 29/7/21

[Poupou Escobar]

Bad coaching then aye?

Possibly. But I think he's overachieving with our roster so I'm not going to criticise something based on speculation.

 

[Happy MEel]

Well what they threw at us was Manu and Tedesco making clean breaks through our middle defence. It was nothing complicated. Do we have such players? Maybe only Dylan Brown (and Ferguson once upon a time). But the Roosters defence is full of toilers and they close those gaps regardless of fatigue.

Except when they don’t. They’ve had over 30 points put on them 5 times this season. A decent attack can pull them apart, something that we are so far away from having.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

I think that’s just it…there is no Plan B. If we don’t absolutely dominate the middle, we have nothing else to fall back on. Surely that falls on the coaching staff and systems, and not just the players. The team isn’t always going to be firing on all cylinders so there needs to be contingencies in place for when things don’t go exactly to plan. I have seen zero evidence that we have a Plan B and so we pretty much just fold over and get exposed like you know what.

What do you even by a plan B? We play to our strengths. Is plan B to not play to our strengths? This year we've added Mahoney's playmaking in the middle to our left edge shift and the cross field kick. It's an evolution, but it needs to suit the players. Our roster has fewer go-to options than the best rosters. We have plenty of solid first graders but few difference makers. Gutherson isn't Tedesco, Sivo isn't Manu. Ferguson 2021 isn't Ferguson 2018 or even 2019. Paulo is a weapon in attack but a liability if he has to make too many tackles. Dylan Brown and Papali'i are our only real running threats, plus Moses when he's fit.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Except when they don’t. They’ve had over 30 points put on them 5 times this season. A decent attack can pull them apart, something that we are so far away from having.

Are we that far away? We put 30 points on them too.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Quite harsh on Opacic. There’s plenty of shit centres going around. You’d prefer Gagai, Brad Parker/Lionel Richie?
At the end of the day, he’s in our top 17 so that RCG and Junior can also be in the top 17.
He played shit yesterday but in other games, he’s had respectable performances

Yep, suddenly Opacic never had a strong game for us. Disappointed merkins have very short memories. Both teams we lost to without Moses we absolutely belted already this year.

 

[Eelementary]

Opacic isn’t getting paid to win us games but. There’s definitely better centres out there but there’s not many at the price tag. Singling out Opacic won’t affect our performance enough

Wouldn't Penisini - being a rookie - cost us less?

His defence is at NRL level, but he is already a better attacker than Opacic.

I like Opacic, but he has some dumb errors in him - mostly in the form of a dropped ball, or two.

 

[hindy111]

Yep, suddenly Opacic never had a strong game for us. Disappointed merkins have very short memories. Both teams we lost to without Moses we absolutely belted already this year.

Opacic is an excellent defender. He has never shown anything in attack. You can see how he is physcialy. No acceleration, poor strength and no footwork. He hasn't got it and never will.
Penisini has great feet and accelerates quick. He also has power to bust tackles. You can see this immediately.

Russel also has footwork and acceleration so if he develops he can be a great player.

Haze hasn't the physical talents of these kids but he still does move well and is fast. Also good. awareness. He isn't powerful and never will be. But he can be a solid NLR player. But nothing great. However he hasn't barely played in 2 yrs so his development has been stunted heaps.

 

[TheRam]

You are the one being ridiculous.

Go back and re-read the exchange. In particular the response that you replied to and hopefully you'll understand my comment better.

We tried to spice it up and shift the ball but the players weren't up to it. BA should have known better.

Is he giving them too much freedom to play what they see?

I stand by my statement. No one asked for bad coaching. When people including me asked for less one dimensional and predictable style, most of us weren't asking for Parra style jungle ball that will always lead to cumulative damaging and ultimately fatal errors.

To change our style from the style that our players are so robotically comfortable with in the space of 7 days and without our best playmaker for offload at will stuff was suicidal. Sure add a couple of subtle plays that would allow for a proper shift when we are getting gang tackled, but jungle ball? Really!!?

To make major changes to the way we play now after we have been playing the way we do for two seasons was madness and atrocious reactive to criticism coaching. Like I have said before we need to train for what we play. We haven't been training with expansive football in mind. We train for effort and collision. Period! Everyone can see that.

He is so far off knowing how to get players to think and innovate on the run it isn't funny. What you don't do though is what he did last night. Ask two very limited playmakers to break out of what they have been asked to do and trained for forever and a day and play like it's 9's football.

Absolutely shocking coaching.

 

[hindy111]

Sivo is strong and great 10mtrs out from line. And also gives you 2 or 3 strong carries a game.
But the rest of his game isn't NRL level. It's just he is so good 10mtrs out. And those odd big runs that keeps you wanting him in the side..

 

[TheRam]

It doesn't really suit our squad does it?

It suits no ones squad, not even the Warriors in their offloading heydays. Ultimately you get done.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

We are in the top 4 yet can get $26 to win the premiership. Has anyone seen a top 4 side been offered such large odds? Has to be a first.

Moses' back injury has revealed our reliance on him. Is the market predicting he won't be the same when he returns?

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Gagai and Brad Parker are better centres than Opacic.

Opacic and Parker are both better defenders than Gagai. But the big money goes to attacking players, which is why teams have so few of them. When one is missing you notice it, especially when you've got f**k all to start with.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Playing one out won't win games. I'd rather we play jungle ball and get good at it. We have 5 weeks to practise. By finals we may have some potent footy in us that will worry top sides.
Otherwise we play safe footy and hope that we can catch 4 bombs and score for the win.

You saw us attack in last year's finals. Was it one out?

 

[lucablight]

Opacic and Parker are both better defenders than Gagai. But the big money goes to attacking players, which is why teams have so few of them. When one is missing you notice it, especially when you've got f**k all to start with.

Waqa Blake should be a lot better player than he is. He has speed and size and we saw what he did to Stephen Crichton last year but we can’t seem to utilise him properly.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

So Pou, can you let us know how many players currently in NRL have played as many games as Brown in the halves this season - without a single Try-assist?

Why don't you spend the time and have a look? I see Drown as more of a fullback in our structure. His job is to run the ball. Gutherson is the playmaker, topping TAs for our team. Mahoney is also the top hooker in the NRL for TAs. Do we really need to share the good ball with Drown as well? Let him play to his strengths, which are running the ball and tackling. Putting him in a role that didn't suit him would be poor coaching.

 

[Eelementary]

Moving Brown to fullback may be a disaster - what's he like at diffusing kicks?

 

[Poupou Escobar]

We'll see what the result is when it matters.

It always matters. Melbourne lost a grand final 40-0. Nobody can be up every week, and a single missing player can have a huge effect on a team that relies on him. You can say missing a player is no excuse for the defence to fall apart, and I would agree, but the fact remains it can happen to any club. There's no need to put excessive importance on it. Bad luck can hit any time.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Moving Brown to fullback may be a disaster - what's he like at diffusing kicks?

He is f**king awesome in the air.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Ground Hog Day.

You were singing from the same song sheet last year too. So has the coach addressed those deficiencies that would help to bring us up to the likes of Storm, Panther or Roosters.

Not even referring to his inept coaching , but we still haven't got any real speed that can capitalise on our forward strength. What has he done to address it? You may argue that we couldn't get anyone due to salary/roster limitations(wrongly thought) but looking at what he seems to have planed for next year it means that he won't be addressing it until 2023 by the earliest. That is at least 2 years of doing nothing, when there have been many different options on offer that he could have gone with.

Relying on our juniors who are notoriously over rated is now just about to see him necked. May he rest in peace.

Dead coach coaching.

Well we failed to control the ball in the finals last year and our defence fell apart. This year we are better at controlling the ball against the top sides. Last night we weren't. We need to be better next week.

 

[Chipmunk]

It always matters. Melbourne lost a grand final 40-0. Nobody can be up every week, and a single missing player can have a huge effect on a team that relies on him. You can say missing a player is no excuse for the defence to fall apart, and I would agree, but the fact remains it can happen to any club. There's no need to put excessive importance on it. Bad luck can hit any time.

Already readying yourself with an excuse?