Team v Tigers

[Blair]

Luai might be angry this weekend!

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

I’ve probably got a harsher view of TMM.

He had two stints as starting 7 while SJ was out last year and while we all enjoyed the first 3 game stint from Magic Round, his second stint of 5 (?) games was very inconsistent, and IMO pretty poor at times.

Personally I’ve got no qualms about where he’s at in the pecking order. He periodically shows glimpses of class, even now as a utility, but IMO he was far too inconsistent last year to have any sense of incumbency after SJ retired.

And since then others who earned first crack have played well, stayed consistent and have done nothing wrong themselves.

I pretty firmly disagree. TMM is by no means the complete package but he embarrassed SJ last year. We consistently scored points so much more easily with TMM in the team, as long as SJ wasn’t there.

 

[Thatwasnthighref]

I pretty firmly disagree. TMM is by no means the complete package but he embarrassed SJ last year. We consistently scored points so much more easily with TMM in the team, as long as SJ wasn’t there.

SJ wasn’t much of a barometer last year, we all saw that. And by the end of the year we knew why, Webster played him busted for more than half the season. So comparing TMM to a one legged SJ isn’t that compelling tbh.

Plus it doesn’t change that, as I mentioned, the last 5 games TMM started as half i .e without SJ in the team, he was back to his inconsistent best.

We dropped 3 games we probably should’ve won during that period. Not saying he was solely to blame of course… but he had the keys at the time, and those 6 pts would’ve put us in the 8.

When you consider his career as a whole, the 3 games from magic round last year is the only consistent patch of football he’s ever produced. Not just for us, for anyone.

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

Plus it doesn’t change that, as I mentioned, the last 5 games TMM started as half i .e without SJ in the team, he was back to his inconsistent best.

We dropped 3 games we probably should’ve won during that period. Not saying he was solely to blame of course… but he had the keys at the time, and those 6 pts would’ve put us in the 8.

In those 5 games you referred to we scored 122 points at an average of 24.4 points per game. In the games in between those games where he wasn't halfback, we scored 78 points at an average of 19.5 per game. For the season, we averaged 21.3 ppg. This season we averaged 21.4ppg.

Of course, if you include TMM's other games last season including the good bits, the difference is even more stark.

When TMM had the keys last year our attack functioned better than it has either this year or last year, even when we were losing games. That's all I'm saying really, the team seems to score more tries when TMM plays.

Also those 3 losses you mentioned, were all literally within a drop goal or conversion and TMM isn't our kicker....so there's definitely an element of clutchness missing in his game, but also the team were scoring points, and defence and goalkicking was losing us those games.

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

Anyway it's all fish and chip paper now and it's clear that Webster agrees with the TMM doubters. I just maintain that it's a fact that over 2024/25, for whatever reason, we've scored more tries when TMM leads the attack.

 

[Thatwasnthighref]

Anyway it's all fish and chip paper now and it's clear that Webster agrees with the TMM doubters. I just maintain that it's a fact that over 2024/25, for whatever reason, we've scored more tries when TMM leads the attack.

Yep fair call. And fwiw, regardless of how I feel about his consistency, I don’t doubt he’s the most natural ball player in our club.

I reckon Webster will give Boyd at least the next 3 games to make a mark but if he can’t, TMM may still get another crack to take us into the finals.

 

[Big Marn]

Also those 3 losses you mentioned, were all literally within a drop goal or conversion and TMM isn't our kicker....so there's definitely an element of clutchness missing in his game, but also the team were scoring points, and defence and goalkicking was losing us those games.

i realise the debates over but you made me remember the diabolical decision on TMM in the Dogs game when he got hammered by Salmon with about 4mins on the clock. TMM had to go off (didnt get a penalty right out in front either), and we lost the golden point battle with CHT having to take them. Thanks for reminding me of that travesty of a game.
F.O. Chris Butler.

 

[Penrose Warrior]

i realise the debates over but you made me remember the diabolical decision on TMM in the Dogs game when he got hammered by Salmon with about 4mins on the clock. TMM had to go off (didnt get a penalty right out in front either), and we lost the golden point battle with CHT having to take them. Thanks for reminding me of that travesty of a game.
F.O. Chris Butler.

x2 thanks for a reminder of that shitshow. On a brighter side, my kids have been Warriors fans ever since because they loved the crazy version of Dad it revealed

From memory, it was Adam Gee though?

 

[Big Marn]

x2 thanks for a reminder of that shitshow. On a brighter side, my kids have been Warriors fans ever since because they loved the crazy version of Dad it revealed

From memory, it was Adam Gee though?

well i blamed Butler for being blind so that it didnt have to end up with Gee who was in the bunker. But true. F.O. Gee as well.

 

[vvvrulz]

i realise the debates over but you made me remember the diabolical decision on TMM in the Dogs game when he got hammered by Salmon with about 4mins on the clock. TMM had to go off (didnt get a penalty right out in front either), and we lost the golden point battle with CHT having to take them. Thanks for reminding me of that travesty of a game.
F.O. Chris Butler.

Weak gutted dog of a decision.

 

[Blair]

x2 thanks for a reminder of that shitshow. On a brighter side, my kids have been Warriors fans ever since because they loved the crazy version of Dad it revealed.

I have golden memories of my own father going off at Warriors games. It's been over thirty years now and is still going strong. Before the Warriors it was the Black Caps.

For some reason they were the two that brought out the best in him.

 

[sup42]

I think the Boyd signing has been absolutely perfect.

People were anti the Boyd signing because they had no idea how to assemble a 30-man squad. Webby always had Metcalf and CHT as his preferred halves pairing. T

People don't understand Andrew McFaddens how to fix the Warriors plan.

The core issue for this club has always been, and always will be, that the local talent are behind their Australian counterparts when it comes to the technical side of the game.

Ergo by the time they reach the NRL they have never played in well structured Australian style systems...which is how you end up with an NRL team that is clunky, cannot put together the ball movement and off the ball organized running into holes that a Storm club or Penrith have (every sacked Warriors coach has had this uphill climb since 1995 - not only coaching league plans, but teaching players how to play the basics of the game).

In contrast the Storm et als juniors are playing in those structured team patterns through the grades.

This is the fundamental difference between New Zealand and Australia.

What McFadden has done is to bring in as many Australian trained halves as the club can attract, and Boyd is a big part of that.

This is why players like Leka Halasima and Dimitric Vaimauga are fitting in to the NRL team without making glaring mistakes or over playing their hands - or more familiar to us all the syndrome of noob Warrior player looks lost at sea, gets torn down by fans, ends up on the scrap heap.

The Warriors NSW cup side are the best in the comp for two reasons.

They have NRL quality halfbacks, and they have one of the best crops of juniors in the comp, add to that an Australian hooker in the NSW cup and you start to understand McFaddens total top down overhaul of the Warriors recruitment and development. But don't be fooled into thinking that having a player like Boyd in NSW cup was about having a spare tyre, or winning the NSW cup. If that were true we would not be importing all these Aussie kids in even lower grades, they're clearly not here to be spare parts for the NRL side, it is part of a redesign of the whole organism.

The smartest thing that the Warriors owner did was to bring back an Ex Warriors coach, a coach that was the first to teach them to run plays, the same coach that taught them offensive defence, and give that coach complete control of the future of the organisation - informed by their past mistakes and successes, but most of all McFadden no longer has his hands tied by incompetent fools.

In summary, when you have eighteen year olds like Halasima, the faster you put them under and Australian half back the faster they are ready for NRL and the better they are as players for the rest of their careers.

Boyd is about the kids at this club. Perhaps he will end up more, perhaps he will end up thee NRL guy, I hope so, that would be good for him and us.

 

[hitro]