Round 3 vs the Knights

[Buzzard Breath]

Mansour has always has had issues.
The occasional bad read in defence, the silly error and he is hardly lively under a high ball.
His work rate was phenomenal yesterday 32 runs for 314 metres. Its always been his biggest strength.

He was never fast but quick enough when it matters. The last 2 years of injuries have unfortunately slowed him further. Quite a few tries over the past 12 months a man with speed would have scored that he didn't.
He didn't cost us the game yesterday (others did) but he likely missed an opportunity to seal it for us.

 

[franklin2323]

It's a hard one with Whare. You bring Naden in & our attack improves without doubt but the exact opposite happens to our defence.

Yep and he likely doesn’t get anymore ball than Mansour does now

 

[franklin2323]

He doesn’t. Never said he did.

My preferred backline is based on balance, not which player is better. Dropping Whare means Naden in the centres, and he’s a horrible defender.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Mansour’s effort. If he could play in the centres I’d have him there over Whare in a heartbeat.

That is the thing Mansour is doing something. Whare isn’t

 

[The Realist]

Leota soft miss for the try right on halftime. Drops it 10 out at 14 all

Hopefully it was rust not what is coming this year

He has 1 of these really dopey mistakes in him a game - you can pretty much bank on it. To be fair to him though, so does around 1/2 the team. I still like him though - he just has to clean up his game a little.

Whare is just about done.

I love the work that Mansour puts in but his 200 odd metres is not worth the try a game he (disturbingly) bombs.

I don't care if he makes 400 metres a game if he costs us 6 to 12 points a game in him being just too slow, taking the wrong option, failing to pass or on the flip side - letting the other side in due to poor positioning or not contesting the high ball, or simply being too short.

 

[mxlegend99]

That is the thing Mansour is doing something. Whare isn’t

We need to look at what's likely to make us most dangerous in attack. Our 3 best try scoring backs are To'o, Naden and Crichton.

To'o is easy. He's already doing a great job as one winger.
Chrichton needs to start. No obvious position as yet. So select it around the other players.
Naden needs to play. But he is a terrible defender at centre and passing isn't natural for him although he did improve. Perfect option for one wing.

So for mine that locks in our wingers. Leaving Crichton to cover centre or fullback. With Edwards to return I think centre is a bigger hole for us. So Crichton on left edge to work on that combination with Kikau.

That gives us:
1. Edwards
2. Naden
3. Crichton
5. To'o

Right centre to fill now. Rather than keep Whare simply because it's his position now .. I would look at Capewell to right centre. He played right edge yesterday already. Can defend aswell as Whare if not better. Can score a try with more work to be done than Whare had and he's a better ball runner.

 

[Hooked]

I read last week that Ivan wanted Luai to play his same role with Burton taking on the role as main playmaker.

I re-watched the game against the Warriors from 2018. The match Luai paired with May. Back when Griffin was running things with Gould interfering.
It is a completely different performance by Luai than what he has done over the past 12- 18 months.
He was the main playmaker. He took on the line, had a few deft kicks, and set up a few tries. I know one performance against the Warriors. But it showed me how he played back then.

I know his role with Nathan has is different but the way he played then is the best way to get the best out of him. Right now he bobs up here and there and largely goes missing. When he does have the ball he runs around like a chicken with its head cut off - erratic.
I realize Ivan is not the most attack-minded coach but surely he can see what role Luai is playing is not working.
Nathan is the teams lead playmaker but I think when he is out or contained Luai needs to be encouraged to step up and inject himself with more purpose.

 

[Frederick]

All the talk yesterday was about the knights and how courageous they were we were missing 6 players Edwards naden Cleary may Martin leniu please.

None of those got injured 10 minutes into the game leaving you with a makeshift spine made up of a running 5/8, a second rower and two guys making their debut, and a two man bench for 83 minutes.

Please

 

[franklin2323]

We need to look at what's likely to make us most dangerous in attack. Our 3 best try scoring backs are To'o, Naden and Crichton.

To'o is easy. He's already doing a great job as one winger.
Chrichton needs to start. No obvious position as yet. So select it around the other players.
Naden needs to play. But he is a terrible defender at centre and passing isn't natural for him although he did improve. Perfect option for one wing.

So for mine that locks in our wingers. Leaving Crichton to cover centre or fullback. With Edwards to return I think centre is a bigger hole for us. So Crichton on left edge to work on that combination with Kikau.

That gives us:
1. Edwards
2. Naden
3. Crichton
5. To'o

Right centre to fill now. Rather than keep Whare simply because it's his position now .. I would look at Capewell to right centre. He played right edge yesterday already. Can defend aswell as Whare if not better. Can score a try with more work to be done than Whare had and he's a better ball runner.

I would put Burns as the other centre. I think we need Capewell on the edge certainly are a back short. Still have time to move things around

 

[mxlegend99]

I would put Burns as the other centre. I think we need Capewell on the edge certainly are a back short. Still have time to move things around

Would be happy to see Burns or even Luai get a run there.

 

[Luke Bowden]

Geeezzz anyone would think we have lost the opening three rounds.

I didn’t think we were that bad, I think the Knights Defence was awesome.

The boys clearly had a simple game plan and stuck to it. Unfortunately it didn’t trouble the Knights.

Credit to Newcastle really.

I think we will come back next week with a stronger performance. Hopefully Luai and Burton get a bit more of a licence to throw it around.

 

[franklin2323]

Would be happy to see Burns or even Luai get a run there.

I have always rated Luai as a centre so either is fine

 

[franklin2323]

Geeezzz anyone would think we have lost the opening three rounds.

I didn’t think we were that bad, I think the Knights Defence was awesome.

The boys clearly had a simple game plan and stuck to it. Unfortunately it didn’t trouble the Knights.

Credit to Newcastle really.

I think we will come back next week with a stronger performance. Hopefully Luai and Burton get a bit more of a licence to throw it around.

We scored 3 tries round 1. 2 tries this week flows on from ordinary attack last year.

We look very solid but solid attack isn’t good enough

 

[soc123_au]

None of those got injured 10 minutes into the game leaving you with a makeshift spine made up of a running 5/8, a second rower and two guys making their debut, and a two man bench for 83 minutes.

Please

We started with a makeshift spine. The young kid that came on at hooker was a blessing, he played like a champ I thought. Pearce was a big loss admittedly & the short bench was testament to the fitness of your team. To be fair our coach evened things up a bit on that front by not using our bench, f**ked if I know why, I can only assume some sort of sympathy toward the Knights. Considering the lack of experience in both sides it was a pretty decent game for the most part.

 

[Hooked]

I didn’t think we were that bad, I think the Knights Defence was awesome.

The boys clearly had a simple game plan and stuck to it. Unfortunately it didn’t trouble the Knights.

Credit to Newcastle really.

Not really. I think Newcastle dug in well and full credit to them, but our inefficient attack made their defense looked better than it was. We didn't threatened enough and bombed a try.
We had a bit of that last year too.

 

[Luke Bowden]

Not really. I think Newcastle dug in well and full credit to them, but our inefficient attack made their defense looked better than it was. We didn't threatened enough and bombed a try.
We had a bit of that last year too.

I agree that we played very simple footy. My guess is that it was a combination of no Cleary and the new rules.

Hopefully we see a change this week. We need to unleash our left edge. Throw the ball around more.

 

[Hooked]

I agree that we played very simple footy. My guess is that it was a combination of no Cleary and the new rules.

Hopefully we see a change this week. We need to unleash our left edge. Throw the ball around more.

We had 2 young halves maybe people were expecting too much on them, though to be fair with a wounded opponent I expected more, especially from Luai.
So far with the rule changes I have noticed class ballrunners do well. Nathan should have done well on the weekend but unfortunately it was not to be.

 

[Pomoz]

None of those got injured 10 minutes into the game leaving you with a makeshift spine made up of a running 5/8, a second rower and two guys making their debut, and a two man bench for 83 minutes.

Please

Regardless, you were really good and we were not. That said, I should point out that Kurt Mann has played more games than Aekins, Burton and Luai put together. That rookie trio made up our spine and it showed. Your team could have left the field for tea and scones and we still wouldn't have scored. While you were tucking in, we probably would have given away two ruck penalties and had a player sin binned for being a known acquaintance of Hethrington....

 

[Kilkenny]

I haven’t watched a replay and had the beer googles on watching it live so maybe not best placed to judge.

Have to say I was disappointed with the overall performance given we had so much ball and so many opportunities to seal the deal. More of the same basically inept attack and not looking likely to score.

I think the 1 point could be invaluable and I look forward to a more convincing performance this Friday night.

Most do not agree and I understand why but I thought Mansour was enormous. My MOM. Perhaps he could have set up Kikau better in golden point but given it was early in the tackle count he took the low risk option and put us into a good posit for a winning field goal. It didn’t pan out but for mine Mansour had a great game.

 

[Luke Bowden]

I haven’t watched a replay and had the beer googles on watching it live so maybe not best placed to judge.

Have to say I was disappointed with the overall performance given we had so much ball and so many opportunities to seal the deal. More of the same basically inept attack and not looking likely to score.

I think the 1 point could be invaluable and I look forward to a more convincing performance this Friday night.

Most do not agree and I understand why but I thought Mansour was enormous. My MOM. Perhaps he could have set up Kikau better in golden point but given it was early in the tackle count he took the low risk option and put us into a good posit for a winning field goal. It didn’t pan out but for mine Mansour had a great game.

I agree, I thought he and Bizza were very good.

 

[Exsilium]

Perhaps he could have set up Kikau better in golden point but given it was early in the tackle count he took the low risk option and put us into a good posit for a winning field goal. It didn’t pan out but for mine Mansour had a great game.

It was the right play.

It was tackle two from memory and the defence was on the back foot. If had we won from there, it wouldn't be a discussion.

We walked away with a point but given how we played that second half, I consider it a great result.