Round 5 Vs Eels

[Abacus]

A lot of focus on our backs but I thought Tamou was "off" last night - particularly in his second stint.

During the 1st 20 minutes or so, Parra's middle fowards dominated ours. We were able to stay in the battle due to effort. During the middle 40 minutes we were able to get the better of field position against their bench forwards. Parra's middles again had the better of the final 20.

Unfortunately Tamou had a couple of key missed tackles in the Eels' 2nd & 3rd tries. He was the inside man when Blake stepped Crichton & had a decent play on Blake but got shrugged. Tamou also missed Nathan Brown on the play before the Eels' 3rd try. From memory Tamou should have been fairly fresh for both of these after time on the bench.

I hope his contract talks aren't taking his focus from his game. Although have to admit that, with Thompson now confirmed to Dogs, I'm expecting announcement of Tamou to St Helens any day.

Final thought is I'm concerned with our team's ability to give up leads during games (Dragons, Knights & Eels). Nathan said after the game the plan is to start fast - which is great - but hopefully it's not the extent of our game plan.

 

[Panfa]

Tamou should not be captain you can't have your captain not leading by example and sitting on the bench for half an hr when decisions need to be made.Give the captaincy to Cleary or yeo.

 

[martielang]

Exactly he's not a top fullback I'm glad we agree.

Did anyone suggest he was? He’s our back up not our first choice. He’d be on $100k, you’ve gotta be realistic in your expectations.

 

[WestyLife]

Did anyone suggest he was? He’s our back up not our first choice. He’d be on $100k, you’ve gotta be realistic in your expectations.

Looking at it like that yes we are getting what we paid for. Yes I sound harsh but I'm not hating on him, just don't like having his limitations in oue top 17. Even Luai at Fullback would be better.

 

[age.s]

Edwards may not be a noted ball player, but he is the best we have at backing up a break. If anyone is going to be on Martin's inside shoulder last night it's Edwards. We win that game with him in the team imo.

 

[Exsilium]

The reality is that we did a lot of defending in that second half.

The missed tackles, half breaks and gaps were a mix of fatigue and poor structure.

Let’s not forget that Parra had been peppering our line toward the end of the first half. It all adds up.

As for Aekins being pedestrian at fullback, I’ll say this. He’s been solid but not extraordinary by any means up until this game where he had a few crucial errors. I’m not prepared to unload on him just yet.

One thing I will mention is that IC never changes the game plan. You can criticise Luai, Aekins and the rest of our squad for playing boring, predictable football but that’s what IC does week in, week out.

He prepared the players for wet weather football and they played that way all game.

His rotations, set play structure and use of decoy runners is nearly nonexistent.

Now I don’t want to play Parra style football with the million offloads and touch footy garbage but we need to break the shackles a little and allow for some creativity.

 

[Dave's mate]

Tamou should not be captain you can't have your captain not leading by example and sitting on the bench for half an hr when decisions need to be made.Give the captaincy to Cleary or yeo.

Yeo is a leader. Massive numbers once again last night

 

[franklin2323]

Did anyone suggest he was? He’s our back up not our first choice. He’d be on $100k, you’ve gotta be realistic in your expectations.

Don’t expect Tedesco numbers but just do the basics. I can’t see he getting picked up elsewhere for next season. Probably an indication where he sits

 

[franklin2323]

View attachment 39080

That gap on the left of Martin is where the fullback should be

 

[franklin2323]

Just a thought
This is a young squad and last time I checked grand finals are not won this time of year
Positives
We have hit the jack pot with the Cleary burton Luia. Combinations very raw but massive potential
Our forwArd back has matched everyone this year and being so young is going to get way better
I challenge anyone to say if they where told we would have lost 1 game 5 rounds in they would say we will take it

Yet to have our top spine play together is a big thing to have play out

 

[betcats]

The reality is that we did a lot of defending in that second half.

The missed tackles, half breaks and gaps were a mix of fatigue and poor structure.

Let’s not forget that Parra had been peppering our line toward the end of the first half. It all adds up.

As for Aekins being pedestrian at fullback, I’ll say this. He’s been solid but not extraordinary by any means up until this game where he had a few crucial errors. I’m not prepared to unload on him just yet.

One thing I will mention is that IC never changes the game plan. You can criticise Luai, Aekins and the rest of our squad for playing boring, predictable football but that’s what IC does week in, week out.

He prepared the players for wet weather football and they played that way all game.

His rotations, set play structure and use of decoy runners is nearly nonexistent.

Now I don’t want to play Parra style football with the million offloads and touch footy garbage but we need to break the shackles a little and allow for some creativity.

We defended well For most of last night, the misses were simple one on one misses not a structural problem at all. One of the commentators after the game literally commented on this saying at least the misses were just player errors not a structural problem.


Their fist try came after 10 minutes of footy where they had above 80 percent of possession, we defended our line for numerous sets back to back before cracking. Crichton should’ve made both those tackles on waqa and the third try came after Tamou let brown stroll past him which pulled Aekins into the line to make the tackle which meant he was at marker and not able to cover the kick. To suggest these missed tackles are indicative of structural defensive problems is just plain wrong, the players were in position to make those tackles.

They definitely need to score more points but we had tries go begging last night, they created opportunities and did not take them, this is our biggest issue right now, cost against Newcastle and now the eels.

 

[Dave's mate]

Don’t expect Tedesco numbers but just do the basics. I can’t see he getting picked up elsewhere for next season. Probably an indication where he sits

I wouldn't even care if his passes went to ground or were even intercepted but when you have wide open players with an overlap throw the f**king pass

 

[betcats]

That gap on the left of Martin is where the fullback should be

Someone had to be pushing up in support for sure and I think we would’ve done much better on the following plays if Martin cut back in field and headed for the post but that’s pretty speculative lol.

 

[betcats]

We gotta get To’o more ball that try was the only real chance I can remember for him in the last three games and he finished it pretty easily despite having plenty of work to do.

 

[mxlegend99]

We gotta get To’o more ball that try was the only real chance I can remember for him in the last three games and he finished it pretty easily despite having plenty of work to do.

He needs a decent centre for that... a better Fullback would help too. The only reason he got decent ball once last night was Aekins threw a poor pass that missed Whare and To'o ended up with earlier ball and some space. If Whare catches that the play ends with him.

Crichton draws in defenders and his winger has a free passage to the line. To'o deserves that sort of opportunity too. He's arguably the best finisher at the club and we dont give him many chances to show his skills

 

[The_Frog]

and we sign this merkin....after letting Waqa go

So why did we let Waqa go? Mid-contract mind you. He wanted to go, obviously, but why did he suddenly want to go? Didn't want to play under the coach who gave him his first grade debut and stuck with him through some rough times, or at the club that recognised his potential and gave him his chance? Or was he just offered more money?

Crichton draws in defenders and his winger has a free passage to the line. To'o deserves that sort of opportunity too. He's arguably the best finisher at the club and we dont give him many chances to show his skills

Crichton's attacking skill is not questioned. But he needs to learn to defend as well. I'm sure he will but until he does he will be targeted as he was last evening.

That, among other things, is probably what the coach means when he says the side is a work in progress.

 

[franklin2323]

Someone had to be pushing up in support for sure and I think we would’ve done much better on the following plays if Martin cut back in field and headed for the post but that’s pretty speculative lol.

Martin is a rookie forward. Didn’t throw a stupid ball is what matters from him it is up to others that should be following the ball to support

 

[franklin2323]

I wouldn't even care if his passes went to ground or were even intercepted but when you have wide open players with an overlap throw the f**king pass

yep exactly do something. It won’t be perfect but better than we have been getting

 

[Abacus]

That gap on the left of Martin is where the fullback should be

That depends on whether the FB is coached to be there i.e. how do they run the play at training?

 

[franklin2323]

That depends on whether the FB is coached to be there i.e. how do they run the play at training?

Well how many of Edwards tries were scored backing up through the middle?