2019 Discussion

[Bob]

Gees really going for the throat their bob lol anyone left?

Yes there’s plenty left, it’s just getting rid of players that have hit their ceiling that I don’t think can contribute ie:-Edwards, Gillard, Mansour, Katoa

 

[Panfa]

Does anyone know what jack hetherington has done this yr to be languishing in Canterbury cup he would do a better job then gillard at front row at the moment.

 

[herbert henry1908]

Does anyone know what jack hetherington has done this yr to be languishing in Canterbury cup he would do a better job then gillard at front row at the moment.

I don't believe we can afford anymore ill discipline.

 

[herbert henry1908]

Yes there’s plenty left, it’s just getting rid of players that have hit their ceiling that I don’t think can contribute ie:-Edwards, Gillard, Mansour, Katoa

Hmm, I think you're giving up on some guys a touch too early. It also depends upon their contract value.

 

[tripster]

I am not so sure we need to make wholesale changes to our roster. I am just not convinced we are getting the potential out of most out of the players.

Whare doesn’t offer us much in attack these days because he has lost a yard of pace after his ACL injury, but defensively he is outstanding. He is very good at making the correct read time and time again. We rarely ever concede a try down his side where he is responsible for a miss or a bad read. He knows when to come in and when to stay on his man, and is excellent at stopping players much larger than him. If we replace him for a youngster we might make our defensive problems worse. Until such time as we have someone in reserves or under 20s who is plainly deserving of a first grade spot in his place I’d be keeping him. Hopefully we have the replacement by the time his contract expires.

RCG is more of enigma. We have seen what he is capable of. His problem is consistency. Perhaps his jaw injuries affected his confidence. He is also down on fitness. Those things are solveable. For mine the burden falls on Cleary to fix those issues.

DWZ is a good fullback. He did something very stupid yesterday, but I think we all forget that, despite how many games he has played, he is only 23.

On the whole our squad has changed a little from last year, what has changed is our coach. If at the end of the year we have regressed significantly without any major injuries and the same group of players then it is difficult to blame anyone else for that result than the coach.

 

[Bob]

Hmm, I think you're giving up on some guys a touch too early. It also depends upon their contract value.

Not really, Edwards has had 2 season ending injuries in the last 2 years, seems a bit fragile to me, RCG, the money he’s being paid he should be delivering 150 plus metres per game much like Fish, he’s only broken 100m once this year, Mansour, not the same player that he was prior to his acl injury, he won’t jump to catch a bomb that’s why he got the fracture last year, Whare again not the same player since his acl,
DWZ has a brain fart or 2 in him, wing is okay for him, not fullback, if he wants to play fullback let him go

 

[TheFrog]

Yes there’s plenty left, it’s just getting rid of players that have hit their ceiling that I don’t think can contribute ie:-Edwards, Gillard, Mansour, Katoa

Three of those guys have suffered horrendous injuries and come back in lesser form. Mansour is carrying injury again. Katoa has got to be running out of time. You just know if we boot them out the door they'll rip us a new one in different colours both sooner and later.

DWZ is a good fullback. He did something very stupid yesterday, but I think we all forget that, despite how many games he has played, he is only 23.

Needs a good talking to, to the effect that his behaviour costs us games, whilst returning him to his best position. When you only get two penalties in a game, brain snaps like that are completely unacceptable. He's safe at the back, but not very fast and unable to beat tacklers with a step. Give Aekins a go or bring Edwards back.

 

[mxlegend99]

I don't believe we can afford anymore ill discipline.

Yeah we aren't coping with the penalties against us as it is. Last thing we need is a loose cannon likely to get us down to 12 men

 

[mxlegend99]

Needs a good talking to, to the effect that his behaviour costs us games, whilst returning him to his best position. When you only get two penalties in a game, brain snaps like that are completely unacceptable. He's safe at the back, but not very fast and unable to beat tacklers with a step. Give Aekins a go or bring Edwards back.

He literally broke the line on the play where he had his brain snap. He had our highest tackle break count although 4 is pretty poor to be the highest.

Remember when we had Mansour equal a record of 17 tackle breaks in a game? Now it would take him a full season to reach those numbers.

 

[TheFrog]

He literally broke the line on the play where he had his brain snap.

That was a great run but then he undid it and then some.

 

[The Realist]

It is probably worth keeping Whare as he is great defensively and not on big coin.

DWZ Wing/Centre or out.

Edwards Fullback or gone. Prior to his injury he was probably ranked somewhere between 6-10 as fullbacks go with some hope for improvement. Currently he is woeful but I hope he find some sort of form. However if there is someone else with the potential to be a Top 4 fullback move Edwards on.

RCG massive improvement required or encouraged out.

Both Katoa or Egan have to improve massively or gone. Probably no space for both unless they are cheap. One Advantage for Katoa is that he is capable as a interchange second rower/lock.

The only certainties in the short to medium term are Mansour and Maloney. They both need to go the sooner the better.

MWZ - I really like the guy personally but in this day and age you either need blinding speed OR height and power as a winger and he has neither. He is a capable fill in but should have trouble making a Top 17.

ATM it would be very useful to see where Tyrone May is at particularly since he has had a full season now since his crippling injury but the moron had to bring scandal upon the club and himself. If he doesn't get his pre injury turn of speed back we'd have to move him on as well.

 

[Pomoz]

I think Tripster is right in that we don't need wholesale changes. Fitness has a massive issue on the quality of decision making and we are gassed after 60 minutes. That's when errors, penalties and missed tackles creep in. If the players were fitter, we would then see what they are capable of. We don't know if our game plans have limitations since they aren't in the physical condition to execute them. Couple this with some players coming back from injuries and we have the perfect wooden spoon storm.

That said, I agree we need more pace. Mansour is slow and will be getting slower. MWZ is slow and DWZ is average. Whare's body can't cope any more. He stretches out for a run at speed and blows his hamstring (poor conditioning and fitness again). We really are pedestrian except for Blake and he isn't fit either. We need some new backs or we will struggle to score against the good teams.

If we are expecting respite against the Rabbitohs and Raiders we are in for a shock. The Raiders have the tightest defence in the NRL and kept the Titans and Eels pointless. The South's pack will smash ours to bits if we keep the same bottom of the table possession rate on the back of penalties and errors. We get one extra days rest against the Rabbitohs, that might give us the extra bit of fitness to give us a slim chance.

 

[tripster]

I agree with Pomoz that we also need more pace. Even one fast winger (on the opposite side of the field to Blake) would make a huge difference. A fast half (at least in terms of initial acceleration) would also be great. Maloney used to have the acceleration to step and break the line but no more. Luai has that pace, so perhaps if he eventually makes his way into the team and replaces Maloney that will help in that regard.

Regarding our next two games, I think it is very unlikely we will beat the Roosters or the Raiders. We will be monstered.

 

[tripster]

Watching the Storm v Roosters game really illustrates how far off the pace we are in terms of fitness.

In the first 25 minutes of the second half the Roosters had 5 sets to the Storm’s 15 sets. The Roosters had less than 30% of the game time in that half with the ball by that point. But they managed to fight on and we still running hard up to the bell. We simply couldn’t have kept ourselves in the game like that.

 

[mxlegend99]

Watching the Storm v Roosters game really illustrates how far off the pace we are in terms of fitness.

In the first 25 minutes of the second half the Roosters had 5 sets to the Storm’s 15 sets. The Roosters had less than 30% of the game time in that half with the ball by that point. But they managed to fight on and we still running hard up to the bell. We simply couldn’t have kept ourselves in the game like that.

Roosters gave up 20 points in that period and had to go to golden point. If anything that game proved all the clubs are capable of being shit aswell as us.

 

[herbert henry1908]

I still can’t get over the fact we’ve given Ivan Cleary a 5 year deal, it’s really quite incredible. I think it’s fair to categorise it as gross mismanagement.

We’d just paid out a coach for 2 years+ of his contract and then we go and do this?!

The members need to come together and remove the board, particularly Dave O’Neill.



Phil Gould was right to sack Ivan Cleary the first time, he was wrong to install Anthony Griffin as his replacement. At least he realised the error. We will rue this period in the clubs history as a significant missed opportunity. All that hard work lost.

 

[TheFrog]

Regarding our next two games, I think it is very unlikely we will beat the Roosters or the Raiders. We will be monstered.

We've got the Rabbitohs next. I think we can be competitive if we can get a decent (ie 50%) share of the ball. We don't play the Roosters until the weekend after Origin 1.

 

[TheFrog]

Roosters gave up 20 points in that period and had to go to golden point. If anything that game proved all the clubs are capable of being shit as well as us.

That game was managed to bring about a close finish, IMHO. Like ours probably but it went too far.

 

[Panfa]

Without greg inglis i dont fear the rabbitohs at all stop sam burgess go forward and watch damien cooks dummy half scampers and souths got nothing.The 2 teams i fear are the ones who played tonight storm and roosters we can beat all the other teams on our day but those 2 have the wood on us.

 

[tripster]

We've got the Rabbitohs next. I think we can be competitive if we can get a decent (ie 50%) share of the ball. We don't play the Roosters until the weekend after Origin 1.

Sorry yes I meant Rabbitohs. Put off by the fact that the Roosters play tonight. I don’t see us beating the Rabbitohs.