Around the Grounds

[perverse]

DT reporting a very high profile player caught with white substance

would be just our luck if it were ponga

Seems far more likely that it'll be from a team that was knocked out, given Mad Monday and whatnot.

 

[slotmachine]

Val Holmes

 

[Yosh]

Apparently it was a Instagram post on Saturday night. 100% not one of our guys the night before the biggest game of their lives.

 

[perverse]

Val Holmes

As soon as I saw it was a Cowboys player, that was the name that came to mind yeah.

 

[Woody90]

DT reporting a very high profile player caught with white substance

would be just our luck if it were ponga

It’s being reported as an “off season” incident, so unlikely to be us for once.

 

[Frederick]

Val Holmes

Gotta cope with living in Townsville somehow I suppose

 

[Frederick]

Josh king bringing his Newcastle form to this game

 

[Woody90]

These two sides are awful.

 

[Jono078]

These two sides are awful.

Panthers surely win by at least 20 next week.

 

[Old dog]

Sorry to disagree, good game and Meaney and King playing very strong, couple of handling errors from King but tackling and running strong, Meaney has been safe under high ball.
Get over it they are good players and good people

 

[Knight Tales]

Storm are something else. Munster is a freak. What a kick. Has basically played way below his best for two weeks and produces that!

 

[Old dog]

Pleased, rather Storm than Roosters

 

[Apey]

Josh king bringing his Newcastle form to this game

I liked that at one point Storm's only blemishes were 2x Josh King dropped balls, Tariq dropped ball, and an awful Meaney conversion. Meaney ended up being one of their best though.

 

[aqua_duck]

I thought roosters did really well to even get within sight of possibly winning considering how many players they had out. Outside of Teddy that’s the worst backline I’ve ever seen in a finals game and ultimately lead to their downfall

 

[Yosh]

Teddy seems like he has lost lost a gear or two this season compared to seasons before... Ponga for Kangaroos fullback? Surely it's between Ponga and Walsh now?

 

[Knight Tales]

Triple M think we will win if we start strong. They feel Warriors have huge defensive issues and will struggle to go with us unless Egan has a blinder

 

[perverse]

Teddy seems like he has lost lost a gear or two this season compared to seasons before... Ponga for Kangaroos fullback? Surely it's between Ponga and Walsh now?

Walsh is ahead of KP now and nothing KP can do can change it unless Walsh has a really bad form slump. Incumbency is huge in our game, and they don't lose anything picking Walsh over KP either really.

KPs only real path to getting rep jerseys back is continue to do what he's doing and hope Walsh falls over ahead of him with an injury or some such.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

Walsh is ahead of KP now and nothing KP can do can change it unless Walsh has a really bad form slump. Incumbency is huge in our game, and they don't lose anything picking Walsh over KP either really.

KPs only real path to getting rep jerseys back is continue to do what he's doing and hope Walsh falls over ahead of him with an injury or some such.

Well Tedesco is the incumbent, not Walsh. So first you’re banking on Meninga and the selectors opting to drop Tedesco and then picking Walsh as the next in line. But the way they select the Kangaroos team isn’t necessarily the way they select the QLD team. Is there even a selection panel these days? Or is it just the coach who picks the team? Either way origin was 3 months ago now and it doesn’t necessarily mean that Walsh is the favourite to get the no.1 jersey. Don’t forget Tedesco is the captain and how often does the Australian captain lose his position in the team?

Also incumbency didn’t mean much with KP wasn’t picked for QLD earlier this year. And I’m glad tbh because I think that reality check is part of what has woken him up and spurred him onto this superb run of form.

Anyway I’d be very surprised if they dropped Tedesco given the above points I mentioned. I think KP and Walsh will both be in the squad but I can only see them being used as backup in a nothing game or maybe off the bench.

 

[perverse]

Well Tedesco is the incumbent, not Walsh. So first you’re banking on Meninga and the selectors opting to drop Tedesco and then picking Walsh as the next in line. But the way they select the Kangaroos team isn’t necessarily the way they select the QLD team. Is there even a selection panel these days? Or is it just the coach who picks the team? Either way origin was 3 months ago now and it doesn’t necessarily mean that Walsh is the favourite to get the no.1 jersey. Don’t forget Tedesco is the captain and how often does the Australian captain lose his position in the team?

Also incumbency didn’t mean much with KP wasn’t picked for QLD earlier this year. And I’m glad tbh because I think that reality check is part of what has woken him up and spurred him onto this superb run of form.

Anyway I’d be very surprised if they dropped Tedesco given the above points I mentioned. I think KP and Walsh will both be in the squad but I can only see them being used as backup in a nothing game or maybe off the bench.

I'm more coming from the angle that Tedesco is a spent force, and Walsh being the QLD fullback would make him first in line. If they keep Tedesco around for another year then yeah who knows what happens in 12 months, but Walsh is next cab off the rank I'd say. I think NSW kept Teddy around a year too long (and it's hard to drop a captain, to be fair), we'll see if Meninga makes the same mistake.

All this word salad amounts to at the end of the day is that on the "rep fullback ladder", Walsh has skipped over Kalyn and it'll take something more than Kalyn playing out of his skin to dislodge Walsh.

 

[aqua_duck]

Not sure if anyone caught the Qld cup GF today but there’s a young winger from Burleigh named Tony Francis who wouldn’t go too bad.
20 years old, 187cm, 98kg. Scored 18 tries in 21 games in Qld cup this year and averaged 151m per game. Contracted to the titans but pretty sure he’s unsigned for 2024, or if he’s contracted maybe the titans might be keen on another player swap