Do you want Brad Arthur as coach

[Gary Gutful]

Not sure champ. Having his 3 middles off at one time wasn’t the smartest thing I’ve seen. BA has been reluctant to give the bench game time. Hopefully he rectifies this and we go forward.

I reckon we lost the game against Souths because our players lost their heads.

 

[Gary Gutful]

Not sure champ. Having his 3 middles off at one time wasn’t the smartest thing I’ve seen. BA has been reluctant to give the bench game time. Hopefully he rectifies this and we go forward.

I reckon we lost the game against Souths because our players lost their heads.

 

[IFR33K]

We lose our heads twice?

 

[Gary Gutful]

We lose our heads twice?

Yep. Which isn't nearly as many times as I've lost my patience with this non-loading f**ken website!

 

[IFR33K]

Yep. Which isn't nearly as many times as I've lost my patience with this non-loading f**ken website!

Gronks probably bumping posts that are decades old

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Not sure champ. Having his 3 middles off at one time wasn’t the smartest thing I’ve seen. BA has been reluctant to give the bench game time. Hopefully he rectifies this and we go forward.

Why do you think we keep signing more forwards? Because the ones we've had on the bench haven't been good enough to give Paulo/RCG/Nrown a decent break during games. If we'd given them long minutes we would've gone even worse.

hopefully we also have some September success where you can bump this thread again (like a bitter old woman) and you get the last laugh. You’re seem that miserable at life, this thread bumping seems to satisfy you.

This thread is an opportunity for people to reassess their decision. Not only do you not have to participate, you don't even need to read the thread.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

They weren't favourites because they were lucky to beat the Sharks who shit the bed and imo should have won. They were also 1 win from their last 6 in the regular season so I don't understand how that qualifies as "coming into the finals with momentum". They barely clung on to 8th spot FFS!

Well that would explain why merkins underestimated them, including you and me.

Parra on the other hand won 5 of their last 6 going into the finals (including their last 3). They also played exceptionally well in the first week and nearly beat the benchmark side in a much higher quality contest.

I expected us to win that game against the Cowboys and I think the Cowboys deserved to be underdogs based on what they had served up beforehand.

I expected us to win too, but hindsight (where we are now judging whether or not Parra should have won that game) shows us the Cowboys also beat the Roosters and went on the make the grand final. But even at the time they had a superior 17 players against us on game day. That's what we should've been looking at, rather than the players that were missing. We should all have learnt our lesson from that game.

Big game experience (finals plus Origin):

Coote (9 games)
Feldt (10 games)
O'Neill (16 games)
Linnett (15 games)
Winterstein (14 games)
Martin (1 game)
Morgan (20 games)
Bolton (14 games)
Granville (8 games)
Taumalolo (13 games)
Cooper (19 games)
Lowe (7 games)
Fensom (5 games)
Asiata (7 games)
Hampton (3 games)
Hess (6 games)
Jensen (1 game)

That's a combined 168 games worth of Origin plus finals. The only bloke playing in his first ever finals series was Corey Jensen. By comparison we had 85 games (30 provided by one player) including 10 players in their first ever finals series:

Smith (3 games)
Radradra (1 game)
Jennings (30 games)
Takairangi (1 game)
Auva'a (5 games)
Norman (2 games)
Moses (1 game)
Alvaro (1 game)
King (1 game)
Mannah (9 games)
Ma'u (1 game)
Edwards (1 game)
Brown (1 game)
Scott (24 games)
Matagi (4 games)
Pritchard (0 games)
Terepo (0 games)

I reckon this doesn't just point to a lack of experience but a lack of quality.

 

[IFR33K]

Why do you think we keep signing more forwards? Because the ones we've had on the bench haven't been good enough to give Paulo/RCG/Nrown a decent break during games. If we'd given them long minutes we would've gone even worse.

This thread is an opportunity for people to reassess their decision. Not only do you not have to participate, you don't even need to read the thread.

How about if he decided to give the bench forwards more game time thru the season. Yet he thrashed Paulo RCG and brown all year and our bench had nothing.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

How about if he decided to give the bench forwards more game time thru the season.

Then we would've lost more games and missed the top four. Considering how many close ones we won we might've even missed the top eight.

Yet he thrashed Paulo RCG and brown all year and our bench had nothing.

Giving the bench more minutes through the season wouldn't make them noticeably better players. If anything, more minutes for Paulo and RCG conditioned them for long minutes in the finals.

 

[Gazzamatta]

Then we would've lost more games and missed the top four. Considering how many close ones we won we might've even missed the top eight.

Giving the bench more minutes through the season wouldn't make them noticeably better players. If anything, more minutes for Paulo and RCG conditioned them for long minutes in the finals.

Wernt Smith, Marata and Oregon on the bench last year?

 

[strider]

Give KEvans more minutes - so we have more to complain about

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Wernt Smith, Marata and Oregon on the bench last year?

Sometimes. Here's our bench appearances last year:

14 Evans
13 Kaufusi
11 Niukore
11 Stone
8 Davey
7 Takairangi
6 Terepo
4 Smith
3 Gower
3 Utoikamanu
2 Alvaro
2 Lane
1 Paulo

In the finals it was these merkins:

Vs Storm
Davey (52 minutes)
Niukore (42)
Evans (30)
Smith (21)

Vs Bunnies
Stone (24)
Davey (23)
Evans (14)
Smith (13)

Anyway, our bench has been much better this year, and will be even better when we get Matterson and Niukore back:

7 Kaufusi
6 Smith
5 Hipgrave
3 Cartwright
3 Stone
2 Greig
2 Papali'i

 

[Gazzamatta]

Bloody hell Poo. Get a life will ya dude. Are you ok?

 

[Gronk]

Not sure champ. Having his 3 middles off at one time wasn’t the smartest thing I’ve seen. BA has been reluctant to give the bench game time. Hopefully he rectifies this and we go forward.

You think that Jnr, Reg, Reed and Nrown should have played less minutes ?

https://www.nrl.com/draw/nrl-premiership/2020/finals-week-2/eels-v-rabbitohs/

hopefully we also have some September success where you can bump this thread again (like a bitter old woman) and you get the last laugh. You’re seem that miserable at life, this thread bumping seems to satisfy you.

There’s some delicious medium rare grass fed rib-eye irony right there.

 

[IFR33K]

Then we would've lost more games and missed the top four. Considering how many close ones we won we might've even missed the top eight.

Giving the bench more minutes through the season wouldn't make them noticeably better players. If anything, more minutes for Paulo and RCG conditioned them for long minutes in the finals.

Let’s agree to disagree on the matter and just hope BA has learnt something from last year.
Let’s also hope gronk continues to bump this thread on a weekly basis, and he even gets to nut to it.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Bloody hell Poo. Get a life will ya dude. Are you ok?

I'm in lockdown, drinking beer on Anzac Day and living my best life.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Let’s agree to disagree on the matter and just hope BA has learnt something from last year.

I'm sure he knew last year that he needed better bench players. But knowing something and being able to fix it doesn't happen straight away. Improving your roster is something that takes time.

 

[Gazzamatta]

I'm in lockdown, drinking beer on Anzac Day and living my best life.

Hang in buddy.

 

[Gary Gutful]

Well that would explain why merkins underestimated them, including you and me.
I expected us to win too, but hindsight (where we are now judging whether or not Parra should have won that game) shows us the Cowboys also beat the Roosters and went on the make the grand final. But even at the time they had a superior 17 players against us on game day. That's what we should've been looking at, rather than the players that were missing. We should all have learnt our lesson from that game.

Big game experience (finals plus Origin):

Coote (9 games)
Feldt (10 games)
O'Neill (16 games)
Linnett (15 games)
Winterstein (14 games)
Martin (1 game)
Morgan (20 games)
Bolton (14 games)
Granville (8 games)
Taumalolo (13 games)
Cooper (19 games)
Lowe (7 games)
Fensom (5 games)
Asiata (7 games)
Hampton (3 games)
Hess (6 games)
Jensen (1 game)

That's a combined 168 games worth of Origin plus finals. The only bloke playing in his first ever finals series was Corey Jensen. By comparison we had 85 games (30 provided by one player) including 10 players in their first ever finals series:

Smith (3 games)
Radradra (1 game)
Jennings (30 games)
Takairangi (1 game)
Auva'a (5 games)
Norman (2 games)
Moses (1 game)
Alvaro (1 game)
King (1 game)
Mannah (9 games)
Ma'u (1 game)
Edwards (1 game)
Brown (1 game)
Scott (24 games)
Matagi (4 games)
Pritchard (0 games)
Terepo (0 games)

I reckon this doesn't just point to a lack of experience but a lack of quality.

No doubt that they had the more experienced team but up until this game they weren't offering a lot. They would have went into the Roosters game with plenty of confidence.

I take your point about "should have won". Perhaps thats not the best way to explain it. Lets go with most disappointing.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

*exciting