Elimination Final vs Bulldogs

[mxlegend99]

Josh Mansour was our best for mine. Goddamn he destroyed them that second half. His passing game was better than I ever expected.

 

[forby]

Yesssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was hard having to listen to this in Koblenz, Germany, but worth it in the end! First half was a worry, but after the first try in the second half I felt a lot more relaxed!
Bring on the Raiders!

 

[mxlegend99]

That first half was ugly. But i swear we were just trying to tire the Bulldogs best we could for the second half.

It wasnt anything like we normally play. And i think it was our way of trying to keep the game going with few breaks for Bulldogs to get a breather

 

[betcats]

That was a great game for our young team to come through experience wise, do or die and under a fair bit of pressure in that first half and we hold on and then blow them away.

 

[Pomoz]

Now this gets to the heart of the matter. Their forwards are hard as nails, experienced campaigners who won't take a backwards step and that is what wins semis.

....I know Merrin, Cartwright, Wallace and Latimore won't be phased by the rough stuff, but lets see how the others respond. I suspect JFH will be fine, but you don't know until the shots start flying. The Titans got over the top of our forwards, lets hope they learned from that.

.....Their back row is nowhere near as skilled or as fast as ours and they don't have many ball players and off-loaders in their team besides Kasiano and Graham. We easily match that with Cartwright, Latu, Merrin and even Matagai. Jackson, Klemmer and Eastwood are head down, bum up type of forwards. This means their error rate is lower, but their creativity is low.

But...All our extra creativity will count for nothing if we can't get a roll on in the forwards because the Dogs are bashing us. If we can move the ball around to mess up their gang tackles and Cleary can find grass with his kicks (we don't want Morris to show us just how good he is at kick returns) we can wear them out. Use the Broncos game plan. Kick early, turn them round (Kasiano may be be big and tough, but he couldn't run out of sight on a dark night). Eastwood and Klemmer don't play big minutes (average 53 mins) so we just have to match them when they are on and when they leave the field we can move the ball more. Lets see how good William's lateral defence is.

...The old Dogs brute force and intimidation versus the young pups, ball playing, off-loading ad hoc style. Can the new "footy for fun' style stand up to the Dogs bash and barge?

We know the answer to that. "footy for fun" wins the day and amen to that. We moved the ball, they belted it up the guts one out style. We run them off their feet and they were hanging on at the end. You can poke the Storm "strangle you to death" style of footy where the sun doesn't shine. It may win games but it is dreadful to watch.

The best thing for me was that they absolutely belted us in defence inside our own 20 yet we still managed to get a roll on through our backs and then we got a second wind and come again as the youngsters settled down. Nobody went missing and we benefited greatly from Latimore coming on and bending the line with some strong runs. Grevshmul also added some steel with some strong tackles. They got a good bashing and hung in there and came back. The second half was very impressive. Steel, speed, skill and the Dogs had no answers.

 

[betcats]

That first half was ugly. But i swear we were just trying to tire the Bulldogs best we could for the second half.

It wasnt anything like we normally play. And i think it was our way of trying to keep the game going with few breaks for Bulldogs to get a breather

I dunno I think the dogs just had the momentum and we were just holding on for a lot of it. They had us under the pump we did very well to score that try at the end, great pass from Cleary.

 

[chrisD]

Weeeeeeeeee

 

[Doomednow]

Awesome game. Goddamn out backline is fantastic.

Cartwright though... He must be close to our least consistent player. Does some great things but still has the mistakes. Let in dog's first try, messes up more kicks in play than he pulls off, and had that knock on. I like him but he needs to tighten it up. And put him in the back row officially already.

How many times did we kick on the 5th? Seemed like we ran it more often than not.

 

[tripster]

I am totally stoked. What a fantastic win. We matched the Dogs in the forwards and they had no answer to our skill in the backline.

How many times did we kick on the 5th? Seemed like we ran it more often than not.

I am sure this was a deliberate (and brilliant) tactic. There was no attempt to kick on the last deliberately - run the Dogs around, and then hand the ball over to them 10 metres out (rather than risk a 20 metre 7 tackle set), and they don't get a rest - their forwards have to switch from defence to start running the ball up out of their own end without a breather. Rinse and repeat and the fat dogs run out of gas.

 

[Queensland Fanatic]

Awesome game. Goddamn out backline is fantastic.

Cartwright though... He must be close to our least consistent player. Does some great things but still has the mistakes. Let in dog's first try, messes up more kicks in play than he pulls off, and had that knock on. I like him but he needs to tighten it up. And put him in the back row officially already.

How many times did we kick on the 5th? Seemed like we ran it more often than not.

 

[Queensland Fanatic]

After watching this game I'm mystified as to why Penrith would sign Tamou from my team, the Cowboys.
I know he wanted to go back to Penrith for family reasons but he'll be shown up in that side made up of young fit quick enthusiastic players.
If anything he would fit better into the Bulldogs style of play which belongs in the 1980's -90's.

 

[umina panther]

Moylan's attack was incredible. Dogs grubbed it up all game knowing they had nothing

 

[forby]

Listening to Cleary on 2GB it sounded like the first half was a tactical effort to tire the Bulldogs out and then run over them in the second.
If this was the case it worked to perfection and Griffith proved he is a tactician as well as a developer!

Wish I was there! I cant even watch it due to the NRLs German rights holder. Unless you have a German address that matches your Credit card or bank account you can't subscribe! Same in the UK. The NRL needs to look at doing something for people travelling throughout the season!

 

[Panther Pete]

Wow, that was an impressive performance!! I thought we were going to struggle but very happy to be proven wrong. Also got to say although I was critical of Griffen earlier in the year, he has to take a lot of credit for this because he has the guys actually playing footy rather than just one out stuff. Hopefully we can keep it up and take this form down to Canberra next week.

 

[umina panther]

Whos coming to Canberra?

 

[ammatt]

Was really impressed to see Moylan go up to Graham and shake his hand as the Panthers ran out onto the field in the first half.
I thought this set a great example and showed real maturity from the young man and I am glad to have him as our captain.
Mansour was definitely our best on field closely followed by Peachey who was a handful every time he touched the ball. Who'd have thought Mansour had that passing game in him when Moylan ran behind him in the second half that led to the try.
Both Moylan and Mansour benefitted enormously from their SOO experience.
this year has been a great success and I can only salivate at the thought of 2017/18/19 etc

 

[Pomoz]

Listening to Cleary on 2GB it sounded like the first half was a tactical effort to tire the Bulldogs out and then run over them in the second.
If this was the case it worked to perfection and Griffith proved he is a tactician as well as a developer!

Wish I was there! I cant even watch it due to the NRLs German rights holder. Unless you have a German address that matches your Credit card or bank account you can't subscribe! Same in the UK. The NRL needs to look at doing something for people travelling throughout the season!

VPN for Singapore. Rugby Pass Setanta. Every game. Not expensive.

 

[The Teach]

Great all round performance by the boys. The tactic of not kicking on the 5th was, while frustrating at the time, brilliantly thought out and executed. Kudos to the coaching staff for that.

Wanna give a big shoutout to Isaah Yeo. He has not put a foot wrong and has turnedinto a big key to our success. He just does the little unnoticed things so well.

 

[Pomoz]

After watching this game I'm mystified as to why Penrith would sign Tamou from my team, the Cowboys.
I know he wanted to go back to Penrith for family reasons but he'll be shown up in that side made up of young fit quick enthusiastic players.
If anything he would fit better into the Bulldogs style of play which belongs in the 1980's -90's.

The answer lies in the 20 minute period where we struggled to get out of our own half. We need a bit more toughness in the middle. He would have been of great help to us at that time.

 

[Pomoz]

Great all round performance by the boys. The tactic of not kicking on the 5th was, while frustrating at the time, brilliantly thought out and executed. Kudos to the coaching staff for that.

Wanna give a big shoutout to Isaah Yeo. He has not put a foot wrong and has turnedinto a big key to our success. He just does the little unnoticed things so well.

Griffin said in his press conference "there is no rule that say you have to kick on the fifth tackle". The Dogs didn't get a rest and their arses were dragging very close to the floor as the game went on. Sam looked like he could be off to ER for some oxygen. In the EPL they have a great chant for players they consider to be fat. "Who ate all the pies?" goes the chant. I am no inspector Morse, but I suspect Sam Kasiano could be number one suspect. Does he have an alibi?