First Grade Knights v Warriors

[perverse]

You know what? we'd miss Dureau more.

i agree roops. mullen has had some touches of class lately for sure... but dureau is really controlling this football team at the moment - and doing in it superb fashion.

will be interesting to see dureau + bailey next week.

 

[roopy]

I'd love to see 7 Walsh, 6 Dureau - just because that combination has more tricks than a barrell full of monkeys - it probably wouldn't have the go forward of the Dureau/Bailey combo, and certainly wouldn't have the defence - but the huge passes and switch of plays and set ups for specific players were always beautiful to watch when Walsh and Dureau got together

 

[Dr Crane]

sh*t guys, you look pretty damn slick this year. I said at the time we needed the 14-0 start because as soon as you got some ball there were going to be points on the board.

A pretty poor performance from both teams imo, though. But good luck the rest of the year.

 

[knights_86]

pretty disappointing ending, but yeah we probably lost it in the first 20mins. despite having no ball then, most of the starting pack was sh*te- we seem to be dominated when royal and tolar are on and we only dominate when wicks and faaso are on... it happened in both halves. our outside backs arent involved enough either- they need to take the workload off the forwards more with dummy half runs. we'll miss mullo (he started to show some awesome touches) but i agree that dureau is running the show

royal - crap and ill-disciplined, he has to go next week
ciraldo - heaps of tackles but no metres
tolar - average at best
taia and housto - few mistakes but solid
bedsy- solid as usual
faaso, patto and wicks - great impact off bench
hilder - solid as usual
naiqama - couple of uncharacteristic mistakes but have to persist with him
lulia - mia
vuna - tried hard but only went sideways
mcmanus- terrible defensive read, solid at best
mullo- showed some class b4 being injured
dureau- some classy kicks and passes, running the show well
kidley - good game again, awesome setup for last try


need to get cross and aku in their for next week

 

[Serc]

You know what? we'd miss Dureau more.

I agree.

Thirded (if there is such a word)

 

[~knights~]

I'd love to see 7 Walsh, 6 Dureau - just because that combination has more tricks than a barrell full of monkeys - it probably wouldn't have the go forward of the Dureau/Bailey combo, and certainly wouldn't have the defence - but the huge passes and switch of plays and set ups for specific players were always beautiful to watch when Walsh and Dureau got together

I's rather see walshy in as well

 

[strewth_mate]

Bloody hell, discipline. How many times would we concede a penalty when the Warriors were working the ball out, and in the next set see them go over for a try? My dodgy memory suggests the first 14 points were scored in this manner. It seems to be a talent of ours.

It was a fantastic effort though - a bit odd to say that our defence was particularly good when it was 26 against, but it's what we've got to work with. But again, if we don't consistently concede stupid penalties, then they don't get piggybacked into great position in our half, and their chances are reduced. It's not so much that there's a wealth of penalties, it's just they're conceded in the most debilitating circumstances. Don't recall times when we followed up a decent set with a good kick chase, and spent a set pinning them down in their half - that's one thing you've got to do against the Warriors.

One concern though that seems to be recurring is our lack of speed in the ruck. Rather than seeing everyone hit the line and drive til the death, I'd like to occasionally see them submit more quickly in order to get the ball out - and with some of the talent we have, you'd think it'd give us an advantage.

Other thing is the lack of distribution to the flanks. They're moving the ball around a lot, but it rarely reaches the outside men. Other teams are moving up quickly on us, and sliding with us, so it limits opportunities, but our wingers are starved of the ball sometimes. This is why I wasn't thinking Uate wouldn't make much of an impact if he was brought in this year - a winger can't necessarily set the world on fire if he's not given much to work with. This does look to be improving though.


Bah, in the end though they did very well. If we can get some more purpose behind that slick movement then we're going to be fantastic to watch. Good stuff. To restrict them to 12 points after their early flurry, on the back of massive momentum gifted to them by some top class foot shooting, and particularly given that we didn't capitulate after such a terrible start, that's what I'd like to take away from this one.

(and trust me, I'm quite upbeat about it despite the usual rant ;-))

 

[Pika]

pretty disappointing ending, but yeah we probably lost it in the first 20mins. despite having no ball then, most of the starting pack was sh*te- we seem to be dominated when royal and tolar are on and we only dominate when wicks and faaso are on... it happened in both halves. our outside backs arent involved enough either- they need to take the workload off the forwards more with dummy half runs. we'll miss mullo (he started to show some awesome touches) but i agree that dureau is running the show

royal - crap and ill-disciplined, he has to go next week
ciraldo - heaps of tackles but no metres
tolar - average at best
taia and housto - few mistakes but solid
bedsy- solid as usual
faaso, patto and wicks - great impact off bench
hilder - solid as usual
naiqama - couple of uncharacteristic mistakes but have to persist with him
lulia - mia
vuna - tried hard but only went sideways
mcmanus- terrible defensive read, solid at best
mullo- showed some class b4 being injured
dureau- some classy kicks and passes, running the show well
kidley - good game again, awesome setup for last try


need to get cross and aku in their for next week

Its been said a thousand times, but do you not realise that Faas and Wicks are impact players, injected after the hard graft is done by Tolar and Royal?

We were on the back of a 6-0 penalty count and some terrible dropped ball in the first 20 minutes. Some of those penalties could have went the other way, but very few were from our front two.

The starting props were quality under those conditions.

As the penalty count evened up, the impact players were injected, is it any surprise they made some quality yards.

Wicks and Faas are not a patch on Tolar and Royal in defence against fresh forwards.

 

[Johns Magic]

Its been said a thousand times, but do you not realise that Faas and Wicks are impact players, injected after the hard graft is done by Tolar and Royal?

We were on the back of a 6-0 penalty count and some terrible dropped ball in the first 20 minutes. Some of those penalties could have went the other way, but very few were from our front two.

The starting props were quality under those conditions.

As the penalty count evened up, the impact players were injected, is it any surprise they made some quality yards.

Wicks and Faas are not a patch on Tolar and Royal in defence against fresh forwards.

Mate, Royal is trash.

If I wanted a starting front-rower who could tackle and do f**k all else, I'd pick Mick Young. At least he'd have a go at carting the ball up, and wouldn't give away the stupid penalties.

Royal has given away 5 penalties at the start of the last two matches. I don't think it's a coincidence that we've been 10-0 and 14-0 down while he's been on.

This "hard graft" you speak of is completely overhyped. Why does it only apply to our front-row? Other props make tackles and 120+ metres.

Even when he comes back on late in the game he doesn't get us going forward.

The sooner I see the back of Royal, the better.

 

[Pika]

Fair enough.

I think when he does get dropped for Cross, we will leak points up the middle.

His partnership with Tolar in the middle is excellent. Had any other combination been on against the Warriors, we would have leaked points through the forwards all half.

There is a fair case to argue that a lot of the penalties against him are not justified.

 

[macavity]

I don't get the front row hate. they held their own against a fairly decent pack and with no ball.

we look good in the middle

good in the halves

bench holds their own (though Wicks has been very ordinary last 2 games)

we are woeful out wide - Wes and Keith were both very average (esp Wes v warriors, he almost deserves to be dropped for that.) and our wingers offer no spark.

We need Uate, and maybe even a doogs or 2 to spice things up. We need an attacking weapon out wide.

at the moment we don't have more than 20 points in us against any half decent team, and in this comp that is a big worry - especially when it is our defence out wide and on the fringes that is leaking.

 

[Pika]

Just had a quick look at the NRL stats.

Royal is not looking to bad in that department.

I know in the stats that are kept by the coaching staff, like line speed, winning the wrestle, marker play, he is leading the way.

 

[Johns Magic]

I think when he does get dropped for Cross, we will leak points up the middle.

His partnership with Tolar in the middle is excellent. Had any other combination been on against the Warriors, we would have leaked points through the forwards all half.

When Royal and Tolar went off we went from 14-0 down to 14-12 down in 20 minutes.

I'm not bagging them as defenders, I'm just saying that I don't agree that we leak points without them on.

The argument for having them on at the start of the game is that they are able to defend, but I think if they gave us some go-forward and laid a platform for the team's attack, we wouldn't be having to defend so much.

Not once this season have we scored the first try of the match. We've had to come back from 4-0, 12-2, 10-0 and 14-0. I think our slow starts to the match can largely be attributed to our lack of go-forward until Wicks and Fa'aoso come on.

 

[Pika]

Good point.

But they are working against fresh forwards, the tries are coming on the fringes, not up the middle.

On the weekend, we dropped the ball three times and had a torrid 6-0 penalty count against us in the first 20 minutes.

We were lucky not to be down by 24.

You are right about the attack though. They are toilers, rather than flashy.

 

[roopy]

Our forwards are doing the job - and we have Cross and Simmo to come. I'm very happy with our forwards.
We should be good for halves all season.
Kidley is brilliant and i think the other backs have potential to improve.

All this picking every little 'error' to pieces is bullsh*t. You can do the same for every side.

Take the kick from Scotty that led to an intercept try - that kick was obviously a practiced move that the whole team was expecting and was probably designed by one B Smith - a metre or two difference and it was a match winner. When they talk about it at training Scotty will get a pat on the back for doing his part and told to try it again next week. sh*t happens.

 

[Karmawave]

Just had a quick look at the NRL stats.

Royal is not looking to bad in that department.

I know in the stats that are kept by the coaching staff, like line speed, winning the wrestle, marker play, he is leading the way.

Royal would up the top of the coaching staff stats of giving away penalties too I imagine...

 

[Pika]

Royal would up the top of the coaching staff stats of giving away penalties too I imagine...

Eh?

Why would Coaches keep penalties as a specific stat when it is recorded as a general stat?

 

[Karmawave]

So they can specifically kick his ass for his general idiocy? ;-)

 

[keeney]

Royal has been a penalty machine in recent weeks, there is no denying that. I feel that this one facet of his game undoes all his good work as it is one of the major reasons we've been playing catch up footy all year.

 

[antonius]

We have been behind in the last couple of games because of penalties given against us, 14-0 yesterday was purely because we didn't have any ball, we just kept getting penalised and they kept scoring on the back of them. It was worse against the Eels, we were giving piggy back penalties to them and they were scoring off them. To be fair we haven't exactly had the rub of the green in that dept, some very dodgy calls going against us. Yes Royal is the main culprit.