Game Day - Once Were Warriors

[Poss]

Random question too.. but we have Cam and Dale as co-captains… both played last night, but Nicho attended the presser after the match. What’s that about?

 

[DJDL]

I'm still trying to get my head around how they won that.

They had absolutely no right to be in the contest at half time.
Having only 15% possession for the first 25 minutes or so of the match is insane.
In years gone by they'd have been down by 24-30 points.
That speaks volumes for the resolve they've harnessed over the offseason.

And to do it away, against a side considered one of the "smokies" for the title, is just outstanding.

Compare last night to Round 1 from the previous two seasons.
2022 they lost on the bell to the Raiders when they should have won.
Last year, they lost late to the Rabbitohs.
Again, they were in it up their eyeballs but just couldn't finish it off.

Last year after the Rabbitohs loss I commented in here how deflated I felt, one game in, knowing that they'd be there or thereabouts but, when it's all said and done, they just can't compete with the big boys.

Last night showed a major step in the right direction.

I kind of feel like in Happy Gilmour when he says "Happy learned how to putt. Uh-oh".
"The Sharks learned how to defend. Uh-oh".

Anyway, the next test is to back it up.
Can they maintain the rage?

 

[Frenzy.]

My understanding was they said he jumped “too early.” So in other words distracted the warriors fullback from catching it. Was a load of shit.

It's not so much a source of confusion to me as a source of something illogical. I've watched all the round one games and the short drop out is a clear contest to have a chaser jump early and tap the ball back, as Kennedy was trying to do. Papenhuyzen's short drop outs all had the chaser jumping at the ball from 8-9 metres out. So much so there was doubt about them touching the ball before the plane or not on every occasion.

The rule is flawed.

 

[Cheese sandwich]

Remains to be seen. He was very good last night. Got bamboozled by Metcalfe when he scored but so did 3 others and that try was brilliant and not many teams were stopping that. Does he seem a bit better developed in upper body musculature?

His tackle on Jackson Ford was first rate 1 on 1 on the line. Was about the same time as the momentum started swinging. I reckon that tackle gave the team a big boost.

Was 10 x better than Edwards in the next game and he was lauded as the best thing since sliced bread in a losing, shit woeful team

BTW. What was the best thing before sliced bread?

Jacket potatoes?

 

[Cheese sandwich]

Random question too.. but we have Cam and Dale as co-captains… both played last night, but Nicho attended the presser after the match. What’s that about?

One sounds like gary larson and the other one has no teeth. Bring the one in that the ladies swoon over.

 

[chewsta]

Just watching the game now with audio and up to the Kennedy jumping for the bomb at the 32 minute mark. The ref looked like he was walking over to pack a scrum until the Wahs fullback questioned it, to which the ref all of a sudden decided it was a penalty.
As opposed to Ramien being penalised a few times last year for jumping early and waving his arms with no intent at all to try to catch the ball. WK never took his eyes off the ball, he was still above the fullback when he made first contact with his hand tapping it backwards. He never made any contact with the Wahs fullback at all either. I don't understand what the penalty is for, or the rule?

Even the Bro commentators believed WK was hard done by.

 

[coolumsharkie]

My understanding was they said he jumped “too early.” So in other words distracted the warriors fullback from catching it. Was a load of shit.

Is this a new rule? I was confused as well. It was a one on one challenge for the ball for mine but I'll have to watch it again.

 

[Frenzy.]

I'm still trying to get my head around how they won that.

They had absolutely no right to be in the contest at half time.
Having only 15% possession for the first 25 minutes or so of the match is insane.
In years gone by they'd have been down by 24-30 points.
That speaks volumes for the resolve they've harnessed over the offseason.

And to do it away, against a side considered one of the "smokies" for the title, is just outstanding.

Compare last night to Round 1 from the previous two seasons.
2022 they lost on the bell to the Raiders when they should have won.
Last year, they lost late to the Rabbitohs.
Again, they were in it up their eyeballs but just couldn't finish it off.

Last year after the Rabbitohs loss I commented in here how deflated I felt, one game in, knowing that they'd be there or thereabouts but, when it's all said and done, they just can't compete with the big boys.

Last night showed a major step in the right direction.

I kind of feel like in Happy Gilmour when he says "Happy learned how to putt. Uh-oh".
"The Sharks learned how to defend. Uh-oh".

Anyway, the next test is to back it up.
Can they maintain the rage?

Yes to this but I want to expand it. This is a story of statistics lying.

15% of the ball in 25 minutes obviously equates to defending 85% of the time. Imagine how gassed that makes blokes? Especially in the emotion and rush of a season opener, away from home at a full park. That is going to bring defensive errors at some point. I'd argue both their tries were related to fatigue errors in defence. With AFB there were 2 blokes taking a nap and Metcalfe was just too fast and agile.

The full defensive stats are a lie. We missed 35 tackles. We don't win missing that many tackles in 2022-23. We had a lower overall defensive efficiency. The Sharks ran for 501 less metres which can make superficial analysis look like we were going nowhere yet the 9 running forwards (not counting Tinkerbell) all averaged 9 metres per run. That's pretty normal so they were working hard in offense in the sparse times they had possession..

So where did we win?

To me its in the unrecorded stats. The scrambling was outstanding. The cleanup work was mostly outstanding. Falling on loose balls, covering their mates. Working to one goal. Blokes were getting in front and even if they missed it was enough for the scramble. Kennedy on AFB in second half an example. His speedhump play allowed following players to get to AFB from behind.

It's clear they trusted their plan and processes and trusted each other, Mental win. Very good for mental toughness this one. Something a lot of us have thought lacking.

 

[Eion]

Tricky fined by MRC. That’s it

 

[Frenzy.]

Tricky fined by MRC. That’s it

Good. It's all I personally thought would happen. They shouldn't suspend accidents but they gotta do something.

They gotta do it all year though.

 

[DJDL]

Yes to this but I want to expand it. This is a story of statistics lying.

15% of the ball in 25 minutes obviously equates to defending 85% of the time. Imagine how gassed that makes blokes? Especially in the emotion and rush of a season opener, away from home at a full park. That is going to bring defensive errors at some point. I'd argue both their tries were related to fatigue errors in defence. With AFB there were 2 blokes taking a nap and Metcalfe was just to fast and agile.

The full defensive stats are a lie. We missed 35 tackles. We don't win missing that many tackles in 2022-23. We had a lower overall defensive efficiency. The Sharks ran for 501 less metres which can make superficial analysis look like we were going nowhere yet the 9 running forwards (not counting Tinkerbell) all averaged 9 metres per run. That's pretty normal so they were working hard in offense in the sparse times they had possession..

So where did we win?

To me its in the unrecorded stats. The scrambling was outstanding. The cleanup work was mostly outstanding. Falling on loose balls, covering their mates. Working to one goal. Blokes were getting in front and even if they missed it was enough for the scramble. Kennedy on AFB in second half an example. His speedhump play allowed following players to get to AFB from behind.

It's clear they trusted their plan and processes and trusted each other, Mental win. Very good for mental toughness this one. Something a lot of us have thought lacking.

That's the thing that stood out for me.
Yes, they were missing tackles but they were in cohesion.
Everyone working for each other.
You miss? No worries, I've got you covered.
Huge improvement in that area.

I did notice Nikora seemingly had a brief to stop AFB.
He seemed to be constantly coming in and chopping his legs out from under him.
Two others up top to wrap up the ball, and it's job done.

All working together.
Solid plan.

 

[Cheese sandwich]

Yes to this but I want to expand it. This is a story of statistics lying.

15% of the ball in 25 minutes obviously equates to defending 85% of the time. Imagine how gassed that makes blokes? Especially in the emotion and rush of a season opener, away from home at a full park. That is going to bring defensive errors at some point. I'd argue both their tries were related to fatigue errors in defence. With AFB there were 2 blokes taking a nap and Metcalfe was just to fast and agile.

The full defensive stats are a lie. We missed 35 tackles. We don't win missing that many tackles in 2022-23. We had a lower overall defensive efficiency. The Sharks ran for 501 less metres which can make superficial analysis look like we were going nowhere yet the 9 running forwards (not counting Tinkerbell) all averaged 9 metres per run. That's pretty normal so they were working hard in offense in the sparse times they had possession..

So where did we win?

To me its in the unrecorded stats. The scrambling was outstanding. The cleanup work was mostly outstanding. Falling on loose balls, covering their mates. Working to one goal. Blokes were getting in front and even if they missed it was enough for the scramble. Kennedy on AFB in second half an example. His speedhump play allowed following players to get to AFB from behind.

It's clear they trusted their plan and processes and trusted each other, Mental win. Very good for mental toughness this one. Something a lot of us have thought lacking.

Was just talking to a m8 (another sharks supporter) about this. Last 2 years we're going hail mary plays from the 15th minute, this year we've decided to get real and do the hard yards and let the points come off the back of that (as cliched as that sounds)

 

[Ozzi_78]

The two back penalty was crap. WK actually touched the ball im pretty sure.

 

[Cheese sandwich]

The two back penalty was crap. WK actually touched the ball im pretty sure.

The effort he made to get there and then get penalised wrongly shows just how much referees have no feel for the game a lot of the time. It wasn't like he sauntered there solely for the purpose of putting the fullback off.

 

[Frenzy.]

Yes to this but I want to expand it. This is a story of statistics lying.

15% of the ball in 25 minutes obviously equates to defending 85% of the time. Imagine how gassed that makes blokes? Especially in the emotion and rush of a season opener, away from home at a full park. That is going to bring defensive errors at some point. I'd argue both their tries were related to fatigue errors in defence. With AFB there were 2 blokes taking a nap and Metcalfe was just to fast and agile.

The full defensive stats are a lie. We missed 35 tackles. We don't win missing that many tackles in 2022-23. We had a lower overall defensive efficiency. The Sharks ran for 501 less metres which can make superficial analysis look like we were going nowhere yet the 9 running forwards (not counting Tinkerbell) all averaged 9 metres per run. That's pretty normal so they were working hard in offense in the sparse times they had possession..

So where did we win?

To me its in the unrecorded stats. The scrambling was outstanding. The cleanup work was mostly outstanding. Falling on loose balls, covering their mates. Working to one goal. Blokes were getting in front and even if they missed it was enough for the scramble. Kennedy on AFB in second half an example. His speedhump play allowed following players to get to AFB from behind.

It's clear they trusted their plan and processes and trusted each other, Mental win. Very good for mental toughness this one. Something a lot of us have thought lacking.

Was just talking to a m8 (another sharks supporter) about this. Last 2 years we're going hail mary plays from the 15th minute, this year we've decided to get real and do the hard yards and let the points come off the back of that (as cliched as that sounds)

Leads into another thing I noticed.

As they fought tooth and nail to get back in the game and eventually hit the lead and win. I've noticed after just watching the replay that they had a real steely seriousness about them. Score a try, don't go overboard, steel up, go back and come again. May equate to improved focus. Hope so.

 

[Ozzi_78]

To be honest the referring display was terrible. He tried everything and is one of the guys that gets swayed by a crowd.

 

[Mr Angry]

BTW. What was the best thing before sliced bread?

The wheel, before that fire

 

[Ozzi_78]

The wheel, before that fire

Then Betty White.

 

[Frenzy.]

The wheel, before that fire

Why wasn't unsliced bread rated I wonder?

 

[Ozzi_78]

Why wasn't unsliced bread rated I wonder?

Just wasn’t practical.