Game Day- Sharks vs Sea Eagle. Steve Rogers Trophy

[Frailty]

Thought Fifita was poor and has been sliding the past few weeks after a great start to the year.
His hit up and slow play the balls last night lost us momentum.
We really missed Finucane & Uele last night.
I dare say we run out with the same 17 next week Brisbane will dominate us through the middle with ease.

As a previous poster mentioned. Statistically, he wasn't the worst forward.

My issue was Tolman, Williams, Fifita all on the field for extended time together. During this team, linespeed disappeared, which lead to soft first contact, which lead to quick play the balls for Manly, and the Sharks on the backfoot. Finucane's impact on linespeed can not be understated.

On Tolman - I'm not his biggest fan. I can see the benefits he brings in terms of being a stoic and calming influence on the team, but 50 minutes of game time and he is not even breaking 90 running metres. His lateral movement is almost as bad as Fifita's.

 

[txta2]

 

[txta2]

 

[coolumsharkie]

 

[txta2]

Lol, that's bs because ya mum is Qlder

 

[Mr Angry]

Broncos are crap and thier coach has no idea, I am glad there will be no Ezra Mam.

Just a shyte team with no idea.

We will kill them.

 

[Weaponhead]

Morgan Harper agrees that Sifa Talakai is the toughest centre to handle in the NRL

 

[TRIALS]

Amen.

 

[Stake Removed]

I watched the game friday night, unbelievable first half, 2nd half, as if switched off, thats where we needed Finucane, but we will learn and most important we won.



* Talakai was outstanding
* Back 5 again done there job, so much yardage (this is our best 5)
* Left hand side only gets better and better Wilton/Talakai/Mulitalo, this is our left side, Moylan/Kennedy link well with them
* Hunt went well started i think he can handle this role till Uele gets back
* Tolman has turned back the clock a couple of years
* Rudolf stood up i think without Uele/Finucane he realised he needed to take on some more responsibilty
* The bech outside ot Tolman is a concern - Williams seems to have regressed back to his 2019-2020 form, Fifita is limited in his minutes, and noticed the flop was back, lack of speed getting off tackler and caught flat footed defending, Trindall came on again did not seem to add anything, being a sub might not be his role and his is not deveoping as quick as i would have thought

Key was we won, and we have the ability to strike from anywhere on the field.

 

[Omnishark2]

Like everyone I am happy to get the win in the end given our atrocious record against these pricks. And overall I am super happy about our progress under Fitzy, I never thought we would develop this quickly (and we still have a long way to go, but there's some great progress).

But a few things stand out from the past few games:

Ramien is still a liability in defence, rushing up past the ball like a clueless puppy, then wondering what happened. He needs the read the play & hedge his bets in defence a lot better - hopefully Pricey is working hard on that. Ramien is a great attacking weapon (could be even better if he learns when to pass !) But he still does dumb things every game - I suspect his football IQ will keep letting him down.

Second thing is our right hand defence is a liability overall. Nicho has had some bad 1-on-1 misses (and probably fair enough given he's still learning to defend in the front line in the NRL), but there are problems inside & outside him. Nikora has fired up with covering from inside a little better than his previous lazy efforts, but I suspect that will only last until his new contract is signed. Overall that right side defence is a big weakness, and teams will keep heading there until we fix it.

Thirdly Trindall has been a very poor 14 this year.
He's meant to add some energy, but instead he tries to pull off miracle plays, dropped balls etc.
That terrible kick into touch near the end on Thursday was a good example - in the wet conditions, the percentage play at that stage of the game was a grubber in-goal, instead he goes for a miracle play.
Yes he's had limited minutes & he has tackled OK - but if he can't play more steadily with less mistakes, piss him off as 14.

Finally stating the obvious, but we look thin in the middle without Dale the rock & BHU.
Despite the goodwill for our GF hero Fifita, I can't see him in out top 17 for much longer (even with BHU out) - his lateral defence & flops etc are just too costly, I can't see him last the year.
Hunt isn't fit enough yet to play big minutes, but he is the obvious FiFi replacement in the 17.