Game day thread?

[Poupou Escobar]

Melbourne are one of the best teams in the comp. We will beat plenty more teams this year. We need Mannah back.

 

[hindy111]

Problem - no money. Reason why i think takes 2 - 3 yrs to get over this cap thing.
Storm and dogs built premiership sides while we just built a competetive one.
Foran eating up so much coin. Perhaps Hayne comes back and Foran leaves ahh we can dream ☺

 

[ash411]

Problem - no money. Reason why i think takes 2 - 3 yrs to get over this cap thing.
Storm and dogs built premiership sides while we just built a competetive one.
Foran eating up so much coin. Perhaps Hayne comes back and Foran leaves ahh we can dream ☺

Honestly, I don't think that is the best scenario.

I love Hayne and I think he is one of the best of all time, but to get him at the cost of a half means we would have to burn more money on another half, and who are we going to be able to get better then Foran without having to pay more than we are paying for him?

nobody, that's who.

We can survive with a mediocre fullback, we'll never do anything with shit halves.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Fullbacks just aren't involved enough, in either attack or defence.

 

[Wally21]

No question we need some decent middle forwards. Paulo was either busted or disinterested, Tep seems to have stalled in his development and there wasn't much else happening last night. Statistics are incredibly misleading. We may have have a number of players run for 100 plus metres, however, we got owned in the ruck, (legally or not) and therefore we had no speed at the play the ball, which is where the best Teams win the middle. Anyone watching the game last night, could tell that the grubs won the play the ball.
True, they were the better side and we were in it for 70 minutes, yes it has been the season from hell and not much else could go wrong, but I hope BA addresses the shortcomings in the forwards for 17.

 

[Incorrect]

Can't believe how much some are discounting our efforts last night.

Yes we lost, yes we looked out classed at certain times, yes we looked tired and flat at times.

But we weren't embarrassed in anyway last night. The storm are coming first and defeated the Cowboys last week. The effort was there !!

Considering all the shit that has happened to us over the last few weeks, it was a pretty decent effort.

Statistically there wasn't a lot in the game:

Run metres 1757 to their 1838
Missed tackles 34 to their 32
Total tackles 390 each
Total sets 35 to their 37
Completion rate 74% to 86%
Line breaks 3 to their 7
Errors 10 to their 8
Penalties conceded 7 to their 5

Probably the difference was they took their chances while we didn't. Probably weren't patience enough when we had opportunities on their line. Cooper / Smith played a lot smarter then our brains trust.

Anyhow bring on the Knights!

Not much in the stats... the difference is probably that one side know they are just about a top 4 certainty and playing with the determination to make sure they don't jeopardise that finish, while the other is a team slowly coming to grips with the fact there is just too much going against them in order to scrape in to the 8...

We looked pretty flat from the outset last night and did well to stay in the game for 65-70 minutes...

 

[parra-matters]

We were terrible last night but we showed we aren't in the same class as the storm, the won the ruck by slowing us down, we couldn't slow them down enough.
Watch how they hold the tackle up instead of bring the ball carrier to ground, holding them up to allow time to get their D set, if you take them ground the ref calls held straight away, hold them up they let it go a bit to allow a offload etc.
Storm have spent a lot of time training for it and they are very good at it.
We need to defend more like that.
Our attack was a bit rusty which i expected after missing Foran for a few weeks.
Yeah all the shit this sucks but surely we can't have a season like this again, thats the positive.

 

[Kornstar]

How long has it been since we've had a team that runs as hard as Melbourne did last night?

Our line speed has gone down hill as well.

Let's hope next year we can make improvements on the way we started this year.

 

[forward pass]

How long has it been since we've had a team that runs as hard as Melbourne did last night?

They run hard, spin and try to offload. It killed us.

It seemed whenever we managed an offload, there was a storm player waiting to snatch it.

 

[yy_cheng]

Our attack in the opposition red zone is crap. We rely on the lottery of the 5th tackle kick

Gordon doesn't help in this regards and hence limits diversity

The storm on the other hand does simple plays and scores

 

[yy_cheng]

We really need to shift Semi to the other side. He and Jenny doesn't gel

 

[Chipmunk]

They run hard, spin and try to offload. It killed us.

It seemed whenever we managed an offload, there was a storm player waiting to snatch it.

Because they've studied our play and know which players are the most likely to offload and when they're mostly to do, it was so predictable I could tell we were about to offload or not.

Attention to detail my friends...attention to detail.

 

[Incorrect]

We really need to shift Semi to the other side. He and Jenny doesn't gel

It's killing me watching Jenkovich not even look at Semi when he gets the ball.... we all knew this was a potential problem when we signed jennings to play on the same side as Semi, but I was hoping Jennings would develop a passing game knowing he had a weapon outside him.... added to the fact that Jennings doesn't seem to have that speed he once had where he could turn a tiny bit of space in to a lot of space...he needs to start thinking about his outside man a bit more....


EDIT - if and when we are officially out of the Finals picture, I'd be giving Semi a go at fullback, let him roam wherever he likes. He is great under the high ball, he already goes looking for the ball as it is. It's not a huge leap of faith IMO. We may as well play a witches hat outside Jennings, the left winger ain't gonna be used to their fullest while Jennings has got his blinkers on...

 

[ash411]

It's killing me watching Jenkovich not even look at Semi when he gets the ball.... we all knew this was a potential problem when we signed jennings to play on the same side as Semi, but I was hoping Jennings would develop a passing game knowing he had a weapon outside him.... added to the fact that Jennings doesn't seem to have that speed he once had where he could turn a tiny bit fo space in to a lot of space...he needs to start thinking about his outside man a bit more....

Taka and Semi were such a dynamite combination, played off each other incredibly well.

We need them back together, Jenko and Gutho would do fine together.

I reckon switch Jenko and Taka, Or Gutho and Semi, same result wither way.

 

[Joshuatheeel]

Foran made 124 metres / 25 tackles / missed 3 tackles
Norman made 138 metres / 20 tackle / missed 3 tackles

Our halves were definitely busy last night

 

[eel01s]

Just not taking the right options in attack.

 

[84 Baby]

Taka and Semi were such a dynamite combination, played off each other incredibly well.

We need them back together, Jenko and Gutho would do fine together.

I reckon switch Jenko and Taka, Or Gutho and Semi, same result wither way.

Except both Jenko & Semi are right hand fenders, that's why they play the left. Yeah they could learn to use other arm but that's like learning to write left handed when you are right handed

 

[Incorrect]

Except both Jenko & Semi are right hand fenders, that's why they play the left. Yeah they could learn to use other arm but that's like learning to write left handed when you are right handed

I think Semi could manage the change just fine, he's already proved he can adapt to a new game, new challenges in his still young NRL career. That's why I'd give him a shot at fullback once we done and dusted for 2016.

Jennings on the other hand I agree would not handle the move to the other side as readily as others might....

 

[hybrideel]

I noticed our attack looked very flat and were constantly running sideways with noone trying to straighten up the attack. The amount of times Taka and/or Gutho got the ball with a metre or two to work with was poor

 

[84 Baby]

I think Semi could manage the change just fine, he's already proved he can adapt to a new game, new challenges in his still young NRL career. That's why I'd give him a shot at fullback once we done and dusted for 2016.

Jennings on the other hand I agree would not handle the move to the other side as readily as others might....

I'd be interested to see how he goes at fullback. Still think he'd be more damaging on wing (if he gets better ball) but we certainly don't have anything to lose.... except 13 more games