General Discussion Thread

[Chins get the wins]

The roosters problems against top sides comes down to a couple of things.

They have no long kicking game at all, Keary and Walker can barely kick the ball 40m so if any team keeps them in their half they struggle to get out.

This also combines with a lack of metres from their backs compared to Penrith/Melbourne which means they can struggle if the opposition doesn't give them field position through errors or penalties.

Essentially they are good enough to score a ton of points if you give them enough opportunities but if you defend well, keep the errors to a minimum they really struggle in a grind.

I would personally enjoy playing them in the finals at Allianz because the refs will stop blowing penalities and we are generally a high completion team, the rooster's kryptonite.

I've not blamed the refs at all this year but it's quite clear a few rule changes and the way rules are applied have been brought in to hamper us. Not sure the normal putting the whistle away in the finals will apply for us in 2024

 

[Sime_11]

ref calls we cant control because its a lottery - but we can certainly control our attitude and actions to not give the refs a chance to blow the whistle

kick pressure is a perfect example

just dont touch the kicker - we cant get penalised if we dont touch the kicker (any contact can be a lottery with the ref) - we were doing this 20-21 but have gone away from this

 

[Munky]

The better teams have loaded up on larger wingers.

A key tenet of Pantherball was smashing the opposition back three on kick return sets.

Roosters: Tupou & Young
Storm: Coates and Walbrick
Sharks: Katoa and Ronaldo
Broncos: Arthurs and Cobbo (atleast in 2023)

Winning the contact against those guys in defence isn't guaranteed like it was in peak Pantherball of 2020 to 2022. Our boys lay in the tackle like they did dominate and the refs are calling it.

Some of the above mentioned wingers have pretty low footy IQs and can be exploited in other ways.

 

[Munky]

Double post due to shonky wifi

 

[Fangs]

ref calls we cant control because its a lottery - but we can certainly control our attitude and actions to not give the refs a chance to blow the whistle

kick pressure is a perfect example

just dont touch the kicker - we cant get penalised if we dont touch the kicker (any contact can be a lottery with the ref) - we were doing this 20-21 but have gone away from this

Very true.

We are a disciplined team and also a bit smarter. Our challenges are pretty good. It's a key advantage we have over teams like the Roosters. They will gift us the game if we play our style of football.

The Martin sin bin/suspension would have them thinking about kick pressure. He didn't do a lot wrong either. He was running a line across the kicker but Asi followed through and he clipped the leg. We won't let the same thing happen again have to be smart.

I bet they noted the blocker penalties in the Sharks v Newy game. Also the recent talk from Fox about incorrect play the balls. And God we better not concede downtown penalties like 2021. Classic stitch up from Wayne Bennett.