GF Panthers vs Storm

[herbert henry1908]

It will be interesting if Luai carves up in SOO as to whether Ivan makes the call to put him as our primary playmaker

I doubt he’ll get much game time. Pleased to see him there, though.

 

[herbert henry1908]

Oh yes Kikau is a big part of why we made the GF just noticing he can get a bit sloppy when fatigued and I love the decoy runs he does big reason the left is so dangerous just want to see what he is like coming on against some tired defenders concentrate that power for a couple of 20 mins stints or even having 10 min break either side of halftime just keeps him fresher but I could be very wrong too.

The fatigue is on Ivan. He doesn’t rotate the bench properly, why Kikau played 80 mins is beyond me.

 

[franklin2323]

Lets look at the 4 tries we conceded:

Olam try: The right edge gets doesn't react quickly enough to the ball being spread. To'o's tackle was brilliant but May reacts slowly to Olam receiving the ball. The call was fine, May clearly kicks at the ball. Poor decision to use the feet as it gave Smith a kick from in front rather than a 50/50 from the sideline.
Mansour no try: 50/50 that didn't go our way (theme of the half). I thought Kikau first touches it when in line with Crichton but that's footy.
Vinivalu try: Insane from Cleary. Probably the difference between him going into the pantheon with the greats and obtaining a choker tag.
Smith try: Another 50/50. Very unlucky, both to have the ball bounce that way and to have it given.
Papen try: Again, the right edge reacts poorly. Whether it's on May or Cleary is arguable (I'd argue again that May looked lost) but that edge conceded 4 of the 7 tries of the past 2 weeks. The disruption clearly was a problem.

Throw in some soft penalties and you have a 26 point lead.

As to the stars, it depends who you mean. Kikau was poor, but our best players (for mine) are Yeo, Luai, Cleary, Fish and Api. Yeo and Fish were excellent. Luai and Api were good, if not dominant. And really, if Cleary doesn't throw that intercept his try on the bell ties the match up and goes down as one of the greatest plays in Grand Final history. There wasn't much in it.

I don't think their 1st try should of been a try but also the errors. Most of them very basic.

Cleary was the main offender. The 5th tackle options were poor. We got 2 repeat sets in 3 finals games and one was the Luai bombed try last week.

A few players still go MIA in big games. That home Parra game was another where we were terrible. Hopefully it just a being young thing

The frustrating thing was none of their tries came off great ball movement

 

[franklin2323]

I doubt he’ll get much game time. Pleased to see him there, though.

He was one guy that didn't falter in the big moments. Depends how brutal the having to backup each week part is

 

[martielang]

I think some are overanalysing it. We played badly, they played better. I agree that Cleary made some baffling decisions of late but in reality we play like we did last week (which was still below par compared to the rest of the year) & we win.

Kiks made some real poor errors but I understand why he was kept on, he ran over Hughes every time he had the ball & was easily our most effective weapon. I actually think we missed a trick not taking off Martin & giving Capewell more minutes on the edge. Martin has badly run out of steam & Capewells footwork could of been a major asset last night.

I still think if we were leaning towards dropping Naden, Whare had to be there. I think we missed May in the middle more than missing Naden at centre. We had one set with May at lock & looked a lot more dangerous outfit.

It is what it is. Disappointing but it's a game & we'll all move on. They certainly exceeded my expectations this year. My only worry is with Hook taking control of the Dragons, we'll have one more contender to worry about.

 

[herbert henry1908]

He was one guy that didn't falter in the big moments. Depends how brutal the having to backup each week part is

I don’t think it’ll be as tough to backup as some think, but even still Luai would have to be the last half in the rotation. And the squad has a lot of halves.

 

[Smug Panther]

I don’t think it’ll be as tough to backup as some think, but even still Luai would have to be the last half in the rotation. And the squad has a lot of halves.

Walker is a fraud. Surely he's infront of him

 

[herbert henry1908]

I think some are overanalysing it. We played badly, they played better. I agree that Cleary made some baffling decisions of late but in reality we play like we did last week (which was still below par compared to the rest of the year) & we win.

Kiks made some real poor errors but I understand why he was kept on, he ran over Hughes every time he had the ball & was easily our most effective weapon. I actually think we missed a trick not taking off Martin & giving Capewell more minutes on the edge. Martin has badly run out of steam & Capewells footwork could of been a major asset last night.

I still think if we were leaning towards dropping Naden, Whare had to be there. I think we missed May in the middle more than missing Naden at centre. We had one set with May at lock & looked a lot more dangerous outfit.

It is what it is. Disappointing but it's a game & we'll all move on. They certainly exceeded my expectations this year. My only worry is with Hook taking control of the Dragons, we'll have one more contender to worry about.

A big part of it is definitely May’s changed role, his best position is clearly as a utility off the bench. Now of course you can move him from centre to the middle, but he’s not going to be as fresh.

Cleary is too defensive as a coach.

 

[herbert henry1908]

Walker is a fraud. Surely he's infront of him

I doubt it, but I’d be happy to see Luai get a shot. Been an amazing rise really. 6 months ago most thought Burton was the best option.

 

[Frankus]

A difficult pill to swallow after an amazing season. It will be a long time before I watch that GF again. Usually, one bad game doesn't define a season but in our case it did. My head sank into my hands at 22-0 knowing it would take a miracle to turn it around. At 26-0 I could have sworn someone had shat in my beer.

Everyone has their opinions on what went wrong. We got some truly dud calls in my view. Those aside, we turned over too much ball and we didn't take our chances when we had them. You can't do that against the Storm.

We will see how the lads respond to this defeat in 2021.

 

[franklin2323]

I don’t think it’ll be as tough to backup as some think, but even still Luai would have to be the last half in the rotation. And the squad has a lot of halves.

There would be a reason they picked so many halves. So hopeful he gets game time

 

[franklin2323]

Walker is a fraud. Surely he's infront of him

Pearce was a fraud for years got game time
Cleary so far has been a fraud in big games yet will get picked

 

[WestyLife]

I don't think their 1st try should of been a try but also the errors. Most of them very basic.

Cleary was the main offender. The 5th tackle options were poor. We got 2 repeat sets in 3 finals games and one was the Luai bombed try last week.

A few players still go MIA in big games. That home Parra game was another where we were terrible. Hopefully it just a being young thing

The frustrating thing was none of their tries came off great ball movement

The one thing in all this that isn't speculation is the Storms first try. That's a penalty try every time. Our first was also a blatant obstruction.

 

[herbert henry1908]

There would be a reason they picked so many halves. So hopeful he gets game time

id say they did it as injury cover more than anything. Halves is the most specialist role in the game, if you can’t select players from outside the bubble then you need to cover for injury.

A half isn’t going to get fatigued by weekly origin games, maybe a forward might.

 

[GongPanther]

Lets look at the 4 tries we conceded:

Olam try: The right edge gets doesn't react quickly enough to the ball being spread. To'o's tackle was brilliant but May reacts slowly to Olam receiving the ball. The call was fine, May clearly kicks at the ball. Poor decision to use the feet as it gave Smith a kick from in front rather than a 50/50 from the sideline.
Mansour no try: 50/50 that didn't go our way (theme of the half). I thought Kikau first touches it when in line with Crichton but that's footy.
Vinivalu try: Insane from Cleary. Probably the difference between him going into the pantheon with the greats and obtaining a choker tag.
Smith try: Another 50/50. Very unlucky, both to have the ball bounce that way and to have it given.
Papen try: Again, the right edge reacts poorly. Whether it's on May or Cleary is arguable (I'd argue again that May looked lost) but that edge conceded 4 of the 7 tries of the past 2 weeks. The disruption clearly was a problem.

Throw in some soft penalties and you have a 26 point lead.

As to the stars, it depends who you mean. Kikau was poor, but our best players (for mine) are Yeo, Luai, Cleary, Fish and Api. Yeo and Fish were excellent. Luai and Api were good, if not dominant. And really, if Cleary doesn't throw that intercept his try on the bell ties the match up and goes down as one of the greatest plays in Grand Final history. There wasn't much in it.

Good read. As long as everyone takes full note that we only lost by 6 points, but we won a ton of experience. The Panthers are going to be quite a side next season as a bigger, wiser and more mature squad.

Watch out Qld, Cleary is hurting.

 

[GongPanther]

A difficult pill to swallow after an amazing season. It will be a long time before I watch that GF again. Usually, one bad game doesn't define a season but in our case it did. My head sank into my hands at 22-0 knowing it would take a miracle to turn it around. At 26-0 I could have sworn someone had shat in my beer.

Everyone has their opinions on what went wrong. We got some truly dud calls in my view. Those aside, we turned over too much ball and we didn't take our chances when we had them. You can't do that against the Storm.

We will see how the lads respond to this defeat in 2021.

The dumb brain fart that Kiks did in passing off the ground had my hands in my face. When I looked up, coach Cleary was doing the same on replay...I tended to think all Panther fans all were hands in faces. doh!

 

[franklin2323]

The one thing in all this that isn't speculation is the Storms first try. That's a penalty try every time. Our first was also a blatant obstruction.

If it was clear cut they would of gone up as those decisions not get reversed on video ref

 

[franklin2323]

id say they did it as injury cover more than anything. Halves is the most specialist role in the game, if you can’t select players from outside the bubble then you need to cover for injury.

A half isn’t going to get fatigued by weekly origin games, maybe a forward might.

not usually but a HIA would rule them out. Especially someone like Keary with so many KO's. likely wants Walker or Luai in the 14 jersey

 

[WestyLife]

If it was clear cut they would of gone up as those decisions not get reversed on video ref

It did go up and the footage showed May kicked the ball out?

 

[franklin2323]

It did go up and the footage showed May kicked the ball out?

Did he try to kick the ball or going to get under the ball? That is where it is opinion because it isn't a black and white rule. You see a few of them throughout the year and depending on who is making the decision is what result it is

That said I never bag the refs. The 2 tries we gave them and the stupid errors is where the game was lost not on those early calls