It's going to be a looooooooooong year!

[innsaneink]

7 of the first 11 hit ups ledge...impressive.
You never fail to deliver. LOL

 

[edabomb]

I always thought we'd finish around 13-15, just not 16th! I still have that faith.

 

[Chachi]

Let the games begin!

Basically boils down to being a brand new team playing in sh*thouse conditions. If you want us to start playing with a bit of attacking flair we've got to be prepared for these error riddled games early in the season.

The result didn't surprise or worry me at all.

 

[Sydney_Raider]

Backline for next week, Zillman Graham, Chalk, Howell, Best (under sufferance, I would prefer Milne), Carney, Dobson. Purtell never to see first grade again. Jury still out on Dobson, I can't help feeling that perhaps Carney/Zillman is our best halves combo.

With TLL out for a few more weeks, it wouldn't hurt to blood someone like Picker. The back row at present is a team of workers with no attacking ability.

 

[Chachi]

The one thing I will say though - Tilse shouldn't be in first grade.

I think he'll become my "2007 Purtell" if he continues to be picked. Ohh well.

 

[legend]

I'd like to see Tongue move to hooker when we have our best side available and Withers in premier league. He is crap.

I'd like to see:

Goodwin
Howell
Graham
Zillman
Chalk
Carney
Dobson
Bickerstaff
Learoyd Lahrs
Turner
Thompson
Tongue
Weyman

Thurling
Miller
Logan
Tilse

 

[nickraider]

Backline for next week, Zillman Graham, Chalk, Howell, Best (under sufferance, I would prefer Milne), Carney, Dobson. Purtell never to see first grade again. Jury still out on Dobson, I can't help feeling that perhaps Carney/Zillman is our best halves combo.

With TLL out for a few more weeks, it wouldn't hurt to blood someone like Picker. The back row at present is a team of workers with no attacking ability.

Totally agree with that. We need TLL back in a hurry to add some flair to the back row. Purtell to make way for Frawley. Frawley has to come good eventually!!

 

[Walt Flanigan]

On a positive note, Glen Turner seems like a really good buy, 29 tackles and 88m from 9 hitups.

 

[aussies1st]

As long as Withers is gone I'm happy, he's been pathetic at hooker and this year hasn't changed a thing. How's Hinchecliffe been going?

 

[Raider_69]

Forget reggies, its become apparently clear, that the second Goodwin is fit, we throw him in

 

[Mullins_y2k]

Give Withers some time, I still think hes gonna have a good year..no matter what tho, i think we all know hes not gonna be in premier....Also Logan deserves a shout out limited ball but looked great IMO
And yes Purtel is a nuffy

 

[aussies1st]

Definitely need Goodwin back, Chalk has totally forgotten how to play fullback.

 

[Bay56]

Agree with Legend .... one hell of a long season coming up. The unfortunate fact is that we wont take advantage of the Brumbies woes and bring back a few fans to League.

With a bit of luck we'll snag about 5 wins this season ... imo that is about as good as it will get.

The forwards will be bolstered by the return of TLL and Weyman and they will keep us in the game up till they run out of steam mid-way in each half.

But as far as our backs are concerned ... well I just cant see our three-quarter line with the likes of Howell, Purtell, Best and Co making a real impression in enough games to get us to the finals. It has been our main problem for some 10 seasons and not much has changed to get me too excited.

After the Manly debacle I'd add the following comments:

Howell .... how the coach picked this guy ahead of the likes of Zillman is a mistery .. Zillman may have had some poor pre-season form but at least he had some .. last nights slippery conditions were made for him ... match him up with Graham and we had the potential to score a few break-away tries.

Colin Best .... we're now going to find out how bad this guy can be ... when he was signed I knew of his bad defence ... but now we'll find out that being on the outside of Gaz or Coops is quite a different kettle of fish to the centres we have.

Withers .... I'm sure he misses the bullseye at passing practise more often than not .. in fact I wouldnt be surprised if he misses the whole board. One over-rated hack that hangs his reputaion on occassionally making a big hit.

Tilse .... get real Tilsey !!! ... you have a frame bigger than all but my granny with her walking frame would make more impact.

 

[Raider_69]

**edit**

:lol: you blokes, honestly, ill have you all on suicide watch next week once Greggy Inglis is through with us

 

[aussies1st]

Zillman was injured according to the commentators so you can let Henry of on that one.

 

[Leethal]

Before last night I was optimistic. now, it's all different. Our passing out of dummy-half was appallingly slow and off target and our play-the-ball speed was even worse. FFS, how many times does it need to be said - you can't get a roll on if you give the opposition time to set in defence.

On the positive side, there was some second phase play at one stage and if we had scored that first try we might have prevented the 16 point turn around that occured shortly after, and the result may not have been so bad.

If we are still playing like that in six weeks, we'll be collecting the kitchen utensil....

 

[legend]

I'm not suicidal at all, just realistic.

I'm all for giving the young blokes a go so they can find their feet but when you have the guys with more than 100 matches under their belt letting the team down, then you know we are in trouble.

Withers and Best, probably have a combined 250 games between them were the worst two players on the field by a significant margin.

 

[jed]

I'd like to see Tongue move to hooker when we have our best side available and Withers in premier league. He is crap.

I'd like to see:

Goodwin
Howell
Graham
Zillman
Chalk
Carney
Dobson
Bickerstaff
Learoyd Lahrs
Turner
Thompson
Tongue
Weyman

Thurling
Miller
Logan
Tilse

Purtell's definitely improved from last season, I wouldn't write him off just yet. I'd still be leaving him out of my top side though, compared with what I saw last night. Best still deserves a second chance too IMO, he may have had an off night.

1 Goodwin
2 Howell
3 Graham
4 Zillman
5 Chalk
6 Carney
7 Dobson
8 Thompson
9 Dunemann
10 Weyman
11 TLL
12 Turner
13 Tongue

14 Bickerstaff
15 Miller
16 Logan
17 Tilse (not convinved though)

 

[Chachi]

FMD I think some people need to take a deep breath.

Goodwin isn't going to be the difference, Learoyd-Larhs isn't and neither is Zillman. Sacking Best and Withers after one game isn't going to fix it either. We just need a full team playing with a bit of confidence and willing to back themselves.

We came out of the game with little injury concerns which is good. It's one more game of experience and new combinations - in possibly the worst possible conditions against a team that will probably contend for the top 4.

Yes, if they're playing like that after 5-10 rounds then questions will be asked, but I think some of us went into this game with unrealistic expectations.

It's likely that we'll be smashed next weekend too, but I don't think we should be necking ourselves then either.

 

[Edwahu]

Calm down fellas. The difference between this year and the last few is that we have loads more improvement in us.

We got beaten in a rd 1 wet game, at brookvale, without most of our forward pack, with nearly every bounce and call going against us. Yes we sucked but give us a bit of time. Sure we wont win the comp but we will play plenty of good football this year.