Kiwis vs Fiji - Quarter Finals

[Philip_Smith007]

Benji, absolutely and has been my hobbyhorse for a long time

We will never know, but I want to know why the hell a guy like Benji, proven class at all levels, and not a bad word really said about him by anyone personality wise, can be blacklisted for years in an area we struggle for class. It's a disgrace in my eyes

Something happened when he lost the captaincy to Mannering.

 

[Philip_Smith007]

Referee or not - seriously this was Fiji - and while they have some good players, not that many, and certainly not the resources we have

I so want to like Johnson, but he's another flat track bully - tear up the Newcastle team, but go missing in tough games - simply needs to be better, in all aspects - his decision making is atrocious at tines

He is not an organisational half plain and simple.
Nikorima was a better suited partner.
The game plan was clearly SJ controlling everything and he just isn’t capable.
Can we have that tattooed somewhere to show every coach who coaches him.

 

[AuckMel]

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Pitiful effort which will surely see Kidwell depart. We've gone backwards steadily over the last few years when it looked like we would become dominant.

I guess one good thing is, we don't need to play Australia and England all the time now to get decent games. We could even develop our own refs in these games too.

Good luck to Fiji next week, I think they might just need it.

 

[ZEROMISSTACKLES]

Is this clown looking for a Tui endorsement contract? What a f**ktard

"Blair was interviewed by Sky Sport's Monty Betham in the immediate aftermath of the maiden meeting between the sides at a poorly-attended Westpac Stadium in Wellington.

"[We] have to go back and reflect on what we've done in the tournament," Blair said.

"It's not a negative for us. We're going to build something here and we've got some great young talent coming through.""

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11945482

The thing about Blair for me is, his mouth, just as of late. When he talked about JT and the defectors (Mate Maa boys) his words came across as though HIS skinny ass was going to make them pay. Instead, Blairs words was the ultimate motivational speech for the Tongan team who after that, publicly came out and announced they marked him.

Blair did nothing last week, this week, and would have continued to do nothing next week had we scored one, just ONE, try against FIJI?! Blair tackles great, he has good offloading ability, almost a Nikau only he doesn't have a strong go forward. He's a backward. Meanwhile the defectors are in the semis. Hurrell, Fusitua, Sika Manu, Taumalolo and Mau are the ones I would have put in our squad.

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

Sucks to be on the losing end, but NZs loses have done wonders for International RL.

Shame we wont be getting the Aus-NZ matchup next week...

 

[Rich102]

Really ? Though JWH and Taupau were really strong with their carries near the end too

Good player Lui, I like him. Poor bastard nearly had his ACL done though by a Johnson bullet pass

LOL.

 

[Rich102]

Johnson was poor, again. Last tackle options poor. Just shoveling the ball on.
Last week in the third quarter I could see a Stacey or JT or Cronk calling for the ball to create something. SJ just wasn't up for it.
And what's with Blair being spelled after 25 minutes? He's a loose forward - don't they play 80 minutes?
Is he really going to be a prop for the warriors? Better sign some real props. He and Lisone on together are going to be a black hole.
We had a powerful backline, we just didn't see it being used.
Nikorima showed the most spark; he should have been in the halves.

 

[spear tackle]

Sucks to be on the losing end, but NZs loses have done wonders for International RL.

Shame we wont be getting the Aus-NZ matchup next week...

Us going down to Fiji saved us from a right flogging from Australia next week

 

[JJ]

Seems to be an awful lot of pride, and rhetoric around the wonderful work they've done, and what they're building - are they using hallucinogens, obviously it's disappointing to lose often to Australia, but to be honest that's always going to be the case with the odd exception, but drawing with Scotland, and losing to Tonga and Fiji, yeah that's special stuff

 

[Iafeta]

Listen to Kidwells nonsense. He’s undecided if he wants to continue because he doesn’t want the team to lose the standards they’ve set. They’ve come a long way he says.

Ok, so a draw v Scotland, loss v Tonga, loss v Fiji... what standards are those David? Pull your head in pal. It sounds very much that you have no idea of on field play, as long as they have nice hangis and took their shoes off at the Marae all is good? You’re an epic runt, drop the r with a c, for not resigning on the spot.

Listening to Adam Blair and Shaun Johnson post match, son, what type of brainwashing have you been doing? It sounds like you’ve built an us and them mentality. Everyone hated the team. What a load of tripe, they hate the results, they wanted success. What they hated is you can’t provide that.

So go and f your damn cultural alignment strategy, and understand, you are the biggest failure in international sport bar none. You are a disgrace.

 

[Iafeta]

Furthermore, the following players need to be axed.

A Blair. Early on his ball playing was atrocious. Why won’t this chap tuck the ball under the arm and go forward. WTF have the Warriors inherited here?
DWZ. He cannot perform at the top level. He always has a terrible, simple error in him on a kick return. He is usually bundled backwards on a kick return. And he’s not that great a finisher.
Takairangi. I know, 4th tackle, nothing on, ill boot it straight to my opponent. And then that last play. He is nearly over the sideline himself, they’ve numbered up perfectly, yep, pass it on. He should have Kata’d it.

I think Johnson is on tenterhooks and I foresee a time where the spine is RTS, TMM, Nikorima and Levi. The Lebanon game v Tonga, Moses took them on with his running be it by getting to second receiver or quickly shifting to the short side first receiver. He was brilliant. He was playing behind a badly beaten pack. Sure , our forwards weren’t getting momentum, but Johnson could never self create like Moses did. Without Moses, Lebanon get destroyed.

Shaun’s headspace is in a really weird place. There’s an interview the Warriors put up. He says he could have left and got a premiership elsewhere (really?), and then rabbits on how he hates how the fans give it to them for not being fit. But that’s not the reason he says over and over. That’s fine sweetheart, then what is the reason? In a way I feel sorry for him. Aside from his first year, he’s never been involved in a elite high performing sporting culture. So I honestly don’t think he understands what it takes. I do not doubt his passion. And I still thought he had a good year. But he has never hit the heights Shaun Johnson the talent should have. If only he could see for example how Melbourne or a top NFL franchise operates day to day to see the difference in standards.

 

[KeepingTheFaith]

Lol @ Kidwell saying he has to consider his decision.

Decision was made the moment that fulltime whistle went. You're out.

What NZRL need to do is not worry about the PC "we'll conduct a review" nonsense, just come out and say that the results were unacceptable and we're looking for a coach with a plan to take us through to the next WC and see if anyone bites at that carrot.

Doesn't guarantee that we'll get good applicants but at least appearing to have a longer term goal is better than just appointing someone untried behind closed doors to "see how it goes".

 

[ANTiLAG]

Hayne has seen a NFL team train. Michael Morgan prolly hasn't. I'd take Morgan for my team.

I'm starting to dislike Shaun Johnson's media interaction.

I'd love to know what Australian club was gonna throw a million dollars at him to win a premiership, tho. Wish he threw and sold those kinda dummies to Fiji.

 

[Iafeta]

Sweet Jesus Kidwell is delusional. In his interview with Tony Vietch he half turns on the fans for not supporting them. Listen to Shaun's comments, this bloke has brainwashed these fellows to believe in fear. High performance cultures believe in choice, the ability to drive change, not living in fear waiting to be victimised.

You can talk pride in the jumper all you like. But you must never incite emotional fear as a value driver. People perform better under positive reinforcement, not fear because then you lose focus of what's in front of you and it clouds your mind with pressure. You only have to be off by 5% mentally and the game is up.

Surely someone within the NZRL to be in the position they are in will have a b.bus. The subject organisational behaviour is all about this. So surely hearing this now Kidwells goose is cooked because he can never drive optimal performance. Secondly, what controls did they not have in place early enough to spot this with Kidwells coaching and then coach and mentor him out of it?

That interview was disturbing. It clearly is a man who cannot lead men

 

[ZEROMISSTACKLES]

This is kind of funny.

 

[Iafeta]

What about our style. It was awful. So often when we were doing one out hit ups, Levi had to pass 10m back to find a prop. I understand why you'd want depth if you were going to go wide or play before the line, but these were simple hit up plays. Should hit the man flat at the line. It gives you more metres before contact and gives the defence, particularly markers, less time to get set. The flow on is potentially better ruck speed or poking the nose through and getting an offload.

I don't get the paranoia coming from the Kiwis. These are experienced international players who play elite NRL level. They all know simple basics like that are non negotiable but that was a core fundamental in their forwards structure. Ridiculous.

 

[titoelcolombiano]

Lucky Tonga beat NZ because based on yesterday's games Lebanon would have pipped the Kiwis and that would have been far more embarrassing. At least Fiji were semi-finalists at the past two world cups.

 

[Iafeta]

Lebanon would have belted them. Moses alone would have.

How about Adam Blair casually chewing gum like he's too cool for school in his post match interview. It was like to him it was inevitable and he just didn't care. Remind me, what do we see in this fellow??

 

[ozbash]

Nikorima showed the most spark; he should have been in the halves.

He would have had the same game he had last week v Tonga and the same as Martin had last night. ... zero.

I think the 'gameplan' was, get it to SJ and we go from there.

 

[Rich102]

Like that hasn't been tried before.