Match Discussion: Finals Week 1 vs North Qld @ Queensland Country Bank Stadium, Townsville / Wulgurukaba

[Bartwah]

We really need to put a better team around Ponga before it’s too late. He will lead us to a premiership, he’s unbelievable to watch when he’s got a bit of fire in his belly

 

[Haffa]

One thing for sure Todd smith won’t be getting the gf

 

[Walk On Home Boy]

Let's be real, that was this team at full noise. Jones, Hetherington, D Saf all running like champions for 3 weeks, Marzhew catching bombs, Lucas looking like Gasnier in the centers, Brailey actually getting out of dummy half, Crossland tackling like an absolute demon, Cogger not totally sucking... this was pretty much the peak for this side.

Yet still, we lose. The roster had no right being where it was, on the cusp of a semi-final. We have an Elite player playing 3 positions surrounded by a reserve grade spine. You just don't win anything with a roster so unbalanced. Ponga has maybe 2 more years with this agility. Spine overhaul is a must, somehow, right now.

 

[Apey]

We gave it a real shot. Gagai had a bit of a shocker honestly. Only a few moments between us and victory. It sucks to be so close and lose, but I prefer bowing out like that with some pride in our performance than getting smashed by 30 in NZ. Good effort boys.

Oh and Ponga is a God. It wasn't a 10/10, he made a couple of errors too, but what more can he do really? Can we f**k Hastings off and get at least one real half for him to play with?

 

[Zoidberg]

We had 3 tackles inside their 20 m and made an extra 100 tackles. We were probably in that game more than we should have been.
Came down to not giving ourselves enough opportunities in good field position.

 

[Walk On Home Boy]

That has to be Top 5 most disappointing losses. Idek if I can watch the other games. I just wish we had some hope, roster-wise. Time is running out regarding Ponga's prime. I'll never forgive the club if we don't get a Premiership during his career.

 

[Walk On Home Boy]

A fit Best could've been the difference too in such a close game. That guy is always broken. So frustrating.

 

[Woody90]

Let's be real, that was this team at full noise. Jones, Hetherington, D Saf all running like champions for 3 weeks, Marzhew catching bombs, Lucas looking like Gasnier in the centers, Brailey actually getting out of dummy half, Crossland tackling like an absolute demon, Cogger not totally sucking... this was pretty much the peak for this side.

Yet still, we lose. The roster had no right being where it was, on the cusp of a semi-final. We have an Elite player playing 3 positions surrounded by a reserve grade spine. You just don't win anything with a roster so unbalanced. Ponga has maybe 2 more years with this agility. Spine overhaul is a must, somehow, right now.

I was thinking at half time that the team were playing to the absolute best of their ability and was worried if the cowboys went to another level we couldn’t go with them - turns out that didn’t happen and they more came home off our errors mind you.

I suppose at least I’d prefer to have the team playing above their talent level at this time of the year rather than choking like some. Last year you could tell we had limited finals experience and looked overawed, but they were more up for finals today.

If we could maybe improve the squad so we don’t have one of the worst spines in the comp outside of KP there might be a good footy team in there. There’s definitely good attitude there. I’m also hoping that AOB realises watching that we had no clue what to do with the ball with 4-5 minutes remaining that attack is also an important part of the game.

 

[Rod]

Oh and Ponga is a God. It wasn't a 10/10, he made a couple of errors too, but what more can he do really?

The only thing you can really knock him for at this point is he's still often dodgy under the high ball.

And even that is hard to harp on too much given he does everything else for us.

 

[Alex28]

We were so close…

It was a brave effort, however in the end we just don’t have enough great players around Ponga to be a genuine threat.

Hopefully we clear the players we need to, put some genuine class players around the core that we have and the future can look really good.

 

[Walk On Home Boy]

We got absolutely slaughtered today by that ref. Not one ruck infringement from the Cowboys? Really? The guy literally missed 10+ calls all against us. It was a totally incompetent display to the point I was truly starting to wonder if the fix was in for real. I don't even like blaming officials but that was an all-time clanger.

 

[Zoidberg]

I'll never forgive the club if we don't get a Premiership during his career.

As much as I would hate it if KP moved to another club, if he feels he need to do that to win a premiership, I don’t blame him.

 

[Woody90]

That has to be Top 5 most disappointing losses. Idek if I can watch the other games. I just wish we had some hope, roster-wise. Time is running out regarding Ponga's prime. I'll never forgive the club if we don't get a Premiership during his career.

Tbh as sad as it is I can’t see him winning one, even moving clubs. I can see a lot of really talented players in this generation that are going to miss out on premierships purely because the Panthers have been so dominant and probably won’t stop.

Looks like we’re at least trying to make big moves to improve the squad though. Tapping so many players mid season when your season is still alive is pretty ruthless. Whether it works or not I don’t know but I like that it looks like the years of taking a fat pay check to coast at the Knights is over.

 

[Woody90]

As much as I would hate it if KP moved to another club, if he feels he need to do that to win a premiership, I don’t blame him.

Tbh I don’t even think the club would stand in his way either if that’s what he wanted. Not because they’d want to lose him, but I get the sense the club really cares about the bloke and can probably see he won’t win a comp here during his prime.

FTR I’m actually pretty optimistic about our long-term future for once, but I’m not we’ll win a comp in the next 3 years optimistic.

 

[Apey]

The only thing you can really knock him for at this point is he's still often dodgy under the high ball.

And even that is hard to harp on too much given he does everything else for us.

Yeah, and he throws the occasional dud pass, no doubt. The latter is more a symptom of the immense pressure he is under to create for this team though.

I wouldn't blame him for leaving us next contract if he wants to win a competition and people would be kidding themselves if they don't think he fetches 1.2M+ at any club that wants him.

 

[Walk On Home Boy]

As much as I would hate it if KP moved to another club, if he feels he need to do that to win a premiership, I don’t blame him.

It will be the ultimate failure of any coaches career who failed to put a roster around Ponga capable of winning a Premiership. The guy is 3 players in one ffs.

 

[Yosh]

In the second half we only had the ball once in their half and we scored. Doubt Ponga or Gagai will be getting much sleep after they messed up that try... We had 3 or 4 in support there. It wasn't the first time they mucked it up this season either.

We did so well... That's why it's so frustrating to lose I guess.

We need a proper half and dummy half. During the regular season it was enough having Ponga carrying the spine but in the finals we definitely need more attacking threat from our spine players.

Was a pretty snooze of a season but was fun past month and a bit. Hope we make a lot of moves in the off-season player wise.

 

[perverse]

Yeah, and he throws the occasional dud pass, no doubt. The latter is more a symptom of the immense pressure he is under to create for this team though.

I wouldn't blame him for leaving us next contract if he wants to win a competition and people would be kidding themselves if they don't think he fetches 1.2M+ at any club that wants him.

The Roosters would eject Tedesco faster than you can blink if they thought they could get Kalyn at that price. They've been that sort of ruthless in the past (Pearce, for example).

Mind you, the Roosters would only have to pay him 900k-1m on the cap anyway.

 

[Woody90]

I think Ponga will still have time to win a comp, just probably not with us sadly. He’s in a pretty good position. Gets to set himself and his family up financially for life being the highest paid player in the game for 5 years and if he doesn’t win a comp with us he’ll still be 29 when his contracts up and then because he’s already had peek earning can basically take nothing on his next contract to go to whatever club he thinks will have the best chance at a comp. Obviously we’re all upset because we want a premiership and see him as our only hope for that, but just objectively looking at Ponga’s situation, he’s in a good position.

Saying that though I still hope finishing in the 8 doesn’t change our plans for a clean out (it shouldn’t) so we can get a better squad around him.

 

[Woody90]

My biggest question is why the hell we seem to need to be under the pressure of playing sudden death football to play our best football? Hopefully they reflect on that in the off season and we can win some more games during the regular season when there’s less pressure and finish higher up.

We’re like the anti Sharks.