Match Discussion: Finals Week 2 vs Warriors @ Go Media Stadium, Penrose / Aotearoa

[Zoidberg]

Absolutely shot ourselves in the foot both finals matches. No respect for the football and gave the Warriors and Raiders way too many cheap opportunities.
I get it, but we seemed to play away from the Clune/Lucas side way too much.

 

[Apey]

All came from the shit start. Any plays we made were panicked and error-riddled. Playing catch-up after 13 minutes is awful.

Very disappointing. Yeah the season is a pass overall but damn what a shit way to end, getting flogged by 30 by the team that finished one place above us.

Haven't read through this thread yet but we let Johnson have a field day. Had all the time in the world to kick and probably barely got his jersey dirty. Weak shit.

 

[Old dog]

Disappointing end to what has been a good season. Our back 5 made little or no impression, can’t remember any of them making a bust into the open.
Kicking was poor, bomb are only good if kicked deep for territory or close enough for chasers to challenge,
Our pack looked out muscled except for Thompson, Friz and Lucas.
Interchange, why wasn’t Jones used earlier to relieve tired players.
That’s it for this year, look forward to 2024

 

[alexwilliams_66692007]

Thanks for the memories Dom! Bad luck at the Roosters....

 

[mozza91]

Thanks for the memories Dom! Bad luck at the Roosters....

Watching him defend today takes the sting out of losing him away abit. He’s been amazing this season though, will be near impossible to replace.

 

[perverse]

Watching him defend today takes the sting out of losing him away abit. He’s been amazing this season though, will be near impossible to replace.

We'll miss his speed above all else. I think we can find another battering ram... but one that turns line breaks into tries and produces 80m runs from nowhere is going to be impossible, yeah. We will actually have to change the way we play around it.

 

[Apey]

Ah ok. It was Kurt Mann. He got knocked the f**k out there too, lol.

His last play for us haha

 

[Rod]

Well what some of us were afraid of once DSaf was ruled out came to fruition. They dominated through the forwards and controlled the ruck. Simple but effective gameplan that allows Johnson to play in a dinner suit (needed someone to hit him hard and early, never happened).

I didn't like the way the ruck was refereed either so that just compounded matters. 6 agains were basically a lottery as usual.

Not to single guys out too much but Marzhew had a shocker and he has some big off-season work ons otherwise he'll only be targeted more next season. The try where they didn't even have an overlap and he just ended up standing next to Best was embarrassing.

 

[Woody90]

Pretty much my take too. It was a fun run, and there's a lot to learn out of it. Hopefully it results in a hungry off season and a better start to next year.

We got a lot of joy out of the season, unexpectedly. Next year we have to reach higher on the ladder and show we've learned how to play finals footy. Top 4 is a pass mark next year.

Although I’m very flat after that performance and season ending, I still have to say I’m excited about how much better we could get with our spine actually training in the right positions over the off season. We ended up having the best attack in the comp at the end of the regular season with a makeshift spine, more time together can only be a good thing.

Obviously just as likely that we’ll get crippled by injuries or revert back to usual business, but if we keep improving it’s actually pretty exciting going into the new season which is unusual for us.

 

[Walk On Home Boy]

This also showed the importance of making the top 4. They got flogged last week and they're still there. Also, home ground advantage and a chance at a week off is massive.

2/3 of our season was terrible. If only we got it together earlier and had better luck with injuries. We might have gotten a chance to get some bad games out of the way and learn from them. Now though, they have a whole off-season to ponder why they showed up to 2 finals games with zero intensity...

 

[Apey]

Thanks for the memories Dom! Bad luck at the Roosters....

Hope he turns into late career Uate.

 

[Seage]

Honestly, next year we could finish top 4 or bottom 4. I've enjoyed the articles this week suggesting AOB stuck to his guns and didn't change a thing. So he was incapable of trying anything for 2 years, it didn't work, then suddenly it did. What happens if it goes back to not working next year? Just confirms he won't have any other ideas or flexibility to develop a plan B.

 

[Knight Tales]

It was errors which killed us tonight and nothing else. Had we actually reverted to a simple attack structure in the first 20 then we could have actually got the job done. The point being missed about our late season attack is it requires reigning in during a finals series. We never laid a platform for it. We just thought it would work week to week without adjustment. And injuries as always took us out of the race.

 

[EdLondon]

It was shit. But having time to settle down a bit I'm pretty happy. The team went great and played in that Knights of past hard nosed style. The most pleasing thing of these last 10 rounds have been the fan base. They are still there. After the shit we have had to put up with for years. I've had a membership through a few spoons and a few nearly spoons that we didn't deserve and we are out the other end. Bring on 2024!

 

[Zoidberg]

I guess a positive is I couldn’t really afford to go to the GF if we made it this year (even though I would’ve found a way to go).

 

[Nuke]

I guess a positive is I couldn’t really afford to go to the GF if we made it this year (even though I would’ve found a way to go).

100% me too. I, just last night out of curiosity, was looking at the costs of flights to Sydney from Perth these days ... on the off-chance we got in.

I may have, inadvertently, jinxed us today in the process. Sorry about that, everyone...

 

[Apey]

Man, it's still depressing how soft we were, probably in both finals games really. Conceded some awfully soft tries tonight especially. I can understand our lack of points - we were up against a top 4 team with a big home ground and making errors under the pressure of catch-up football due to our awful start. But the defence was the worst part for me. I felt like we were going to concede every time the Warriors were in our 20 and we pretty much did. Really poor stuff.

 

[Rod]

Obviously a troll but it does make me laugh how often people say teams who didn't end up winning the comp were 'making up the numbers'. Just such a meaningless observation, and for some unknown reason you seem to hear it more often in NRL than other sports I follow.

 

[Woody90]

Man, it's still depressing how soft we were, probably in both finals games really. Conceded some awfully soft tries tonight especially. I can understand our lack of points - we were up against a top 4 team with a big home ground and making errors under the pressure of catch-up football due to our awful start. But the defence was the worst part for me. I felt like we were going to concede every time the Warriors were in our 20 and we pretty much did. Really poor stuff.

Yeah this is it for me too. I wonder why. Even in the last round understrength we were strong and effective in defence.

Tbh I feel like we just lost our heads and also put ourselves under too much fatigue and pressure with the errors. We had the least amount of finals experience of the top 8 and it really showed. I feel like Webster also gave AOB a lesson in getting your side in the right space mentally for a big game (although I understand that’s a lot easier when you have more players with more finals experience - SJ made a world of difference for them).

Hopefully the experience will be a lesson for the entire club and we can get better from it.

 

[Zoidberg]

Man, it's still depressing how soft we were, probably in both finals games really. Conceded some awfully soft tries tonight especially. I can understand our lack of points - we were up against a top 4 team with a big home ground and making errors under the pressure of catch-up football due to our awful start. But the defence was the worst part for me. I felt like we were going to concede every time the Warriors were in our 20 and we pretty much did. Really poor stuff.

Especially considering our defence looked so strong for most of our 9 week run leading into the finals.
Not sure what happened in the last 2 games.