Match Discussion: Round 14 vs Penrith (H) @ Commbank Stadium, Parramatta / Burramattagal

[Nutz]

Fainu is overweight and won’t handle high minutes.

I thought we were the better team tonight for the majority of the game but we just did too much work in the first 20 mins of the second half when they had about 60% of the ball.

Latu and Jarome have better chemistry imo.

 

[WA Tiger]

Yea 1 out of 100 compared to to .09 out of 100

Luai concedes costly penalties, Benji rages as Penrith outlast Tigers

Jarome Luai’s first match against the club he helped to four premierships ended with his former Panthers teammates enjoying the last laugh.

www.smh.com.au

 

[Tiger05]

Again I think the “thug” in Luai needs to be put to bed..That’s 2 consecutive games he’s contributed massively to the loss coz he thinks he can get away with shit. Birds the same to a lesser degree.

Api does it as well. They just need to get the odd dumb moment out of their game.

 

[Tiger05]

Latu and Jarome have better chemistry imo.

I just think Latu has the potential to be a top tier player. Mason is good and it's hard not to play him but Latu needs to be there.

Latu at 13 worked great. He'd be great in the halves as well.

 

[WA Tiger]

Who’d take Luai now and pay a mill+ .. No one. He’s here for another 41/2 years..Fabulous! Geez Ive got enough stress in my life already than to have to worry about this shit

 

[Wizardman]

I thought that was our best performance in about a month. Not great but considering the mids we had out, I give it a pass mark. The match had the positivity we had before the Galvin bullshit reared its head.

Positives
*We stayed in it for the full 80.....some lapses and ill discipline cost us he match.
*Our go forward was pretty damn good considering the mids we are missing.
*Bula continues to compete and had some good moments. It took the test fullback to really stop Bula from winning the match.
*Our halves......Luai's best match for us and Fainu is very, very promising.
*Skelton....we really missed him....solid comeback match today.

Negatives
*Luai discipline: As good as he was for us today (I thought he outpointed Cleary), he is having some increasing ill-disciplined moments. We need him and need him focused.
*Our centres: Both men cost us dearly today. No point rushing Makasini this year......but we need someone else from outside this club there next year. I hope we phone Gagai's manager. As for Toa, I hope that performance stops our fans from crawling up his ass. Best season....yep....but consistency has never been his strong suit in his career. His defence definitely needs to evolve before he gets the big bucks from us.

 

[Tiger05]

Who’d take Luai now and pay a mill+ .. No one. He’s here for another 41/2 years..Fabulous!

I think you are being too harsh here.

Luai discipline: As good as he was for us today (I thought he outpointed Cleary), he is having some increasing ill-disciplined moments. We need him and need him focused.

This is the issue. To be fair to Luai as well some of those penalties were puss.

I don't get the criticism of To'a. He has been fantastic this season. His game wasn't even bad today. We didn't have any bad players. We just had poor discipline and our attack isn't firing.

I like the positive comments though. We were good out there.

 

[Wizardman]

Who’d take Luai now and pay a mill+ .. No one. He’s here for another 41/2 years..Fabulous! Geez Ive got enough stress in my life already than to have to worry about this shit

Im pretty sure the whole rugby league world......including our management and a lot of our fans knew that 1.3 mil was absolute overs at the time we bought him. The fact is we need him. Could you imagine going into this season without him?

He has certainly helped in off-field ways and helps to bring a squad together. He give the team direction.

I think the whole Galvin episode took pieces out of Luai. I get the feel he'll improve from here. I thought he outpointed Cleary. But he needs to get the ill-discipline shit out of his game.

He is not 1.3 million dollar good and never has been......but he good when his head is screwed on....and we need him.

 

[Speedy Gonzales]

I think the comments on Luai are harsh. People are criticising him because we aren’t winning but we have had 2 dropped balls over the line (Warriors and Rabbitohs) and a couple 50/50 ref calls go against us (Cowboys and Penrith) and we easily have 4 more wins to our name

He’s the sole reason we’re even getting into those positions

That and our squad as a whole are still fairly mediocre. The fact it’s the same 3-4 players every week getting all the week says a lot really … May, Bula, Api and sometimes T’oa are constantly our best every week

Pole, Api and May are about our only quality NRL forwards. Sione and Samuela have shown potential but still have a bit to go

 

[WA Tiger]

Api does it as well. They just need to get the odd dumb moment out of their game.

Api used to .. he doesn’t now.. Harsh? That's 2 games .. Add 4 points see where we’d be positioned and tell me that’s harsh..point is who’s going to yell at Luai.. not Benji he’s completely defending him..

 

[Wizardman]

I think the comments on Luai are harsh. People are criticising him because we aren’t winning but we have had 2 dropped balls over the line (Warriors and Rabbitohs) and a couple 50/50 ref calls go against us (Cowboys and Penrith) and we easily have 4 more wins to our name

He’s a sole reason we’re even getting into those positions

That and our squad as a whole are still fairly mediocre. The fact it’s the same 3-4 players every week getting all the week says a lot really … May, Bula, Api and sometimes T’oa are constantly our best every week

Pole, Api and May are about our only quality NRL forwards. Sione and Samuela have shown potential but still have a bit to go

Great post.....it sums up my thoughts about the side.

Luai is not worth 1.3 mil to a Broncos, Easts or Penrith....but it is necessary for a side like us to pay overs for this type of guy. We need him for this stage of our rebuild.

 

[Speedy Gonzales]

Great post.....it sums up my thoughts about the side.

Luai is not worth 1.3 mil to a Broncos, Easts or Penrith....but it is necessary for a side like us to pay overs for this type of guy. We need him for this stage of our rebuild.

Exactly.
This time last year I think we lost 9 in a row with a few 40+ pastings along the road

we’ve been demolished by Melbourne but apart from that we’ve been in most games

 

[Wizardman]

Exactly.
This time last year I think we lost 9 in a row with a few 40+ pastings along the road

we’ve been demolished by Melbourne but apart from that we’ve been in most games

Our season is pretty much going the way I thought it would. I thought we'd improve but never thought we'd make the 8. I took squad and gameplay improvement as a season passmark. We are absolutely a better side than 2024.....but these things take time.

 

[Pezz70]

I just think Latu has the potential to be a top tier player. Mason is good and it's hard not to play him but Latu needs to be there.

Latu at 13 worked great. He'd be great in the halves as well.

I don’t disagree with this.

Good point following:

https://x.com/hollis_k_/status/1931636466507247940?s=46

This view better:

https://x.com/nrl/status/1931619163509805062?s=46

 

[Vic Mackey]

Honestly thought it was a really high quality game. A few things went against us but if we were good enough we still should have won. The penalty and try before halftime cost us more then the Luai penalty imo and that was totally on us.

Sukkar looks good. Sione was great starting. Skelton is a machine, Latu will be a great foil for Luai.

Overall I found a lot of positives. A big negative for me is Turuvas defence. For a guy who is so powerful when running the ball his contact is horrible. The bloke made Jenkins look like Eric Grothe snr, not the first time this has happened either.