Match Discussion: Round 16 vs Bulldogs @ McDonald Jones Stadium

[Dave_]

Why do we bother plodding out with Cogger in the side? We'd honestly be better off limping out with 12

 

[9701]

We need 6 to 8 more on top of our best line up this year Pervy.

I'd only want Pearce, Watson, SKD and Ponga form our backs.

Herman, one of the hookers, Guerra, Fitzy and Dan S from the forwards.

Sione will be there somewhere.

That's 10 players.

Moga might get back? Jacob Saifiti might be first grade standard?

Add in Moga, Edrick and the Great Gatsby. That's 15. Maybe.

The rest are in reserves.

Who have I missed?

We are still well short on decent depth imo.

you missed Ramien

 

[perverse]

We need 6 to 8 more on top of our best line up this year Pervy.

I'd only want Pearce, Watson, SKD and Ponga form our backs.

Herman, one of the hookers, Guerra, Fitzy and Dan S from the forwards.

Sione will be there somewhere.

That's 10 players.

Moga might get back? Jacob Saifiti might be first grade standard?

Add in Moga, Edrick and the Great Gatsby. That's 15. Maybe.

The rest are in reserves.

Who have I missed?

We are still well short on decent depth imo.

I think our spine is sorted if we can actually get it on the field for any amount of time. We need one more outside back and I hope it is Fergo at this stage. Then we just need forwards. Heaps of forwards. We are probably 5 or 6 players off where we need to be, yeah.

 

[Dave_]

..i'm not prepared to say "it's been worse".

Truth is, we are still losing to the shittest sides in the comp in a massively embarrassing way. Nothing has changed. We still have no defensive structure or tackling technique. We still get pumped by plodders. We still have the worst injury luck. Still have so many reserve grades in our side. Heck, we consistently lose badly at home now even. This is too embarrassing.

Nothing may be worse...but nothing is better.

We
Still
Get
Pumped
Every
Week

 

[Spot On]

you missed Ramien

f**k - how could I???????
I wrote Moga twice - second time should have been Ramien.

Will fix up now.

 

[Spot On]

Fixed 9701.

 

[Zoidberg]

Don’t know why but this loss has really brought me down, more than other losses this year.
Maybe because I thought this was the game we needed to win to start a good home stretch, but it looks more likely to be another bad end to the season

 

[Joel-22]

We need 6 to 8 more on top of our best line up this year Pervy.

I'd only want Pearce, Watson, SKD and Ponga from our backs.

Herman, one of the hookers, Guerra, Fitzy and Dan S from the forwards.

Sione will be there somewhere.

That's 10 players.

Moga might get back? Jacob Saifiti might be first grade standard?

Add in Ramien, Edrick and the Great Gatsby. That's 15. Maybe.

The rest are in reserves.

Who have I missed?

We are still well short on decent depth imo.

1.Connor Watson
2.Edrick Lee
3.Jesse Ramien
4.Tautau Moga/Blake Ferguson
5.Shaun Kenny Dowell
6.Kalyn Ponga
7.Mitchell Pearce
8.-
9.Slade Griffin
10.-
11.Lachlan Fitzgibbon
12.Aiden Guerra
13.Herman Ese'ese

14.Danny Levi
15.Daniel Saifiti
16.Sione Mata'utia
17.Tim Glasby

We need at least 2 good aggro props and Ferguson.

 

[perverse]

Dan has to get good enough to reliably be one of our starting props. We're not going to find 2 first grade starters, we're flat out finding one.

 

[Spot On]

1.Connor Watson
2.Edrick Lee
3.Jesse Ramien
4.Tautau Moga/Blake Ferguson
5.Shaun Kenny Dowell
6.Kalyn Ponga
7.Mitchell Pearce
8.-
9.Slade Griffin
10.-
11.Lachlan Fitzgibbon
12.Aiden Guerra
13.Herman Ese'ese

14.Danny Levi
15.Daniel Saifiti
16.Sione Mata'utia
17.Tim Glasby

We need at least 2 good aggro props and Ferguson.

Forget Griffin. Moga is a maybe. We don't have Fergo. We need at least 2 more props - minimum.

Sick of carrying 2 hookers esp if that is the bench.

6 to 8 more buys mate and then we have at least some depth that can do a job when needed. Squad of 30.

Without them we don't have blokes who can do a job when needed. They are simply puss most of the time.

 

[Yosh]

Depressing... No luck at all... Lillyman and Heino were supposed to be our backup experienced, worst of the bunch forwards but they were a ton better than King, Stone, whoever apart from Herman.

It's pretty hard to win games when our forwards offer less yardage than our wingers and halves can't kick to save their lives.

Really impressed with Sione and SKD but most of the forwards looked like kids playing against men. We need major upgrades in the forwards but the backs look real good for next year.

 

[macavity]

Thoughts on Oates for the back row? Still hasn’t been re-signed. I am still not a Barnett fan.

 

[Dave_]

Don’t know why but this loss has really brought me down, more than other losses this year.
Maybe because I thought this was the game we needed to win to start a good home stretch, but it looks more likely to be another bad end to the season

Absolutely Zoidy...this was supposed to be the start of our run but instead it's the end of our season for another year...

I really didn't think our season would be over half way through the year again...

 

[Mr_Knightside]

Thoughts on Oates for the back row? Still hasn’t been re-signed. I am still not a Barnett fan.

I would rather not pay big money for a guy who has never played backrow in the NRL. That being said if we miss out on Fergo I’d be happy for us to sign Oates as a winger.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

The really depressing thing right now is that as it stands our forward pack is basically the same next year. Glasby is an upgrade on Heighington but other than that we haven’t got anyone else coming in and we’re still a couple of decent props short of playing finals footy and our depth is still shit so when we inevitably have another injury crisis next year we’re back to relying on the same old band of reserve graders who’ve been letting us down the last few years.

Admittedly our backline looks significantly better with Ramien and Lee coming in as well as Moga hopefully being fit and it’ll be even better if we snare Fergo as well but that doesn’t mean much if we continue to get dominated in the middle of the field with our powderpuff pack.

 

[Yosh]

The injuries have killed us. Losing both the twins was terrible. If they both stay reasonably healthy and we have Glasby, that's three decent blokes and a sexy star prop in Herman.

 

[macavity]

The injuries have killed us. Losing both the twins was terrible. If they both stay reasonably healthy and we have Glasby, that's three decent blokes and a sexy star prop in Herman.

IMO we ideally play Glasby at 13, Guerra and Fitzy on the edges, and Barnett off the bench with Saifitis x 2.

We are still two middles short - a starting prop and a quality bench impact prop. Ideally would prefer another starting backrower on the way here too.

If we are heading in to 2019 expecting King and Stone to play much (if any) first grade we are in for (yet another) bad time.

Still can't believe we muffed negotiations with Wallace.

I have said for a long time that we will know we are ok when Barnett is playing NSW Cup. I still firmly believe that.

 

[Spot On]

Are you sure we "fluffed' negotiations with Wallace Mac? I've been told he was very unlikely to leave the GC. Definitely not leaning one way or the other regardless of money. Family was the biggest factor and they are on the GC.

And I agree re Barnett. He is not the player I thought he could have been. But that's the story with quite a few of the blokes that showed good signs last year.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

Barnett is an odd one, when we first signed him mid season in 2016 he came here and was throwing offloads left right and centre, put on some big hits, using his footwork and getting under the skin of the opposition with a bit of grubbiness.

He was definitely a bit raw but he was always creating something for our team whereas now he looks like he’s been neutered and doesn’t seem to be doing much of that stuff anymore. Most of the time now you wouldn’t really know he’s there.

I mentioned on a previous post that I think he could be a rep player in future. I still believe that but I don’t know whether it’s a confidence thing or a coaching thing at the moment. Either way he needs to figure out how to unlock that skill set again because if he does then he’s a starting second rower every day of the week. But if he continues to play the way he’s been playing this year then I would probably start Sione in his place next year.

 

[Spot On]

IMO Barnett being a rep player is quite a stretch but I can see how we could have had thoughts like that watching him at his best last season.