Match Discussion: Round 18 vs Melbourne @ AAMI Park

[NoSchitSherlock]

And it was thought the 6 again would hurt Melbourne with all their ruck infringements. They still get away with a lot.

 

[Yosh]

I'm a firm believer that a team is only as good as their worst player. I think we need to get rid of the likes of Fitzy and Mann and Tuala before we can move forward as a team.

Dom Young is of course going to have rookie games. However the talent is there to be seen. Frizzell looked a class above out there. Jacob seemed shot after an early injury maybe? Brailey was golden but noone was near him to take advantage of his good work.

Frustrating to say the least. Storm didn't need to beat us. They just went through the motions and waited to us to make a mistake or show an opening and took advantage of it.

 

[aqua_duck]

Or that there had been a fundamental change in the game from 3 years ago to today...

But I'm sure it's just that Bellamy has become a much better coach since 2018. Amazing improvement given how good he already was!

The crazy thing is a few years ago people were saying the storm were only good because of wrestling and because of the big 3, now minus the big 3 and with wrestling now more or less minimised the storm have actually gotten better

 

[Mr_Knightside]

The crazy thing is a few years ago people were saying the storm were only good because of wrestling and because of the big 3, now minus the big 3 and with wrestling now more or less minimised the storm have actually gotten better

TBF most of the competition has gotten worse as well. But yeah if you told me a couple of years ago that post Smith/Cronk/Slater the storm would be going this well I would have laughed at you.

 

[Knight Tales]

They've toweled everyone for the past 3 months

Exactly. So let us chill a bit.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

I think the thing that frustrates me the most watching a performance like that is that you would think after all these years of rebuilding we would be seeing incremental improvements against the top sides. The game last night is exactly what you would expect to see in this fixture back in 2016-2017 yet in 2021 it is still happening. So far this year we have been convincingly thrashed by the Storm, Eels and Roosters and we basically looked the same in all of those games. The only game against top sides where we looked semi competitive is against the Panthers and Souths but even so the gap between them and us still showed in the end.

Over the last 5 or so years our best has definitely improved. On a good day we’re a 8/10 but our worst is still the same as it was 5 years ago, maybe a 2/10 which is being generous. Even when the Storm/Panthers have a bad day they’re still a 6/10 which is good enough to beat most sides and on a good day they’re 10/10.

I just wish we could elevate our bad days to at least a 5/10 so that there are less of these write off games. We still seem to have way too many of them.

 

[Old dog]

We got beat/thrashed and seemed leaderless. Our halves played ok but seemed lost at times, Brailey is a very good player but not the inspirational type he missed having the likes of Pearce and DanS around him.
Storm and Panthers seem a class above all others and if we make the 8 will likely play one of them in the semi’s but with a full side we can compete against the rest

 

[Burwood]

Coaching is still a huge part of it I think. Melbourne knew exactly where to attack us and were relentless. We did nothing at all to throw them off their game and kept doing to same pointless things over and over.

 

[Knight Tales]

Storm are simply better at knowing where they have to be at every play. The halves don’t crowd each other. They push you to the edges. They are simply coached to be cerebral players.

 

[Haffa]

I struggle to understand what system AOB is implementing here. It’s pedestrian football unless Ponga finds a gap in the 3 games a season he’s available.

 

[Jono078]

Reed Mahoney of the Parramatta Eels is on the Sunday Footy Show and said something they've been focusing on is getting their shape/structure right when trying to get the ball out of their own end, not necessarily to spread the ball but to spread the defense so they can't aim up and bash you when you do the one out runs, which we are famous for.

Because we have players who run to the wing because they're exhausted after the 3rd minute and are not willing to help out the team and are looking for shortcuts or "another bloke will deal with it" attitude.

 

[perverse]

I struggle to understand what system AOB is implementing here. It’s pedestrian football unless Ponga finds a gap in the 3 games a season he’s available.

We moved the ball a bit and played some football against the Cowboys.

 

[Zoidberg]

Again, I didn’t see the game but, having 2 of your first choice 1, 6 and 7 out makes it a bit more obvious who to watch when you’re defending against us. When our attack is shit, our defence cops a beating because the opposition don’t use as much energy in defence and can usually get the ball in better field position.

 

[Burwood]

Fatigue wasn’t the issue last night, unless the side were exhausted by the time they got to the 4th tackle in the opening set.

 

[aqua_duck]

AOB was in charge of the storm attack when they wrestled and grinded everyone into the ground, Cam Smith said after the rule changes last year the storm completely revamped their attack to suit the new rules, I don't think AOB has revamped his approach unfortunately

 

[slotmachine]

All this talk about how good the storm's system is, let it not be forgotten that not even the great Craig Bellamy could do anything with Kurt Mann

 

[Burwood]

They did have the brains not to resign him for a further 2 years though.

 

[Spot On]

Some supporters get ahead of themselves after a win against a side that has conceded nearly 200 points in their last 5 games (Cowboys). At the moment, we can't compete regularly (rarely really) with the top 4 sides unless everything goes our way and the opposition have key players out. Melbourne are simply awesome with the greatest coach going. It was always going to be a massacre.

Our last 2 wins are against sides (Cowboys and Warriors) that have collectively lost their last 10 games. That is simply a shit form line. In fact , the last time the Cowboys won 2 in a row it was against the Warriors and Newcastle. The last time the Warriors had a win was v the Tigers. Our recent form line going into the Mlb game was attached to the 12th, 13th and 14th placed teams on the ladder.

 

[Old dog]

Some supporters get ahead of themselves after a win against a side that has conceded nearly 200 points in their last 5 games (Cowboys). At the moment, we can't compete regularly (rarely really) with the top 4 sides unless everything goes our way and the opposition have key players out. Melbourne are simply awesome with the greatest coach going. It was always going to be a massacre.

Our last 2 wins are against sides (Cowboys and Warriors) that have collectively lost their last 10 games. That is simply a shit form line. In fact , the last time the Cowboys won 2 in a row it was against the Warriors and Newcastle. The last time the Warriors had a win was v the Tigers. Our recent form line going into the Mlb game was attached to the 12th, 13th and 14th placed teams on the ladder.

Reallity

 

[Zoidberg]

Some supporters get ahead of themselves

Hey, that’s what we do.