Match Discussion: Round 22 vs Warriors @ Mt Smart Stadium

[Haffa]

Our Edge defence is no better than it was 3 years ago. It drives me insane.

Saulo looked good for a debut.

 

[slotmachine]

Can we sack everyone and clone Herman 6 times

 

[Zoidberg]

I feel bad for Ponga, Pearce and Herman, they deserve to be in a better team, but I’d be devastated if they left

 

[slotmachine]

Outside backs with 8 errors between them...

 

[BuderusIsaBeast]

It is alarming how much our attack has dropped off. We were awfully boring in attack even with nothing to lose

 

[Apey]

Warriors were rubbish tonight. Nothing to get excited about.

Nobody is getting excited.

 

[Apey]

They made 2014 run metres to our 1329, our forward pack has nothing. No wonder we have no punch in defence, we are constantly on the back foot.

I think that's our biggest concern. We get dominated so easily in the middle. Yeah we have some serious plodders elsewhere (when I never see Cogger or Denniss again I will be a happy man) but even plodders in the outside backs can look almost first grade standard when the pack is dominating.

 

[macavity]

That was a really boring game.

 

[Spot On]

6 to 8 decent first graders from being competitive.

 

[Yosh]

The bad:

1. Ese'ese made some good metres and Saulo looked okay for a rookie but no other forward seemed to have any impact... None. Why is Fitzy on the right? I don't see what Barnett offers on the left? Can someone explain why we took our strike weapon and best combination in Fitzy and Ponga and moved Fitzy to the other side?

2. The game plan. Why were we down 14 points, and running it one out of the ruck? Has our team still not heard of the offload?

3. Where was the passion? Ponga was trying his heart out but everyone else was 10 metres behind him. Why not support him? Why not make a run to throw some defenders off? That was the worst game plan I've seen from an NRL team that was behind on the score board. I'm usually quite lenient on Brown but he has some explaining to do.

4. Denniss and Cogger are just not first graders. I'm sure they are trying their hearts out but they are just not good enough. I know we don't really have other options and it's the club's responsibility to ensure our team has enough depth but Cogger and Denniss need to stay away from first grade. Thank goodness we got Ramien and Lee coming.

Plenty more but I'm gonna try looking at the good stuff.

1. Ponga showed a touch of class I haven't really seen since Joey. That pick up, that halfbreak, that little grubber. He made mistakes, ball to Sione wasn't the best near the end, kicking some weird grubbers in midfield etc. Those are easily forgiven because he was the only one giving a f**k on the team at times.

2. Pearce's kicking game is class. A couple of long kicks at the end there were just magnificent. If we get some decent forwards, his kicking game will ensure we win the field position battle more often than not.

3. Ese'ese could use an offload but he kept running the whole game. Wish we had some other options that could support him. I don't see what's special about Barnett... Fitzy needs to be moved back to the left and move Guerra out to the right and start Ese'ese as lock, Saifiti and maybe even Saulo starting props next week.

Disappointing but the difference in class was so clear. Could have really used Watson this game. His unpredictability and guile on the ball would have been awesome this game. But we had Cogger..

 

[Pedge1971]

Just rest Pearce, Watson and Ponga for the rest of the year to get over injury & freshen them up. Let the rest of the plodders derp their way to seasons end.

A few are playing for a contract, lets see how bad they want one....

 

[Zoidberg]

It’s also disappointing how close we could have been with a bit more effort. Yes, the Warriors didn’t play great but if we got our conversion, and Guerra planted that ball we could’ve been within 6 points with 20mins to go, but yeah, effort was not good enough imo

 

[slotmachine]

And if the ref called the pass that went 2 metres forward we wouldn't have troubled the scorer.

 

[mozza91]

And if the ref called the pass that went 2 metres forward we wouldn't have troubled the scorer.

We lost. You must be stoked.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

The thing that frustrated me watching the game last night wasn’t that we lost but that we didn’t change our game plan at all during the game. I was hoping we’d see some offloads and our forwards attempting to speed up our ruck a bit so that our playmakers could do something off the back of it but we just ran one-out at them all night which the Warriors ate up.

The need for a forward or two with some offloading ability cannot be overstated at this point. It’s basically a broken record by now but when we’re behind on the scoreboard we just keep doing the same thing over and over again hoping for some kind of result that isn’t coming.

The other observation I would make is that we were hopelessly outgunned in the backline last night. Guys like RTS, Fusitua, Kata and Mamolo are in a totally different league to Denniss and Sio. I’m looking forward to having a couple more big bodies in the backline next year when Ramien and Lee come on board.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

Btw is anyone else slightly concerned that we might still get the spoon? Given our draw and our terrible record against top 8 sides I can’t see us winning again this year and the bottom teams are only 2 wins below us with a better differential. The thing that does go in our favour is a few of those sides are playing against each other, i.e. cowboys v eels.

Obviously that means some of those sides would need to win 2/3 to close out the season but it seems like something that would happen to us, getting leapfrogged by a bunch of teams in the last few weeks and crashing to a 4th consecutive spoon. We’re only on 8 wins which has been enough to win the spoon in the past so I’m still a little nervous.

 

[Burns]

I saw that last night.

Even if Parra and Cowboys were to go on a run, I couldn’t see the Bulldogs winning 2/3 to draw level with us and go ahead.

Would be hilarious if it happens though.

 

[mozza91]

We’ll beat St George on old boys day. Not totally unconfident about Penrith either. They were terrible yesterday and hopefully we’ll have Watson back.

 

[Old dog]

Need Watson back to take some of the heat of Ponga, Warriors jumped all over him and play between Pearce and Ponga was predictable due to no real options.

 

[Alex28]

Just rest Pearce, Watson and Ponga for the rest of the year to get over injury & freshen them up. Let the rest of the plodders derp their way to seasons end.

A few are playing for a contract, lets see how bad they want one....

We could do that, but we are a real chance of getting the spoon as it is. I think we’ll struggle to win another game this season with them.

I don’t want to win a fourth straight spoon...