Match Discussion: Round 3 vs Dolphins @ McDonald Jones Stadium, New Lambton

[Burwood]

Best getting dropped last year for getting to the team bus late looks to have been a turning point.

 

[aqua_duck]

Don't want to jinx it but how good have our centres been. Both Gagai and Best. Not perfect but really making an impact with the ball in hand. Defense hasn't been an issue either. Both really carrying the ball strong and have been threats with their running games.

Also, Crossland does make some weird decisions and bad passes but he made the most tackles of any player tonight with 50 and didn't miss any. That's pretty impressive for a makeshift starting hooker.

Yes Crossland made a lot of tackles but you could literally just play a backrower in his place and you’d get a better result. Most people will point to Crossland as a utility but I don’t actually know what positions he can play, too small and frail to be a proper forward, nowhere near athletic enough to be a back and lacking all the requisite skills to be a half or decent dummy half

 

[Loose Cannon]

I wanted to comment this as well.

I think Best is looking in best physical shape since he got into firsts. It's like it's all starting to click for him, which is great. We just need to continue to find ways to get him quality ball, but he looks like he's very ready to breakout.

Re the bolded;

Maybe Fitzgibbon could get the F out of the way.

 

[aqua_duck]

He doesn’t know how to build a squad. He can’t attract depth. The players coming through are all undersized.

but you know you can’t say he’s out of his depth without selecting a replacement apparently. So throw a few Pokie proceeds on getting Bellamy to rebuild the joint.

Honestly a Brian Smith style recruiting spree would do this squad wonders, just grab a bunch of big athletic low cost recruits and see what you can do with them. Bellamy is famous for recruiting unknowns and turning them into stars, you would’ve hoped AOB learnt something during his time under Bellamy but it appears not.

 

[aqua_duck]

Re the bolded;

Maybe Fitzgibbon could get the F out of the way.

I don’t think you can blame Fitzy, there’s obvious a very deliberate game plan to get him the ball

 

[mozza91]

Some pretty harsh comments about Dom on here.

His runs out of own end were fantastic, so strong and made plenty of post contact metres. Made a few errors but I don’t think you could say his heart wasn’t in it.

 

[perverse]

Some pretty harsh comments about Dom on here.

His runs out of own end were fantastic, so strong and made plenty of post contact metres. Made a few errors but I don’t think you could say his heart wasn’t in it.

Wasn't so much about his heart as his absolute farce of incredibly costly errors. He, along with his mate Phoenix, straight up cost us any chance of winning that game.

 

[Spot On]

Some pretty harsh comments about Dom on here.

His runs out of own end were fantastic, so strong and made plenty of post contact metres. Made a few errors but I don’t think you could say his heart wasn’t in it.

Well his mind was elsewhere.

Maybe he wanted to rush home so he didn’t miss the match of the round.

 

[mozza91]

Well his mind was elsewhere.

Maybe he wanted to rush home so he didn’t miss the match of the round.

Thanks for your insights into his psyche.
I suppose Kaufusi’s mind was elsewhere too because he made a few errors?

 

[PhilGould]

Dom was shaky under bombs last year as well, it's not a new development

 

[The Axe of Druss]

I was really impressed with Lucas last night.

I wasnt sure what to expect given hes a centre turned back rower but he really made the most of his minutes. Looked much bigger than i expected and had plenty of intent both sides of the ball. Theres a future for him there imo

Also thought Rivet made a good fist of it too. His kicking when Hastings went off was very good, dont think he should be playing any hooker though

 

[Burwood]

Looking at the stats on NRL.com, there’s an interesting one that shows the pass-to-run ratio for players. Most centres have a number around 0.3-0.5 or better, and Best is sitting way down at 0.3, 0.09 and 0.15 for the first 3 rounds.

He pretty much passes the ball 1/7 times that he gets it. There’s wingers in the comp that pass the ball more than him.

Wow, and Fitzgibbon’s stats are -, - and 0.13 which means that he didn’t pass the ball on once in the opening 2 rounds (doesn’t include offloads or dummy half).

Shows that there’s pretty much no backline movement at all where the team run sweeping plays.

 

[Yosh]

Looking at the stats on NRL.com, there’s an interesting one that shows the pass-to-run ratio for players. Most centres have a number around 0.3-0.5 or better, and Best is sitting way down at 0.3, 0.09 and 0.15 for the first 3 rounds.

He pretty much passes the ball 1/7 times that he gets it. There’s wingers in the comp that pass the ball more than him.

Wow, and Fitzgibbon’s stats are -, - and 0.13 which means that he didn’t pass the ball on once in the opening 2 rounds (doesn’t include offloads or dummy half).

Shows that there’s pretty much no backline movement at all where the team run sweeping plays.

Best's carries have either been strong carries coming out from our end or coming back on the inside. Our attacks that go down the left have all been short balls to Fitzy. I'm sure once we figure out how to get him early ball in space, he will start setting up his winger more. He set up Tuala for some good tries in season past so I don't think it's an ability thing. Feels more like a team attacking structure thing.

 

[TooheysNew]

Best's carries have either been strong carries coming out from our end or coming back on the inside. Our attacks that go down the left have all been short balls to Fitzy. I'm sure once we figure out how to get him early ball in space, he will start setting up his winger more. He set up Tuala for some good tries in season past so I don't think it's an ability thing. Feels more like a team attacking structure thing.

You're very optimistic.

 

[Jono078]

I was really impressed with Lucas last night.

I wasnt sure what to expect given hes a centre turned back rower but he really made the most of his minutes. Looked much bigger than i expected and had plenty of intent both sides of the ball. Theres a future for him there imo

Also thought Rivet made a good fist of it too. His kicking when Hastings went off was very good, dont think he should be playing any hooker though

I really liked Lucas' energy but man I thought he was close to giving away a penalty after each tackle. Seemed to go on with thing a bit too much, but hey, I'll take that kind of effort and passion at this stage.

I also thought Rivett put in a nice kick, like he kicked it clean and struck the ball well. Maybe there is a future halfback there..

Can't really surprised me though. He was all effort upon effort. Seems a bit undersized but there may be something there.

 

[PhilGould]

Cant's size has always made me pessimistic about his chances as a first grader despite being very good as a junior but it was a good start from him. He was playing out of position in the middle but showed enough that I'd rather see him starting at second-row over Jones next week.

Lucas handled the physicality well, ideally shouldn't be playing second-row but there was good signs for his chances of making it as an outside back.

Rivett looked keen to get involved and should be better for the run.

 

[alexwilliams_66692007]

Despite the result, I was quite happy with how the boys played considering the lack of cattle we had on the paddock.
We seem to be playing with a lot more heart and determination this season. We just need to fix the simple errors, get some players back and we should go okay

 

[Mr_Knightside]

It seemed last year that AOB had lost the dressing room given some of the putrid efforts that we saw but he seems to have found the dressing room again given they seem to be putting in so far.

You can knock the game plan but not the effort, which is at least an improvement on last season.

 

[Spot On]

Lucas’ aggression and physicality was fantastic.

 

[Spot On]

Thanks for your insights into his psyche.
I suppose Kaufusi’s mind was elsewhere too because he made a few errors?

Anything for you Mozzarella.

Dolphins team had five errors in total last night.

Dom managed to top that number on his own with 6!!

What a legend.

Very fair to say he had a few lapses in concentration last night OR his mind was not on the job.

Roosters had a dig last night and Dom would have been interested in that game for obvious reasons.