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

[Loose Cannon]

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.

Wasn’t there some commentary on Fox last night about swapping the sheds during the offseason?

Could it be that “AOB has lost the dressing room” was more literal than the way we generally interpret that phrase?

With the way this club operates, I can just envisage Peter Parr having to come in on a Wednesday morning with a screwdriver, and switch the Home/Visitors signs.
Perhaps O’Brien has been imparting his knowledge and experience of being involved in 4 grand finals to the wrong freaking team all this time. It all makes sense!

 

[Yosh]

Didn't we bring in a Super League winning coach in the off season? Our team's intensity has definitely improved 100 fold in 2023. Coincidence?

 

[macavity]

We started last year with good intensity too.. probably better than this year given we didn’t aim up in NZ.

We fell off once it was apparent we just couldn’t compete.

let’s see how they are competing come round 10 or so. Given the injuries we will probably be basically out of finals contention by then. Hard to keep the head right in those circumstances.

 

[Haffa]

We started last year with good intensity too.. probably better than this year given we didn’t aim up in NZ.

We fell off once it was apparent we just couldn’t compete.

let’s see how they are competing come round 10 or so. Given the injuries we will probably be basically out of finals contention by then. Hard to keep the head right in those circumstances.

They’ll compete well with the Bye in Round 10.

 

[aqua_duck]

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.

hardly surprising that we use our centres like front rowers to hit the ball up on early tackles and then every ball Fitzy gets is literally him running a crash line, after seeing him bomb that try by hogging the ball I can understand now why he only runs that one line, it's because his football IQ and decision making are equal to that of an under 10s player so they give him a game plan where he literally doesn't need to do anything thinking

 

[Knight Tales]

Watching the performances of the Warriors and Dolphins I don’t think we are that far off. Cowboys clearly have not aimed up in the off season. They have big issues.

 

[macavity]

seems that while there are still big gulfs in talent the effort has equalised a bit.

Still expect the cream to rise around origin.

 

[alexwilliams_66692007]

How could anyone not like this bloke?

 

[perverse]

He knows all the right things to say publicly. The fact remains that he has a long trail of pissed off teammates in his wake. We're going to have to wait and see long term with Hastings, but yes I like the noises he makes on camera and on the field. It's what you want to see and hear from all of them.

 

[alexwilliams_66692007]

He knows all the right things to say publicly. The fact remains that he has a long trail of pissed off teammates in his wake. We're going to have to wait and see long term with Hastings, but yes I like the noises he makes on camera and on the field. It's what you want to see and hear from all of them.

Teammates like DCE who has a long trail of pissing his teammates off

 

[Old dog]

Unfortunately we have been losing players to HIA, suspension and injury over the first few rounds and yet we are not far off, effort has been strong and the supposed easy first 6 rounds has shown those teams to be not so easy, Warriors and Dolphins going well. Supposed better teams not so good. Won’t get any easier over the next 4-5 weeks with those injuries/HIA/suspensions but the boys are putting in, those copping most flack, Crossland, Hunt, Jones, Young are giving it there all, committed while others like Hetherington are struggling with fitness while forced to play up rather than gaining match fitness in Cup. Lack of top players such as Ponga, Brailey, JSaf, Friz Elliott and solid backups like Mann, Johns put additional pressure on fringe players to perform and it is under those pressures that errors occur, not effort but errors.
I think the effort of the fit 20 or so needs more credit than the criticism given, not happy with the results but yes with the effort

 

[Knight Tales]

Teammates like DCE who has a long trail of pissing his teammates off

At a guess they are very similar personalities. Both are strong leaders. I like the fact Hastings does not tow the party line when his side is not putting effort in. Cameron Smith is another. I remember when The Storm won a game by a decent margin and he kept them on field to chew them out about not sticking to the game plan. It’s about the process with them. The result is what it is.

 

[Spot On]

Maybe Hastings is an actual old school ‘man’ and the modern bloke doesn’t like the cut of his jib?

 

[Apey]

How could anyone not like this bloke?View attachment 71432

Why does the crowd look so empty here, was this just bad timing for a photo?

 

[macavity]

Why does the crowd look so empty here, was this just bad timing for a photo?

During warm up. Crowd fills late for 6pm Friday games.

 

[Apey]

During warm up. Crowd fills late for 6pm Friday games.

Yeah I thought this must have been it, was way more filled out than that during the game.

I get to every game 5 mins before kick-off because I'm lazy.

 

[aqua_duck]

Unfortunately we have been losing players to HIA, suspension and injury over the first few rounds and yet we are not far off, effort has been strong and the supposed easy first 6 rounds has shown those teams to be not so easy, Warriors and Dolphins going well. Supposed better teams not so good. Won’t get any easier over the next 4-5 weeks with those injuries/HIA/suspensions but the boys are putting in, those copping most flack, Crossland, Hunt, Jones, Young are giving it there all, committed while others like Hetherington are struggling with fitness while forced to play up rather than gaining match fitness in Cup. Lack of top players such as Ponga, Brailey, JSaf, Friz Elliott and solid backups like Mann, Johns put additional pressure on fringe players to perform and it is under those pressures that errors occur, not effort but errors.
I think the effort of the fit 20 or so needs more credit than the criticism given, not happy with the results but yes with the effort

Definitely cannot fault effort the issue is as long as AOB has been coach our depth has been poor, it’s reflected in poor results in NSW cup as well. I know injuries are unfortunate but we’ve been hit with the injury bug for years now so logic would suggest to build a strong squad to be able to cover but for some reason AOB doesn’t seem to use logic

 

[Nuke]

I only got around to watching the game last night and had to laugh.

On three occasions, Bradman Best was called 'Bradman Breast' during the commentary.

And here we were a few weeks ago thinking Cant's name was going to be the one to cause an unfortunate slip-up..!

 

[Burwood]

I only got around to watching the game last night and had to laugh.

On three occasions, Bradman Best was called 'Bradman Breast' during the commentary.

And here we were a few weeks ago thinking Cant's name was going to be the one to cause an unfortunate slip-up..!

Please get with the times and try not to be so culturally disrespectful- in Best’s hometown on the Central Coast, it’s pronounced Breast.

 

[macavity]

Yeah I thought this must have been it, was way more filled out than that during the game.

I get to every game 5 mins before kick-off because I'm lazy.

I get to every game an hour before kick off because I have high functioning anxiety