Match Discussion: Round 4 vs Cronulla @ PointsBet Stadium

[Spot On]

Don’t know what happened to the attack tonight. Even Mann at lock was playing different to the first 3 rounds- instead of him being the link between hooker and the halves out wide, he was often the one receiving the ball from the halves. Everything about tonight was off.

Craig Fitzgibbon coached his side to shut it down.

Unfortunately our coach had no plan B for when this happens. And now all sides have the blue print to shut us down.

Plus our pack was limp at best and demolished with and without the ball.

End of game.

 

[Mr Angry]

zero

 

[Volcom6685]

It’s like we came with a wet football mindset, which we didn’t change even though it wasn’t raining.
I’ve always been a Ponga fan and think we need him to threaten for a premiership, but if his performances over the next few weeks don’t improve 100%, I will pack his bags to go to the Dolphins.

100% we did . Listen to all the talk this week . It was about playing in gale force wind with rain . The rain didn’t eventuate and we didn’t change our game plan to suit . Just went with what we’d decided was going to be the conditions

 

[Burns]

Playing out of position.

Think the forwards would be better for him? Guess we have spots in the second row?

 

[TooheysNew]

Think the forwards would be better for him? Guess we have spots in the second row?

If we are going to treat him like a second rower, May as well play him there.

 

[Jono078]

AOB saying the team is disjointed from all the changes.

Didn't see Penrith with that excuse last week.. Every team has weekly changes!

 

[Jono078]

Holy shit.. They just asked Ponga how he felt out there after 2 weeks off and he said "not happy" and when questioned what he wasnt happy with he said "the loss" .. you were a big contributor buddy!

 

[Tom155]

What bs did AOB spew at his press conference after the game?

 

[Yosh]

I loved our effort and character in defense. We were Tarzan in defense and then Jane in attack. Why we so scared to attack?

 

[Allstar Knights]

All of our pack were average and completely outmuscled, but I thought the Saifiti's in particular were really disappointing. Not just the errors but their was no leg drive at all or intent with hitups. Credit to the Sharks for stopping that too but they should be better.

Jones and Momoisea are fringe first graders at best so we really need a backrower asap.

 

[TooheysNew]

We missed Barnett.

 

[Loose Cannon]

AOB has the excuse cheatsheet at the ready every week. Nothing he says in the press conferences has any reference to the game that preceeds it.

 

[Walk On Home Boy]

How long since we had a coach that inspired confidence in the direction they were taking the attack? Brian Smith? We've been such a dour side for so many years now.

There is a lot to work with in this side. More than recent years even. AOB just hasn't put his mark on the side. He really needs to be harder on underperforming players like Ponga and the Safs. Ugh... it really felt like we'd turned a corner until Barnetts last brain-cell died. This week proved nothing has changed at all, sadly.

 

[Zoidberg]

I loved our effort and character in defense. We were Tarzan in defense and then Jane in attack. Why we so scared to attack?

Especially after how well we attacked against the Rorters in round 1. We looked confident with offloads, running onto the ball. All of that was gone tonight.

 

[Jono078]

What bs did AOB spew at his press conference after the game?

This was my takeaway..

He blamed our changing and chopping of the squad, in particular Ponga not having time to train much with them with the shorter turnaround..

Mind you.. This is all after a FULL OFFSEASON where he praised the spine getting plenty of time together and it was only round 1 they looked fairly solid together...

So basically it was a bunch of bullshit and he was disappointed with the loss but happy with some of the effort..

AOB really misses the mark for mine of when to fire up at the team. He may do it behind doors but as a fan I hate not seeing it.

 

[Spot On]

All of our pack were average and completely outmuscled, but I thought the Saifiti's in particular were really disappointing. Not just the errors but their was no leg drive at all or intent with hitups. Credit to the Sharks for stopping that too but they should be better.

Jones and Momoisea are fringe first graders at best so we really need a backrower asap.

Yep, the Saifitis were absolute balls.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

We were well and truly taught a lesson tonight. Cronulla were 2 or 3 steps ahead the whole game. They played brilliantly tonight tbf and I think they’re going to be very hard to beat this year, particularly at home.

For me I was really disappointed in the Saifitis, they had about 4 errors between them in the first 20-25 minutes and put us under massive pressure then they were ineffective with the ball and didn’t really do anything stand out in D either. They were definitely missing Klemmer and Barnett Fien backup tonight but as experienced forwards they were really poor.

KP was just invisible the whole night. I really am at the point when I don’t care if he goes. For $1.2m we could get our hands on a couple of really good first graders who would at least have a go each week.

Gagai has been good the first 3 weeks but was beaten time and time again by Talakai who was just too big and physical for him.

Young looked good (apart from that tackle) and Randall and a few other guys had a go but overall we were absolutely dominated by a team that looked much more tuned in.

 

[Loose Cannon]

Today’s effort matched anything served up in last night’s game.

 

[Woosh]

We missed Barnett.

This week’s performance can be partly be blamed on Barnett’s brain snap from last week as well.
Played with 12 for 50mins last week and as a result Newcastle came out flat and played like it was a captain’s run.
Cronulla destroyed Newcastle’s ruck and were running down hill all night.
It was the perfect opportunity for Ponga to lead by example coming off a 2 week break but yes we all know how that went.

 

[perverse]

It almost makes me wonder if the squad already know Ponga is leaving. The performance and effort was that bad.