Match Discussion: Round 4 vs St Geo Illa @ McDonald Jones Stadium

[Yosh]

Sam Walker looks better at halfback in his first game than Pearce on his 301st...

 

[Rod]

Taken in isolation the loss isn't a surprise, given the injuries and the fact we had to re-shuffle the lineup (and in key positions too) about every 10 minutes.

But I have 3 longer term concerns from that game:
- Injuries (obviously)

- We are in real danger of not taking advantage of our schedule in these first 5-6 games. Feels like we have to be 3-3 at an absolute minimum after a run of Bulldogs, Warriors. Tigers, Dragons, Titans, Sharks (4 of which are home games), or the top 6 will start to slip away.

- Our playing style. It's hard to judge when you've got guys dropping like flies and no Ponga or Best to begin with, but it's hard to see where our points come from on a regular basis. I'm all for getting dominance in the forwards but we take the one-outs too far. It's about 4 every set. Unless you spread the ball from time to time the opposition to going to start sprinting up and hitting your ball-carriers as soon as they catch it, which is exactly what the Dragons did to us in the second half today. We can't rely on the Saiifitis and Klemmer to run us out of trouble for 80 minutes.

 

[perverse]

Sam Walker looks better at halfback in his first game than Pearce on his 301st...

Definitely a touch of class in his performance. Must be nice coming into that team, though.

 

[Knight76]

- Our playing style. It's hard to judge when you've got guys dropping like flies and no Ponga or Best to begin with, but it's hard to see where our points come from on a regular basis. I'm all for getting dominance in the forwards but we take the one-outs too far. It's about 4 every set. Unless you spread the ball from time to time the opposition to going to start sprinting up and hitting your ball-carriers as soon as they catch it, which is exactly what the Dragons did to us in the second half today. We can't rely on the Saiifitis and Klemmer to run us out of trouble for 80 minutes.

Our playing style is the same as it has been for years, I fail to see how OB has made much of a change.

Our sets of 6 consist of 1 out runs telegraphed in advance by the forward that walks up and stands ready to receive the ball. No variation to it.

Offloads are wasted with the ball going to a player that just takes a hit up.

Support play is non existent. Players make half breaks, or actual breaks, stand in tackles, look to offload and not a soul in sight, nobody streaming through following a run in case a break happens, when one does is almost like it's a surprise and no intentional.

We stand with very little depth to our attacking line, and practically no structure to the line. No decoy runners heading in several directions, just pass the ball one player to the next.

In the opposition 10m line, we lose all sense how to attack their line and resort to passing it around aimlessly until someone takes on the defensive line and gets tackled. King try today was prime example, poor defence from the Dragons, should never have scored and was a nothing play, just another player running it at the line hoping.

Kicking, abysmal. Though Brailey kicking from dummy half has been a nice change, and Green showed how you can actually secure a repeat set if your down their end. Last week, it was Brailey who nearly got that 40/20, and Brailey I think again that got the repeat set.

What does Pearce do again?

We just don't football very good!

 

[Bring it home Knights]

I have a faint memory of Joey not finishing the ‘02 and ‘03 seasons and us bowing out in the finals when we would’ve had a great opportunity to win 1 or 2 more prems.

In 98 we finished the season in equal first with Brisbane. injuries and players coming back from injury early and being under done cost us.

 

[NoSchitSherlock]

I liked how we were getting good metres up the middle early on.
Too much one out stuff though with no support and no links to go wider.

Last week we were trying to go wide too early. This week too much one off up the middle.

Maybe next week we can get some support and balance it out.

Defence put a lot in but the injuries and errors let them take an advantage.

 

[mozza91]

Gotta say the referee and touchies were bloody terrible today. Not saying they were against us or anything both teams copped some poor calls but they just made so many mistakes. Not First Grade standard at all.

 

[perverse]

Gotta say the referee and touchies were bloody terrible today. Not saying they were against us or anything both teams copped some poor calls but they just made so many mistakes. Not First Grade standard at all.

Yeah, they were shit. Howlers all over the place.

 

[Reflector]

In the opposition 10m line, we lose all sense how to attack their line and resort to passing it around aimlessly until someone takes on the defensive line and gets tackled. King try today was prime example, poor defence from the Dragons, should never have scored and was a nothing play, just another player running it at the line hoping.

Kicking, abysmal. Though Brailey kicking from dummy half has been a nice change, and Green showed how you can actually secure a repeat set if your down their end. Last week, it was Brailey who nearly got that 40/20, and Brailey I think again that got the repeat set.

What does Pearce do again?

We just don't football very good!

Not sure how much of this can be blamed on coaching (past or present) and how much on Pearce. His kicking game 8 out of every 10 times is just put up the bomb and hope for the best, as was the case even in his Roosters days. Last week wasn't the first time he's been tackled on the 4th and not been able to get to it on the 5th to put the kick in or try something.

A halves pairing or at least one of the two who is good at ad-lib passing/ kicking would work wonders with that forward pack, and being able to manage a game would make a hell of a difference too.

 

[Yosh]

It was gut wrenching when the Hunt try was called back for a forward pass. Why not just let it go up to the Bunker? Why do refs and line refs feel the need to stamp their authority on the game or something... Just do your job, you don't need to stand out ffs...

 

[slotmachine]

Gotta say the referee and touchies were bloody terrible today. Not saying they were against us or anything both teams copped some poor calls but they just made so many mistakes. Not First Grade standard at all.

That ref with the dumb moustache has no feel for the game, he's been rubbish all year.
I'll take 8-0 set restarts every week though please.

In terms of our game plan it's terribly uninspiring but to be fair to the coach the team can't even execute the simple stuff so I'm not sure anything more ambitious would end well. What's the record for errors in a game?

I did see green kick long and low to find grass and pin the dragons on their ten, which was a nice change from the bomb landing between the 20 and 30m line though.

 

[Bartwah]

That ref with the dumb moustache has no feel for the game, he's been rubbish all year.
I'll take 8-0 set restarts every week though please.

In terms of our game plan it's terribly uninspiring but to be fair to the coach the team can't even execute the simple stuff so I'm not sure anything more ambitious would end well. What's the record for errors in a game?

I did see green kick long and low to find grass and pin the dragons on their ten, which was a nice change from the bomb landing between the 20 and 30m line though.

+1 regarding the kicking comment. Stark contrast to the Panthers games, those guys have a play for nearly every tackle of a set. They’re playing a great style of footy with so much variety. So frustrating watching our halfback continue to put up bombs from 40m out, as well as getting tackled on the 4th far too often,

 

[macavity]

The set restarts were all early in the count and the dragons were standing offside all game, very obviously coached to do it.

If anything we were disadvantaged, as we got the odd extra tackle but were playing an 8m defensive line all game and he wouldn’t punish them later in the count.

 

[The Axe of Druss]

It was gut wrenching when the Hunt try was called back for a forward pass. Why not just let it go up to the Bunker? Why do refs and line refs feel the need to stamp their authority on the game or something... Just do your job, you don't need to stand out ffs...

Bunker can't rule on fwd passes mate

 

[Walk On Home Boy]

I have a faint memory of Joey not finishing the ‘02 and ‘03 seasons and us bowing out in the finals when we would’ve had a great opportunity to win 1 or 2 more prems.

Definitely. I think one of those years was the one he copped the cheap shot in the back against the Dragons and the other was the ACL. I remember Round 1 '04 when Joey returned he put a masterclass on against Penrith who were Premiers at the time. During those years BK, Simmo, Tahu, Mad Dog, Joey etc will had extended and consistent stints on the sidelines and it just hasn't stopped since then. Totally cursed.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

Definitely. I think one of those years was the one he copped the cheap shot in the back against the Dragons and the other was the ACL. I remember Round 1 '04 when Joey returned he put a masterclass on against Penrith who were Premiers at the time. During those years BK, Simmo, Tahu, Mad Dog, Joey etc will had extended and consistent stints on the sidelines and it just hasn't stopped since then. Totally cursed.

Yep I agree with you that ‘04 was a massive opportunity that went begging imo. I was at that game against Parra where Joey went down for the season and the rest of the season was just terrible with injuries. From memory we lost Daniel Abraham, Steve Simpson, BK, Tahu, Seage & Mark Hughes all to long term injuries. Probably more than that but they are the big name ones anyway. We’ve just been horribly cursed with injuries for 2 decades now, whereas teams like Melbourne get 3 future immortals playing about 200 games together over a similar length of time.

 

[Zoidberg]

The set restarts were all early in the count and the dragons were standing offside all game, very obviously coached to do it.

If anything we were disadvantaged, as we got the odd extra tackle but were playing an 8m defensive line all game and he wouldn’t punish them later in the count.

That’s what I don’t like about the 6 again rule. We get 8 of them but most just gave us an extra tackle or 2 deep in our half. We needed some field position and a penalty or 2 would’ve helped with that.

 

[Burwood]

8 set restarts, most early in the count, and no warning for a sin bin. I thought refs were going to stamp out deliberate negative tactics?

 

[mozza91]

8 set restarts, most early in the count, and no warning for a sin bin. I thought refs were going to stamp out deliberate negative tactics?

The rule changes are a wank. The fox sports commentators can piss in PVL’s pocket all they want but the quality of football is no better than it was 2 or 3 years ago no matter how much they keep insisting it is.

 

[slotmachine]

I think the games where two really good sides play are better with the new rules. Not so much of a dour wrestling exhibition.

But across the board too many are over by half time.