Match Discussion: Round 5 vs Storm @ Central Coast Stadium

[slotmachine]

Every 50/50 call went with the Storm

I saw Sione drop it cold and get a penalty.

 

[Walk On Home Boy]

I saw Sione drop it cold and get a penalty.

Probably felt sorry for him because he's a such a terrible player.

 

[Johns Magic]

Thud back to earth. Let’s watch if they come back hard next week.

 

[slotmachine]

If ponga works out a 5 on 1 to make it 12-18 with 30 minutes to go I think we win.

That was the crucial point of the whole game

 

[Walk On Home Boy]

If ponga works out a 5 on 1 to make it 12-18 with 30 minutes to go I think we win.

That was the crucial point of the whole game

Absolutely. I'm not sure why Ponga plays a bit like his personality sometimes. He's too laid back and just lacks intensity and it causes him to make poor decisions. He was passing the ball far too early tonight. There's a lot for him to work on before he can be considered a truly top-line player.

 

[Zoidberg]

As annoyed as I am at the loss, I’ll take it.
Storms best performance and our worst and still in the game until the end.
Give us some of our injured players back and we will get them next time.

 

[Apey]

I thought Smith's pass was forward for their 3rd try and the penalty against Klemmer was garbage. But we definitely got away with one when Sione dropped it cold. People just hate that Storm are still winning games with new rules that were meant to be the end of them lol.

Still, we barely turned up. I think we did well to fight our way back into the game and only losing by 14 after that trash first half is something to take away. Last couple of years we would have gone on to lose by 40.

Handling was atrocious and as mentioned a not 100% Kurt Mann was our best spine player which was worrying. Guerra on borrowed time and Sione should be worried about his position.

We will bounce back next week.

 

[Haffa]

If ponga works out a 5 on 1 to make it 12-18 with 30 minutes to go I think we win.

That was the crucial point of the whole game

He still can’t pass to his right.

 

[Zoidberg]

I thought Smith's pass was forward for their 3rd try and the penalty against Klemmer was garbage. But we definitely got away with one when Sione dropped it cold.

That’s the thing though, the good calls we get led to nothing, the ones Storm got handed them points.

 

[Silent Knight]

He still can’t pass to his right.

Well that’s a real problem if we’re meant to be paying him $1m plus. The truly elite players can execute on either side of the ruck.

 

[Haffa]

Well that’s a real problem if we’re meant to be paying him $1m plus. The truly elite players can execute on either side of the ruck.

Yep it’s concerning. He’s not in that top echelon yet. Needs to inject himself way more often and all across the field.

 

[General Knight]

Well that’s a real problem if we’re meant to be paying him $1m plus. The truly elite players can execute on either side of the ruck.

Agree with this. Needs to work on that part of his game. If a 19 year old Best can work out how to pass in a space of a week surely Ponga can do it too.

 

[Old dog]

Compared to previous two weeks when it was hard to seperate the top players not many showed up tonight, was Mann that much better or were the rest just worse, Ponga, Pearce and Klemmer were not so good when usually scoring 1, 2 or 3 for man of the match, better performances on show, Hunt, Mann, DanS, JSaf Best the rest were below there best. We played like we had no idea.

 

[Old dog]

The Ponga failure to take advantage of the huge overlap, centre/winger in clear was a huge mistake and possible game changer.
If he can’t pass to the right he won’t be a 5/8.

 

[Swarzey]

Melbourne is still that void that our form falls into. I guess it was still a better performance than recent years; the score blew out undeservingly with those dud calls. It is what it is, I'm sure we'll bounce back from it next week; it was a humbling loss, but not a season defeating loss like it was last year.

Daniel Saifiti was immense, Mann looked likely with his run game but didn't quite get open (nor can he break a game open) and didn't have support when he actually did get some space. Ponga was limited but blew his chances, Klemmer was minimised, Pearce was ordinary and like Ponga, blew his chances.

 

[Old dog]

Short turn around for next game, is a worry, can we regroup, changes, Fitz and Jones to 2nd row, Sione to bench, Guerra rested and only to be used from bench if at all. Mann to be rested/injured Crossland his replacement, Hoy and Randall to fight out for 14, Ese’ese to move to bench, Glasby in.

 

[Yosh]

Hurts that we lost but we were in it till the end. Some confusing calls but proud of the boys none the less.

Really missing our starting backrowers. Guerra and Sione go okay but we had nothing out wide today. Can't wait to see them back.

Mann offers very little creativity but the lad gives it 110% every week. I'm more than happy to see him keep his place in the side for the moment. Need to figure out what Hoy is going to do on the field though.

 

[Haffa]

Is Maloney available for 7 months?

 

[Mr_Knightside]

That’s a bittersweet game for sure. We dug ourselves into a massive hole in the first half and then almost dug ourselves out with some really good second half football but it was always going to be unlikely and a couple of really dodgy calls at the wrong time denied us a chance to level the game.

D.Saf, Mann, Hunt, Best and McCullough were our best but everyone else was pretty average and just way too many errors in that first half.

Look, we were always going to lose a game at some stage. It’s super frustrating to lose to the Storm (again) which was probably our best chance to beat them in years but we showed that we can match it with them when we hold the ball, it’s a shame it took us 40< mins to do it.

 

[Knight Vision]

We lost but besides the lack of 2 points there are a lot of positives.

Our worst game of the season and still in the game until the end. The boys will have learned more from this loss than they did from the Canberra win. They couldnt have given the Storm more of a leg up if they tried........