Match Discussion: Round 6 vs Bulldogs @ McDonald Jones Stadium

[Mr_Knightside]

That was a really gut wrenching loss to be honest. We were all over them in the first half and to only lead by 2 at the break gave me an ominous feeling. Then to come out and be as shit as we were in the second half was really disappointing.

If I look at those no try decisions objectively there were two instances where we knocked on from the kick and the Gagai no try was maybe 50/50 but the Sione push in the back was illegal by the letter of the law. What really shits me though is that I don't think too many people would have batted an eyelid if the ref just gave those as tries because there are way more debatable ones given every week and whenever we look like we've scored a try they decide it's time to review it because it's obviously unfathomable that we could score a legit try.

All that being said there are plenty of positives to come out of this game. Our outside backs all had good games imo. Gagai was a monster and I can't understand why we don't give him early ball like that every week when that's what he can do. Seriously that was a top effort from him and I hope we see a few more games like that.

Pete seems to always produce a mixed bag every week. He's got errors in his game but we can't fault his attitude. He was pretty good tonight I thought, made some good tackles and ran into a bunch of half gaps, Ross, Sio and Elliott all did their jobs as well.

It's hard to say where exactly we lost this. Maybe our forwards lost their energy in the second half and let the dogs get on top? I don't know, either way there's some positives but my god it's frustrating watching us get ourselves into winning positions and blow it time and time again. You would have to think that at some stage by pure chance we will fluke a win in one of these situations but it hasn't happened yet...

 

[Knight76]

We lost it with intensity mate. We had it in the first half in D and came away leading, the dogs came out with it in the second and we couldn't stay with them.

 

[Pedge1971]

We lost it because we should have been 10 to 14 up at half time not 2, and that last minute try in 1st half.

We did not turn our first half dominance into points and the decision to kick 2 when we had them on the rack was wrong.

The refereeing was incredibly influential in the scoreline but not the outcome. We shit ourselves as soon as it looks like we could win.

Even of Sione gets awarded the try we get done in golden point. Our best chance is to blow them off the park in the first 40 and hang on during our notorious shit 20.

But f**k a fair rub from the refs might help!!!

 

[Pedge1971]

That was a really gut wrenching loss to be honest. We were all over them in the first half and to only lead by 2 at the break gave me an ominous feeling. Then to come out and be as shit as we were in the second half was really disappointing.

If I look at those no try decisions objectively there were two instances where we knocked on from the kick and the Gagai no try was maybe 50/50 but the Sione push in the back was illegal by the letter of the law. What really shits me though is that I don't think too many people would have batted an eyelid if the ref just gave those as tries because there are way more debatable ones given every week and whenever we look like we've scored a try they decide it's time to review it because it's obviously unfathomable that we could score a legit try.

All that being said there are plenty of positives to come out of this game. Our outside backs all had good games imo. Gagai was a monster and I can't understand why we don't give him early ball like that every week when that's what he can do. Seriously that was a top effort from him and I hope we see a few more games like that.

Pete seems to always produce a mixed bag every week. He's got errors in his game but we can't fault his attitude. He was pretty good tonight I thought, made some good tackles and ran into a bunch of half gaps, Ross, Sio and Elliott all did their jobs as well.

It's hard to say where exactly we lost this. Maybe our forwards lost their energy in the second half and let the dogs get on top? I don't know, either way there's some positives but my god it's frustrating watching us get ourselves into winning positions and blow it time and time again. You would have to think that at some stage by pure chance we will fluke a win in one of these situations but it hasn't happened yet...

Hard to fault anyone mate. We never gave up and all gave their best unlike last 2 years. We are a much better club.

But we lack some good front rowers and the Saifitis have not hit their straps this year as hoped.

 

[Spot On]

Hard to fault anyone mate. We never gave up and all gave their best unlike last 2 years. We are a much better club.

But we lack some good front rowers and the Saifitis have not hit their straps this year as hoped.

My thoughts exactly.

I'm extremely disappointed with the twins thus far. If there's no reasons for their more than sluggish start to the season then they need to play NSW Cup. I don't care who replaces them or how bad they are, it will be no worse than what weve seen so far.

 

[Hardcore_Fan]

I like how browny reversed Barry tooheys question back to him. That was a good press conference. Good on you brown.


I guess looking at the game now, 2 big positives for me are that gagai and hodkinson had their best games pretty much ever for us. I can't remember the last time when gagai got good early ball and was palming off defenders.

And yes hodkinson passed it a few times on the last, I am starting to think it may be a coaching ploy for whatever reason. But hodkinson had a pretty good all round performance. If he maintains that standard we might start doing a bit better. I am not saying he was awesome, but he looked more involved, looked like he gave a bit of a f**k and took control a bit more. So basically instead of being shit he stepped up to be average.

 

[Spot On]

Hodko passing on the last in certain areas of the field has to so with his knees being absolutely rat shit more than anything I would think.

 

[macavity]

He passed to Barnett on the last to kick at one stage. A halfback passing to a middle forward to kick when the was under no pressure himself.

And Barnett put in a better kick than he would have.

Bizarro

 

[Knight76]

He came from the bulldogs. That was bulldogs footy, the forwards spent more time playmaking than the halves.

If he set himself a rule that he kicks on the last 1/3 of the time then that would make a big difference. Lamb and others can handle the rest. At least that would get him more involved.

 

[Noname36]

Lamb's slowly improving kicking game has impressed me but he's really not taking the line on enough. I understand the kid is more a natural halfback/organiser than runner but with Hodko next to him he really needs to start running a bit and asking a couple of questions to the defence.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

Lamb's slowly improving kicking game has impressed me but he's really not taking the line on enough. I understand the kid is more a natural halfback/organiser than runner but with Hodko next to him he really needs to start running a bit and asking a couple of questions to the defence.

This is why I feel like Lamb will go well next to Bird (if we manage to get him) because Bird can provide the running game and Lamb can be the organizer and do most of the kicking.

 

[K-Man]

Lamb has more of a running game than we've seen. He did in the juniors, and he even spent some time playing fullback one season where I recall him scoring a few nice tries through good hole running. We saw a glimpse of his footwork when he had to jink his way out of the in-goal a few weeks back. Not saying he's an extremely dangerous runner, but he's not Hodko or any other pure distributor. Definitely got enough footwork to run the ball a bit in good positions.

I think we just haven't been creating a lot of opportunities where someone like Lamb should run the football. Get Ponga and Bird outside of him worrying defenders, get a few forwards who can offload and promote second phase play, and I'll almost certain you will see Lamb's running game become more prominent.

 

[Hardcore_Fan]

So the dragons vs manly game, a blatant no try goes up to the video ref, video ref looked at it twice and ruled a try. Didn't even look at the angle where DCE was taken out.

Compare that to our try's where they look at it 50 times from 10 different angles. f**king joke.

 

[Hardcore_Fan]

Raiders vs Titans

Ryan James drives another Titans player over the line for a try, goes to video ref, looked at once, deemed a try.

When it was sione driving, it was looked at 100 times and was a no try.

 

[Pedge1971]

Just saw the ISP guys beat Penrith 26 to 20. Gagan 2 tries, 1 to Amey and Fitzgibbon.

Considering how bad they have been going in girst few rounds plus who was dropped for Penrith that is a good win!

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

We were ontop for most of te the game purely on the energy and desire of the young guys...

Aside from that 20 minutes around halftime, We were making decent metres with the ball and making them fight for every metre they took. Our problem was that we couldnt turn our ample opportunities into point. Gags was the only on looking likely to break yhe line.

I accept te Hodkinson is shit and wont proving any structure or spark, but what i cant understand is why were arent looking to get more offloads to Levi!!! That is were the value of a good dummyhalf comes from.

Dont worry about forwards breaking te line and offloading to a fullback (thats a once-a-game thing for that to come off). But a guy standing in a tackle offloading to a hooker at worst is effectivly an extra tackle in the set and at best a chance for Levi to take on a broke line with runners beside him.

For me, this is the thing our attack is missing most...

 

[Pedge1971]

We were ontop for most of te the game purely on the energy and desire of the young guys...

Aside from that 20 minutes around halftime, We were making decent metres with the ball and making them fight for every metre they took. Our problem was that we couldnt turn our ample opportunities into point. Gags was the only on looking likely to break yhe line.

I accept te Hodkinson is shit and wont proving any structure or spark, but what i cant understand is why were arent looking to get more offloads to Levi!!! That is were the value of a good dummyhalf comes from.

Dont worry about forwards breaking te line and offloading to a fullback (thats a once-a-game thing for that to come off). But a guy standing in a tackle offloading to a hooker at worst is effectivly an extra tackle in the set and at best a chance for Levi to take on a broke line with runners beside him.

For me, this is the thing our attack is missing most...

Yeah I was hoping that would be a progression with the Saifitis this year.

 

[slotmachine]

Raiders vs Titans

Ryan James drives another Titans player over the line for a try, goes to video ref, looked at once, deemed a try.

When it was sione driving, it was looked at 100 times and was a no try.

James drove his own player, Sione pushed a Dogs defender out of the way.

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

James drove his own player, Sione pushed a Dogs defender out of the way.

Nah, he just had the affront to wear a Knights jersey while he was doing it....

 

[slotmachine]

That was 100% the correct call