Match Discussion: Round 9 vs Parramatta @ CommBank Stadium, Parramatta / Burramattagal

[perverse]

I would like to apologise to everyone for this statement.

I have now finished my 13th schooner, and yet only now am I accepting my failures earlier this evening, despite realising midway through my 2nd, which coincided with our first attacking set.

All I can offer in my defence, is that I was led to believe our options were scarce, and that my opinion was clouded by previous inadequacies. Whilst not endorsing the alternatives previously employed, I feel it necessary to take responsibility for my outlandish behaviour pre game.

Please accept my sincere apologies.

Don't worry mate, I was there with you. Seemed like the better option.

 

[Yosh]

If anything Gamble should play 6 and Ponga should come on and play 14 for 15 minutes a game and take a 95% paycut.

 

[Woody90]

Didn’t see much of the game, just parts and definitely not rewatching haha.

Just so bad all round. Could see this loss building for the last fortnight. In a weird way I’m happy it was a blow out score (against a side that isn’t finals bound too) as the closeness of last weeks’ score probably hid a heap of the issues. They’re blatantly obvious now and the team and AOB don’t have any excuses.

Obviously I don’t want to just single out Ponga as the whole team was bad but he’s naturally going to get more criticism given he’s captain and highest paid player. I’m not so sure it’s attitude but rather down on confidence combined with known poor deference, but I’d definitely consider dropping him to Cup for a while. If he takes it with a poor attitude then it’s more than enough evidence that we need to move him on.

We’re not going to suddenly start winning with Gamble at #6, and our season ended the moment Brailey went down, but this could be a turning point in the club and AOB’s carer by making a statement that nobody is above being dropped. We need a massive culture change. A team like the Roosters have a winning culture and even though they’ve invested a lot in Walker, they dropped him for the good of the team. It also doesn’t need to be a negative thing for Ponga if he takes it with the right attitude. I honestly can’t see him getting dropped though…

 

[Woody90]

I’ll also put my hand up and admit that I was also calling for Mann to start. You can’t blame us, no way did we think that he could possibly be worse than Crossland was the week before. We were very wrong…

 

[Old dog]

Yes Mann was best option to start but look at our bench, Crossland to relieve Mann, happened too late, Gamble as back up for Ponga, JSaf coming back from forced long term break and Hetherington who has shown nothing so far

 

[Yosh]

Hetherington has been a huge let down so far. Thought he was supposed to be pretty good. What does he offer above Jack Johns?

 

[Rod]

Been scratching around for a positive and the best I could come up with is that our points differential will likely be irrelevant come the end of the season given the Manly draw.

Unless it's Manly fighting with us for a spot in the eight I suppose...

 

[slotmachine]

I would also play Gamble at 6 or not at all.

Yeah I don't get the froth about him at lock.

9 runs for 44m last night, 0 tackle breaks, not a great defender etc

0 tackle breaks for the safs combined too, definitely running hard this year.

 

[Walk On Home Boy]

You can throw the Safs on top of the pile of players I'm done with. Never been consistent performers, aren't leaders, error prone, suspension and injury prone, not driven enough to ever be anything more.

I'd be happy to move in another direction tbh.

 

[Llangennech]

 

[Spot On]

You can throw the Safs on top of the pile of players in done with. Never been consistent performers, aren't leaders, error prone, suspension and injury prone, not driven enough to ever be anything more.

I'd be happy to move in another direction tbh.

Hard to argue with. At their best, they go good. Not world beaters but pretty handy.

But the going good part is so rare and fleeting, both during the same game and over consecutive weeks (forget a few seasons worth of top form) that you wouldn’t fight to keep them on the $$$ they are getting.

I was able to see enough of the first half to witness our left side defence absolutely massacred, led by our captain and highest paid player in the game, who should have been hooked.

So the conundrum with the great Ponga is not only the 1.4 million but the fact that when playing fullback he won’t return the ball and has made an art form of falling on his arse and laying on the ground when catching it which is no good for the team and when at 6 he can’t tackle so puts pressure on his inside and outside men which is no good for the team.

He can’t kick goals which is no good for the team.

But hey, he plays great for QLD apparently.

Yay, go QLD.

Good luck to Adam O’Brien with his 1.4 million dollar problem.

A big shout out to Dane Gagai whose first half defence was beyond inspirational. Bloke could not have done anymore in ‘d’ and is playing out of his skin. A total change of mindset in his defence, reading the attack, making quick decisions an executing in a split second to shut down the play is awesome to watch.

 

[Knight Tales]

Moving Gamble was the biggest error, and we all said as much when it happened. Adam Elliott is a big plus for a return. Hopefully we fix the wrongs.

 

[Walk On Home Boy]

The rest of the seasons fortunes depend on the size of AOB's plums imo

 

[Haffa]

Titans, Sharks, Manly, Brisbane, Easts, Penrith are the next six games. If they can win 2 of those is that a pass mark?

I expect to be sitting 14-16th after that string of games with the season once again over in June.

 

[Woody90]

Strangely today I feel less angry about the loss last night than I have after the last two. Maybe it’s because our season is done now where there was still some hope after the last two I don’t know.

We were so awful last year we have to expect we’re still going to have some poor performances this year in the midst of the improvement. My worry though is that it’s been two poor performances on the trot now (2.5 really if you count the second half of Penrith). Time will tell after the bye if we’ve thrown everything we’d achieved earlier in the year out the window or this is just a blip of poor form on our path to improvement.

The Saifitis need to be dropped. I don’t care if we don’t have any replacements. They need a rocket. It all starts with losing the forward battle and they’re just so soft. Ponga can join them. He needs to go back and build his confidence back up and work on his defence.

I’m also over Dom Young and happy for him to move on. He’s a flat track bully. Freak physical specimen and finisher when we’re on top, but when we’re doing it tough he’s not making the effort plays.

How we respond to this will influence AOB’s future. At the very least if we don’t hear that the club is actively seeking a specialist hooker I’m going to be very concerned.

 

[Woody90]

Titans, Sharks, Manly, Brisbane, Easts, Penrith are the next six games. If they can win 2 of those is that a pass mark?

I expect to be sitting 14-16th after that string of games with the season once again over in June.

We won’t win any of them unless we can suddenly manifest a hooker.

I’m just hoping the effort and performances improve.

 

[Zoidberg]

Just out of curiosity, has there been any mention of the hair pull incident from anybody? Do they think it was the right call.

 

[Jono078]

Just out of curiosity, has there been any mention of the hair pull incident from anybody? Do they think it was the right call.

Not a peep. When Frizell did it, it was on every bloody show that weekend.

 

[Nuke]

It was on every show that week because everyone couldn't believe it was penalised.

So, unfortunately, the refs and NRL all realised how stupid it was, and seemingly decided that similar incidents in the future wouldn't attract a penalty.

... and we were the first not to get a penalty for it happening to one of our players.

 

[Apey]

The reason nobody cared about that one is that we'd already well and truly lost the game when that hair pull happened. Compared to the Penrith one when we were still completely in the game.