Most impressive and disappointing team in the opening 3 rounds

[AlwaysGreen]

They've played Canberra, Souths and the Titans, hardly world beaters. Can't say it's that impressive. Bulldogs have put 30+ on Dragons and Warriors, much more impressive IMO.

Quality well drilled sides win even when they're struggling and take it up a notch when they need to.

 

[RHCP]

Most impressed with the Dragons. Got past us in Round 1 (eerily reminiscent of Benny's first game with them as well), did get belted by the form team of the competition but backed it up with a great performance against Wests. If you asked a lot of fans I'm sure they would have concluded minus Bennett and to a lesser extent Boyd, Dragons would be 0 and 3 against what was predicted to be a strong Newcastle side, a premiership favourite Tigers side and a beefed up Bulldogs unit. Or 1 and 2 at best.

The Bulldogs are certainly playing great football, but with Des Hasler on board and their side on paper, it was much more expected and therefore less impressive than the way the Dragons are going for mine.

Most disappointing, the Knights. I wasn't all aboard the Top 4 morals train but we have been playing poorly and our big guns have been way too quiet.

 

[Lowdown]

Most: No one yet

Least: Channel 9

 

[Rhino_NQ]

damn it you beat me too it

Most Impressive = Dogs, wasn't really expecting them to be at the top
Most disappointing = commentary team

 

[aussie_q_factor]

Feels like I'm on a roller-coaster watching the Warriors this year. Creative, skilful and tough one moment - mistake riddled, stupid and no discipline the next.

I would genuinely like to see them do well this year (behind the Broncs) - they have the cattle to win the comp no doubt about it. Their biggest enemy is themselves and consistency (or lack thereof).

Storm and Dogs for mine look to be the pacesetters at this point. Long way to go though....

 

[Red Bear]

Meh, Bulldogs were on top this time last year as well. Comp doesnt generally start to hit equilibrium will midyear and even then a side will usually finish with a wet sail. Injuries etc have been a big part of the disappointing sides performances as well (even the Eels looked bloody good the 15 minutes Hayne was on the park).

 

[Coreyzz]

Impressing- bulldogs,storm
Dissapointing-Tigers,eels

 

[BunniesMan]

In my view "impressive"/"dissapointing" are all relative to expectations.

I expected the Eels to be a spoon contender, I expected the Titans to be one. So to me they haven't been particularly dissapointing.

The Knights are higher than the Sharks but I consider the Knights start dissapointing and Sharks impressive compared to what I expected.

Overall, most impressive: Bulldogs. Most dissapointing: Knights.

 

[canberra_raiders2k2]

The Knights were always going to struggle, only a few changes in the team. They never had the cattle last year and they dont this year. So I expected them to be where they are at the moment.

My biggest disappointment so far has to be the tigers. They were being touted as being the favorites to win the comp. On top of everything they have Benji and Farah, two very good players. But Farah will be out for 2 weeks, with little depth up front...they could see themselves lose there next two games.

Most impressive, well the doggies had the same squad as last year..only minor changes in the lineup. But jeez they look good. They destroyed the dragons and warriors convincingly. Crazy what a coach can do to a team on the brink of being a top 8 team.

 

[perverse]

The Knights were always going to struggle, only a few changes in the team. They never had the cattle last year and they dont this year. So I expected them to be where they are at the moment.

we finished 8th last year, and our roster improved substantially over the off season, as did our coach.

only a few changes to the team?

Darius Boyd
Kade Snowden
Adam Cuthbertson
Alex McKinnon
Timana Tahu
Zeb Taia back from season ending injury

that's the list of new players compared to what we ran out with last year, then you have Gidley changing positions. so effectively 7 changes to the starting 17 alone. we had blokes like Dan Tolar, Cameron Ciraldo and Shannon McDonnell running out week after week as regular first graders last year, and we made 8th. our team has changed plenty. unless your definition of "few" is substantially different to mine, you're talking out of your arse.

a NZ international, Junior Sau, is currently playing reserve grade for us. last year we would have run anyone with the tag "international" as a walk up start. actually, i don't even need to speculate on that, we DID do that with Antonio Kaufusi.

we were playing much better football last year with a much worse roster. that is a disappointment in anyones eyes, and i'm not sure how you can spin it any other way. to say we were always going to struggle is nonsense - no-one knew what we were going to do, period. to this day, no-one really knows how we'll perform this year. we were, and still are, a completely unknown quantity.

 

[LESStar58]

Broncos and Dragons for me seeing as I was tipping neither of them to make the finals.

Knights are the most disappointing seeing as I tipped them for the GF.

 

[Firey_Dragon]

Most disappointing has to be the Tigers, surely.

Anyone with a clue who isn't the daily telegraph could have picked it. Shit forward pack as a whole, Farah has been deadset useless for close to a year now, Moltzen isn't a halfback... Can keep going on.

I don't know why the Tigers were ever favourites to be honest... They'll be amongst it come finals time, but they're hardly a great team when you actually break it down.

Bulldogs and Sharks are my biggest surprise packet. Most disappointing, well most of the lower teams I kind of expected, I was pretty disappointed with our round 2 performance but a week is a long time in footy... Dragons will surprise alot of people this year, our depth in our squad is absolutely the best I can remember in the last decade or so. We are a better side than we were last year even without Boyd, Gaz or Cuthbertson.

 

[mongoose]

The panthers have been somewhat impressive in my eyes, i mean they have looked better than most sides so far. I thought they would be a complete rabble and had a mortgage on the spoon...

Bulldogs have been very impressive and should get top 4.

 

[The AXXXMAN]

Most impressive: Parramatta - their performances have been even worse than I couldve hoped.

Most dissapointing: Canterbury - was hoping they wouldve been winless after all the crap over the off-season.

 

[beave]

Sharks an Doggies for me as the most impressive. Sharks should be 3-0 IMO and the dogs have been playing some deadset beautiful footy.

disappointing- Warriors, I just thought they would be playing a bit better considering last year.

 

[Big Pete]

Impressive: Canberra with Dugan & a fit forward pack really impressed me. Hit the ground running and took a very talented Storm side to the limit & then broke a hoodoo against a good Titans line-up. Unfortunately injuries are starting to kick their arse and they're now 1-2 after the second worst game this season.

Manly aren't showing any signs of a premiership hangover and all their players are starting exactly where they left off in 2011. Suspensions and injuries are beginning to take their toll but so far so good.

Bulldogs are playing well but kind of expected them to jump straight out of the blocks. Still plenty of weaknesses and I don't know if they'll be able to cover them when the other teams begin to hit their stride.

St. George Illawarra are another side that's performing better than I expected in the early rounds. I thought they'd return to their slow starts that were famous back in the Brown era but if anything they've started well if not a little flakey at times.

And this may sound odd, but Souths aren't the complete rabble I thought they would be so that's something. Reynolds is doing ok and Inglis at fullback and Burgess kicking some tail might keep them away from the dreaded spoon.

Disappointments: Warriors. Fair enough they're missing a couple of players (although I don't think a few of them are key losses) but they're better than what they've shown so far. Too much ad-lib football is hurting them and if they just played a little smarter they'd probably be leading this entire competition. Maybe it's the youth that's hurting them but right now they should be doing so much better than they are.

West Tigers. Look like a rabble. Very lucky to come out victors against Cronulla in Round 1, fell asleep in a crucial part of the game against Manly and then looked lazy and uninspired against the Dragons. Yes, they're missing players but a team with Farah & Benji should be playing better than they are. Right now, Farah is playing like crap and Blair is arguably the worst buy in the competition. The amount of stupid decisions he makes is baffling, particularly from a player of his experience.

Newcastle. I don't think anybody thought the Knights would replicate the Dragons, Bennett isn't a magician after all but surely people expected better than a 1-2 start where they've gotten worse as the season has worn on. That performance on Friday was terrible and while the Broncos deserve some credit for their defence in the middle, it doesn't excuse the terrible performances from Boyd or their bench. It might prove to be the kick in the ass they needed but I have my doubts whether or not Newcastle will live up to the hype their fans generated in the pre-season.

 

[Habitual Linestepper]

Impressive would have to be the Bulldogs. No one would have picked them to have started 3-0. Apart from their fully hektik fans.

As a Parramatta fan i would say they've been the most disappointing. Looking at it objectively though it would have to be the Warriors, Knights or Tigers. All three were picked to make at least the top 5 and have only 3 (pretty dodgy) wins between them.

The Channel 9 Tigers would be the most disappointing, they should be 0-3 had it not been for the refs robbing them against the Sharks.

 

[Hanscholo]

I have really liked the look of brisbane.

Undoubtedly parra are the most disapointing.

Melbourne are now a one man side.

The tigers wont make the eight.

Saints will make the gf.

Newcastle will struggle until the last ten rounds and come home very strongly.

 

[aargon]

Warriors disappointed me in round 1 by blowing a game we should have won.

Round 2 we made hard work of a terrible Eels.

Round 3 we looked pretty average.

Missing Rapira, Lillyman and Luck is partly to blame for this.

But all in all I find us extremely disappointing considering it's stupid shit like dropped balls and easy penalties that have cost us. Need to really pick things up in the next 5 rounds.

well put, warriors should be 3-0, but as usual, they didn't play smart football and tried too much razzle dazzle... always a f**king let down.

biggest surprise is Cronulla - got past Manly and lost narrowly to the Tigers. They will cause a few upsets this year provided all are fit and healthy, esp with Mr Carney leading the way ...,

 

[gUt]

Doggies have been impressive obviously. Brisbane looks to be a well-oiled machine, and we're going to get better. The Sharks are playing better than most people give them credit for and once they click, look out.

The Warriors are just warming up. Manly look a little wobbly but they'll get their mojo back.

The Roosters are disappointing, plus the Tigones just seem to have nothing.