RHYTHM AND STEALTH
Coach
- Messages
- 11,293
Hey guys
As you know i try and get to as many reserve grade games for the Warriors as i can and i write a bit of a wrap up for a couple of pages afterwards.
Here is the one for today, let us know what you think
Hey Team
So this is the first Fan In The Stand report for 2016. Hope you enjoy and appreciate all the feedback. Good and Bad
So was pretty excited to head down to North Sydney Oval today to watch the NSW warriors take on the once Mighty North Sydney Bears. This was my first time to the old North Sydney Oval so packed up the family and away we went. I was thinking on the way to the game that I could theme this as the Past, Present and Future (first grade) of the NSW warriors at North Sydney Oval.
PAST = Ali Lauitiiti
PRESENT = Matt Allwood, James Gavet, Mason Lino, Sione Lousi, James Palavi, Shaun Lane, Ligi Sao
FUTURE = Henare Wells, Kenny Maumalo, David Fusitua, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Tofofoa Sipley, James Bell and especially Ata Hingano who i rate incrediblally high.
Havent seen Ali play live since about 2001 back in Christchurch and even then that was just a trial game. But last night he was made 18th man for first grade so he didnt make the trip. Gutted!!!!
On paper we should win easily with the team we have. Looking at the Bears team they had Michael Oldfield at fullback who has some First Grade experiance also former Warrior #178 Dane Neilson on the left wing. Booooooooo lol The Bears were captained by number 4 Eddie Murphy who probably after the game was a bit raw and delirous . John Palavi Captained the Warriors.
Some late changes for us led to Jazz Tavenga starting at hooker, pushing Erin Clark to the bench. John Palavi going to 2nd row with Lagi Sao starting at loose forward.
I got there just when the teams came out to warm up. I thought the boys would struggle because it was 32 degrees at 12.45pm and the sun was beaming. One thing that caught my attention in the warm up and just my opinion but i thought the warm up was very very lame. Couple of minor contact drills then the backs went off on their own and started practising bomb and cross kick catches. While the forwards did a couple of drills. After that there was just some light passing between players. Half the team didnt even do that. Strange in a way. While over on the Bears side they were smashing each other and doing full on backline moves with tackle bags and everything. I noticed the same thing last weekend up in Gosford for the Warriors Roosters game. Very placid warm up. Not a lot was going on. As the warmups ended the Coach came over to collect the equipment and gave me and my family the thumbs up for coming out to watch. No worries Stace, anytime.
Bears kicked off and we started off pretty sound. Safety first set. Nothing special with a decent kick. We traded 2 sets each with the Bears then on our 3rd set we built pressure and forced a goal line drop out 5 minutes in. Tofofoa Sipley had a strong opening 10 minutes. Very strong hitups with intent and always trying to get quick play the balls. While on attack Gavet knocked on and the next set he gave away a penalty which released all the pressure we were creating. Bears kicked for touch and had another set and Gavet gave another penalty away. Bears were camped on our line when we gave another silly penalty away in the play the ball. Bears had their 17th straight tackle in our 20 but the warriors had the brick wall up and my boy Hitman Gavet forced a error when the Bears hooker was going for a try. Great defensive play. When we had had the ball Ata Hingano was a handful. And as the game went on his star shined more and more. First try came from Matt Allwood crashing over from dummy half after constant pressure from the Warriors. Mason Linos conversion hit the post. A few sets later a great backline move by us sees Allwood make about 30-40m break with Maumalo in support he goes the wrong way and bombs a try grrrrr. He went himself. Jazz Tavenga was controlling the ruck nicely, knew when to run when to pass what side to run etc. First grade experiance is really showing. Next set and the next backline move sees Ken Maumalo score and be joint leader in the NSW intrust super Cup try scorers ladder with 7. Mason Lino misses again grrrrrr. Couple of sets later Fusitua makes a half break on attack and gets his hands free for a nice pass toooooooooo no one. It went into touch. The first half finished with us holding a 8-0 lead. Ata Hingano was looking very dangerous and the Bears were having trouble containing him.
First half standouts
Sipley - Great hitups with enthusiasm and momentum
Maumalo - strong runs from out wide
Tavenga - Controlling the ruck nicely from dummy half
Hingano - Always a threat
2nd half we kick off and tackle 2 we force an error from the Bears. Few sets by us kept it simple then a simple play left and Charnze goes over for a try. That try was just a simple result of pressure on the defence and then Hingano seeing an opportunity out wide and spreading the ball. Lino found his kicking boots at halftime and converted for a 14-0 lead. Next 7-10 minutes saw us defend. Awesum defence, nothing was going to get through the wall. Everyone was in sync with each other. Our next try came from the Bears kicking on the last tackle and Lagi Sao charging it down and getting possesion and throwing a great ball to Henare Wells who gassed it 60 odd metres for the run away. Fast dude that Henare fella. Lino converted for a 20 zip lead. Again we found ourselves defending our goal line and on one set we hold up a Bears player over the line. They force a repeat set and then we force an error as the Bears were over the line again. Great goal line defence. Couple of sets later Dane Neilson scores from a break 40 m up field. Bears successful with the conversion. We kick off left and the Bears catch it and spread it wide and score straight away. So the Bears scored 2 tries with out the Warriors making 1 tackle. WTF!!!!! Hear i am talking up the defence and then this happens . We kick off again and this time kick to the opposite side (smart move) and Gavet tears the guy in half hahaha. And that was the end of the Bears scoring chances for the last 15 minutes with that Gavet hit haha. To seal the match Hingano picks up a loose pass from the Bears toes it ahead 3 times and gets possesion and scores right next to the posts. Great individual work. No panic and no brain freezes, just did what he had to do to. Lino converts for a 26-12 lead with only a couple of minutes left. To ice it interchange player Viliami Kavienga goes over right on the hooter to improve our for and against. Lino misses the kick but who cares we won, but looking back it just contradicts my for and against theory haha. Good team performance produces a good win on a meke day.
Couple of things that caught my attention
* Spotted Roosters coach Trent Robinson at the game. Scouting perhaps. If hes looking at the Warriors players everyone was solid
* When Neilson made the break to score his try, Sione Lousi was chasing. He was never going to get him and Neilson was pulling away and dived over but Sione was still sprinting and wasnt giving up and hit Neilson late. It was so late that Neilson had dived over and was pretty much getting up when Sione got him hahahaha It wasnt dangerous just heaps of late. Wasnt penalised or anything and we had a laugh but i thought it was good intent from Sione. Nothing tries come for free buddy lol
* Allwood went off injured with about 15 minutes to go. He stayed down for ages to. Saw him after the game and he had about 3 bags of party ice strapped to him. Looked like a rib/sternum injury
* Stacey rotated Gavet and Sione for each other. Plan worked well and both had good games
* James Bell who i rate highly as well only got about 10 minutes off the bench. Odd considering he can play 80
* North Sydney Oval is a nice ground but not up to footy standard. The game started and about 2 minutes into the game the siren goes off to start the game haha, then at halftime it goes off twice lol
* The old ground announcer trying his hardest to pronounce the Warriors names "shakes head" then come up with a pearler by saying Harare Welsh for Henare Wells. FMD how hard is it to pronounce Wells
* One thing i thought that didnt help the flow was when Jazz Tavenga went to the back row in the 2nd half. The ruck suffered. No disrespect to Erin Clarke the reserve hooker but Jazz is NRL standard now and the ruck slowed when he went to the back row.
* The goal line defence from everyone was mean. 17 straight tackles the Bears were attacking in our 20 and we didnt buckle. In the second half again the Bears had repeat sets but their was no way they were getting through. The 2 Bears tries were from long range. I said to myself with this defence their is no way we are going to lose
Players to impress
Ata Hingano. Boy oh boy this kids got the goods. Forced repeat sets with his kicking game. In the first half we had 6 repeat sets in that 40 minutes. Read the game well and complements Mason Lino well. One thing i noticed about Ata was his talk. Sheeesh he doesnt shut up. Always barking and directing, encourageing and applauding. Massive future
Tofofoa Sipley probably the best of the forwards. Great hitups with aggresion and always trying to get a quick play the ball.
James Gavet smashed, hit and crunched everything coming his way. Couple of good runs plus an awesum round the back offload to. But gave away about 5 penalties today. Be interesting with Lillyman put on report against Manly and i think he has carry overs so he could miss a game, whos cappy going to pick. Gavet def put his hand up today. Sipley wouldnt look out of place in the top grade but i think Sao needs more game time to get his fitness up. Saying that Sao was good today as well.
Ken Maumalo was great today to. His hitups got the sets off to a good start
Jazz Tavenga great first half but when in the back row just played the roll game. Hit up and tackle.
The 2 new kids Henare Wells and Charnze made the most of their opportunites and collected tries
Shaun Lane. Watched him closely today. Didnt stand out or produce much BUT played 80 minutes. Just hope everyone can see the bigger picture here with him. Which is hes been training with the Dogs since November getting all their systems and patterns down packed. Remember since NOVEMBER!!!!!!! Hes been with the Warriors for a week so hes still learning the guys nick names let alone our systems and moves etc. Give him time. Spoke to him after the game. Dude is a giant. Humble talker to. He had a few interviews after the game asking the same ol shit, hows the move, have you fitted in etc. Sheeesh let the guy play some footy first.
SO in summary a meke day down the park. Hot day with the fam watching the Warriors lay the smack down. Probably about 150-200 people turned up. About 15 Warriors supporters to. Great stuff. Allowed on to the field after the game so had a few kicks with my boy and his footy. Got a couple of photos. Had a quick chat to Lane. Just wished him good luck with this opportunity. Him, Gavet and Charnze thanked us for coming out and supporting. Anytime boys when ever you play in Sydney we will support. Their next game is at Mt Smart this Saturday at 1pm. If you can get down there and support them. They are an awesum team with great talent who throw it around when they can. They will appreciate the support.
Cheers
Fan In The Stand
#warriornation
As you know i try and get to as many reserve grade games for the Warriors as i can and i write a bit of a wrap up for a couple of pages afterwards.
Here is the one for today, let us know what you think
Hey Team
So this is the first Fan In The Stand report for 2016. Hope you enjoy and appreciate all the feedback. Good and Bad
So was pretty excited to head down to North Sydney Oval today to watch the NSW warriors take on the once Mighty North Sydney Bears. This was my first time to the old North Sydney Oval so packed up the family and away we went. I was thinking on the way to the game that I could theme this as the Past, Present and Future (first grade) of the NSW warriors at North Sydney Oval.
PAST = Ali Lauitiiti
PRESENT = Matt Allwood, James Gavet, Mason Lino, Sione Lousi, James Palavi, Shaun Lane, Ligi Sao
FUTURE = Henare Wells, Kenny Maumalo, David Fusitua, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Tofofoa Sipley, James Bell and especially Ata Hingano who i rate incrediblally high.
Havent seen Ali play live since about 2001 back in Christchurch and even then that was just a trial game. But last night he was made 18th man for first grade so he didnt make the trip. Gutted!!!!
On paper we should win easily with the team we have. Looking at the Bears team they had Michael Oldfield at fullback who has some First Grade experiance also former Warrior #178 Dane Neilson on the left wing. Booooooooo lol The Bears were captained by number 4 Eddie Murphy who probably after the game was a bit raw and delirous . John Palavi Captained the Warriors.
Some late changes for us led to Jazz Tavenga starting at hooker, pushing Erin Clark to the bench. John Palavi going to 2nd row with Lagi Sao starting at loose forward.
I got there just when the teams came out to warm up. I thought the boys would struggle because it was 32 degrees at 12.45pm and the sun was beaming. One thing that caught my attention in the warm up and just my opinion but i thought the warm up was very very lame. Couple of minor contact drills then the backs went off on their own and started practising bomb and cross kick catches. While the forwards did a couple of drills. After that there was just some light passing between players. Half the team didnt even do that. Strange in a way. While over on the Bears side they were smashing each other and doing full on backline moves with tackle bags and everything. I noticed the same thing last weekend up in Gosford for the Warriors Roosters game. Very placid warm up. Not a lot was going on. As the warmups ended the Coach came over to collect the equipment and gave me and my family the thumbs up for coming out to watch. No worries Stace, anytime.
Bears kicked off and we started off pretty sound. Safety first set. Nothing special with a decent kick. We traded 2 sets each with the Bears then on our 3rd set we built pressure and forced a goal line drop out 5 minutes in. Tofofoa Sipley had a strong opening 10 minutes. Very strong hitups with intent and always trying to get quick play the balls. While on attack Gavet knocked on and the next set he gave away a penalty which released all the pressure we were creating. Bears kicked for touch and had another set and Gavet gave another penalty away. Bears were camped on our line when we gave another silly penalty away in the play the ball. Bears had their 17th straight tackle in our 20 but the warriors had the brick wall up and my boy Hitman Gavet forced a error when the Bears hooker was going for a try. Great defensive play. When we had had the ball Ata Hingano was a handful. And as the game went on his star shined more and more. First try came from Matt Allwood crashing over from dummy half after constant pressure from the Warriors. Mason Linos conversion hit the post. A few sets later a great backline move by us sees Allwood make about 30-40m break with Maumalo in support he goes the wrong way and bombs a try grrrrr. He went himself. Jazz Tavenga was controlling the ruck nicely, knew when to run when to pass what side to run etc. First grade experiance is really showing. Next set and the next backline move sees Ken Maumalo score and be joint leader in the NSW intrust super Cup try scorers ladder with 7. Mason Lino misses again grrrrrr. Couple of sets later Fusitua makes a half break on attack and gets his hands free for a nice pass toooooooooo no one. It went into touch. The first half finished with us holding a 8-0 lead. Ata Hingano was looking very dangerous and the Bears were having trouble containing him.
First half standouts
Sipley - Great hitups with enthusiasm and momentum
Maumalo - strong runs from out wide
Tavenga - Controlling the ruck nicely from dummy half
Hingano - Always a threat
2nd half we kick off and tackle 2 we force an error from the Bears. Few sets by us kept it simple then a simple play left and Charnze goes over for a try. That try was just a simple result of pressure on the defence and then Hingano seeing an opportunity out wide and spreading the ball. Lino found his kicking boots at halftime and converted for a 14-0 lead. Next 7-10 minutes saw us defend. Awesum defence, nothing was going to get through the wall. Everyone was in sync with each other. Our next try came from the Bears kicking on the last tackle and Lagi Sao charging it down and getting possesion and throwing a great ball to Henare Wells who gassed it 60 odd metres for the run away. Fast dude that Henare fella. Lino converted for a 20 zip lead. Again we found ourselves defending our goal line and on one set we hold up a Bears player over the line. They force a repeat set and then we force an error as the Bears were over the line again. Great goal line defence. Couple of sets later Dane Neilson scores from a break 40 m up field. Bears successful with the conversion. We kick off left and the Bears catch it and spread it wide and score straight away. So the Bears scored 2 tries with out the Warriors making 1 tackle. WTF!!!!! Hear i am talking up the defence and then this happens . We kick off again and this time kick to the opposite side (smart move) and Gavet tears the guy in half hahaha. And that was the end of the Bears scoring chances for the last 15 minutes with that Gavet hit haha. To seal the match Hingano picks up a loose pass from the Bears toes it ahead 3 times and gets possesion and scores right next to the posts. Great individual work. No panic and no brain freezes, just did what he had to do to. Lino converts for a 26-12 lead with only a couple of minutes left. To ice it interchange player Viliami Kavienga goes over right on the hooter to improve our for and against. Lino misses the kick but who cares we won, but looking back it just contradicts my for and against theory haha. Good team performance produces a good win on a meke day.
Couple of things that caught my attention
* Spotted Roosters coach Trent Robinson at the game. Scouting perhaps. If hes looking at the Warriors players everyone was solid
* When Neilson made the break to score his try, Sione Lousi was chasing. He was never going to get him and Neilson was pulling away and dived over but Sione was still sprinting and wasnt giving up and hit Neilson late. It was so late that Neilson had dived over and was pretty much getting up when Sione got him hahahaha It wasnt dangerous just heaps of late. Wasnt penalised or anything and we had a laugh but i thought it was good intent from Sione. Nothing tries come for free buddy lol
* Allwood went off injured with about 15 minutes to go. He stayed down for ages to. Saw him after the game and he had about 3 bags of party ice strapped to him. Looked like a rib/sternum injury
* Stacey rotated Gavet and Sione for each other. Plan worked well and both had good games
* James Bell who i rate highly as well only got about 10 minutes off the bench. Odd considering he can play 80
* North Sydney Oval is a nice ground but not up to footy standard. The game started and about 2 minutes into the game the siren goes off to start the game haha, then at halftime it goes off twice lol
* The old ground announcer trying his hardest to pronounce the Warriors names "shakes head" then come up with a pearler by saying Harare Welsh for Henare Wells. FMD how hard is it to pronounce Wells
* One thing i thought that didnt help the flow was when Jazz Tavenga went to the back row in the 2nd half. The ruck suffered. No disrespect to Erin Clarke the reserve hooker but Jazz is NRL standard now and the ruck slowed when he went to the back row.
* The goal line defence from everyone was mean. 17 straight tackles the Bears were attacking in our 20 and we didnt buckle. In the second half again the Bears had repeat sets but their was no way they were getting through. The 2 Bears tries were from long range. I said to myself with this defence their is no way we are going to lose
Players to impress
Ata Hingano. Boy oh boy this kids got the goods. Forced repeat sets with his kicking game. In the first half we had 6 repeat sets in that 40 minutes. Read the game well and complements Mason Lino well. One thing i noticed about Ata was his talk. Sheeesh he doesnt shut up. Always barking and directing, encourageing and applauding. Massive future
Tofofoa Sipley probably the best of the forwards. Great hitups with aggresion and always trying to get a quick play the ball.
James Gavet smashed, hit and crunched everything coming his way. Couple of good runs plus an awesum round the back offload to. But gave away about 5 penalties today. Be interesting with Lillyman put on report against Manly and i think he has carry overs so he could miss a game, whos cappy going to pick. Gavet def put his hand up today. Sipley wouldnt look out of place in the top grade but i think Sao needs more game time to get his fitness up. Saying that Sao was good today as well.
Ken Maumalo was great today to. His hitups got the sets off to a good start
Jazz Tavenga great first half but when in the back row just played the roll game. Hit up and tackle.
The 2 new kids Henare Wells and Charnze made the most of their opportunites and collected tries
Shaun Lane. Watched him closely today. Didnt stand out or produce much BUT played 80 minutes. Just hope everyone can see the bigger picture here with him. Which is hes been training with the Dogs since November getting all their systems and patterns down packed. Remember since NOVEMBER!!!!!!! Hes been with the Warriors for a week so hes still learning the guys nick names let alone our systems and moves etc. Give him time. Spoke to him after the game. Dude is a giant. Humble talker to. He had a few interviews after the game asking the same ol shit, hows the move, have you fitted in etc. Sheeesh let the guy play some footy first.
SO in summary a meke day down the park. Hot day with the fam watching the Warriors lay the smack down. Probably about 150-200 people turned up. About 15 Warriors supporters to. Great stuff. Allowed on to the field after the game so had a few kicks with my boy and his footy. Got a couple of photos. Had a quick chat to Lane. Just wished him good luck with this opportunity. Him, Gavet and Charnze thanked us for coming out and supporting. Anytime boys when ever you play in Sydney we will support. Their next game is at Mt Smart this Saturday at 1pm. If you can get down there and support them. They are an awesum team with great talent who throw it around when they can. They will appreciate the support.
Cheers
Fan In The Stand
#warriornation
