R 8 V Sharks

[Pomoz]

Watching the Panther's this year makes me think of the great John Cleese's quote 'It's not the despair, I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand". At least it's not boring.

To quote another comedian, Ben Elton, who was commenting on how stressful stand up comedy is and almost sh*tting himself on stage. He said "I'm only 40, but my arse can remember the war". Well, Hook's arse would be drawing a pension after the last 7 games. Poor bloke, he must need stilnox smoothies after every game.

 

[umina panther]

Soward for all his flaws is still the best half at the club

 

[SweetandSoward]

That bomb in the middle of the field was shocking, he should of went for distance. It went like 5 metres.
But Te Maiire Martin has been targeted in defense too, see the Ennis try.
Let Wallace kick

 

[umina panther]

Lol no Wallace kicking isnt good. Sometimes changes aren't the right option...this is what we have atm

 

[abpanther]

Andrew Voss @AndrewVossy 2m2 minutes ago
.@PenrithPanthers average margin of 3.25pts per game through first 8 rounds is the lowest in premiership history. Roosters of 1916 were 3.5.

 

[greynurse]

Flanagan says the Broncos are the real test. Gee what are we chopped liver. Win a comp !! Enough said.

 

[billypilgrimnz]

We are 3 from 8, that is what we are.

 

[betcats]

Soward for all his flaws is still the best half at the club

If it wasn't for his kicking game which has only been on for him occasionally this year he wouldn't be up to standard, his defence is costing us games now and his attack is nonexistent for the most part.

Whoever the 2nd best goalkicker is should be given the tee because Soward is choking out there in every big attempt and he isn't a long term option here now he wont be playing for us next season.

 

[Dragon Slayer]

Flanagan says the Broncos are the real test. Gee what are we chopped liver. Win a comp !! Enough said.

Flanno wasn't being disrespectful to Penrith.

Just that Brisbane are in cracking form and are 7 and 1 that is all.

 

[Pomoz]

Is Soward our best half? Would we be better with a combination of Moylan, Wallace, Peachey and Cartwright?

Ok, he is the best kicker at the club, but is that enough?

His missed tackle yesterday cost us the game against the run of play. I won't bag him for missing the conversion, that can happen to anybody. When Homes got clear it looked like Soward was running with divers boots on. He has lost a signifiant amount of mobility, perhaps to do with his back injury. He seems unable to bend over to tackle. He always gets pushed off because he goes high, is his back still a problem? His missed tackle against Dugan cost us the game against the Dragons.

I just don't think his kicking is that good he warrants being in the team. Yes, he kicked well against the Roosters but he has also kicked poorly on several occasions including the second half against the Dogs and that also left us in trouble.

 

[martielang]

We are 3 from 8, that is what we are.

I realise it's the in thing to be the 'realist' on the forum, you and Frankus can battle it out, but we have a young, raw football side who are starting to play good footy and are showing signs of being a force, people should be allowed to get excited without the same negativity from the same people. It gets old.

 

[Dragon Slayer]

Not too confident for next week though, Raiders full of confidence and that loss could just break our back.

I wouldn't be that worried about the Raiders.

The Tigers atm are making opposition teams look devastating.

 

[betcats]

Is Soward our best half? Would we be better with a combination of Moylan, Wallace, Peachey and Cartwright?

Ok, he is the best kicker at the club, but is that enough?

His missed tackle yesterday cost us the game against the run of play. I won't bag him for missing the conversion, that can happen to anybody. When Homes got clear it looked like Soward was running with divers boots on. He has lost a signifiant amount of mobility, perhaps to do with his back injury. He seems unable to bend over to tackle. He always gets pushed off because he goes high, is his back still a problem? His missed tackle against Dugan cost us the game against the Dragons.

I just don't think his kicking is that good he warrants being in the team. Yes, he kicked well against the Roosters but he has also kicked poorly on several occasions including the second half against the Dogs and that also left his in trouble.

Agree re Sowie. He is lucky TMM got hurt imo because I would drop him. Why is he trying to shirt grab Holmes in that part of the field? ITs just lazy as shit go in and tackle him around the legs.

 

[Copperhead]

Agree re Sowie. He is lucky TMM got hurt imo because I would drop him. Why is he trying to shirt grab Holmes in that part of the field? ITs just lazy as shit go in and tackle him around the legs.

I agree too. Instead of allowing him to play on this year, Gould's end of season talk should of been about his immediate retirement, because this is clearly a case of playing one season too many.

Hasn't shown anything since 2014, and instead of being the experienced head that closes out games, has become the go to man for oppositions needing to score a late try to win. The fact his goal kicking has turned to shit just caps it off.

 

[mxlegend99]

We should be developing Moylan in the halves now that TMM looks set to miss a long period of time so that when he's fit we can put them together and ditch Soward.

He has never been a big defensive liability for us before this year. Now he's f**king atrocious and his goal kicking is pathetic and if he was better at closing out games we would be a lot better than 3 from 8.

He had some nice kicks last week to close the game out. But he has given away 7 tackle sets a few times in those positions and cost us too. Moylan and TMM couldn't do worse and would atleast be setting us up for a decent shot at the 2017 premiership.

Instead we're going to be back to Soward and Wallace in the halves. That combination won't win shit and is stunting our development as a team.

 

[mxlegend99]

Actually as shit as Sowards tackle attemp was. Where the f**k were Hiku and Mansour? One or both of them should have been able to save him but he was left all alone on that edge. No one from our team was there chasing the break on that side. But 4 Sharks were putting distance on Soward easily.

 

[betcats]

Hiku tackled Bird and Mansour got beat by Holmes as well.

 

[BxTom]

Most half backs are employed for their game breaking abilities, not their defense. Many half backs are "covered" by other players or hidden in defense. Soward's defense has not really got much worse in the last year than it always was - at least he tries. We need to look at why Mansour is usually caught out of position and Hiku has no interest in defense. Once we address that, we might find our defense a bit better. I also noticed that Soward had to rush several kicks yesterday as the ball was getting to him very slowly - go and have a look and see what happened to the quality of his kicking game because of it.


Tom.

 

[betcats]

Our defence is f**ked we completely outplayed the sharks yesterday but lost because we cant tackle or convert tries, its very frustrating. 40 missed tackled again yesterday compared to the sharks 27 it is not good enough to win games, our season is slipping because away because of it.

 

[Copperhead]

Most half backs are employed for their game breaking abilities, not their defense. Tom.

You think Soward is a game breaker?