Round 1 2016 vs Titans game discussion

[Pedge1971]

I am with Crusader. What I saw (on tv admittedly) was a committed forward performance. It was so refreshing to see Pauli and Korbin cone on after 20 and make yards at will. Have not seen that from Knights oack in God knows how long. They outplayed our starters.

We lost through poor outside back defence particarly by the 2 veteran idiots on money on the RHS and a very suspect back 3. Our halves have work to do in terms of combination, our spine needs to improve but I think it will. I liked the work rate of our number 9 and he is still learning the position as is the poor kid at 1.

The errors will go away when the combinations form. Not sure what people here were expecting but if you saw the Canberra trial a win was always going to be ambitious.

The kids were fine but as some have pointed out there are some senior players on notice.

Wouldalso add that I thought the Titans were better than I was expecting and they looked better than a lot of other teams running around this weekend.

 

[Noname36]

At the end of the day I think they went about as well as we could realistically expect considering we had so many rookies - and a completely new spine. That's depressing as hell but expecting much more probably would have been foolish. I know it was the Titans which makes it worse but at the end of the day they're still an NRL side - with players that have a lot more experience especially in the forwards.

This of course doesn't apply to Gagai and Snowden who we know are capable of a lot more than the crap they served up today.

 

[Spot On]

Yeah it was a nice presser.

I found a lot of his comments similar to what we're saying and what a lot of fans are saying. I liked that he didn't call anyone out particularly for a poor performance but made it clear that he won't allow it to be a trend throughout the year. The most encouraging thing was that he said nobody is safe minus those who performed well; it's a nice change to the old "lets just give them another chance" of Bennett and Stone. He's completely behind these young kids, had massive wraps on Korbin and talked him up for Origin. It's nice to see a coach at the club with a long term goal and everything he does reflects that.

This presser screamed "This shit is going to happen but it will get better"

I don't think he talked him up for Origin but he did say that as he is now in the origin mix a performance like he had last night should now be his base performance every week. He started on the bench because that "base" performance was not evident in the trial v Canberra.

He wasn't overly impressed with the halves tonight. Understandable.

Brown does not talk shit or in riddles. Great to listen to.

 

[The Showstopper]

Best thing about Browny is he has made it clear there are no favours in his world for any player. He will field 17 rookies if he has to. The fact the Safitis were solid on debut was encouraging.

 

[Jono078]

f**k me put the razors away guys

I was at the game and I can tell you the conditions were awful. We lost he game for two reasons, I'll discipline and errors in our own half. Pretty much what you'd expect from a team of rookies in the pissing rain

I was very impressed with our goal line defence. The boys really looked to be working for each other and given the absolute shit that area has been for us in the past, I'm bloody over the moon to see that attitude shift

Things just came off for the Titans, they were having one of those nights.

All in all I saw enough positives from the team that I have confidence they'll improve enough to be competitive by round 10. Maybe not top 8 but certainly away from he spoon.

Except it wasn't the rookies making the crucial errors..

 

[Yosh]

The forwards looked okay. We didn't really get a roll on for some reason even though it looked like our guys were making strong runs. I heard that the Safiti had great offloads but was a pity didn't get to see much of it due to the conditions. KSims, JSmith and RRochow did well and I thought Matora was good too.

Halves did not take control. When you watch the good halves in the comp, they want the ball all the time. Our guys seem to wait for it, instead of demanding it. Long kicking game looked okay, we just gave away the worst penalties after pinning them down. Our short kicking game needs work, hard.

Outside backs were shocking... Gagai can't hold the ball, Aku can't make a line break. The Mata'utai brothers seemed okay. They probably on less than 30% on what Aku and Gagai are on but offered just as much if not more.

Feeney... I see a good player in there. I had no problems with his bomb taking. He has a MAJOR positional problem. He is always five to ten metres out of position. Usually fullbacks with bad positions have their pace to make up for it but this guy has no pace... If he gets his positioning right and if he can get his hands on the ball more, I think he'll be a good good player.

 

[slotmachine]

19 runs for 190m for Aku, with no line breaks.
Don't think he will ever get that crazy explosiveness back, but he was certainly having a go.

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

Id be interested to see how Aku would go as a backrower coming off the bench...

He has always been a risk returning kicks and he has lost his nack for finding the gaps around the edges. The only thing he really does anymore (though he does t reasonably well on his good days) is take an assload of hitups.

I reckon Aku is wasted on the wing and the wing is wasted on Aku. Put him in the middle (he's 100kgs so not exactly outgunned) even just for short bursts, and have him taking those basic hit ups early in the set. He might also go well running off the hip looking for offloads.

 

[perverse]

I don't believe he could handle the defence. His shirt grabs would get old real quick at 2nd row. Houston x1000.

 

[K-Man]

The game was pretty much a reflection of what my prediction for the whole season is. I think our forwards will do quite well this year - not necessarily dominate but definitely be in the contest and give us a chance. There's enough size, mobility and improvement in the pack to not be constantly outgunned in the middle.

The problem is the spine and the outside backs. We can talk about form, youth, potential, having a go, and all that jazz, but when you boil it down I don't believe we have the class in key positions to win games. That's the real issue.

Rookie fullback learning on the job, an adequate dummy half who tries hard but lacks quality service (Levi has the quality service but not sure if up to it in other areas), and two halves I'd place in the veteran category. Mullen and Hodkinson for mine are not going to put many sides to the sword when it's 50-50 in the forwards. They were outplayed by Roberts and Taylor last night, which is not a good sign.

Even if we get on top up front I'd predict a lot of teams will still be able to get the win against us because we won't take enough advantage of field position and possession.

I would love our spine to prove me totally wrong, I really would. I don't have anything against them as individual players, but key players win games and honestly our spine is the weakest in the comp unfortunately.

 

[knightsarmy]

Lack of enthusiasm killed us . An example late in game (71st min)we are charging at their line Hodkinson drops ball slowly turns Gc player races and pounces on it.I thought Uake tried hard but himself and gagai never seemed to be in tune with each other
Unfortunately rookie fullback will always get caught out of position same a when Gagai went here last year

As the song says .... The only way is up !!!

 

[Still Nutty]

I didn't get to watch the game so appreciate the comments on here to give some context to the stats...on that basis I note that Rochow played near enough the full 80 (looks like he must have got a spell right at the end) and stats look reasonable - was he effective?

Randell's tackle count revised to 62 for the game which is massive a effort, particularly in the wet. I saw some comments on here throughout the game though that he was positionally not always on point as a dummy half, so he's still developing. It does seem he has taken his game up a notch from last years mediocrity and even put on some size, which will help.

I expect, based on these stats, it seems Brownie is happy for Levi to be given the time he needs to mature and develop his game and Randell has earned the right to be first choice hooker for the time being?

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

I don't believe he could handle the defence. His shirt grabs would get old real quick at 2nd row. Houston x1000.

That would be my reservation aswell, but id rather risk Aku missing a tackle when he's shoulder-to-shoulder with the likes of JSmith and Rochow than when him alone on the edge...

Aku has 10-15kgs on some of the other forwards, so he' be able to hold his own physically.

 

[perverse]

Yeah I dunno... I just feel like most of Aku's power comes from his legs. I reckon he'd need a lot more upper body strength to compete in the forwards. I just don't think he has the ticker for it, either. Repeat efforts, etc. I just couldn't see it working... we can take advantage of his yardage game the way we already are - as an early hitup winger. He's absolutely fantastic at it, I wouldn't change it personally.

His "struggle" under the high ball is so grossly overstated these days. It was a wretched night last night, and he took most of them without blinking.

Plain and simply with Aku, I think his explosiveness has just been robbed by injury and age. He's lost that little bit of acceleration that is the difference between poking your nose through the line and busting through it. The rest of our team does nothing to find him space, either... so we just get what we have now. A battering ram that can finish a try.

The greatest shame of Aku is that his contract was for 5 years. $500k over 3 years wouldn't have burned us anywhere near as hard, he'd either be moved on by now or playing on half the money. I assume we added years onto the contract because we couldn't compete with raw dollars per year... it is what it is.

It's easy to say that we shouldn't spend so big on backs... but I don't think the spend per year was as big a problem as the contact length. Too long to get too comfy... and it has put us in a hole we can't dig out of. Gagai may or may not end up in a similar situation - it's a big year for him in that regard and he's not off to a good start. At least we don't have him on that contract until 2020.

 

[perverse]

One thing you can't dispute is that he really stood up on Sunday and made sure he set an example for the rookies in the team. I think it would be pissing into the wind to hope for anything more than that at this point. If he can play like that every week, then maybe the rest will sort itself out. It's certainly an important first step for him - years too late, but he needs to continue to back up what he started on the weekend.

I would imagine he earned himself a pat on the back from the coach in the sheds. That's exactly what Brown is looking for at the moment, effort. He knows that other things will start to fall into place themselves if he can get that right and consistent.

 

[Still Nutty]

One thing you can't dispute is that he really stood up on Sunday and made sure he set an example for the rookies in the team. I think it would be pissing into the wind to hope for anything more than that at this point. If he can play like that every week, then maybe the rest will sort itself out. It's certainly an important first step for him - years too late, but he needs to continue to back up what he started on the weekend.

I would imagine he earned himself a pat on the back from the coach in the sheds. That's exactly what Brown is looking for at the moment, effort. He knows that other things will start to fall into place themselves if he can get that right and consistent.

And a large chunk of that has to come down to the previous coaching staff not demanding this level of commitment and effort (on and off the field) that Brown has established.

I think you're also right too about expectations of optimum performance based on what he has to offer now versus performance based on what he is getting paid as a more realistic expectation of Uate from here on out.

And if that is still good enough for him to keep a first grade spot then Brown has done his job... and it sounds like, on that front he was one of the senior players Brown was talking about regarding his happiness with the effort and commitment shown

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

One thing you can't dispute is that he really stood up on Sunday and made sure he set an example for the rookies in the team. I think it would be pissing into the wind to hope for anything more than that at this point. If he can play like that every week, then maybe the rest will sort itself out. It's certainly an important first step for him - years too late, but he needs to continue to back up what he started on the weekend.

I would imagine he earned himself a pat on the back from the coach in the sheds. That's exactly what Brown is looking for at the moment, effort. He knows that other things will start to fall into place themselves if he can get that right and consistent.

Yep. Well said

 

[Caped Crusader]

The forwards looked okay. We didn't really get a roll on for some reason even though it looked like our guys were making strong runs. I heard that the Safiti had great offloads but was a pity didn't get to see much of it due to the conditions. KSims, JSmith and RRochow did well and I thought Matora was good too.

Halves did not take control. When you watch the good halves in the comp, they want the ball all the time. Our guys seem to wait for it, instead of demanding it. Long kicking game looked okay, we just gave away the worst penalties after pinning them down. Our short kicking game needs work, hard.

Outside backs were shocking... Gagai can't hold the ball, Aku can't make a line break. The Mata'utai brothers seemed okay. They probably on less than 30% on what Aku and Gagai are on but offered just as much if not more.

Feeney... I see a good player in there. I had no problems with his bomb taking. He has a MAJOR positional problem. He is always five to ten metres out of position. Usually fullbacks with bad positions have their pace to make up for it but this guy has no pace... If he gets his positioning right and if he can get his hands on the ball more, I think he'll be a good good player.

Wut?

Feeney is close to if not the fastest player at the club

 

[The Showstopper]

Aku will most likely do best if he has a group of kids to set the example to as Perverse has stated. Dude needs a purpose. To me he has always been treated as the guy who should score all our points. People forget he played outside Mad Dog at his peak. Adam being a super fit, powerful and skilled human. Dog could have gone another two years.

 

[Nuffy]

Wut?

Feeney is close to if not the fastest player at the club

If he is then he's not showing it, he didnt look quick at all.

Perhaps its a reflection of the club and not the player.

He also needs to work on his bomb taking technique, he needs to take them side on, so any drop goes more likely backwards than a knockon.

Look at Slaters technique.