Round 10 Vs Cowboys

[ColdWetPanther]

4-5?
No way. I'd say 2-3 is closer to the mark.

Unfortunately I think you are right.

 

[Aliceinwonderland]

Unfortunately I think you are right.

I doubt whether Yeo will stay past the end of this contract in 27.

I think he'll go to Super league and travel whilst his family are still young.

 

[Chins]

Yeo can play as long as he wants he's that good. Ivan just needs to stop grinding him into the dirt.

 

[Oldpanther86]

Yeo can play as long as he wants he's that good. Ivan just needs to stop grinding him into the dirt.

Yeah he is that good but also already looking tired.

 

[Chins]

Yeah he is that good but also already looking tired.

That's only in the last 3 or 4 games and he's still shitting all over our other middles. Smith has had moments and Leota was better on the weekend but overall they should be embarrassed

 

[betcats]

This ball tampering shit lol what a joke, when is the footy not wet during a game, covered in sweat, dew and rain most of the time anyway

 

[Aliceinwonderland]

This ball tampering shit lol what a joke, when is the footy not wet during a game, covered in sweat, dew and rain most of the time anyway

and dirt. It's quite laughable.

 

[hindy111]

Yeo can play as long as he wants he's that good. Ivan just needs to stop grinding him into the dirt.

It's better to burn out then fade away. I'd rather see him go out while close to on top of his game rather then an average first grader. It isn't how you want to remember them. Nathan Hindmarsh is a great example. 3yrs to long. It was a drain

 

[Chins]

It's better to burn out then fade away. I'd rather see him go out while close to on top of his game rather then an average first grader. It isn't how you want to remember them. Nathan Hindmarsh is a great example. 3yrs to long. It was a drain

He's many levels above Hindy

 

[hindy111]

He's many levels above Hindy

Agree but father time gets everyone

 

[Sime_11]

it does but we are talking the Australian Captain here - Cam Smith looked like an average FG body but played very late and played well.

reducing Yeo's minutes 100% prolongs him and reducing his minutes means good output

Yeo's mindset & attitude is invaluable to this team especially now

 

[Pomoz]

I enjoyed this game, but obviously I’m disappointed we didn’t win. A couple of brief points:

- There is a few comments that our forwards are “soft”, they were “owned” etc, only Yeo was any good. I just don’t understand these comments. My own eyes could see that we rolled forward without too many problems and they couldn’t stop us getting into their red zone. A quick Look at the stats shows that the Cowboys forwards were the ones that were owned. A single player, Jordon McLean (126m) made more than 100m. For the Panthers every starting forward and some of the bench made more than 100m. Leota 154m (a welcome return to form), Smith 111m, Papalii 140m, Martin 127m, Yeo 168m, Henry 136m. Tackle breaks in the forwards were 20 to 10!

Let’s just stop this nonsense. Our problem wasn’t our forwards, they laid a good platform for our backs, missed very few tackles and made plenty of tackle breaks.

- When you look at that backline, as noted by many on here, if it isn’t the slowest in the league, it is in the grand final. Alamoti is quick once he gets wound up (big guys usually have slow take off and he is no exception), but the rest of our backs are pedestrian at best. The is reflected in the stats. A line break each to Garner and To’o. The Cowboys backline made six line breaks. Their run metres reflect this. The Cowboys backs ability to break through our line made up for the fact their forwards were getting smashed. Bizza tackled at 50%, clearly he isn’t fit and Daley would be crazy to pick him for SOO. The effort was there, of course the man is a champion, but he was grinding his gears.

Alamoti and Jenkins are second year rookies. Garner is a back rower. Our backline sucks. Losing both May and Turuva has left the cupboard bare. In the absence of a spectacular breakthrough by a player in the lower grades, I can’t see how this situation improves.

-And then there is the discipline. 5 penalties to 1, 3 “six agains” to 2. We sucked, the Smith strip is a monument to the stupidity our team has exhibited this year. We had them pinned down multiple times and let the ref do the work of their forward pack.

Still, when all is said and done, we were away from home in humid conditions and exhibited plenty of guts to get the draw. Talagi showed there may be life after Luai and if we can give him some backs to pass too who are quicker than the carthorses we currently have, who knows what he might achieve?

What next? A sprint coach for Garner and Tago and some rest for To’o and then kneel and pray to the footy gods that a lower grader is about to emerge “Critta” like and gives us an injection of speed.

 

[Frankus]

I enjoyed this game, but obviously I’m disappointed we didn’t win. A couple of brief points:

- There is a few comments that our forwards are “soft”, they were “owned” etc, only Yeo was any good. I just don’t understand these comments. My own eyes could see that we rolled forward without too many problems and they couldn’t stop us getting into their red zone. A quick Look at the stats shows that the Cowboys forwards were the ones that were owned. A single player, Jordon McLean (126m) made more than 100m. For the Panthers every starting forward and some of the bench made more than 100m. Leota 154m (a welcome return to form), Smith 111m, Papalii 140m, Martin 127m, Yeo 168m, Henry 136m. Tackle breaks in the forwards were 20 to 10!

Let’s just stop this nonsense. Our problem wasn’t our forwards, they laid a good platform for our backs, missed very few tackles and made plenty of tackle breaks.

- When you look at that backline, as noted by many on here, if it isn’t the slowest in the league, it is in the grand final. Alamoti is quick once he gets wound up (big guys usually have slow take off and he is no exception), but the rest of our backs are pedestrian at best. The is reflected in the stats. A line break each to Garner and To’o. The Cowboys backline made six line breaks. Their run metres reflect this. The Cowboys backs ability to break through our line made up for the fact their forwards were getting smashed. Bizza tackled at 50%, clearly he isn’t fit and Daley would be crazy to pick him for SOO. The effort was there, of course the man is a champion, but he was grinding his gears.

Alamoti and Jenkins are second year rookies. Garner is a back rower. Our backline sucks. Losing both May and Turuva has left the cupboard bare. In the absence of a spectacular breakthrough by a player in the lower grades, I can’t see how this situation improves.

-And then there is the discipline. 5 penalties to 1, 3 “six agains” to 2. We sucked, the Smith strip is a monument to the stupidity our team has exhibited this year. We had them pinned down multiple times and let the ref do the work of their forward pack.

Still, when all is said and done, we were away from home in humid conditions and exhibited plenty of guts to get the draw. Talagi showed there may be life after Luai and if we can give him some backs to pass too who are quicker than the carthorses we currently have, who knows what he might achieve?

What next? A sprint coach for Garner and Tago and some rest for To’o and then kneel and pray to the footy gods that a lower grader is about to emerge “Critta” like and gives us an injection of speed.

Good post

I will have to disagree with you on one thing - Tago is quick. I don’t know why anyone would think he is slow. He would leave the rest of our backs (not including Casey here) in the dust I would think.

It would be nice to get our centres more regular clean, early ball instead of consistently just turning our edge forwards under or crash balling them. Tago will bust tackles and is a far more dangerous ball runner than Garner in my opinion. Yet we seemed to send more ball to Garner. Maybe I didn’t watch the game closely enough.

 

[Frankus]

If we win the next 3, I still give them a chance of sneaking into the 8. Hopefully the bye is the reset button we need (sad to say I'm also happy for a stress free footy weekend not having to watch them play..)

The fact that there's a lot of poor teams in this comp at the moment is the only real reason why I still have some hope of them making the finals.

I can see there being some big scores run up when the 2 new teams come into the comp and the quality of sides is diluted even further.

 

[John Hamblin]

Billy Scott might be in the frame for the Knights game. We need more enthusiasm that young players offer. Kenny can play elsewhere in the pack. IC said after the game we were flat. Also as I have said before bring back Casey . Milky played well against the Broncos but I am far from convinced he is a regular first grader.

 

[Chins]

I enjoyed this game, but obviously I’m disappointed we didn’t win. A couple of brief points:

- There is a few comments that our forwards are “soft”, they were “owned” etc, only Yeo was any good. I just don’t understand these comments. My own eyes could see that we rolled forward without too many problems and they couldn’t stop us getting into their red zone. A quick Look at the stats shows that the Cowboys forwards were the ones that were owned. A single player, Jordon McLean (126m) made more than 100m. For the Panthers every starting forward and some of the bench made more than 100m. Leota 154m (a welcome return to form), Smith 111m, Papalii 140m, Martin 127m, Yeo 168m, Henry 136m. Tackle breaks in the forwards were 20 to 10!

Let’s just stop this nonsense. Our problem wasn’t our forwards, they laid a good platform for our backs, missed very few tackles and made plenty of tackle breaks.

- When you look at that backline, as noted by many on here, if it isn’t the slowest in the league, it is in the grand final. Alamoti is quick once he gets wound up (big guys usually have slow take off and he is no exception), but the rest of our backs are pedestrian at best. The is reflected in the stats. A line break each to Garner and To’o. The Cowboys backline made six line breaks. Their run metres reflect this. The Cowboys backs ability to break through our line made up for the fact their forwards were getting smashed. Bizza tackled at 50%, clearly he isn’t fit and Daley would be crazy to pick him for SOO. The effort was there, of course the man is a champion, but he was grinding his gears.

Alamoti and Jenkins are second year rookies. Garner is a back rower. Our backline sucks. Losing both May and Turuva has left the cupboard bare. In the absence of a spectacular breakthrough by a player in the lower grades, I can’t see how this situation improves.

-And then there is the discipline. 5 penalties to 1, 3 “six agains” to 2. We sucked, the Smith strip is a monument to the stupidity our team has exhibited this year. We had them pinned down multiple times and let the ref do the work of their forward pack.

Still, when all is said and done, we were away from home in humid conditions and exhibited plenty of guts to get the draw. Talagi showed there may be life after Luai and if we can give him some backs to pass too who are quicker than the carthorses we currently have, who knows what he might achieve?

What next? A sprint coach for Garner and Tago and some rest for To’o and then kneel and pray to the footy gods that a lower grader is about to emerge “Critta” like and gives us an injection of speed.

Those numbers for the forwards are inflated by playing 90min with almost no bench

 

[The Realist]

agreed - Yeo will be 31 end of this season

no doubt Yeo still has 4-5 seasons in him, but if we were to reduce his minutes (say 60-65 a game) - we could definetely prolong that career

we should be looking to the future for Yeo - we cant be relying on Yeo at 35 to be our ball playing lock - this season he's been put on his back which in frustrating - and its not a Yeo issue, its our props not laying a platform

This is why having and utilising a good bench is so important. Panthers 2020-2024 relied upon 'fresh legs' of youth to carry them through physically.

But now that our players are more mature, not only do they have wear and tear they are also carrying more injuries, and take longer to recover.

To me it's clear that Lindsay Smith is the long term #13. I think he is far more suited to that role than being an out and out prop anyway. Ivan has to look at his rotation and needs to be giving Smith 15-20 minute stints at #13.

 

[maple_69]

I don’t think the forward metres is where we are truly letting teams into it. Fish/Leota/Martin/Sorenson/Kikau rarely made more than 100-120m between 20-24. We are not controlling the ruck. That’s leading to a retreating line and gaps on our edges. Then you have the back 3 under pressure from kicks.

I dunno how you fix that. The changed interpretations are not helping. The high contact crackdown particularly hurt our aggressive defence and it’s no coincidence we’ve been more competitive since the NRL gave up on that.

 

[tripster]

I don’t think the forward metres is where we are truly letting teams into it. Fish/Leota/Martin/Sorenson/Kikau rarely made more than 100-120m between 20-24. We are not controlling the ruck. That’s leading to a retreating line and gaps on our edges. Then you have the back 3 under pressure from kicks.

I dunno how you fix that. The changed interpretations are not helping. The high contact crackdown particularly hurt our aggressive defence and it’s no coincidence we’ve been more competitive since the NRL gave up on that.

Agree. Fish helped us dominate in the middle in defence in a way that is probably irreplaceable. I can remember only one or two games in the last 5 years (including the Manly we lost last season before Fish announced he was returning to NZ) where Fish didn't come to dominate the opposition forwards. He was a once in generation prop. Lindsay Smith's stats might look good but he simply doesn't dominate in the middle in defence in the same way.

 

[Pomoz]

Those numbers for the forwards are inflated by playing 90min with almost no benc

They had two extra bench forwards, that is true. We had four forwards play 90 minutes, they had three. Two of their bench forwards played 20 minutes or less.

If your "our forwards are crap, Yeo is god" theory is correct, we should see the Cowboys with more metres per set, more tackle breaks from the forwards, better field position. Our forwards would be more tired since they played more minutes. The Cowboys tackle percentage would be better with less fatigue.

What we actually see is we made more metres per set and had more tackle breaks from our forwards. We had 5 players with 90%+ tackle percentages, they had 3 players even though they had two extra bench forwards. Every meaningful stat points towards our forwards being on top.

None of that matters if you can't defend out wide, or make a break in the clear (To'o looked like he had divers boots on). None of that matters if you can't score in the red zone when given multiple opportunities.