Round 15 vs Dragons - Game Day Thread

[Joshuatheeel]

You honestly thought Mannah offered anything??? His first hit up off the kick off was ok but after that his hit ups offered absolutely nothing. He used to be great getting to his stomach and getting quick play the balls. Now he takes an hour to get to his feet when he is not going off for a HIA. He is busted and looks finished. The club should be looking to tapping him on the shoulder at the end of the season and we should be looking to chase another pig besides Evans. We can't continue to start with Mannah and Alvaro against the top sides.

I agree he hasnt been at his best but also wouldn't be surprised if he is playing injured, we do have Peni / Pritchard out so really couldn't afford lose another experience middle forward.

Today thought he did enough in the first 15 or so to lay the platform for us to get a good start which went a long way to our win. He probably shouldn't have returned after the head knock.

And he was averaging 8.9 m a run today better then Manu / Edward and Brown.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Bevans not had one run.

He eventually had one.

 

[hineyrulz]

I agree he hasnt been at his best but also wouldn't be surprised if he is playing injured, we do have Peni / Pritchard out so really couldn't afford lose another experience middle forward.

Today thought he did enough in the first 15 or so to lay the platform for us to get a good start which went a long way to our win. He probably shouldn't have returned after the head knock.

And he was averaging 8.9 m a run today better then Manu / Edward and Brown.

Stats stats stats!!

His play the balls were slower than a wet week, he makes no post contact metres and the last time he broke a tackle we were playing finals footy. He's either playing injured or finished. He's been outplayed by a 30 game rookie who people continually question if he's a first grader.

He was off after about 8 mins so i have no idea where you get the him laying the platform being laid for our win. When he came back on after about 25 mins our go forward started to struggle

We constantly have to go to our edges to make our metres because we do struggle against most teams up the middle. No wonder our completion rates struggle in most games.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Pathetic post Merkin

Possession turned around and we did go on with it. Still absolutely disgusted to be proved wrong but.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Grinding win. Very controlled performace from halves. Their kicking games where great.
Brown i feel needs to save himself a little as misses a few tackles.But a great game.

Only area I felt we lacked was upfront. None of our props did much but a job. It would be nice to have a prop capable of the odd mom performance.
But we finished with 15 men. Good effort none the less. A bye and rest up.

The Dragons' strength is their defence in the middle. The reason they are our patsies is because we attack in the middle less than any other team.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

So who will our next left centre be?

Auva'a won a premiership at left centre.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

French was brilliant on the wing, not a foot wrong, and his speed is so useful out wide, that kick Moses put in for his try was brilliant, his a much better winger, who cares about his size it's not as much of a weakness when his on the wing, brilliant stuff.

He made one run all game. And you wonder why our forwards were so rooted at the end.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

I don't think we lost much at all from dummy half when Kaysa went off.

The best dummy halves are all halfbacks. The reason so few halves convert to hookers these days (unlike 10-20 years ago) is because defence in the middle is much more important.

It's also why there are very few giant middle forwards these days.

 

[hineyrulz]

He made one run all game. And you wonder why our forwards were so rooted at the end.

Yep, French made some critical tackles and was great under the high ball(all things he can do at fullback) but in this day and age you can't afford to have one of your wingers making 11m. And Semi won't be able to cover for him next season.

 

[Happy MEel]

The best dummy halves are all halfbacks. The reason so few halves convert to hookers these days (unlike 10-20 years ago) is because defence in the middle is much more important.

It's also why there are very few giant middle forwards these days.

According to NRL player stats, which I concede aren't the most reliable, smith made 30 tackles with 2 missed in 57 minutes. That's at least as good defensively as Kaysa is averaging. As Noise said, we didn't lose anything with Kaysa off the field.

 

[I'm a loser baby...]

Auva'a won a premiership at left centre.

Yeah but is he any good?

 

[Joshuatheeel]

Anyhow it was a good performance and now we are only one win from equal 4th spot.

 

[hineyrulz]

Anyhow it was a good performance and now we are only one win from equal 4th spot.

With our shit F/A it's more like 2.

We still need to win 5 from our last 9 to make sure of finals footy, 28 points won't make us safe IMO.

 

[Happy MEel]

Yep, French made some critical tackles and was great under the high ball(all things he can do at fullback) but in this day and age you can't afford to have one of your wingers making 11m. And Semi won't be able to cover for him next season.

I actually think it was Guth covering for French today in the hit up department. It doesn't really matter which of the back three actually make the runs, as long as they are being made.

On the flip side to your argument, I don't think we can afford not to have Guth at fullback as he is averaging 147m there this year in his six games as opposed to French who averages 99m at fullback (nrl stats again).

 

[Poupou Escobar]

If anything we gained a kicking game. Smith only had one kick but it was a decent one.

Sad fact is Kaysa just isn't what we need at hooker. If a five-eighth-cum-fullback can do as well and add an extra dimension then what does Kaysa really offer?

Hope the kid is ok, but we really should do our utmost to nab Peats.

If we're going to have two injury prone hookers in the books next year we'll need a reliable backup.

 

[I'm a loser baby...]

With our shit F/A it's more like 2.

We still need to win 5 from our last 9 to make sure of finals footy, 28 points won't make us safe IMO.

A good point. Our F/A is terrible but I wonder how many teams have missed the finals with 28 points?

 

[hineyrulz]

A good point. Our F/A is terrible but I wonder how many teams have missed the finals with 28 points?

We did in 2014.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

I wouldn't be using our captain as the greatest of comparisons right now, his been a passenger tbh and it hurts us.

His job is to keep the middle tight in defence and he does it as well as anyone in the team.

 

[Joshuatheeel]

With our shit F/A it's more like 2.

We still need to win 5 from our last 9 to make sure of finals footy, 28 points won't make us safe IMO.

6 sides have made the 8 on 28 points in the last 10 years ( 30, 29, 27 and 24 have been the points cut off in previous years). In the years 28 points is the cut off, only twice has it been decided by for / against. So pretty good chance 28 points will be good enough no matter what our for / against.

But obviously we don't want to risk it.

 

[hineyrulz]

I actually think it was Guth covering for French today in the hit up department. It doesn't really matter which of the back three actually make the runs, as long as they are being made.

On the flip side to your argument, I don't think we can afford not to have Guth at fullback as he is averaging 147m there this year in his six games as opposed to French who averages 99m at fullback (nrl stats again).

But French was just coming back from injury, he was very quiet against Canberra and didn't really get in the game against Souths so much but i thought he was good against the Warriors and was one of our best against the Cows. But today showed they both need to be there somewhere in the backline.