Round 16 Vs The Cowboys

[Kilkenny]

I want to know what's up with Latu.. his form has fallen off a cliff this season.

Coach Griffin isn't doing him any favours. Griffin's use of the interchange is poor to say the least. Latu is playing frustrated given his limited game time and is down on confidence.

 

[age.s]

As shit as this season has been that's the second absolutely diabolical call that's literally handed the game to a top 8 team. The Melbourne 3 don't derp it up we probably win the souths game too.

 

[Kilkenny]

Disappointing to lose in the manner we did given how desperately we defended our line for almost the entire second period. I know it was our own mistakes and ill discipline for the most part but our defence was terrific and to lose it on the back of a poor call against Whare and a freak try off a kick was heartbreaking. Almost would have been easier to take if Cowboys had won by a dozen or more given all their possession and field position.

 

[OldPanther]

Moylan should have gone off. I'd be surprised if their wasn't a fine incoming. The cowboys were good at drawing the strip penalty, you could see they were playing for it. The call against Whare was nonsense. They finally decide to call one when a club game is on the line to the massive benifit of the Cows.

Kikua is full of errors. He was the same in reserves even when getting more game time. He needs to chill out.

 

[Copperhead]

Kikua is full of errors. He was the same in reserves even when getting more game time. He needs to chill out.

That's not true. He never played like this in reserves. His form now is a direct consequence of the way he's being handled by Griffin. As Billy said earlier, brief stint, error, hooked. In reserves he was playing for 60 minutes and for Fiji he played for 80. He has a huge motor and could be doing for us what Lolo is doing for the Cowboys. Keep playing him like this though and he won't even end up a first grader.

 

[ashton]

Nothing will change while ever Griffin is in charge.......just read the Broncos thread about Griffin it sounds familiar.

 

[martielang]

Oh f**king hell. A player comes on three weeks in a row and makes basic errors at very critical times And it's Griffins fault? As good as Kikau will be, he's a hell of a long way off being the finished product & even a genuine first grader. You can't blame a coach for hooking a player who is clearly underperforming.

If you want to compare Kikau & Taumolo at the same point in there careers, I think you'll find LoLo was also getting extremely limited minutes, if any, the first couple of seasons. He wasn't playing anywhere near the minutes he is now.

I'm devastated with that lose. I think someone (maybe Betcats?) said this week if we give them as much ball as we did the Raiders we'll lose, and we did. Obviously our defence was tremendous which is posithve but it's a game we really should of won comfortably I thought.

 

[TheFrog]

So in the heat of Townsville our master coach played kikau for 14 mins only..

14 minutes too long. He needs to learn to hold the ball in reserve grade.

 

[umina panther]

14 minutes too long. He needs to learn to hold the ball in reserve grade.

For once i agree with Froggy. When Browne offers more you are struggling

 

[TheFrog]

Whare 'block' wasn't a penalty.He was still and just braced himself.Did Atkins seriously think he was just going to move out of the way for the other team?Stupid f***ing idiot.

Atkins did what he was instructed to do. Non-Sydney teams, and especially Queensland teams, have to be successful. The NRL don't want small Sydney clubs. We are being squeezed out.

 

[hindy111]

Id like both eels and panthers to make top 8. Not sure what to make of this team.
A few problems for sure. I feel like if click could do well. Best thing is its young and will get better. 2018 is the best chance. After that some guys will start to cost to much. Maybe signed Bryce to early.

 

[billypilgrimnz]

Cartwright is fine. Will be a top player as soon as we get a coach who (a) knows where to play him and (b) wants to actually coach him to improve. At this stage in his development, the last thing he needs is a coach that just says "Play it as you see it."

 

[billypilgrimnz]

Oh f**king hell. A player comes on three weeks in a row and makes basic errors at very critical times And it's Griffins fault? As good as Kikau will be, he's a hell of a long way off being the finished product & even a genuine first grader. You can't blame a coach for hooking a player who is clearly underperforming..

But that is the point - Griffin has used him the exact same way for the last 5 or 6 games and the exact same thing is happening:

1. Introduce him for the first time 10 minutes into the second half
2. Makes a mistake
3. Gets hooked

This happens once, okay, shit happens. Twice, unlucky. Three, four, five? Something needs to be done. But nothing has. Latu's form has also dropped off, and I'm not sure Griffin yet knows how to use Peachey off the bench. It's a big problem.

I'm not against Kikau being dropped for his errors. That would be totally justified. But the coach is not getting the best out of him either.

 

[Dodgy]

The only positive I can see out of the loss is that the club doesn't play the role of comic relief in what was supposed to be Jonathan Thurston's 300th.

 

[kinghippo]

But that is the point - Griffin has used him the exact same way for the last 5 or 6 games and the exact same thing is happening:

1. Introduce him for the first time 10 minutes into the second half
2. Makes a mistake
3. Gets hooked

This happens once, okay, shit happens. Twice, unlucky. Three, four, five? Something needs to be done. But nothing has. Latu's form has also dropped off, and I'm not sure Griffin yet knows how to use Peachey off the bench. It's a big problem.

I'm not against Kikau being dropped for his errors. That would be totally justified. But the coach is not getting the best out of him either.

The problem with kikau getting such limited minutes is he is obviously being told to go out there and make something happen.
The form drop is exactly the same as akaoula's when his minutes got reduced.
Currently kikau is being used as our utility player with just a sprinkling of minutes like hardaker or hiku got, peachy is in the forwards rotation.
The problem will be worse when fisher Harris and Cartwright get back in the team. Even if they take browne and kikaus spot there isn't enough minutes for them.
Peachy is the odd man out in the rotation, I know not everyone agrees but he should be playing in the centres.
He is much better on the edges, yesterday he replaced merrin in the middle at close to the 30 minutes mark, i didn't see any injuries.
It is just not effective or playing to any of the players strengths.

 

[OldPanther]

I wonder if the byes hurt. Just as we start getting some wins and move Moylan we can't put a string of games together because of weeks off.

 

[umina panther]

I wonder if the byes hurt. Just as we start getting some wins and move Moylan we can't put a string of games together because of weeks off.

Moylan getting knocked the f**k out didnt help and probably cost us

 

[umina panther]

But when the whole gameplan is to solely rely on his brilliance then we are f**ked anyways

 

[herbert henry1908]

Moylan getting knocked the f**k out didnt help and probably cost us

He did put on a peach of a pass only a few minutes after this. I honestly didn't think that knock hit him that hard, he got up fairly quickly.

 

[OldPanther]

He did put on a peach of a pass only a few minutes after this. I honestly didn't think that knock hit him that hard, he got up fairly quickly.

He looked gone though and stayed out of things a bit. Really looked like he struggled.