Round 17 v Bulldogs - Game Day Thread

[84 Baby]

Yeah Normszie's running game isn't really there at the mo

 

[Kornstar]

Korny is the most reasonable pessimist on here so when he is laying down the law about doom and gloom whinging you know it is for real.

I'm not confident of wins often but i rarely bag players and coaching decisions for the sake of it.

We are just seeing so much concern for next year when after 17 rounds (16 games for us) we have won 9 games. The year is not over and we are in a great position to make the 8 for the first time since 2009.

When we get to round 23 and we have potentially lost 3 or 4 games and are seriously at risk of missing the finals then start slitting your wrists for next year.

Not that i think we will but what if we win 5 of our last 8 and end up on 32 points, will we be having the same negative posts about how shit we are?

For me i would consider just making the 8 this year a great year........anything else is a bonus and building platform for next year.

 

[IFR33K]

Many wrist slitters moaning about us blowing leads or not knowing how to close out games without a close finish, aren't factoring in the lack of penalties we're receiving or bs refereeing in general. Amazing what that one penalty did for us last night.

 

[T.S Quint]

I take the point about our lack of dominance in the forwards, but perhaps we are underestimating Canterbury's defence last night - it was pretty awesome.

It's pretty easy to have awesome defence when you are allowed to lie all over the opposition for as long as you like, turn players over after the tackle has been completed, flop on top of tackles players, and be offside for a good portion of the game.

I can't say that we didn't deserve to get penalised for what we got pinged for, but there is no f**ken way they went a whole half of football playing perfectly with no infringements.

The ref kept them in the game. If we even got 2 penalties that we should have the game doesn't end up being anywhere near as close as it was.

 

[Bazal]

I've kept my mouth shut about Alvaro for a bit now, I wouldn't even compare him to Brown regardless of the stats, Brown is on another level and should be playing Origin, Alvaro wouldn't be in my 17 when we are fully fit no way. His not shown enough to fill the gaps but he isn't gonna get us to that next level plain and simple.

Browns impact on a game is massive, every week week in week out his carting it up twice a set and is bending the line. We need another one like him and we would be infinitely better instantly. That is what we need, his been sensational but having both Mannah and Alvaro hampers us, one is alright but we need someone else it's so obvious.

Imagine him carting it up and then another one, we would be so much better for us.

I am only comparing him to Brown on metres per run, because there is a misconception that Brown runs hard and Alvaro is soft when realistically they are as effective as each other on an individual run basis. Where Brown blows him away is sheer work rate and guts....he makes 17 runs to Alvaro's 10 and often runs the ball 20+ times a game. That's mental.

Mannah is quickly becoming the problem. Alvaro is fine, and if we had the Tim Mannah who makes 100m and 30 tackles every week we wouldn't be talking about Alvaro. The reason we are is that we don't have that Tim Mannah, we have the Tim Mannah you genuinely looks like he's had a full frontal lobotomy in a Mortdale shed and forgotten what rugby league even is. That puts pressure on Alvaro (and Matagi), and while he has had some stormers he hasn't got the fitness or the sheer madness of Brown to take up the slack every game (while Matagi has the mentality but hasn't got the fitness or the size).

An 80-100m per game, 30 tackles per game middle forward is essential. In fact two or more of them are. Right now we've only got Alvaro doing that job and it's wrecking the rotation.

Probably the ideal starting front row is Alvaro and Vave based on what we have at the club right now, but Vave looked hellaciously unfit last start.

 

[T.S Quint]

I know that we had a total lack of go-forward last night, epitomised by the fact that we barely got out of our 30m in the second half, but...does anyone else think that Norman did f**k all throughout the game? Moses, at least, put his body on the line and appeared to be having a dig throughout the game, and he did win it for us in the end. I was asking all game, however, where the f**k Norman was.

You're not wrong.
Put in some very good kicks the last couple of games, but nothing more than that. Was the invisible man for the most part.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Moeroa is also a massive contributor in the middle, particularly in defence. Merkins seem to overlook it because until yesterday he's been spending the first 20 minutes out wide.

 

[84 Baby]

Many wrist slitters moaning about us blowing leads or not knowing how to close out games without a close finish, aren't factoring in the lack of penalties we're receiving or bs refereeing in general. Amazing what that one penalty did for us last night.

Dude rugby league is a simple game with simple fixes, like bigger props. We just need bigger props and everything will be fixed

 

[Kornstar]

I still think it's funny that the team don't really know the words to the song they came up with. They've sung it over 30 times now, it doesn't sink in at some point?

 

[forward pass]

I know that we had a total lack of go-forward last night, epitomised by the fact that we barely got out of our 30m in the second half, but...does anyone else think that Norman did f**k all throughout the game? Moses, at least, put his body on the line and appeared to be having a dig throughout the game, and he did win it for us in the end. I was asking all game, however, where the f**k Norman was.

Agree - I reckon he has been f**king ordinary - apart from his kicking game which strangely has improved out of sight while he was injured.

I get the feeling he is not 100% at all. He really seems to have lost his creativity. Thank God for Moses.
I am stunned that QLD are thinking about calling him up. Worst form of his career!

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Dude rugby league is a simple game with simple fixes, like bigger props. We just need bigger props and everything will be fixed

Look how well it's going for Souths!

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Agree - I reckon he has been f**king ordinary - apart from his kicking game which strangely has improved out of sight while he was injured.

I get the feeling he is not 100% at all. He really seems to have lost his creativity. Thank God for Moses.
I am stunned that QLD are thinking about calling him up. Worst form of his career!

His kicking game has improved because the markers now have to worry about Moses as well.

 

[Forty20]

It's pretty easy to have awesome defence when you are allowed to lie all over the opposition for as long as you like, turn players over after the tackle has been completed, flop on top of tackles players, and be offside for a good portion of the game.

I can't say that we didn't deserve to get penalised for what we got pinged for, but there is no f**ken way they went a whole half of football playing perfectly with no infringements.

The ref kept them in the game. If we even got 2 penalties that we should have the game doesn't end up being anywhere near as close as it was.

That is what rubs me the wrong way mate. We get the odd penalty blown against us where we were unlucky to cop a rough call but that is the sort of thing that really does happen to every team. You have to wear those calls on the chin because in a game as fast as league the officials can get a call wrong.

The inconsistency in the ruck is just maddening though. We are called off the tackled player so quickly and are pinged even faster sometimes. Meanwhile our players are laid all over or pushed back to the ground set after set and no action is taken.

If the refs want a fast, open game, cool. A slow, grindy penaltyathon? Okay whatever we can roll with that. Just call the game consistently, for f**ks sake!

 

[Pazza]

How that first hit up of extra time with Matagi wasn't a penalty, ill never know.

 

[Tommy Coco]

Anyone have, or can check the stat, Parra off a bye. I can't remember the rest being good for us. We seemed flat in the first 10 minutes. Was really a blessing how bad the dogs are going at the moment

 

[emjaycee]

Anyone have, or can check the stat, Parra off a bye. I can't remember the rest being good for us. We seemed flat in the first 10 minutes. Was really a blessing how bad the dogs are going at the moment

LMGTFY or better yet... LMNRL.COMTFY

 

[Tommy Coco]

LMGTFY or better yet... LMNRL.COMTFY

....something.... for yourself, nah, happy with my vague recollection and the win.

 

[BoneyBlake17]

Speaking to a few guys at work today.

And they all reckon in years gone by we probably would have lost that game last night.

Obviously the 2nd half was disappointing but at the end of the day we had no ball bulldogs made 1 error form memory in that whole 2nd half which was with 9 mins to go when the afro bloke knocked it on other then that the dogs were faultless in the 2nd half. No errors or penalties and pinging us in the corner every set

 

[Djay]

Everyone will say stop the sooking but this past month we have copped some shocking refereeing calls.

The Dragons apparently played for 71mins without a blemish and apparently last night a team who steps off the mark all game and plays tunnel ball was perfect in the second half. Give me a f**king break, the refs are a joke and we are lucky we haven't lost these close games simply cause of their incompetence.

We had every reason to lose last night and that is what made it so much sweeter, we were camped in our own 30 for 32 mins straight, we then finally got the ball in they're end off they're own knock on, get a repeat set and then all of a sudden we get pinned for offside, point is we were never suppose to win last night and we did, that shows something that I haven't seen in years. Momentum usually swings at one point, but it barely did in that second half and that says a lot about the playing group.

Everyone at work today reckons we were rubbish in the second half, yes we didn't help our own cause but sometimes you can only work with what it is and we did that, rolled our sleeves up and got into it and in the end we won. That was they're season on the line there and we held them out, last night was one of the sweetest win's in years.

 

[lingard]

Shit if Gubb is what we are looking at our pack will NEVER improve. I'm fast losing faith in BA and his sometimes shit recruitment! Foran and Watmough being 2 of his best!

Whatmough signing was just crazy stupid. A blind man could see that wasn't going to end well. The intent behind the Foran signing was good (even though he was massively over-paid).