Round 2 v Bulldogs

[Munted]

Even when Cartwright was running across filed trying to create something there was no one running into a hole or giving him any options, everyone just stand and watch. It was a master class of how not to score from us last night.

Dejavu of 2010 for me actually, the 5 hit ups/sideways plays, bomb from Walsh and hope for Coote chasing through. That worked for the most part!

 

[Frankus]

Every side would kick to turn a 12 point lead into 14. A Wayne Bennett side would have turned also turned an 8 point lead into 10. The 2 points were guarantees. A try is not.

If we didn't kick them and don't score we would have lost before the conversion. We had a slim chance he would miss and get golden point atleast.

Our defence was poor but it was due to fatigue and poor management of interchange. We had to leave a hobbling player on the field for 10 minutes due to a wasted interchange taking off an injured Whare who most people knew wasn't fully fit to play. That injury was always odds on to happen. It lefy us shuffling an already shuffled backline and then sticking with an injured Blake. Ofcourse the reshuffles and injured player would make our defence worse

OK sure, 12 up take the 2. 8 up? WTF.

Incase you hadn't noticed, we are not a Wayne Bennett coached side. Wayne Bennett sides don't miss 30+ tackles in consecutive weeks. Blame the interchanges all you like. We didn't miss 30 tackles in the last 10 minutes when the interchange became the problem. Blaming the interchange is just papering over the cracks.

I can see us leaking alot of points against the Broncs.

 

[ACTPanthers]

OK sure, 12 up take the 2. 8 up? WTF.

Incase you hadn't noticed, we are not a Wayne Bennett coached side. Wayne Bennett sides don't miss 30+ tackles in consecutive weeks. Blame the interchanges all you like. We didn't miss 30 tackles in the last 10 minutes when the interchange became the problem. Blaming the interchange is just papering over the cracks.

I can see us leaking alot of points against the Broncs.

I get your point ref the missed tackles, but the interchange needs just as much time IMO - The tackling is really down to the players, the interchange is solely on the coach - Both need equal attention

 

[betcats]

Our attack looked much better in the opening 3 rounds last season before the injuries really hit us and Cleary was not a great attacking coach and had a much more disrupted offseason.

 

[betcats]

OK sure, 12 up take the 2. 8 up? WTF.

Incase you hadn't noticed, we are not a Wayne Bennett coached side. Wayne Bennett sides don't miss 30+ tackles in consecutive weeks. Blame the interchanges all you like. We didn't miss 30 tackles in the last 10 minutes when the interchange became the problem. Blaming the interchange is just papering over the cracks.

I can see us leaking alot of points against the Broncs.

Exactly! Going from 8 to 10 just so maybe we can go to golden point instead of losing is conservative, crap footy that isn't going to take us anywhere. That would of been like the 4th or 5th set in a row and we let off the pressure and five or ten minutes later Mbye(who we made look like a star) scores a soft try and everyone could see what was coming. We defended our line well at times last night but there was some worrying holes appearing mid field. Dogs had less possession and created more linebreaks and scored more tries. Like I read somewhere else this morning we were playing not to lose instead of of playing to win. Talk about the broncos all you want but they did the same thing in the GF and got burned for it.

 

[chrisD]

Segs doesn't play and our forwards look better. It's a trend now. Coach needs to be addressing it.

 

[betcats]

Yeah hopefully Katoa can get fit and get some games because I am starting to think we would be better off spending Seggys money elsewhere.

 

[Munted]

Segs doesn't play and our forwards look better. It's a trend now. Coach needs to be addressing it.

Bog standard hooker service, which is what we need. Seggy is so erratic, and only knows how to throw flat or forward.
I was happy with Wallace playing hooker, it was very 'steady' which worked in our favour.

 

[Rhyno]

Don't know why penrith fans are whinging about the interchange you got 2 free interchanges FFS

 

[betcats]

Don't know why penrith fans are whinging about the interchange you got 2 free interchanges FFS

Which just makes it worse.

 

[Exsilium]

Don't know why penrith fans are whinging about the interchange you got 2 free interchanges FFS

Now change your tone young man. More wit, less lip!

But you're right though with regards the use of interchanges.

 

[TheFrog]

Don't know why penrith fans are whinging about the interchange you got 2 free interchanges FFS

No one is whinging about the interchange, you dill. They are whinging about the coach.

 

[mxlegend99]

Don't know why penrith fans are whinging about the interchange you got 2 free interchanges FFS

We burned through them too quickly and when we could have used one to have 13 fit defenders on the field for the last 10 minutes, we had none left.

Had the coach not selected an injured player, we probably have an extra interchange left to use on Blake. Although that's no certainty either... he may have wasted that one also.

We have no issues with the interchange rules.

 

[TheFrog]

I reckon he wasted one bringing Taylor on too. He's perfectly capable of playing the full 80.

 

[Luke Bowden]

TMM. Unleash the kid! Especially if Moyza sits out another week. The kid is awesome inside the oposition 20. I had my doubts, but he has proved me wrong in his two or three games playing against adults.

 

[mxlegend99]

I reckon he wasted one bringing Taylor on too. He's perfectly capable of playing the full 80.

We could get 80 minutes out of Cartwright, Taylor and Peachey if needed. It's ridiculous we could burn through interchanges so quickly. Especially after 2 free changes.

Considering injuries I would like to see:

1. Smith
2. Mansour
3. Hiku
4. Peachey
5. DWZ
6. TMM
7. Soward
8. Merrin
9. Wallace
10. RCG
11. Carty
12. Yeo
13. Taylor

14. Mckendry
15. Latimore
16. Matagi
17. Whichever young guy is the flavor of the week for a few minute run.

Not sure what backline options we have with Waqa Blake, Dean Whare, George Jennings and Matt Moylan likely to miss out. So I would like to see Peachey at centre. Yeo is probably more likely, but I think Peachey would be better out wide for a game or two until we get some NRL quality players back.

 

[umina panther]

On Fox tonight they said Blake only had a bad cork. Great news if true

 

[GongPanther]

A funny feeling losing that game, our forward pack really ripped in, we took it the Dogs pack. McKendry had his best game in years, can't really say a bad word about any of the forwards. Even Taylor only playing 15-20mins really helped with some great tackles towards the end.

Defence was reasonably good, we did miss a lot of tackles (more than double the Dogs I think). I'm just going to put that down to a five day turnaround after we played in 35degree heat because in the last 20mins we had absolutely no energy left. The right side defence will need fixing up though, we have been leaking tries down that side in our first two games, we need Whare back to full fitness.

Another pleasing thing was Wallace at hooker, it wasn't razzle dazzle, it wasn't fancy and he is never going to dummy it and dive over the line but it was straight, clean passing to the guy who it was supposed to go to and it generally got us on the front foot going forward.

The only really big problem we have is, No Moylan = No points. The amount of ball we had in the opposition 20 and came away with no tries was painful. We had nothing, I can't even remember us trying a backline move to try and get an overlap. The only move we seemed to have was give an inside ball to Cartwright and have him run to the other side of the field and hope he finds a gap and that's not going to win you a competition.

I really feel we are close to being a really good side, we just really need our attack to work itself out, that's the big challenge for Griffin over the next few weeks. If he can do it, we will be in the top 8 easy. If not it's going to be another frustrating season.

We'll be O.K.Before you know it,we'll be in the top eight before the middle of the season.

The more important issue is that we are not copping hidings.The wins and us handing out hidings will come soon.

 

[Kilkenny]

We could be 2-0 but instead we are 0-2.

In both losses the difference at the end of the day was the halves. Three tries by the Raiders halves and Mybe's two tries were the difference in last night's loss. What does that tell us?

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and as it turned out the last minute reshuffle to our side last night proved to be a disastrous decision. Should have stuck with the back line which was originally selected.

Baffling decision to select Sitaleki Akauola and then give him only 20 minutes?

We scored from a grubber kick and McKendry barge over, which apparently was classified as our only line break in the whole game? Probably right because we didn't look like breaking the line at any stage, but you don't often make line breaks from five one out hit ups and a last tackle kick.

Yes we were gutsy in defeat, given we only lost it in the last minute but to watch our attack in the opposition 20 metre zone is seriously depressing. We offered nothing to threaten the Bulldogs defence who had little difficulty coping with our attack if that is what you call it.

To win games in the NRL we are going to have to score 24 points plus. To achieve that benchmark it is now more apparent than ever we need creative halves, running halves who take on the line with speed and elusiveness.

Yes it is early on in 2016 but clearly we cannot wait until it is too late and it is time to blood TMM. Having said that we also need a dummy half who can scoot out of dummy half and put the defensive line in two minds. I haven't seen a lot of ZDC but he was brought to this club for a reason and Gould has stated he is a long term NRL player so bring him in and give him licence to do the business.

We have to score 24 plus points to beat the Broncos and on the evidence of what we have seen thus far the side we have put out in the first two rounds is not able to achieve that. We need to make changes and the changes have to be in the 'spine'. Shuffling the outside backs and forwards will not alter our fortunes, we have to get the 1.6.7 and 9 right or we can forget winning games.

 

[TheFrog]

I tend to agree with you about giving TMM a try, but Wallace at hooker had a very good game and I think he's safe.

The coach needs to stop playing ducks and drakes with the side. It's not helping.