Round 20 vs Lewis & Friends

[billypilgrimnz]

Idris was a waste of space in the second row. He hits the ball up with so little momentum, and is so slow in everything had does.

 

[chrisD]

Thought McKendry and Manu actually responded to their semi dropping and hit the ball up with some aggression. And Brown was really strong again. Everyone else pretty shit as far as hitting the line went. On the flip side Fifita was f**king beast.

Without Moylan and Gordan it would have been pretty embarrassing.

 

[MrAnonymous]

Just looking at the stats

Plum 9 Hit ups 73m
Kite 8 Hit ups 61m
Latimore 11 Hit ups 83m
McKendry 9 Hit ups 95m
Not one over 100
That is f**ked. DWZ made the most meters with 129.

 

[MrAnonymous]

Fifita had 20 hit ups for 211m.

 

[chrisD]

But how many more minutes did Fifita get? And plum and Kite were on at the start when we were doing all that defending. Not that I disagree with the point our props are a problem, just that total mts and the amount of runs doesn't best illustrate the problem.

 

[Panther Pete]

We are really just seeing classic Penrith, play well for a while to get your hopes up and then produce this garbage. Fifita ran riot out there today and until our forwards show some heart, we could be in for a long finish to the season. Our fifth tackle options were also poor, that's now 2 quiet games in a row for Sowie but I guess any halves would struggle behind our forwards. The most frustrating part out of this is trying to work out what happened to our defence, we had been producing good wins off the back of solid defence but that has now all but disappeared. The dogs will put 40 on us next week if we reproduce today's effort again.

 

[soc123_au]

Cleary needs to patch things up with TG. On a positive note Moylan continues to impress. The Dogs seem to be looking very much in a slump as well, next week will be telling.

 

[chrisD]

I think the quality of the opposition might have a lot to do with what happened to our defence. In the first 20 today when we kept them out there were still open men in lots of space outside our wingers, Sharks backline was just too crap to get the ball out there.

 

[Sime_11]

I think everyone needs to calm down here, yes it was a poor performance today I don't deny it but to write us off for the season, that's a bit harsh. personally if Cronulla played like that every week this season, they'd be sitting in the top 8.

the forwards need to pull their finger out and harden up, with no Mansour making a heap of metres, the forwards are getting found out how poor they are playing. Ivan needs to bring up some lads from NSW cup, some FG players are looking flat/too comfortable.

there's still 6 rounds to go, plenty of time to work out the kinks and have everyone firing for the finals

 

[Thirsty Panther]

We are still second on the ladder. Fingers crossed.

 

[Scotty03]

The dogs have a far superior forward pack than the sharks, so im actually worried of the outcome next week if something isn't done.

Elijah Taylor and Segz are making 40+ tackles a game each so there is no excuses for our forwards to be so sluggish. ET made close to 60 tackles today, so some of the big boppers need to harden up.

Thought the younger guys tried hard, but without go forward we're screwed. Sowards whole game revolves around his forwards going forward (which is why he struggled today.)

Cartright is definitely a star in the making.

 

[ammatt]

Idris was a waste of space in the second row. He hits the ball up with so little momentum, and is so slow in everything had does.

How would Idris go on the wing.
Could provide a bustling type of kick return like Mansour, has the height to diffuse bombs and would take some heat off the forwards

 

[billypilgrimnz]

He's slower than a glacier. No way.

 

[forby]

The sharks had 28 consecutive tackles before they scored off the kick! That is an incredible effort and takes a lot of energy out of the defence. But it took another kick to breach the defence again (and I reckon the chasers were offside!). Sure we didn't play we'll, but the sky hasn't fallen yet, with both the dogs and rorters losing leaving us no worse than third! We need another 2 wins to be sure of the finals, and I would be stoked to see them in the finals, even just for the younger players to get the experience!

 

[MaxPower]

I don't think there is any doubt that we have exceeded expectations this year, but it is a long season. There will always be dips in form but i believe overall we are still on the way up. I have to say though, if we miss the finals from here, it will be a major, major disappointment. We are so close. One more win may be enough. Regardless, with a settled squad for the first time in many years and another off season together, i think we should do well next season.

 

[franklin2323]

Mansour will fix the go forward some what.

More of a concern is stopping the 70 odd metres teams make a set against us.

 

[DJShaksta]

we got sucked in by the sharks to play the boring mundane style they were only capable of playing to win the game. Our forwards had no impact and kite and plum shouldn't be on the field as starting props. Highly disappointing in a must win game

I don't buy into that crap at all. What, should the sharks have not tackled your players so you could play your non boring brand of football?? Gimme a break

 

[soc123_au]

If the Sharks played like that each week they wouldn't be in spoon contention. Fifita is a gun when he is on, & he was on Yesterday. Their new look backline is also a vast improvement on what they had for most of the year. I also honestly think if Gal had played we win. When Gal is on the backline isn't allowed to touch the ball in the attacking 20.

We were not at our best, but credit where it is due. Robson, Fifita & the young winger (Gagan?) are why the Sharks won.

 

[Big Mick]

The Sharks team as a roster isn't reflective of a wooden spoon contender.

Their forward pack is among the best in the competition in particular when Gallen is healthy and they dominated yesterday.

Gordon turned up and tore us apart as he usually does.

Fifita was a monster all game.

Look, end of the day it is a loss....they earned it...Nothing to slit wrists over it is a long competition and along the way you lose these sorts of games sometimes.

Dogs lost at home to Cowboys, Roosters lost at home to Sharks and then lost away to Newcastle....things happen. That's footy.

I'd like to see Idris maintained in the 2nd row for the rest of the year. I want to see him lift his workrate and hit the line hard at pace. I'd like to see Blake in the centres rather than Yeo though. However that probably wont happen as Docker will likely be brought back means Idris back to centres.

 

[umina panther]

Worst part is that sook Lewis beating us. Him and Wade grubbed it up all game