Round 23 v Eels

[West Nowra Panther]

Yep and both Ofahengaue and Grieg seemed to make a few tackles as third man in and straight to the lower back like Eiso

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It happened often enough to know they were deliberate in doing it...

Hold him up, open his ribs up, third man whack. Grubby stuff nowadays but the norm in 3rd grade country footy 40 years ago.

 

[Abacus]

Pretty funny watching Parra sook about the ref.

Maybe a 15-3 penalty count and three tries off blatantly forward passes would be enough for them.

The obstruction on the final try that they're bitching about looks bad but they're ignoring Talagi checking Martin, causing him to fall towards Asi. Unfortunate for Parra, but right call by the bunker.

 

[Munky]

The obstruction on the final try that they're bitching about looks bad but they're ignoring Talagi checking Martin, causing him to fall towards Asi. Unfortunate for Parra, but right call by the bunker.

When it happened I thought it would get called back but Asi moved in on Martin not out.

McLean was very line ball on the kick chase for the previous try

 

[WestyLife]

Kepaoa is left wing in cup if I'm not mistaken.

The right side should not change at all. We have enough issues on the left so I don't see any good reason to tinker with both sides at once. If Asu plays its on the left.

Fair

 

[Abacus]

When it happened I thought it would get called back but Asi moved in on Martin not out.

McLean was very line ball on the kick chase for the previous try

Certainly looks like Asi was looking for the contact rather than following the play. Just looked worse because Martin was falling.

I was happy with McLean being onside. Camera angles were garbage - no reason to call it back.

 

[Stinkfinger]

How much did Penrith pay for him ?

I know dragons were offering around 900k and Eels were around 700k

is the 14 game rookie already on more money than To’o? No Wonder there are rumblings his asked for a release

You know nothing.

 

[Pomoz]

If you listen to Trent Barrett in press conference, you know why he is a bad coach.

I know nothing about coaching league. But I have half an idea about leadership and blaming others for a loss shows a lack of accountability and gives the weak minded players an excuse for the loss. They missed double the amount of tackles. Made less metres, tackle breaks and line breaks. They had the advantage of 6 extra penalties, a man in the sin bin, our 2nd rower off after 8 minutes, our starting prop off after 20 minutes and our hooker on HIA. They had home ground advantage. They still lost.

For me, it shows a lack of mental resolve and inexperience. Barrett will never improve as a coach/leader until he learns to own the losses. Bellamy or Bennett would have said "we got what we deserved, we didn't tackle well enough". Ok, how do we improve?

One things for sure, Ivan will be reading the riot act to some of our players, even though we won. Leota was dreadful, a penalty machine with 77 metres and 20 tackles. Come on Moses, you are bludging right now. Liam was out of control, doing his angry man impression. I love his aggression, but not if it means he is going to get sent off, sin binned or give away multiple penalties.

McLean's inexperience was shown up a few times and Toleau over-played his hand with some dreadful dummy half passes. That said I think those two and Patea show a lot of promise, they weren't overawed by the hostile atmosphere and the fact we were behind for 74 minutes of the game.

The good stuff came from some of our young blokes and the usual troopers, Yeo and Too. Lindsay Smith and MG2 put in good shifts. Smith is a quality player and has improved this year. Laurie was excellent and his ball playing gives me hope that he can be the Luai replacement next year. He reads the game pretty well and is much quicker than people think and is fearless in contact.

Our halves were very effective, and did what was needed when it mattered. Cleary has ice in his veins. He just doesn't panic and delivers just as well in the last minute as the first. Actually you could argue he gets better when the pressure is on and starts to focus more.

One last thing, I want Yeo (because he is captain) to nail Turuva's boot to the wing so he can't keep running in for a tackle or intercept. He is the leading cause of line breaks and tries at the Panthers, he really needs to get that out of his game.