Round 24 v Roosters

[Vicpanther]

Wow people are a bit harsh.
We kept the most likely back to back premiers from making a cricket score out of us and in contention for a majority of the match.

Our attack is a bit stifled and the constant cross field bombs arnt working. I have high hopes for next year.

Rcg needs to go though. He showed no impact but other than that I think everyone went hard at it.

 

[OldPanther]

Wow people are a bit harsh.
We kept the most likely back to back premiers from making a cricket score out of us and in contention for a majority of the match.

Our attack is a bit stifled and the constant cross field bombs arnt working. I have high hopes for next year.

Rcg needs to go though. He showed no impact but other than that I think everyone went hard at it.

I think next year without Maloney and if we can move RCG we will be top 8 for sure.

Maloney isn't bad by any means but he's been terrible since he announced he's leaving.

 

[herbert henry1908]

I think next year without Maloney and if we can move RCG we will be top 8 for sure.

Maloney isn't bad by any means but he's been terrible since he announced he's leaving.

We’ll be doing well to make the top 8 with such a young team, I’d be stunned.

My guess is next year we finish somewhere around 9-12, if there’s not many injuries. Maybe if things go exceptionally well we get 7th or 8th.

 

[OldPanther]

We’ll be doing well to make the top 8 with such a young team, I’d be stunned.

My guess is next year we finish somewhere around 9-12, if there’s not many injuries. Maybe if things go exceptionally well we get 7th or 8th.

I'm thinking bottom of the top 8 around 6 - 8. We will be better against lower teams and through origin.

 

[kinghippo]

The effort was there last night, our team is just not very good.
Teamwork hasn’t been great all year and some players have been targeted and repeatedly exploited as weak links, especially in our backline.
Ivan has to take the blame for it, no matter what state the team was in when he got here we should have seen some improvements and I don’t think we have.
The young kids coming through offer a lot of hope for next year though.

In a way it kind of good to get all the finals talk done with. In reality we only played about 4 good games this year, we haven’t gelled or grown as a team and need a kick up the butt from top to bottom to complete the shake up.

The CEO should be sacked immediately and probably our fitness crew and a few others.
If we are cleaning out, everyone needs to be held accountable before the offseason starts.

 

[OldPanther]

The effort was there last night, our team is just not very good.
Teamwork hasn’t been great all year and some players have been targeted and repeatedly exploited as weak links, especially in our backline.
Ivan has to take the blame for it, no matter what state the team was in when he got here we should have seen some improvements and I don’t think we have.
The young kids coming through offer a lot of hope for next year though.

In a way it kind of good to get all the finals talk done with. In reality we only played about 4 good games this year, we haven’t gelled or grown as a team and need a kick up the butt from top to bottom to complete the shake up.

The CEO should be sacked immediately and probably our fitness crew and a few others.
If we are cleaning out, everyone needs to be held accountable before the offseason starts.

Just on your teamwork comment the team doesn't even support breaks/half breaks. Egan caught the defence out or someone would dig into the defence and no one would be around Vs the Roosters who have 2 or 3 players.

 

[franklin2323]

We’ll be doing well to make the top 8 with such a young team, I’d be stunned.

My guess is next year we finish somewhere around 9-12, if there’s not many injuries. Maybe if things go exceptionally well we get 7th or 8th.

I guess it depends who else comes in but yeah we will have less but still have dumb rookie errors. We won't trouble the top teams depends how we go v the lower teams

 

[Dave's mate]

I guess it depends who else comes in but yeah we will have less but still have dumb rookie errors. We won't trouble the top teams depends how we go v the lower teams

Round and round we go. At least defense will substantially improve with Jimmy going

 

[franklin2323]

Just on your teamwork comment the team doesn't even support breaks/half breaks. Egan caught the defence out or someone would dig into the defence and no one would be around Vs the Roosters who have 2 or 3 players.

I have that as fitness. Been the case all year always a pass short of getting tries

 

[franklin2323]

Round and round we go. At least defense will substantially improve with Jimmy going

Not sure Luai is 71% effeciency and was shown up in NSW Cup but his money allows us to strengthen other positions and if that is the one weakness we will have a good year

 

[Dave's mate]

Burton is a big kid and should get the 6

 

[tripster]

We desperately need to do something about our cardio fitness for next year.

RCG has gone from being tall and lean under Griffin to having a gut. Having regard to the rest of his build he looks like a “skinny fat dude”. How that can happen I have no idea.

Unless something changes Api will come here playing 9 and finish the season in the front row.

 

[Dave's mate]

We desperately need to do something about our cardio fitness for next year.

RCG has gone from being tall and lean under Griffin to having a gut. Having regard to the rest of his build he looks like a “skinny fat dude”. How that can happen I have no idea.

Unless something changes Api will come here playing 9 and finish the season in the front row.

All forwards are different, skinny Merrin for example was a far worse version of the man

 

[tripster]

All forwards are different, skinny Merrin for example was a far worse version of the man

I don’t think anyone ever accused Merrin of not being fit. He was a “fit fat dude” and could play 80 mins.

 

[TheFrog]

I don’t think anyone ever accused Merrin of not being fit. He was a “fit fat dude” and could play 80 mins.

His minutes dropped markedly towards the end of his tenure at our club.

He was a “fit fat dude”

Built close to the ground is the official term.

 

[Pomoz]

Another assault on my eyeballs as we played ugly, boring Cleary ball. It was just the same as the rest of the season. Forwards deliver us field position, we fail to score because we are slow, dim witted, lack fitness, speed, movement, execution, vision and skill. Plodding, turgid, dumb football. The effort was there, but we just lack any sort of footy IQ as a team.

Other points:

• We don't need inspector Morse to solve the mystery of "Who at all the pies". RCG and Katoa are going down for a long stretch;
• Whare, slow and offers nothing but effort;
• RCG a better effort but not the level he could be if he had his confidence back and our Pie Face fitness regime was changed;
• JFH has had a brilliant season. Topping the tackle count and the metres run against the Premiers is no mean feat;
• We missed Mansour's metres, Crichton only delivered 32m and was very quiet. However, his speed and height were helpful in defence. Mansour may have been found out by the Rooster's pace and kicking;
• We have spirit and try hard, Dave's mate deserves credit for that. They know they were in a battle, we just can't create enough points to make it mentally tough as well as physically tough.

As the season has gone on, it has become more and more apparent that Nathan Cleary is not suited to halfback and is not good enough to play halfback in a team vying for the top eight. He is either a hooker, or a lock and I am not sure he would even be a good running 5/8th. He loves defence and doesn't shy away from the contact, but he simply doesn't have the skill and vision to unlock defences. This is his worst season in the NRL. Just awful as a halfback.

Can he improve? Well he is only 21, but he very rarely executes a pass to put a player into space or for a try. I like him because he always gives 100%, but sadly that isn't enough reason to be given the number 7 jersey. The number 7 is crucial to how a team performs and I fear as long as he is the number 7 we will never realise our potential. I really, really hope I am wrong. The biggest issue is that if he needs to be moved or dropped, we are asking his own Father to do that. Does anybody see a problem with that?

 

[TheFrog]

Egan had one really sharp run and went ok overall, but the best we looked was the first 15 minutes of the match before Katoa ran out of gas.

All three of them fall short of first grade standard for one reason or another. Katoa I think could play in the backrow if he drastically improved his fitness. Either or both of the others might come good later on, but at the moment we don't have a first grade standard dummy half, which is why Koroisau was signed.

 

[Vicpanther]

I think with a good pre season and a ball playing and a running halves pair we will be pushing for top 4.
The injection of youth should help especially in the middle where they tear in.

Naden has lost his way not sure what has happened but doesn't seem as explosive and whare just keeps trying the big hits so we don't really have any centres at the moment.

If I was coach for the first couple of rounds I would be running cleary, Burton as halves and luai in the centres as a trial.

That will give us 4 attacking options with api at hooker.

 

[OldPanther]

It's my belief once Luai or Burton is in the halves Nathan will be better.

 

[Vicpanther]

It's my belief once Luai or Burton is in the halves Nathan will be better.

100% AGREE