Round 3 V Newcastle

[WestyLife]

I thought he had a good game. He's a lot stronger with a pre-season under his belt. Looked for work and did some solid hit ups. I was glad he bagged a try today. Will do wonders for his confidence. I think that side will come alive when Cleary is back and in form again.

Someone here said he had less pre seasons due to being from the country then guys like Tago etc.

 

[BxTom]

Someone here said he had less pre seasons due to being from the country then guys like Tago etc.

I think he came into NRL without a proper pre season. Could be wrong though.

 

[hindy111]

Tago missed 25% of tackles today.
Bombed a try
2 more tries scored down the left side..

The good stuff certainly out weighed the bad but you can't ignore that side of it too.

All growing pains and to be expected

Nsw has some talented young centres

Critchton,Lomax,Penisni,Best, Tago... But latrel and Turbo will play there. Maybe even Burton before them

 

[Iamback]

Nsw has some talented young centres

Critchton,Lomax,Penisni,Best, Tago... But latrel and Turbo will play there. Maybe even Burton before them

Centre is certainly a promising position. Give it 2-3 seasons. You can add Staggs to that list

 

[Iamback]

I said it would be a tough game and so it was up until Barnett thought he was at Lang Park and it was 1983. What was he thinking? I hope they throw the book at him.

If he had stayed on the field I think we could still have won that game but it would have been close. As it was, I agree with Benji Marshall, we did just enough to make sure we win. Every time they scored we came back at them hard and then went back to sleep again. It showed a lack of discipline and maturity, but then again we had Tago, May, Hopgood, L Smith and Staines on the field all at once and they are just rookies.

To beat Souths we will need a few of our stars back on board. Their forwards will give us a tough game and we will need some grunt up front. I'm not sure the pack we had today will be good enough to beat Souths.

I agree with Ivan post game. We took the foot off the pedal against 12 men. So it is hard to say on the flip side maybe having Smith helps those 2 soft tries down the right.

As for the pack. I thought we lacked some starch once the bench came on.
Maybe Blacker comes in
Maybe Hopgood and Spencer change around

Though they do have a huge pack. Assuming Martin and C.Smith are out. How we stop their left side is my concern

 

[Kilkenny]

I watched the game at home, thereafter at a family birthday and just got home.

Ill read what has been said beforehand in a minute to take it all in but what is the news on Chris Smith?

 

[Iamback]

I watched the game at home, thereafter at a family birthday and just got home.

Ill read what has been said beforehand in a minute to take it all in but what is the news on Chris Smith?

Some sort of jaw injury

 

[Kilkenny]

Some sort of jaw injury

I just watched Ivan’s press conference in the mean time, he seemed a bit non committal or unsure. Need scans I guess.

 

[WestyLife]

I just watched Ivan’s press conference in the mean time, he seemed a bit non committal or unsure. Need scans I guess.

Yeah he said it'll need scans. Really sucks to see a player taken out like that.

 

[Kilkenny]

I’m looking forward to reading everyone’s thoughts, but before I do, I kinda wish the send off incident never occurred. Not least of all for Chris Smith’s sake first and foremost. I thought it had the makings of a good game, I thought we were pretty good early on and the Knights were clearly up for it.

We seemed to give early Xmas presents to the Knights after the send off, ill discipline, dropped balls early in the tackle count and some not so good defence leading to tries out of nothing.

Conceding a number of penalties for inside the ten, laying in the tackled player to long, late in the tackle count when we had kept them down there end were unforgivable. We just gave them presents out of there own end it was so frustrating to watch.

We got the two points, happy with that, but the forward pack today is going to have to 100% better next week because I thought the Bunnies forwards last night were really exceptional.

 

[Iamback]

I just watched Ivan’s press conference in the mean time, he seemed a bit non committal or unsure. Need scans I guess.

Ivan often doesn't give much away

Says he is ok or doesn't look good

 

[Kilkenny]

You definitely weren't the first to call out Tyrone May for being a plodder

Personally, I thought Kenny and Salmon were both good..

The downside is if we still had Tyronne May he would have been the 14 allowing another forward off the bench. I know Tyronne is the @nti Christ for many on here but IMO just the perfect utility.

 

[Iamback]

I’m looking forward to reading everyone’s thoughts, but before I do, I kinda wish the send off incident never occurred. Not least of all for Chris Smith’s sake first and foremost. I thought it had the makings of a good game, I thought we were pretty good early on and the Knights were clearly up for it.

We seemed to give early Xmas presents to the Knights after the send off, ill discipline, dropped balls early in the tackle count and some not so good defence leading to tries out of nothing.

Conceding a number of penalties for inside the ten, laying in the tackled player to long, late in the tackle count when we had kept them down there end were unforgivable. We just gave them presents out of there own end it was so frustrating to watch.

We got the two points, happy with that, but the forward pack today is going to have to 100% better next week because I thought the Bunnies forwards last night were really exceptional.

Most of it is down to inexperience. We resembled a NSW Cup side and played it

 

[Kilkenny]

Gotta love the weekly drunken meltdowns from Girds

Why do you assume drink is involved seems to me from reading his posts just expressing his opinion, his posts are often long so drink is probably not a factor at all.

 

[Iamback]

Tell me again about how nathan will only ever be a hooker for us franklin? Or not even nrl standard. Heard it all before.

For 18months ive said we need a quick 14. Luke bowden hated me for saying tyrone may wss avg. I was the first on this forum to say he was offering nothing and there was better 14s than him..

All ive said in regards to the 14 issue is you need speed. We dont have it atm but, api and kenny on at the same time means api can run more. Which creates a heap more oppurtunities.

Anyone can go back through my posts of the last 18 months and find this. I was very vocal about it. Its clear thats the way the game is heading.

Serious question do have comprehension issues?

I never once said he would be a hooker only

I think Hooker is more important than 7- we had Kenny and Egan here.

I felt Maloney could of done a job at 7 ( given he was pretty good at running the side when he did )

Luai offered more then Kenny/Egan

Cleary being better at defence. The fact Cam Smith could still control games at 9. Mean't I felt that was the best side

All opinion

Api getting an early release
Maloney getting the same

Meant better options came up but again it was opinion given the circumstances at the time

As for your 14. What team has speed in the 14?
Anyone with speed coaches want to start games.
14's are plodders because if they were good in any position then coaches want them for 80 mins not just the 20 mins they get

 

[Kilkenny]

Interesting read from page 20 onwards.

A few observations from my perspective;

The first thing that needs to be said is regardless of who is available or not we will have to be much better to beat the Bunnies.

A lot has been said about Dylan Edwards not having a passing game but in the absence of watching highlights or a replay he seemed to play a crucial role in a couple of our tries. His overall game in my opinion made him our MOM.

May and Tago have enormous potential even allowing for a few unfortunate errors in defence and handling.

Credit to Charlie Staines, he has improved his kick returns and hit ups 100% and it was greatto see him get rewarded with a try at the end.

Viliame Kikau is an enigma. I’ll just leave it at that draw your own conclusions.

Coach Cleary’s use of our interchange bench is really baffling at times and I sometimes really struggle to understand any method to his use of the interchange.

SOS will be a decent pick up for a club in 2023 particularly if it is behind a decent forward pack.

Lastly, I don’t get the hate for Mitch Kenny!!!!! I thought he was terrific through the middle In his first stint. Made more metres than any other forward. No different in his second stint, did what was asked of him.

 

[Iamback]

Franklin the only reason youd have to put anyone on ignore is cause you are beyond arrogant.

All your posts suggest it.

"I have us 9-0". "Yeo gets us home" (didnt today), You post so arrogantly and so confidently, yet when you make one wrong prediction you put someone on ignore..

Like i said you never owned up to you forever claiming nathan was a hooker at best.

Im.not trying to point that out in particular..just saying if you are going to be arrogant and post so out there... than expect to cop a little when clearly your predictions arent always right.

You were all over tago being an out an out 1r at best in the pre season.

Hes killing it at centre.... yet youve been bery quiet on that front..he owned gagai today overall.

Our 19 year old rookie in his what 4th nrl game at centre schooled a world class player...

But yeah you put me can put me on ignore because its easier than owning up you kightve been wrong because you can be arrogant..

At least i can suck it up..i called out staines all last ywar but have been praising him every week this year. Same goes for others.

I listed why I feel we will be 9-0

Why not offer me as too why you feel we won't? That is how discussion works

Again comprehension issues.
You admitted Burton was poor in the finals in defence.
If teams attacked a rookie left centre last year. Why would they not again?

Kikau gets lazy in defence especially if tired

Luai is a weaker defender then Cleary

Throw in a rookie centre and teams are going to go there.

Look at today as a side we missed 30 tackles. The left missed 14 of them at full strength

The right with a fill in 7. Fill in 2nd rower then a utility missed:

Staines 1
Crichton 3
Smith 0
Salmon 1
SOS 0

They missed 1/3rd less tackles with Cleary and Martin to come back in.

That is why I focus on the left's mistakes more then the right.

 

[maple_69]

Pumped that Staines is looking way more confident. He’s running harder and using his speed and it’s taking him over the advantage line and delivering quick play the balls. Really hope he puts it together.

Pretty forgettable performance really. I thought our shape on the left was encouraging, although obviously against 12 men, but we just seemed a bit crisper.

Discipline was terrible and some lazy defence.

 

[Original Name]

How good was the play specifically when we camped in our 10 with 2 slow play the balls that went nowhere then Staines ran hard and got a quick play the ball off the back of which saved the rest of the set.

Always believed in you Charlie. Once your defence is set as a young kid you'll develop that other stuff and he was good defensive winger last year. Only remember two real occasions where guys got past him that was his tackle to make. Tupou and Gagai.

It's not just being bigger but that's part of it. Staines you can see on the replay in the background of ptb then he went wide of the ruck because he singled out the halfback the gap between the halfback and a prop to run hard at. The prop's footwork couldn't get him in a good position to make good contact because he was wary about getting stepped and he lost the ruck. Those kind of things are things you learn with experience. Staines the way he ran last year might have just ran closer to the ruck and got monstered even with the bulk he's put on.

 

[Mr. Shaman]

Some sooks in this thread, was a very cheap send off, yet to see an angle where he actually gets him high. Well played Smith.