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Round 4 vs the eels

Iamback

Coach
Messages
16,988
Our lower grades have been pillaged just as much as our NRL squad, we've lost at least 4 from Cup and another 4 from Flegg GF teams off the top of my head.
I expect as soon as our Matts and Ball teams are done, we'll see everyone pushed up.

Definitely need to get Connor Mason playing Cup, and I'd be getting Jack Cole playing 5/8 in Cup too. Need to get Jenkins back playing Centre instead of Wing. Push up Hassett too.

If this turns out to be a rebuild year, we need to recognise that early (eg. Round 10 at the latest), and be agile enough to make it work. Anyone with potential in the Flegg and Cup need to be playing in their #1 position. Anyone not part of the long-term plan (eg. Peachey, Eisenhuth, Falls, Cogger, Chris Smith etc) fill the gaps. We want guys like Cole, McLean, Lisati, Geyer etc to be ready to play NRL at the drop of a hat.

It honestly wouldn't worry me if we had guys in our Top 30 being sent back to play with St Mary's in Ron Massey Cup, if it allowed us to properly develop the next guy up.

If you look at our side. There are about 10 guys that rightful pick themselves, The rest we can play around with and prepare for the future

Locked in:

Edwards
Turuva
Tago
Crichton - But can go IF we are developing for next year
Toó
Luai
Cleary
Fish

Leota
Martin

Yeo
Sorensen
Spencer

The thing with that core is teams know what they are getting. Some of them Tago to backrow etc but need some x factor from that
 

Black Diamond

Juniors
Messages
1,061
I'll probably get howled down for this comment but maybe give Peach a shot at hooker. Yes he's a little old in the tooth but apparently he's shed kg, ripping up at training and has his desire back. If he can revive a bit of his x factor, he's got to be better creatively than Kenny.
 

MugaB

Coach
Messages
11,807
Plod wins games, all hail PLOD!!
Yeo was very plod in his early days, so were most of our middles, they slowly over the years turned from backrower plod to elite international middles,
Im no fan of Garner, i can admit that outright, he offers nothing, no attack, ok defence, and non treatening... the game changed last night as soon as Sorrenson started punching holes up the eels middles, hodgson missed important tackles, and Yeoweh and Sorro screamed thru, add Leniu bending the line, and our team looked threatening...
Only to have no Martin or Kikau to pounce on any opportunities we normally would have last year..
The new kid looks the goods, Hoskings, he has that young Shaun Lane lanky non threatening attack, only to slip thru the gaps, like he did last night for his 1st try... i say drop garner for Martin, and keep Hoskings on Nates edge, see how that goes, got critta and too on the outside to spook the defence enough to have Hoskings edge out tries... martin would punch holes as much as kiks did, he probably suits luais edge
 

Iamback

Coach
Messages
16,988

chrisD

Coach
Messages
13,454
We should be looking to force restarts through grubbers as the first option. And work on making sure we don't lose possession on short kick restarts. Try and build pressure rather than all the high cross field kicks on their line.

Other than that no real criticisms, more training and game time and new players should find their footing and the players around them learn to work with what they have, and the general rust should fade.
 

Black Diamond

Juniors
Messages
1,061
Did anyone thing the Eels looked arrogant with their try and game win celebrations? 🤣 Interesting that they and every other team in the comp react the same way Panthers players do when scoring or winning yet on Panthers are labelled arrogant across the league constantly.
 

martielang

Bench
Messages
3,375
I don’t think we're in as much trouble as some make out. Still very early days. Our attack is bang average but that has been the case for the last couple of years. We could easily be 3 - 0 (same as Parra tbh).

Outside of the Broncs, I haven't seen any other teams improve enough to really worry me.
 

Kilkenny

Coach
Messages
13,135
I thought it was a terrific hard fought contest, credit to both sides.

Defensively we were outstanding, Parramatta were probably entitled to score more tries particularly in the 1st half where they dominated possession and field position. To go in at 8 all was a great effort.

Theres been a lot written on here about how poor we were or how poor we are, too many plodders etc etc I think we can take a fair bit out of that game last night.

I thought Moses won the battle of kicking in general play, his kicks while effectively the same as Cleary’s, but he got them deeper and while Turuva did an admirable job every set we were rucking out from deep in our own end. We only had a dozen tackles in the entire 83 minutes inside there 20 metres. In respect of our attack, I felt on the occasions we did get near or beyond the half way we were guilty of being too conservative.

The debutant in Hoskings in my opinion had a very good game and should take the spot of Garner going forward. Otherwise there is no chance of Ivan Cleary doing anything radical around team selections.
 

Someone2

Juniors
Messages
2,071
The carry on in the media about Cleary field goal is ridiculous

I’ve seen plenty of players kick 40 meter goals before
 

Frankus

Juniors
Messages
1,935
If Kenny simply improves his service from dummy half, we are much better side. His service is slow and predictable. We need it to be snappy and sharp. Luke’s speed and creativity out of dummy half is a huge plus but it’s how much better he is at providing speedy service that is the biggest difference I notice when he gets on the field.
 

maple_69

Bench
Messages
4,420
Great game, to be honest its kind of refreshing to be in the trenches. We've clearly come back to the pack but we're in it up to our eyeballs. If it takes a very good team like the Eels to complete 40 sets at 95% just to get us in golden point, we're doing ok. Few teams will be able to dish that up very often.

Plenty to work on in attack but the effort, composure and guts are clearly still a step ahead of the rest of the contenders.

Interesting to see who comes in for Luke next week. Sommeton or do they go with Peachey for a stint. Even Cole could do it I reckon.
 

BossleyPanther

Juniors
Messages
2,117
Why would the Warriors release the guy who's been their second best player and got their player of the year last year? Egan's important to their side. It's like us releasing Cleary years early.
I know mate, they won't. I get why we kept Kenny over him 4 years back. Kenny's debut game was fall of energy and we won the game, so katoa and Egan didn't get re-signed. Looking back it was a bad decision.
 

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