Rumoured and Confirmed Signings Part2

[martielang]

Its a vicious circle though. At the moment (due to injury) we don't have back rowers who can break the line/run holes/offload nor a 5/8th who can significantly help our back rowers, which means opponents can plug up their middle as they don't have to worry about needing extra cover out wide. This obviously leads to our front row having to deal with minimum of 3 defenders every time. Given that, I thought they did an outstanding job for the last 2 months.

Very rarely is McKendry one on one with a defender (unlike Graham who has the assistance of T Rex, Eastwood & Jackson to take defenders away) but if he is, he easily gets over the advantage line.

 

[MrAnonymous]

I was at the game where the Roosters stepped up and on the back of their forward charges Pearce strolled through our shattered line. And when Graham barged through the same. When have our props done that? Certainly not in our last two games against that quality of opposition, barely all season really.

I was there when the Roosters and dogs held their line against massive amounts of our possession partly because we had no middle penetration, the Moylan try is the only one that could be attributed to some good work in the middle, Plum's fast play the ball.

How about Klemmer taking three and four defenders to drag down most times compared to our props taking two on a good run? Younger than both Anderson and RCG, that to me is what a future dominant prop looks like. Anderson and RCG may have decent first grade careers, and hopefully offer more than we are currently running with, but if they were going to be stars I doubt they'd be stuck behind the likes of Plum and Latimore at this stage.

There was a clear uptick in our momentum up the middle when Mose came into the fg side and started running so destructively, and a clear decline this season since his departure. It is for mine by far the most obvious area in which we can improve, but see no-one presently on the books capable of filling that role next season. I'm glad Cleary is looking outside, and with the Packer interest and Mason rumours it seems he is thinking the same. Hopefully he has a plan B.

Spot on.

The Bulldogs were also supposed to tear our front row in two and you could hardly say they did that. Kite being a 'plodder' was quality in his first stint.

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What game were you watching ? They f**king killed us. If the dogs had a decent spine they would of put 40 on us easily.

 

[franklin2323]

Its a vicious circle though. At the moment (due to injury) we don't have back rowers who can break the line/run holes/offload nor a 5/8th who can significantly help our back rowers, which means opponents can plug up their middle as they don't have to worry about needing extra cover out wide. This obviously leads to our front row having to deal with minimum of 3 defenders every time. Given that, I thought they did an outstanding job for the last 2 months.

How many games did we actually work 4 tries or more? Look at the tries against Parra and Titans up there. Loose balls and etc we could score some great tries at times but gee inbetween was average. We seem to be the only team that can't put a forward over (Plum & Docker the only 2 I can remember)

 

[martielang]

I don't get your point Franklin are you agreeing or disagreeing with me?

Mr Anonymous, they killed us? We were camped on their line for the majority of the game. If your front rowers are being killed, that doesn't happen. I'm not saying Plum, Kite, McKendry killed them either, but I thought given the hype of the Bulldogs pack, they more than held their own.

At the end of the day, I agree, I'd like a Mose clone like front rower too, but Latu, BMM and RCG can offer that if we give them a chance and a bit of time.

 

[Kilkenny]

The bulldogs defence was very good on the day and nullified our attack. We had ample opportunities to potentially win the game but lacked the polish to create holes in there defence. They were very effective at slowing the play the ball down which makes it difficult to build pressure and create openings. We more than matched them in most areas but we just didn't capitalise on the good field position we enjoyed. Shame. I don't see any purpose in the criticism and post mortems about where we went wrong as we had a great season for the most part and just fell short on the day against the Dogs.

 

[Pomoz]

The bulldogs defence was very good on the day and nullified our attack. We had ample opportunities to potentially win the game but lacked the polish to create holes in there defence. They were very effective at slowing the play the ball down which makes it difficult to build pressure and create openings. We more than matched them in most areas but we just didn't capitalise on the good field position we enjoyed. Shame. I don't see any purpose in the criticism and post mortems about where we went wrong as we had a great season for the most part and just fell short on the day against the Dogs.

Well said. The idea that our forwards were dominated is ridiculous. None of the stats back that up in either game against the Roosters or the Dogs. The Dogs should be grateful Peachey, Wallace and Cartwright were out, their defence would have a lot more to worry about if they were playing. We had the possession and the field position to win the game, we just didn't have the creativity to capitalise on it. Smith did his best but he isn't the answer at 5/8th. Gutsy effort though.

I want to win next year as well, but if you read some of the comments here you would have thought we lost by 40 and our forwards wore makeup and had handbags and we should sack the lot of them.

 

[franklin2323]

I don't get your point Franklin are you agreeing or disagreeing with me?

What you said has been the case all season well before our injuries. We be the case next year unless it's worked on over the off-season

 

[betcats]

What game were you watching ? They f**king killed us. If the dogs had a decent spine they would of put 40 on us easily.

Complete bullshit, our forward did their job. We spent a lot of time attacking their line.

 

[betcats]

Double

 

[MrAnonymous]

When ? 15 mins in the second half were we did f**k all. We got dominated in the ruck something fierce it was taking us 30 seconds every play the ball. Stats aren't the only thing in a forwards battle.

 

[umina panther]

Our forwards were average except for Mansour who always carries them but the amount of time the Dogs were allowed to hold us down was ridiculous.

 

[betcats]

When ? 15 mins in the second half were we did f**k all. We got dominated in the ruck something fierce it was taking us 30 seconds every play the ball. Stats aren't the only thing in a forwards battle.

We ran for more metres, made way more offloads had more possession and better field position but yeah our forwards got f**king killed.

 

[chrisD]

Their starting lock (who was playing fr at the time) powered through two defenders to offload for a try, a front rower jags back against the grain and runs through our line for a try.

One set of forwards did their job, the other did it better.

 

[betcats]

Their starting lock (who was playing fr at the time) powered through two defenders to offload for a try, a front rower jags back against the grain and runs through our line for a try.

One set of forwards did their job, the other did it better.

Im not saying we dominated or even won the forward battle but to say we got killed is bullshit. We held our own against a much better rated forward pack.

Both those tries came off the back of early tackle count mistakes in our own 10 metres by backs.

 

[franklin2323]

Im not saying we dominated or even won the forward battle but to say we got killed is bullshit. We held our own against a much better rated forward pack.

Both those tries came off the back of early tackle count mistakes in our own 10 metres by backs.

The only time we looked like troubling them took a penalty to get us out of our half. So any changes to the props is welcomed by me

 

[chrisD]

Our attacking possession came gifted too, I don't see the relevance.

 

[umina panther]

Is Manu moving to the front row a realistic option?

11.Cartwright
12.Peach
13.Taylor

This is easily our best back row and potentially the best in the game

 

[chrisD]

Will he be better than what we have? I'd like to see it tried, or at least try moving him to the left, he was not the weapon this season he was when he first arrived, something isn't working.

 

[betcats]

The only time we looked like troubling them took a penalty to get us out of our half. So any changes to the props is welcomed by me

Penalties and errors were about even so we helped them up field as much as they did us. Their tries all came off the back of penalties im pretty sure so the only time they threatened us was off piggybacks. It was a pretty even forward battle.

Imo if Soward, Moylan and Seggy dont have quiet games we win. Add to that playing without a real 5/8. Hokkos kicking was alot better then ours as well.

 

[franklin2323]

Is Manu moving to the front row a realistic option?

11.Cartwright
12.Peach
13.Taylor

This is easily our best back row and potentially the best in the game

You won't of seen it but the western weekender spoke to him a few weeks ago. He said he wants to play prop and the coaches want him there. He does what our props do now only can break a tackle or 2.